Call for Papers 2025

AAR/SBL Women's Caucus
AAR/SBL Annual Conference
in Boston, November 21-25, 2025

AAR Theme: "Freedom"

There are four Women's Caucus sessions open for papers at this year's AAR/SBL Conference.
Please see submission instructions for each separate session.

Deadline Extended to March 10, 2025!

If unable to enter the submission through the Papers system, e-mail the submission to: aar.sbl.womens.caucus@gmail.com

Click here for our complete Call for Papers

Click Here for the link to the PDF broader Call for Papers through AAR.

Session #1: Emerging Scholars: Freedom

(CO-SPONSORED SESSION with Women and Religion Unit)*

The Women and Religion Unit and the Women's Caucus of the American Academy of Religion (AAR) is delighted to announce the Women and Religion Unit's call for proposals for the 2025 Annual Meeting, organized around the theme of “Freedom.”
Inspired by AAR President Dr. Leela Prasad’s vision, this theme invites critical engagement with the multifaceted concept of freedom: its meanings, practices, and implications in religious, cultural, and social contexts. We aim to explore how women’s experiences, feminist thought, and intersectional approaches redefine freedom across diverse traditions and contexts.

* Please see Specific Session Information for submission details. Deadlines close on March 3, 2025
Session #1 - Emerging Scholar’s Voices: Collaborative Session with AAR/SBL Women’s Caucus
(CO-SPONSORED SESSION with Women and Religion Unit)*

Collaboration and mentoring are central to feminist and religious studies, offering vital pathways for amplifying emerging voices and fostering interdisciplinary dialogue. Together with the AAR/SBL Women's Caucus, we seek to create space for such collaboration, with particular attention to emerging scholars and practitioners. We invite proposals that:

Highlight new research and perspectives from early-career scholars on freedom, gender, and religion.
Foster dialogue between scholars, activists, and practitioners to explore collaborative approaches to feminist religious scholarship.
Examine the role of mentorship and intergenerational collaboration in advancing feminist theological thought and practice.
Construct a critical analysis of freedom in intergenerational and intercultural learning for gender and religious studies using a feminist or queer theory lens.
Explore interreligious and intercultural perspectives on freedom, emphasizing collaborative methodologies. Proposals for these sessions might also include experimental or innovative formats that engage participants actively and creatively

*Please note to submit through the Women and Religion Unit and note "Women's Caucus/Women and Religion Emerging Scholars Session" in the proposal submission. https://papers.aarweb.org/pu/women-and-religion-unit

Session #2: New Books on Gender and Religion** (JUNE Online Conference)

The AAR/SBL Women’s Caucus invites proposals from scholars who have published books on

gender and religion in 2024 and 2025. Authors will provide an overview of their books and share their research in theology, biblical studies, or religious studies, focusing on the intersection with gender, sexuality, and feminist and queer studies. These scholars will also share their experiences regarding strategies and mechanics for getting books on gender and religion published, make suggestions on how to overcome publication challenges in the guild, and offer advice to those seeking publication of their own book manuscripts. Because these are published books, this is not blind submission. For your proposal, please reply with the book title, book blurb, publisher, and a copyright of 2024 or 2025, along with a short bio.

**Please note "New Books on Gender and Religion Session 2025" and send proposal to aar.sbl.womens.caucus@gmail.com We are only accepting submissions via e-mail.

Session #3: International Section of the Women’s Caucus (AAR/SBL)

Theme: Pentecostal Women’s Agency and Freedom

The AAR/SBL Women’s Caucus invites international scholars, particularly those outside the U.S., to submit papers exploring the intersections of women, gender, religion, and theology with the 2025 AAR Annual Conference Theme: “Freedom.”

We welcome research on Pentecostal women’s agency and its entanglement with spirituality, challenging Western notions of freedom. Papers may compare Pentecostalism with other traditions (e.g., Lutheranism, Goddess beliefs, First Nations, and Asian spirituality). With special emphasis on African Pentecostal women’s voices, whose oral histories and theological contributions remain preponderantly underrepresented.

Submissions should engage theory and praxis and highlight underexplored perspectives. Interfaith and interreligious approaches are encouraged.

*Submit proposals via email: ulrike.auga@hu-berlin.de and bozarts@earthlink.net

Deadline: 30 March 2025

Session #4 Call for Submissions: AAR-SBL: A History of Women Claiming Voice

WikiProject Women in Religion: Who We Are ~

The WikiProject Women in Religion is an initiative to create, update, and improve Wikimedia content pertaining to the lives of cisgender and transgender women who are notable as scholars, activists and practitioners of the world's religious, spiritual and wisdom traditions.  Its purpose is to address the gender gap on the Wikipedia platform.  As of January 2024, the project has created or improved more than 300 Wikipedia articles and biographies.

WikiProject Women in Religion also works to increase content about women in the general scholarship. The goal is to provide secondary sources for Wikipedia editors and contributors to use to increase the content about women in religion on Wikipedia. To that end, we have supported the publication of three volumes of monographs, published by Atla Open Press and the Parliament of the World's Religions. Please visit Wikipedia:WikiProject Women in Religion/Women in Religion series (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Women_in_Religion/Women_in_Religion_series.) for more information and for lists of the women featured in this series.

Volume 5: Description and Call Requirements ~

Like the preceding volumes in the series, Volume 5 will include one to three theoretical chapters followed by eight to ten biographical chapters.  This volume focuses on the history of the AAR/SBL Women’s Caucus and the women who participated, as creators, leaders, members and more. As a practical effort to increase access to secondary sources about women involved in the AAR/SBL Women’s Caucus and to address the gender bias about women in leadership positions generally on platforms like Wikipedia, we are seeking biographies about women who (1) figure prominently as founders, leaders, activists, participants and supporters in the AAR/SBL Women’s Caucus; (2) reflect the diverse nature of such participants and the traditions they represent; (3) do not have a biographical entry on Wikipedia. Original research including attention to primary sources such as interviews of living subjects, transcriptions of existing recordings, and historical documents is encouraged.  We are looking for an original analysis that makes a strong case for the subject’s notability in her local, regional, or global area of religious influence. The use of a theoretical lens including colonial critiques, queer theory, feminist and womanist theories, and deconstructive approaches to the concept of equity and support of women activists and scholars in the Academy is expected.  Since its convening in 1971, the AAR/SBL Women’s Caucus has been at the forefront of advocacy and support for women’s scholarship and leadership in the Academy.  This volume seeks to highlight and extend that work.

Biographies should include a theoretical focus on at least 1 of the following:

Ways in which the life and work of the subject illustrate strategies for increasing visibility and combating misrepresentation and disinformation on media platforms like Wikipedia and in the media generally.
Ways in which the life, work, and religious or spiritual practices of the subject challenge normative or patriarchal religious narratives.
Ways in which the life and work of the subjects serve as a model for addressing issues of marginalization, misrepresentation, and discrimination against women who participate in the American Academy of Religion and the Society of Biblical Literature. For example, the discrimination against women across time in the Academy will be addressed in this volume.

Click here for a list of potential subjects!

Monograph Submission are due for consideration on April 1, 2025 

Submit a draft (2,500 word minimum, 8,000 word maximum), 12 font Times New Roman, double space, one-inch margins, proper CMOS intext citations, CMOS Works Cited page, with the following file name: Your Name, Paper Title, Women in Religion Series Monograph 5, submission. 

Submissions are sent to Debbie Fulthorp (Co-chair of the AAR/SBL Women’s Caucus at aar.sbl.womenscaucus@gmail.com. 

Article acceptance takes place by April 15, 2025