This year’s conference will be held July 22-26, 2026 in Baltimore, Maryland.

The ATHE Religion & Theatre focus group invites current graduate students and/or independent scholars who have not presented at ATHE to submit papers for the 2026 Emerging Scholars Panel.

2026 Conference Theme: “Activating Imagination in/and Community”

This year’s conference theme, "Activating Imagination in/and Community," asks us to think deeply and courageously about the role of theatre and performance in shaping our shared presents and collective futures. It challenges us to contemplate not just what we do, but how and with whom we do it.

We envision ATHE 2026 as a laboratory for rehearsing and enacting the worlds we aspire to build. As we activate imagination in/and community, we want to consider ways to reclaim collaboration as a practice and guiding principle.

This year’s ATHE Religion and Theatre (RT) focus group will have space to personalize their stories even further by adding to the call with discipline specific charges: In what way does theatre create community in a religious context? How have we and can we reach our community with religious theatre? How can theatre be used to build community? What role does imagination play in a faith community?

Submission Guidelines:

Please include your name, paper title, institutional affiliation, and contact information, in an email with a brief abstract (no more than 250 words) attached in .doc or .docx format. Please remove your name from the body of the submission, as it will go through a blind vetting process.

Submissions are due February 28, 2026 to Sloan Elle Garner Stuart at sloan.garner@uga.edu.

Final papers should be approximately 8 – 10 pages in length.

Accepted presenters will be offered free conference registration.

For more information about the 2026 conference, please visit www.athe.org. Contact the conference planner, Karen DeMasters (kdemasters@yahoo.com) with any questions or concerns. We look forward to reading your submissions.