Religion in American History at #AHA16: Panels of Interest as the AHA Approaches

Lauren Turek

We are a mere ten days away from the start of the 2016 Annual Meeting of the American Historical Association, which is taking place from January 7-10 in Atlanta, Georgia. This year's theme is "Global Migrations: Empires, Nations, and Neighbors," and scholars of religion in American history as well as world history have put together a wide range of exciting panels. A number of this blog's contributors are presenting and there are many American Society of Church History and American Catholic Historical Association panels on the program. As always, I lament that I can't be in two (or more!) places at once, as I have combed through the program and found lots of panels and roundtables I would love to attend. I have compiled a list of panels that may be of interest to readers—hopefully someone will be live tweeting them during the conference (click the panel title to read the abstract):



Thursday, January 7, 2016

Are the Culture Wars History? New Comments on an Old Concept 
AHA Session 3
American Society of Church History 1
Thursday, January 7, 2016: 1:00 PM-3:00 PM
Salon A (Hilton Atlanta, Second Floor)

Chair:
Andrew G. Hartman, Illinois State University

Panel:
Andrew G. Hartman, Illinois State University
Adam Laats, Binghamton University (State University of New York)
Natalia Mehlman Petrzela, The New School
Stephen R. Prothero, Boston University
Leo P. Ribuffo, George Washington University



“Localizing” the Global Mission Project: American Foreign Missionaries as Participants in Local Networks of Action and Knowledge
AHA Session 12
Thursday, January 7, 2016: 1:00 PM-3:00 PM
Room A703 (Atlanta Marriott Marquis, Atrium Level)

Chair:
Xia Shi, New College of Florida

Papers:
The American “Zulu” Mission and the Emergence of “Zulu” as a Distinct Language Community in South Africa, 1835–54
Jochen S. Arndt, University of Illinois at Chicago

Blessed Are the Placemakers: American Presbyterians as Imperial and Local Actors in Jinan, China, 1881–91
Daniel Knorr, University of Chicago

Influencing the Home Base to Influence the World: Foreign Mission Fundraising and the Armenian Massacres of 1894–96
Scott Libson, Emory University

America’s New Global Mission: Religious Pluralism and US Intervention
Julie Chamberlain, George Washington University

Comment:
Xia Shi, New College of Florida



20th-Century Catholic Faith in Action
American Catholic Historical Association 1
Thursday, January 7, 2016: 1:00 PM-3:00 PM
Techwood Room (Hyatt Regency Atlanta, Atlanta Conference Center Level)

Chair:
Patrick J. Houlihan, University of Chicago

Papers:
“To Assist ...Their Little Brothers and Sisters of the Belgian Nation”
Dennis Castillo, Christ the King Seminary

From San Antonio to Washington: The Catholic Bishops’ Outreach to Hispanics, 1945–70
Todd Scribner, Catholic University of America

Comment:
Patrick J. Houlihan, University of Chicago



Catholics, Communism, Race, and Social Justice
American Catholic Historical Association 2
Thursday, January 7, 2016: 1:00 PM-3:00 PM
Spring Room (Hyatt Regency Atlanta, Atlanta Conference Center Level)

Chair:
James T. Carroll, Iona College

Papers:
Charleston’s Jim Crow Catholic: James A. Spencer and the Colored Catholic Congress
Suzanne Krebsbach, independent scholar

To Become Victims: Self-Immolation and the Autocremation of Roger LaPorte
Jack Downey, La Salle University

Recruitment of Catholic Activists to the Civil Rights Movement
Paul Murray, Siena College

Comment:
Cecilia A. Moore, University of Dayton



The 19th-Century American Scriptural Imagination: Three Case Studies
American Society of Church History 4
Thursday, January 7, 2016: 1:00 PM-3:00 PM
International Ballroom 10 (Atlanta Marriott Marquis, International Level)

Chair:
James Byrd, Vanderbilt University

Papers:
Presidential Death and the Bible: 1799, 1865, 1881
Mark A. Noll, University of Notre Dame

