CFP “A Vision for Liberating Our Democracy” Conference, February 27–28, 2026

The conference builds on a growing body of research that examines the theological, cultural, and political intersections of democracy, citizenship, and power. Participants will investigate how worldviews and faith traditions have informed concepts of governance, belonging, and personhood from the founding era to the present. The conference will highlight not only the Haudenosaunee Influence on American Democracy but also the historic and present contributions to Democratic thought by Black, Indigenous, and Latine communities, contributions which are often forgotten and ignored.

Featured Speakers

The conference will feature exciting plenary addresses by:

• Maya D. Wiley, President and CEO of Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights

• Rev. Alba Onofrio (Reverend Sex), Executive Director of Soulforce

• Dr. Raymond Winbush, Research Professor and the Director of the Institute for Urban Research, Morgan State University

• Rev. Dr. Joseph Evans, The J. Alfred Smith, Senior Professor of Theology in the Public Square Director at Berkeley School of Theology

• Brandon Paradise, Associate Professor of Law and Professor Dallas Willard Scholar at Rutgers Law School

• Rev. Dr. Gabby Cudjoe Wilkes, Pastor of The Double Love Experience Church

• Tadodaho Sidney Hill of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy

• Betty Hill (Lyons), (Onondaga Nation, Snipe Clan), Executive Director of the American Indian Law Alliance

• Rev. Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis, Jr., President and CEO of the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA): The Black Press of America.  Environmental Justice and Racial Equity Fellow at Duke University.

• Rev. Naomi Washington-Leapheart, Strategic Partnerships Director, Political Research Associates

• Rev. Dr. Yvette R. Blair-Lavallais, Equity Research Fellow for Feeding America and Professor at Memphis Theological Seminary

• Rev .Dr. Obery M. Hendricks, Jr., Professor in the Departments of Religion and African American and African Diaspora Studies at Columbia University.

• Rev. Damien C. Durr, General Secretary of the Proctor Conference

Call for Papers - The organizing committee invites papers on the following Topics to Be Covered During Exploring Religion, Race, and Democracy:

• The Middle Passage, The Mid-Atlantic Slave Trade, Maa’afa
• The Continental Congress and the Balance of Power
• The Haudenosaunee Influence on American Democracy
• W.E.B. Du Bois and the Black Reconstruction of Democracy
• The Doctrine of Discovery and settler colonial foundations
• White Christian nationalism and the myth of civil religion
• Religion, race, and legal personhood
• Religion and resistance in Black, Indigenous, Latine, and immigrant communities
• Race, religion, and the media in shaping democratic narratives
• Womanist, Feminist, and Mujerista Methodologies
• Foreign Policy and Human Crises

Submission Information

The organizing committee invites proposals for papers, panel discussions, roundtables, and creative presentations. Submissions from scholars at all career stages, including graduate students and early-career researchers, are encouraged. We are open to presentations from independent scholars as well.

The program will also include undergraduate poster sessions, graduate student panels, and live podcast recordings designed for classroom and public scholarship use. Following the event, an open-access journal volume will publish selected presentations.

Proposals should include a 300-word abstract and a 100-word biography. The submission deadline is January 15, 2026. Proposals may be sent to abrett@uls.edu.

Event Details

• Conference: A Vision for Liberating Our Democracy: Examining the Religious and Racialized Roots of American Democracy
• Dates: February 27–28, 2026
• Location: United Lutheran Seminary, 7301 Germantown Avenue, Philadelphia, PA 19119
• Submission Deadline: January 15, 2026
• Contact: Adam DJ Brett, abrett@uls.edu