Dear SAR Community,
Welcome to the April 2026 edition of the Society for the Anthropology of Religion (SAR) Newsletter. If you have announcements or updates you would like included in the next newsletter, please feel free to send them my way.
Society for the Anthropology of Religion
Section of the American Anthropological Association
April 29th, 2026
News and Announcements
SAR Mentorship Program
SAR’s new mentorship program is off to a strong start! We look forward to seeing what these relationships bring to the field. Because we have had so much interest from graduate students, we are particularly in need of senior scholars willing to participate. Through this program, senior scholars will be put in contact with early career scholars and graduate students in order to build connections within the association across geography and career stage. The primary goal of this program is to establish casual mentoring relationships through which people can share conference information, teaching insights, and publication tips. It is not meant to replicate the advisor experience. Mentor groups are expected to meet on a quarterly basis and will have opportunities to provide feedback on the experience. If you are interested in being placed with a mentor or mentee, please reach out to Dr. Hannah Howard at hgh17204@uga.edu and she will facilitate the connection.
Talal Asad Graduate Student Paper Prize
The Society for the Anthropology of Religion (SAR) is pleased to announce its competition for the recently renamed Talal Asad Graduate Student Paper Prize, which is aimed towards encouraging emerging scholars to write compelling ethnographies on religion. The Asad Prize is intended to foster theoretically significant, ethnographically rich work by students at an early stage of their career.
The Asad Prize includes a cash award of $250 for the winning paper, which might be recommended for publication in Religion and Society. There will also be a $100 cash award for the runner up. SAR will continue its mentorship program that will pair select graduate student finalists with faculty mentors. Finalists will have an opportunity to meet with their mentor before or at the 2026 AAA meetings to obtain feedback on revising their papers for publication.
At the time of submission, authors must be graduate students in anthropology or a related field in a university anywhere in the world and must be a member of SAR. Finalists will be notified early in the fall semester and paired with a faculty mentor before the 2026 AAA meetings. Winners will be publicly announced at a special reception, where finalists will be invited to present their work with commentary from their mentors. Winners and finalists will also be recognized at the SAR business meeting.
Interested graduate students are invited to submit their unpublished, original and polished work to Britt Halvorson (bhalvors@colby.edu) and Cymene Howe (ach1@rice.edu) by August 1, 2026. Papers must be written in English, and should be no more than 30 double-spaced pages, including abstract, bibliography, and notes, and in 12-point font. Please note that papers must not have been submitted for publication. Please write “Talal Asad Prize Submission” in the subject line of the email. Limit of one submission per person.
New Books and Articles
Living in the End Times. Ritual, History, and Ethics in Romania’s Old Belief
Vlad Naumescu
April 2026
Indiana University Press
Promise the Earth: A Safe Climate in Good Faith
Julian Allwood and Andrew Davison
January 2026
University of Cambridge Press
When Doing Good Isn’t Good Enough: How a Commitment to Justice and Solidarity Transformed Catholic Relief Services
Suzanne C. Toton
December 2025
Georgetown University Press
Sensational Rhythms of the Ineffable: Ethical Affects in Sikh Sabad Kīrtan
Inderjit Kaur
December 2025
Oxford University Press
Call for Proposals and Opportunities
Save the date for the 2026 American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting, taking place November 18–22 in St. Louis, Missouri. This year’s theme, “On the Verge,” invites reflection on thresholds, uncertainty, transformation, and the possibilities emerging in moments of crisis and change. Submissions deadline extended to May 6th, 2026, and members are encouraged to submit papers, panels, roundtables, and other session formats.
Requested CFP for AAA
(1) Exploratory panel for the 2026 AAA titled “Asceticism and Ascetics.” The full panel abstract is below. Please feel free to reach out with any questions.
If you are interested please send a title, abstract (300 words), name, and affiliation to pmelas93@g.ucla.edu
Asceticism and Ascetics: Discipline, Tradition, and the Self
This panel seeks to open a discussion into asceticism and into those who perform it—ascetics—across the world’s religious traditions. It addresses: the ways in which asceticism has remained salient for both the individuals who practice it and those others who recognize its efficacy, what ascetic communities (e.g. monasteries) can reveal about contemporary transcendence and salvation imaginaries, and, what anthropology can learn from contemporary ascetic practitioners, their bodies, aspirations, and life-worlds. Asceticism is characterized by a set of defined exercises that intend to control and discipline the practitioner’s mind and body for the purpose of achieving spiritual transcendence, transformation, and/or salvation. The promise that this spiritual reward can be achieved as a consequence of one’s voluntary efforts is in turn contained and outlined in a preexisting discursive tradition that the ascetic must conform to. Though frequently ancient, asceticism and the practices associated with it, remain important in the spiritual lives of many. This exploratory panel intends to bring together scholars who are attending to this plurality and thinking broadly with this concept.
Job Openings
Call for ‘expressions of interest’ for applications to various postdoctoral opportunities at Cambridge Faculty of Divinity.
Anthropology of Religion candidates are particularly welcome to apply.
https://www.cam.ac.uk/jobs/postdoctoral-research-fellowship-fixed-term-gf49476