A Rushing Mighty Wind: Tornadic Pentecosts and Apocalypses in 19th-Century America
Peter J. Thuesen, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis

The Abraham Mythos and Mormon Marriage, Early and Late
Kathleen Flake, University of Virginia

Comment:
Philip Goff, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis

The Legacies of Slavery in Reconstruction-Era Christianity
American Society of Church History 5
Thursday, January 7, 2016: 1:00 PM-3:00 PM
International Ballroom 3 (Atlanta Marriott Marquis, International Level)

Chair:
John Michael Giggie, University of Alabama

Papers:
Reforming the Past: Slavery, History, and the Problem of Reunion in the Reconstruction-Era Churches
April Holm, University of Mississippi

“The Slave Issue Still Drags On”: Midwestern Lutherans and the Post-Civil War Slavery Debates
Timothy D. Grundmeier, Baylor University

“A Long Way from Yankeedom”: Race and Regionalism in Post-Civil War Southern Missions
Zachary Dresser, Virginia Tech

A Shared View of Freedom: African American Collectivist Preachers after the Civil War
Timothy Wesley, Austin Peay State University

Comment:
Luke E. Harlow, University of Tennessee, Knoxville


Imperialists, Internationalists, and Spies: New Directions for Missionary Studies
AHA Session 46
American Society of Church History 6
Thursday, January 7, 2016: 3:30 PM-5:30 PM
Room A706 (Atlanta Marriott Marquis, Atrium Level)

Chair:
Heather Curtis, Tufts University

Panel:
Emily Conroy-Krutz, Michigan State University
Gale Kenny, Barnard College, Columbia University
Charles T. Strauss, Mount St. Mary's University
Matthew Avery Sutton, Washington State University

Comment:
Heather Curtis, Tufts University

Reforming World Christianity: Conflict, Negotiation, and National Leadership in Student Movements
American Society of Church History 7
Thursday, January 7, 2016: 3:30 PM-5:30 PM
International Ballroom 10 (Atlanta Marriott Marquis, International Level)

Chair:
Dana L. Robert, Boston University

Papers:
“To Promote the Cause of Christ’s Kingdom”: Student Associations and the “Revival” of Middle Eastern Christianity
Deanna Womack, Princeton Theological Seminary

“Trembling with Indignation”: Rivalry, Reform, and the Path toward Latin American Theological Independence
David Kirkpatrick, University of Edinburgh

Reviving and Reforming the Missionary “Call”: Intervarsity Christian Fellowship and the Urbana Student Missions Conference
Amber Thomas, University of Edinburgh

Incarnational: The Politics and Promise of Intervarsity’s Global Urban Trek
Kimberly Pendleton, George Washington University

Comment:
Dana L. Robert, Boston University



New Approaches to Religious Biography: Reexamining American Protestant Life-Writing
American Society of Church History 8
Thursday, January 7, 2016: 3:30 PM-5:30 PM
International Ballroom 1 (Atlanta Marriott Marquis, International Level)

Chair:
Catherine Brekus, Harvard Divinity School

Papers:
Charles Francis Adams and the Burden of New England Church History
Sara Georgini, Massachusetts Historical Society

Autobiography under Jim Crow: African American Christians’ Life Writing
Elizabeth Jemison, Clemson University

The Biography of a Working Pastor: Washington Gladden’s Ministry and Theology
David Mislin, Temple University

Comment:
David Holland, Harvard Divinity School


Friday, January 8, 2016


Franciscans and Race in the United States
American Catholic Historical Association 8
Friday, January 8, 2016: 8:30 AM-10:00 AM
Techwood Room (Hyatt Regency Atlanta, Atlanta Conference Center Level)

Chair:
Jack Clark Robinson, Academy of American Franciscan History

Papers:
Franciscans and the Problem of Race in North Carolina
Amy Koehlinger, Oregon State University

Judge Leander Perez and the Franciscans of Our Lady of Good Harbor: A School Integration Battle in Buras, Louisiana, 1962–65
Fr. David Endres, Mount St. Mary's Seminary of the West

