A Guide for Women in Religion, Revised Edition

Making Your Way from A to Z

Monique Moultrie, M. Hunt, K. Ali

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Year: 2014
• ISBN:
  9781137485755
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Gender Studies
• Index: Social Sciences

Significantly updated and expanded, this indispensable resource offers students and scholars alike real advice in navigating the ever-changing academic landscape. Offering practical guidance on graduate school, dissertation-writing, job interviews, promotions, retirement, publications, conferences, and so much more, this is the essential resource.

The Guide from A to Z

AAR

This lexicon begins fittingly with the AAR, the American Academy of Religion (https://www.aarweb.org/), the professional association for people in religious studies. With nearly nine thousand members (in 2013), it is a key source of information, support, and development. Its peer organization is the Society of Biblical Literature, or SBL (http://www.sbl-site.org). The “alphabet soup” of its many aspects and linkages can be found in this guide under their own entries, such as the Status of Women in the Profession Committee (SWP). Women make up 38% of those AAR members who identified themselves by gender. (Seven people identified as transgender; the rest as male.)

Most people become acquainted with the AAR through its Annual Meeting (see AAR Annual Meeting) where members present and listen to papers, shop for books, network with other members, and interview for jobs. In fact, the AAR has much more to offer throughout the year as a clearinghouse for information and activities in the field. The Journal of the American Academy of Religion (JAAR) and the online publication Religious Studies News (RSN) are welcome sources of scholarly work and timely articles about goings-on in the field. AAR also publishes a book series with Oxford University Press, and an online publication for grant news and conference announcements called In the Field, as well as numerous e-publications of use to the general membership.

If you make the effort to get involved, the AAR can also become a location for friendship networks, support, guidance, and intellectual stimulation. It is a good place to get a sense of the “big picture” in religious studies, a healthy antidote to isolation in your institution. Attendance at the yearly gathering is a wonderful opportunity for continuing education in the field of religion. Regional meetings are also useful and on a smaller scale so they can feel more doable if you are new to the work.

Once you are ready to move beyond attending meetings and/or presenting papers, the next obvious place to get involved is with the governance of a program unit, which can be small and relatively specialized (“Groups”) or large and (potentially) unwieldy (“Sections”). Program units are the backbone of the AAR’s structure. They organize most conference sessions. They maintain recommended reading lists that are relevant to their subfields, and they offer the opportunity to work more in depth with scholars in your particular discipline. Of particular interest for women in religion are the Women and Religion Section and the following groups: Feminist Theory and Religious Reflection; Lesbian-Feminist Issues in Religion; Womanist Approaches to Religion and Society; Women of Color Scholarship, Teaching, and Activism; Body and Religion; Religion and Sexuality; and Queer Studies in Religion, among others. You need not limit your involvement to these, however; female and feminist voices are needed (and usually welcome) in all program units.

Each unit has one or two chairpersons and a steering committee of five to seven other members who serve three-year terms. Some program units elect new members to replace those whose terms are ending at business meetings during one of their Annual Meeting sessions; others work things out less formally. If a unit seems right for you, attend the business meeting, introduce yourself, and ask/listen to how they do things. Program unit leaders need not have regular faculty appointments. Graduate students can serve on and even potentially chair committees (usually post-all but dissertation status), as can adjuncts (see appointments, adjuncts) and independent scholars.

There are numerous opportunities to volunteer to serve as a graduate student or professional member beyond program unit leadership. Graduate students can serve through the new (as of 2013) AAR Ambassador Program. Ambassadors act as points of contact for the AAR in the home departments.

After you have been a member for a few years, you might consider nominating yourself to one of the several committees of the Board of Directors. For example, the Status of Women in the Profession Committee (SWP), the group that created Guide to the Perplexing: A Survival Manual for Women in Religion and initiated the first edition of this book, is charged with monitoring issues of importance to women colleagues. Over the years, they have worked on matters such as securing childcare options at the Annual Meeting, sexual harassment policies, job equity, mentoring, work–life balance, and making public the contributions of religious feminists. There are similar committees on Racial and Ethnic Minorities in the Profession (REM), on People with Disabilities in the Profession (PWD), and on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Intersex, and Queer Persons in the Profession (LGBTIQ Committee). There are also committees on Teaching and Learning and the Public Understanding of Religion, as well as a Graduate Student Committee, all of which do important work for the AAR. Note, though, that although one can self-nominate, the AAR president ultimately selects and appoints committee members; it is not a democratic process, though committee members have striven to make it a transparent one.

