Dear SAR Community,
Welcome to the June 2026 edition of the Society for the Anthropology of Religion (SAR) Newsletter. I hope you all are having a restful summer! If you have announcements or updates you would like included in the next newsletter, please feel free to send them my way.
Shahana Munazir
PhD Candidate, Anthropology
UW-Madison
Society for the Anthropology of Religion
Section of the American Anthropological Association
July 3rd, 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
Theologies of Remembering: Modernity, Ambiguity, and Transcendence in Islamic Indonesia
Verena Hanna Meyer
August 2026 (upcoming)
University of California Press
When is a Resident also a Pilgrim?: LDS Temple Attendance in Cardston, Alberta, Canada.
C. William. Campbell
2026
Anthropological Quarterly 99 (1): 591-630. https://doi.org/10.1353/anq.2026.a988714
Living in the End Times. Ritual, History, and Ethics in Romania’s Old Belief
Vlad Naumescu
April 2026
Indiana University Press
The Oxford Handbook of the Anthropology of Religion
Joel Robbins and Simon Coleman (ed)
January 2026
Oxford University Press
AAA Annual Meeting Registration now open
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. The early registration for the meeting is now open.
Job Openings
Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship in South Asian Religions (2027-2029)
Dartmouth College
Deadline: Sep 16, 2026