Simon Scanlon, OFM, the Way, and Race in California
Jeffrey M Burns, Academy of American Franciscan History

Comment:
Jack Clark Robinson, Academy of American Franciscan History



The Confluence of Race, Religion, and Society: The Subversive Politics of Racial and Religious Minorities in the Progressive Era
American Society of Church History 11
Friday, January 8, 2016: 8:30 AM-10:00 AM
International Ballroom 1 (Atlanta Marriott Marquis, International Level)

Chair:
W. Paul Reeve, University of Utah

Papers:
Whiteness, Christianity, and Civilization: Western Culture at a Black University, Howard University, 1900–30
Matthew Bowman, Henderson State University

Liquor and Liberty: African American Preachers, Poll Taxes, and Anti-Prohibition in Early 20th-Century Texas
Brendan Payne, Baylor University

The “Evil of Race Suicide Now Sweeping Like a Blight”: Eugenics and Racialized Religion in the Progressive Era
Joseph Stuart, University of Utah

Comment:
Elizabeth Jemison, Clemson University



Freemasonry: The World’s First Global Social Network
AHA Session 86
Friday, January 8, 2016: 10:30 AM-12:00 PM
Room 311/312 (Hilton Atlanta)

Chair:
Richard Berman, Oxford Brookes University

Papers:
Navigating the “Republic of Masonry”: Print Culture in Masonic Communication and Connection in the 18th-Century Atlantic and Beyond
Hans Schwartz, Clark University

Ancients or Moderns? Reflections on the Genesis of American Freemasonry
Richard Berman, Oxford Brookes University

Caliban and the Widow’s Sons: Some Aspects of the Intersections and Interactions between Freemasonry and Afro-Caribbean Religious Praxis
Eoghan Craig Ballard, Roosevelt Center for Civic Society and Freemasonry

Comment:
Richard Berman, Oxford Brookes University



Gender, Faith, and Ethnicity in 20th-Century US Catholicism
American Catholic Historical Association 9
Friday, January 8, 2016: 10:30 AM-12:00 PM
Spring Room (Hyatt Regency Atlanta, Atlanta Conference Center Level)

Chair:
Angelyn Dries, Saint Louis University

Papers:
“You’ll Notice Our Boys Are Real Men”: Masculinity and American Catholic Difference in Catholic Boy Magazine, 1948–70
Stephen M. Koeth, CSC, Columbia University

“A Necessary Means”: Francis J. Connell, CSSR, and the Revised Baltimore Catechism on Salvation outside the Church
Katherine Richman, Labouré College

The American Catholic Support of the Mexican Catholic Church in the 1920s and 1930s
Jason Surmiller, University of Texas at Dallas

Comment:
Maria R. Mazzenga, Catholic University of America



The Uses of Propaganda in American Religious History: Catholicism, Mormonism, Protestantism
American Society of Church History 16
Friday, January 8, 2016: 10:30 AM-12:00 PM
International Ballroom 1 (Atlanta Marriott Marquis, International Level)

Chair:
Seth Perry, Princeton University

Papers:
“So Many Foolish Virgins”: True Womanhood, Nuns, and Propaganda in Antebellum America
Cassandra Leigh Yacovazzi, University of Missouri-Columbia

Religious Outsiders and the Catholic Critique of Protestantism in America
Bradley Kime, University of Virginia

Part Serendipity, Part Strategy: The Public Image Boost of the 1936 Mormon Welfare Plan as an Exception to America’s “Religious Depression”
J. B. Haws, Brigham Young University

Comment:
Seth Perry, Princeton University



Women and Religious Change: From Early Modern England to Modern America
American Society of Church History 21
Friday, January 8, 2016: 2:30 PM-4:30 PM
International Ballroom 2 (Atlanta Marriott Marquis, International Level)

Chair:
R. Ward Holder, Saint Anselm College

Papers:
Women Be Silent? The Impact of the Reformation on Pauline Writings about Women in English Sermons
Beth Allison Barr, Baylor University