For further information on participating in the AAR, consult its website (https://www.aarweb.org/) where you will find the governance structure, information about the committees and the Annual Meeting, and many other activities and publications carried out by the AAR. Find what interests you and volunteer or ask a colleague to nominate you for the task.

AAR Annual Meeting

The Annual Meeting of the AAR is held in late November in different cities around the continent (e.g., Atlanta, Chicago, and Toronto) in conjunction with the SBL Annual Meeting. Ten thousand people gather for a long weekend of paper presentations and panel discussions, book buying and job hunting, meetings and social events. Though it can be a major expense, the Annual Meeting provides the opportunity to catch up on scholarship in your field and to meet people from around the world who are doing similar work. For independent scholars and those who work in religion nonprofits, the meeting offers a unique chance to connect with far-flung colleagues.

The gathering can be intimidating given its size and scope. Plan ahead by reviewing the online program or app to note what sessions you want to attend. Consult with colleagues about what they are doing so you can find out which sessions might be interesting, even if they are not in your field (keyword searches of the program can help). Make dates with your friends and colleagues before you arrive on site. A refreshing encounter with someone you have not seen in a while can be as productive as attending a program session. You can also reach out before the conference to someone you don’t know but would like to meet to ask if she or he is planning to attend and would like to get a cup of coffee. If you are reluctant to simply contact someone out of the blue, ask your advisor, a colleague, or a mentor to introduce you by email. Keep a careful schedule of your commitments and your “free” spots so you can quickly suggest a meeting time when you run into someone on site with whom you want to chat.

It is important to pace yourself as you go through the meeting. Make strategic choices about which sessions to attend. The Annual Meeting includes cultural events, films, local tours, concerts, and the like. These events provide a great way to “rest” while still being stimulated intellectually. They are also good places to meet people with similar interests and appreciate just how rich and diverse our field can be.

Spend some time in the book display, the only place where you actually need your name badge to enter. It is helpful to catch up on the latest publications and to find books for next year’s syllabi. It is a great place to run into people, or to track down a publisher with whom you would like to work. Many books are sold at discounted prices. Publishers’ catalogs announce forthcoming works and advertise their current lists. This can be helpful as you decide what review or desk copies you wish to request. The program for the Annual Meeting includes a guide to the book displays so you can plan where you want to go in the cavernous room to get the books you want.

Don’t be shy about introducing yourself to someone whose work you admire, whose name you’ve noticed on his or her badge (without staring rudely). Usually, colleagues are grateful for the contact. You can also ask someone whom you know to make an introduction—or, if you know two people who would benefit from connecting, make the introduction yourself.

After a paper has been delivered, it is quite common to present your business card to the author and ask for an electronic copy. Or, if you miss a paper and would like to read it, simply contact the presenter and ask her/him to share it with you. (Many will share; some won’t until publication.) This is what it means to work collegially. Since only members can present, anyone who has presented a paper at the Annual Meeting will be listed in the membership directory, available on the AAR website to all current members.

Make sure you have fun at the meeting! Find people to chat with and share meals. Connect with graduate school friends or old colleagues. Take walks, use the hotel health facilities, or go to a movie or museum. Remember to breathe! Do whatever you need to do to keep from running yourself ragged, especially if you are on the job market. Go easy on alcohol at receptions and remember that professional expectations do not end when you have delivered your paper.

The costs of attending the Annual Meeting can be high. Food costs at conference centers can be outrageous; you may want to stock up on healthy, portable snacks and bring a refillable water bottle. If you have special dietary needs, more planning may be required, as well as a stop at a local grocery store. If you have an institutional research or travel budget, use it. Other universities may subsidize the cost for faculty or students who are presenting papers or serving on committees. If you itemize deductions for income tax purposes you can often deduct a portion of your unreimbursed meeting expenses. Ask an accountant for details and save your receipts. Students find these meetings a real stretch financially, so consider buying your students a meal or inviting them for coffee, especially if you can also introduce them to colleagues or publishers.

If you have a disability, you are no doubt aware that official policies requiring accessibility are not always fully implemented. If you will be presenting at or plan to attend particular sessions, it is worthwhile to contact AAR staff in advance to remind them of your requirements and consult the AAR Status of People with Disabilities in the Profession Committee (PWD) webpage, which lists accessibility information for the Annual Meeting. If you find persistent obstacles, let someone onsite know so the problem can be fixed or, at the very least, noted and investigated after the fact.

