From Unit Chairs:

• Aaron Grizzell, Ph.D. Northern California Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Foundation
• Julius Bailey, Ph.D.

The religious experience is of significant and acute concern among our varied African diasporic communities and is worthy of close academic exploration and study. The Black Religion & Theology Unit’s mission is to further the development of scholarly research and discussion about the black religious experience; encourage the broadening of Black religion as an academic endeavor; and engage in discourse, from the African diasporic perspective, about religious and theological expression. 

Following along with this year’s theme, which seeks greater interconnection within and between inter-religious, inter-disciplinary, and inter-generational segments of the academy, we welcome proposal submissions from two focus areas. The selected panelists can expect 15-20 minutes to present their work and to enable time for questions and audience responses.

Focus Area A: Artificial intelligence and generative technologies has changed the landscape of the modes and definitions of communication, imagination, connectivity, and, arguably, reality. Both religion and theology in African diasporic expressions have much to say on these matters. We welcome papers that delve into the challenges, opportunities, and innovative expressions that are being forged in this space. We are particularly interested in how these challenges speak to possibilities for inter-religious and inter-generational connection.

Focus Area B: In many ways, the Black religious expression has been the vanguard through which social movements have forged new rights under law, and Black religious scholarship has been at the forefront of interdisciplinary engagement in building creative and vibrant theoretical and methodological frameworks upon which to ground scholarship of and about movements in the Black experience. We welcome papers that take an innovative and creative look at modes of Black scholarship at the vanguard of interdisciplinarity. Of particular interest is the connection of modes of scholarship within the ever-growing generative and compute environment. 

Please send abstract submissions (no more than 250 words) and Program Participant Forms to Aaron Grizzell (aaron@norcalmlkfoundation.org) and Julius Bailey (juliushbailey@gmail.com). The deadline for submission is November 15, 2026. All participants must submit a Program Participant Form (Click here to download the program participant form) and be members of the AAR. The AAR membership information is found at aarweb.org

The 2027 American Academy of Religion - Western Region Conference is March 19-21, at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California.