“The Lyftynge Uppe of a Pure Mynde”: Reforming Women and Women’s Prayers in 16th-Century England
Taylor Sims, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor

The Housewife’s “Frustrations”: Southern Baptist Women and the Feminine Mystique
Adina Johnson, Baylor University

Comment:
The Audience


Saturday, January 9, 2016


Religion and Secularism in Nationalist Politics in the 20th Century
AHA Session 138
Saturday, January 9, 2016: 9:00 AM-11:00 AM
Grand Ballroom D (Hilton Atlanta, Second Floor)

Chair:
David A. Hollinger, University of California, Berkeley

Papers:
Religious Reaction and the Rhetoric of Generational Danger
Philip Jenkins, Baylor University

Two Case Studies in South Asian Religions: History, Nationalism, and the Rivalry of Representation
Laurie Patton, Middlebury College

Islam and Palestinian Nationalism: From Mobilization to Identity
Meir Litvak, Tel Aviv University

Mishnah Impossible: Zionism and the Transformation of Jewish Identity
Donna Robinson Divine, Smith College



Contesting Conscience: Private Beliefs and Public Policy since 1965
AHA Session 143
Saturday, January 9, 2016: 9:00 AM-11:00 AM
Grand Hall C (Hyatt Regency Atlanta, Lower Level 2)

Chair:
Jeremy Kessler, Columbia University Law School

Papers:
“A Free and Open—and Heated!—Debate”: The Military Chaplaincy, the Supreme Court, and Selective Conscientious Objection to War
Ronit Stahl, Washington University in St. Louis

Conscientious Objection, Conscience Clauses, and Religious Exemptions: Debating Rights, Obligations, and the Public Sphere, 1973–74
Sara L. Dubow, Williams College

Reproducing Law: The Rescue Movement, Conscience, and the Rule of Law
Mary Ziegler, Florida State University School of Law

Comment:
Jeremy Kessler, Columbia University Law School



Discussion of Grant Wacker, America’s Pastor: Billy Graham and the Shaping of a Nation (Harvard, 2014)
American Society of Church History 23
Saturday, January 9, 2016: 9:00 AM-11:00 AM
International Ballroom 10 (Atlanta Marriott Marquis, International Level)

Chair:
E. Brooks Holifield, Emory University

Panel:
Anthea Butler, University of Pennsylvania
Darren T. Dochuk, Washington University in St. Louis
Marie Griffith, Washington University in St. Louis
Jon H. Roberts, Boston University

Comment:
Grant Wacker, Duke Divinity School



Making a Place for Women: The YWCA’s Quest to Create Christian Community, 1890–1970
American Society of Church History 27
Saturday, January 9, 2016: 11:30 AM-1:30 PM
International Ballroom 1 (Atlanta Marriott Marquis, International Level)

Chair:
Nancy Marie Robertson, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis

Papers:
Building a Space for Christian Women: YWCA Buildings and the Creation of Global Community
Karen E. Phoenix, Washington State University

Compromising Situations: Fundamentalism and Modernism in the Early 20th-Century YWCA
Andrea L. Turpin, Baylor University

“Total Desegregation and Integration”: The YWCA and Christian Women's Fellowship in the 1950s and 1960s
Abigail Sara Lewis, Barnard College, Columbia University

Comment:
Nancy Marie Robertson, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis



Rethinking the Social Gospel(s)
American Society of Church History 28
Saturday, January 9, 2016: 11:30 AM-1:30 PM
International Ballroom 10 (Atlanta Marriott Marquis, International Level)

Chair:
Heath W. Carter, Valparaiso University

Papers:
“In One Bundle of Life”: The Social Gospel and Racial Brotherhood
Curtis Junius Evans, University of Chicago Divinity School

La Pasionera: Emma Tenayuca, Religion, and the San Antonio Pecan Shellers Strike of 1938
Arlene M. Sánchez-Walsh, Azusa Pacific University

Whose Social Gospel? Contested Social Christianities in the Midwest
Paul Putz, Baylor University

Turning the World Upside Down: The Social Gospel as Global Christian Order
Cara Burnidge, University of Northern Iowa