The Annual Meeting can be hard on introverts. So many people, so little silence. Anyone who has been involved in a large institutional structure knows that the best way to survive is to get involved with a small group within that structure. The Annual Meeting provides many opportunities for you to do just that. Some groups at the AAR hold pre-meetings on Friday, before the conference officially begins, including womanist scholars, the Feminist Liberation Theologians’ Network, and others. There are events for adjunct faculty and those exploring alternate academic career (Alt-Ac) positions. Check them out and find your way.

There are mentoring programs that provide good chances to meet other women. These include a mentoring lunch co-sponsored by the Committees on the Status of Women in the Profession (SWP) and Racial and Ethnic Minorities (REM). The Committee on the Status of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Intersex, & Queer Persons in the Profession (LGBTIQ Committee) also hosts a mentoring lunch that is very useful.

These committees also offer Special Topics Forums that address political and professional concerns. There is a student group and an elected student director who serves on the AAR Board of Directors (see GSC). The students provide a session introducing the AAR to new members at each Annual Meeting. They have a lounge in which to relax and meet people. There is also a Women’s Lounge, and the Women’s Caucus provides innovative programming. Many international colleagues attend the AAR/SBL. There are often special events for them as well.

Another important way to make connections is to attend the business meeting of the section(s) or group(s) in your field of study. Through these meetings, you can become acquainted with scholars in your area of interest, and be involved in crafting the topics for the Call for Papers for the following year. Depending on the practice of the group, you might be able to serve on the steering committee, which decides which papers will be accepted for presentation. Like most things, what you put into it will mirror what you get out of the AAR, so consider it a worthwhile investment, especially if professional service is important for your tenure and promotion.

AAR Regions

The AAR is broken down into geographic regions. If you are an AAR member, you automatically belong to a region. Regions vary by size and level of member participation. In some of the larger regions there are significantly more opportunities to present your work and network with colleagues in your subfield. However, do note that not all regions’ programming unit divisions match the AAR structure, so you may need to look more carefully at the Call for Papers to see where your work would fit. Each year the regions sponsor conferences, usually in the spring. You can attend, give a paper, or become involved in regional governance and organization. It is usually less expensive and more convenient to go to a regional meeting than to attend the AAR Annual Meeting. It is a good way to accomplish what may be more daunting on the macro level, namely, to meet people in the field and display your work on a smaller scale before you tackle the Annual Meeting (see AAR Annual Meeting)

Ableism (see also Disability)

Ableism is the systemic discrimination against and exclusion of people who have physical, mental, sensory, and/or emotional disabilities. Normative assumptions about how bodies and minds work (many work differently) are codified in law, architecture, education, language, and virtually every other sphere of life based on often arbitrary values. Ableism leads to devaluing and disregarding people with disabilities. It is a form of oppression that, when combined with sexism and racism, for example, ensures that women and people of color with disabilities will suffer disproportionately. Many institutions have offices and/or officers who handle discrimination against people with disabilities. Others need them.

Academic Freedom and Risk

Academic freedom is a time-honored dimension of life in the academy. It typically refers to the respect accorded to each one for her/his work and to the expectation that one can articulate possibly unpopular ideas and beliefs in the classroom and in print (and, now, online). What is not always clear is what it means, how far it goes, to whom and how it applies. In fact, an irony is that many of the people who most need tenure for the protection of their rights do not get it, sometimes because their ideas challenge the status quo. Worrying too much about the academic freedoms accorded to tenured faculty can also seem misguided in a climate where a significant and increasing proportion of humanities faculty is comprised of poorly paid and badly treated adjunct laborers.

Academic freedom is especially tricky when religious matters are involved since the “freedom” to contradict a religious tradition’s beliefs may well result in problems on the job in religiously affiliated institutions, though problems with academic freedom are not limited to such institutions. Many of the trickiest religious issues concern women’s bodies and female authority, and job security may be contingent on toeing the line. Learn the local landscape early in one’s term at an institution (better yet, ask before taking the job). Make choices accordingly, weighing risks and benefits. Still better advice, if sometimes costly, is to keep your banner high even in religious institutions, since they risk the loss of their reputations when they abrogate a basic tenet of academic life. Academic fr...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Editors’ Introduction to the Revised Edition
• Introduction to the Original Guide
• The Guide from A to Z
• Appendix I: American Academy of Religion Sexual Harassment Policy
• Appendix II: American Academy of Religion Sexual Harassment Grievance Procedure
• Appendix III: Society of Biblical Literature (SBL) Ethics Statement
• Appendix IV: Making Your Presentations Disability Friendly
• Appendix V: “Be Brief, Be Witty, Be Seated”
• Appendix VI: Writing a Successful Annual Meeting Paper Proposal
• Resources
• About the Editors
• Index