Dear SAR Community,
Welcome to the October 2025 edition of the Society for the Anthropology of Religion (SAR) Newsletter! If you have any announcements or updates, you’d like included in the upcoming newsletter, feel free to send them my way.
Society for the Anthropology of Religion
Section of the American Anthropological Association
October 28th, 2025
News and Announcements
Heading to the AAA Annual Meetings in New Orleans this November?
Mark your calendars for the Society for the Anthropology of Religion (SAR) Business Meeting!
Date & Time: Friday, November 21, 2025 | 7:30–9:30 PM
Location: Sheraton New Orleans, Rhythms III (2nd floor)
Our incoming SAR President, Prof. Amira Mittermaier (University of Toronto), will preside over the meeting. Highlights include:
- Presentation of the Clifford Geertz Book Prize (with two honorable mentions)
- Announcement of the Student Paper Prize
SAR T-shirts will also be available at a special discounted price of just $14 each. Choose from yellow or green, short-sleeve, 100% cotton (sizes S–XL).
Light finger foods and drinks will be provided, with a cash bar available for alcoholic beverages.
We look forward to seeing you there!
New Editorial Team for the Contemporary Anthropology of Religion Series
We are pleased to share that the Contemporary Anthropology of Religion book series, published by Palgrave Macmillan, has a new editorial team. Sowparnika Balaswaminathan and David Kloos are joining Hillary Kaell as co-editors.
As the official book series of the Society for the Anthropology of, Contemporary Anthropology of Religion publishes ethnographically and theoretically rich works that explore religion across the globe. The series welcomes contributions on a wide range of themes, including lived religion, material religion, ritual, embodiment, social memory, ecology, gender, conflict and violence, politics, law and governance, globalization, technology, pluralism, and diversity.
Call for new submissions
The editors are currently inviting proposals for both monographs and edited volumes. The series encourages submissions from first-time authors as well as established scholars. For details on how to submit a proposal, please see the guidelines here.
For inquiries or to discuss your project, you may contact the editors directly: Sowparnika Balaswaminathan, Concordia University – sowparnika.nathan@concordia.ca; Hillary Kaell, McGill University – hillary.kaell@mcgill.ca ; David Kloos, Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies – kloos@kitlv.nl
New Books and Articles
Anthropologies of Orthodox Christianity: Theology, Politics, Ethics
Candace Lukasik and Sarah Riccardi-Swartz (ed)
November 2025 (forthcoming: available for pre-order)
Fordham University Press
Healing Ableism: Stories About Disability and Religious Life
Darla Schumm
November 2025
Rutgers University Press
Cleansing the Nation: India, the Hindu Modern, and Mediations of Gender
Raka Shome
November 2025
Duke University Press
Call for Proposals and Opportunities
The Institute of Islamic Studies (IIS) at the University of Toronto is inviting applications for two postdoctoral fellowships in Islamic Studies. The first position focuses on Islamic Studies after Gaza, the second on interdisciplinarity and methodological experimentation. Both positions are two-year research positions with a start date of September 2026. The application deadline is 9 November 2025. More details can be found here:
The 2025 American Anthropological Association (AAA) Annual Meeting, taking place November 19–23 in New Orleans, centers on the theme “Ghosts,” inviting anthropologists to explore how the past lingers and shapes the present, as well as the creative and immaterial aspects of human experience. This theme is highly relevant to members of the Society for the Anthropology of Religion (SAR), as it resonates with longstanding interests in spirits, ancestors, memory, ritual, and the ways religious communities engage with the unseen or spectral in everyday life.
SAR is an active section of the AAA and regularly hosts sessions at the Annual Meeting, including panels, the Roy Rappaport Lecture, and award presentations such as the Clifford Geertz Prize and the graduate student paper prize.
Looking ahead, the AAR Annual Meeting in Boston is scheduled for November 22–25, 2025. This flagship event brings together thousands of religion scholars for panels, networking, and mentoring, and includes sessions from the Anthropology of Religion Unit. Registration for the Annual Meeting is yet to open.
Looking ahead, the AAR Annual Meeting is scheduled for November 21–24, 2026 in Denver. This flagship event brings together thousands of religion scholars for panels, networking, and mentoring, and includes sessions from the Anthropology of Religion Unit. The call for papers will open in January, and registration begins in late April.
The AAR also hosts a fully on-line session of its annual programming in June, with the same CFPs and deadline as the in-person meeting. We especially encourage junior scholars to consider participating in the June session as a low-cost, but still very visible option.
Questions about the Anthropology of Religion unit’s work at AAR can be directed to Eric Hoenes del Pinal (ehoenes@charlotte.edu) or Brendan Jamal Thornton (bjthornt@email.unc.edu). You can learn more about the other units and seminars that make up the AAR here.