Comment:
Heath W. Carter, Valparaiso University



Textual Communities and Religious Networks in 18th-Century British America
AHA Session 208
North American Conference on British Studies 4
American Society of Church History 31
Saturday, January 9, 2016: 2:30 PM-4:30 PM
Room 311/312 (Hilton Atlanta)

Chair:
Kate Carté Engel, Southern Methodist University

Papers:
Religion and Social Networks in New England, 1680–1765
Jessica M. Parr, University of New Hampshire at Manchester

“All My Books Printed and Wrote”: Handley Chipman’s Religious Texts and Networks in Revolutionary-Era Nova Scotia
Keith Grant, University of New Brunswick

“Savages Abroad, Savages at Home”: Triangulating Evangelical Missions in New England, Northern England, and the Colonial South
Jennifer Snead, Texas Tech University

Comment:
Kate Carté Engel, Southern Methodist University



Catholicism in the Public Eye: (Anti)Catholic Spectacles in the United States, 1950–2015
American Catholic Historical Association 15
Saturday, January 9, 2016: 2:30 PM-4:30 PM
Spring Room (Hyatt Regency Atlanta, Atlanta Conference Center Level)

Chair:
Jennifer S. Hughes, University of California, Riverside

Papers:
The New Cartoons: Popular Caricatures, (Anti)Catholicism, and the Clergy Sexual Abuse Crisis
Brian Clites, John Carroll University

"Dramatic but Thoroughly Appropriate”: The Demonstration Mass and Active American Laity 10 Years before the Council
Jennifer Callagan, Northwestern University

Colbert Catholicism: Presenting a Catholic Identity on Late Night TV
Stephanie Brehm, Northwestern University

Comment:
Anthony Smith, University of Dayton

Sunday, January 10, 2016


Transatlantic Catholicism in the 19th Century
American Catholic Historical Association 18
Sunday, January 10, 2016: 8:30 AM-10:30 AM
Spring Room (Hyatt Regency Atlanta, Atlanta Conference Center Level)

Chair:
Dennis Castillo, Christ the King Seminary

Papers:
Alexis de Tocqueville’s Political Theology
Stephen Thomas, Ohio Dominican University

Rafael De Rafael and Thomas D’Arcy Mcgee: Ultramontane Exiles in Search of a Catholic America
Andrew N. Denton, Emory University

Acton in America: An Examination of 19th-Century Transatlantic Catholic Relations, with Special Reference to Lord Acton
Carlotte Hansen, University of Chichester

Comment:
Robert A. Ventresca, King's University College at Western University



Northern Protestants, Southern Catholics, and Religious Superiors: Challenges in 19th-Century America
American Catholic Historical Association 20
Sunday, January 10, 2016: 8:30 AM-10:30 AM
Kennesaw Room (Hyatt Regency Atlanta, Atlanta Conference Center Level)

Chair:
Fernanda Perrone, Rutgers University-New Brunswick

Papers:
But the Romanists Are Outdoing Them All: Protestant Appreciation for New York Catholic Churches of the 1850s
Kevin O'Connor, Saint Meinrad Archabbey

A Yankee Bishop Serving on Southern Soil: The Episcopate of Bishop Nicholas Gallagher (1882–1918), Bishop of Galveston
Sr. Madeleine Grace, CVI, University of Saint Thomas, Houston

“My Ever Unsettled Mind” Fractious Relationships: Mother Seton v. Sulpician Superiors, July 1809–May 1811
Betty Ann McNeil, DC, DePaul University

Comment:
Suzanne Krebsbach, independent scholar



Reframing Religious Reform through Childhood: From 16th-Century England to 19th-Century America
American Society of Church History 36
Sunday, January 10, 2016: 8:30 AM-10:30 AM
International Ballroom 1 (Atlanta Marriott Marquis, International Level)

Chair:
Jonathan Yeager, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga

Papers:
Parents as Educators on the Eve of the Reformation: Richard Whitford and His A Werke for Householders (1530)
Bryan Maine, Baylor University

The Religion of Children and Families in the 19th-Century United States
Lincoln Mullen, George Mason University

“Bringing Little Ones to Christ”: The Evangelical Transformation of American Sunday Schools and Changing Attitudes toward Childhood Conversion, 1790–1824
Elise Leal, Baylor University

Comment:
Rick A. Kennedy, Point Loma Nazarene University



What's in a Name? Debating Keywords in the Study of American Protestantism
American Society of Church History 37
Sunday, January 10, 2016: 8:30 AM-10:30 AM
International Ballroom 10 (Atlanta Marriott Marquis, International Level)

Chair:
Mark Thomas Edwards, Spring Arbor University

Panel:
Mark Thomas Edwards, Spring Arbor University
Gene Zubovich, University of California, Berkeley
Elesha Coffman, University of Dubuque
Matthew Hedstrom, University of Virginia
Curtis Junius Evans, University of Chicago Divinity School

Comment:
The Audience



Jimmy Carter’s 1976 Presidential Campaign 40 Years Later
AHA Session 255
Sunday, January 10, 2016: 11:00 AM-1:00 PM
Grand Hall D (Hyatt Regency Atlanta, Lower Level 2)

Chair:
Joseph Crespino, Emory University

Panel:
Meg Jacobs, Woodrow Wilson School of Public Policy, Princeton University
Margaret O'Mara, University of Washington Seattle
Bruce J. Schulman, Boston University
Julian Zelizer, Princeton University
Sponsored by the AHA Local Arrangements Committee



The Politics of Anticatholicism in the 20th Century
American Catholic Historical Association 21
Sunday, January 10, 2016: 11:00 AM-1:00 PM
Inman Room (Hyatt Regency Atlanta, Atlanta Conference Center Level)

Chair:
John C. Seitz, Fordham University

Papers:
“When Al Smith Is President”: The Protestant Other and the Politics of Anti-Catholicism in the 1928 Presidential Election
William S. Cossen, Pennsylvania State University

“Wild Bill” Donovan, American Espionage, and the Politics of Anticatholicism in World War II
Michael Graziano, Florida State University

A “Notable Asset”: Kennedy, Catholicism, and Foreign Policy
Patrick Lacroix, University of New Hampshire

Comment:
John C. Seitz, Fordham University



Faith and Humanitarian Development: Defining Need, Seeking Change
American Society of Church History 41
Sunday, January 10, 2016: 11:00 AM-1:00 PM
International Ballroom 1 (Atlanta Marriott Marquis, International Level)

Chair:
Heather Curtis, Tufts University

Papers:
Religious and Secular Missions in Kennedy's Peace Corps
Thomas Carty, Springfield College

Combating Injustice: Christian Support for Global Change
Gregory Witkowski, Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy

Religious Identity and International Development: The Rise of Evangelical Agencies, Private Philanthropy, and the Recasting of US Foreign Aid
David King, Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy

Comment:
Maribel Morey, Clemson University



Earthly Roots, Spiritual Destinies: Antebellum American Protestant Reconsiderations
American Society of Church History 42
Sunday, January 10, 2016: 11:00 AM-1:00 PM
International Ballroom 2 (Atlanta Marriott Marquis, International Level)

Chair:
Margaret Abruzzo, University of Alabama

Papers:
Certainty and Destiny: The Religious Searchings of Orestes Brownson and Sojourner Truth
James D. Bratt, Calvin College

“To Suppose That the Heathen Can Go to Heaven”: Salvation and Second Chances in 19th-Century America
Kathryn Gin Lum, Stanford University

“Biography Is Prized in Heaven”: The Millennium and the Problem of History in Antebellum America
Caleb Maskell, Princeton University

Comment:
Margaret Abruzzo, University of Alabama


Comments

Maffly-Kipp said…
Thanks for this guide, Lauren. These look terrific, although I'm still chagrined at the sex ratio of participants (can't even start to think about other kinds of diversity)--and, from my count, three (congratulations!) all-male sessions. We can do better, people!

Popular Posts