Regional Coordinator:

Christopher Denny
173-25 Booth Memorial Avenue
Fresh Meadows, NY 11365-1519
USA
718-990-5609
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Region's Website

This is just a gentle reminder that the Mid-Atlantic Regional meeting is in just a few days!

March 17–18, 2011
Hyatt Regency New Brunswick
New Brunswick, NJ, USA

Our 2011 joint regional meeting of the Mid-Atlantic and New England–Maritimes Regions is to be held on March 17–18, 2011. As is customary for the Mid-Atlantic Region, once again we will be meeting with the Mid-Atlantic Region of the Society for Biblical Literature (MAR–SBL). Based upon the very large turnout for the last meeting, the MAR–AAR Executive Committee has once again selected the Hyatt Regency Hotel in New Brunswick, New Jersey, as our venue. The New Brunswick Hyatt is three blocks from the local Amtrak station, nineteen miles from Newark International Airport, and thirty miles from New York City.

The theme for the 2011 conference is “Religion and Embodiment.” Our three plenary speakers for this year will address this theme from diverse perspectives.

Miguel De La Torre is a member of the faculty at the Iliff School of Theology. Among his published books are the recent volumes Liberating Jonah: Forming an Ethics of Reconciliation (Orbis, 2007), Lily Among the Thorns: Imagining a New Christian Sexuality (Wiley, John and Sons, 2007), and Doing Christian Ethics from the Margins (Orbis, 2004). De La Torre chairs the AAR's Status of Racial and Ethnic Minorities in the Profession Committee. In conjunction with his plenary address, he will be leading a workshop for faculty and graduate students on diversifying the field of religious studies for scholars from groups underrepresented within the Academy.

Marie Griffith is the John A. Bartlett Professor at the Harvard Divinity School. Griffith is the author of Born Again Bodies: Flesh and Spirit in American Christianity (University of California Press, 2004) and God’s Daughters: Evangelical Women and the Power of Submission (University of California Press, 1997). Her current research focuses on the role of sexuality among American evangelical Christians.

Kieran Scott is an associate professor in the Graduate School of Religion and religious studies department at Fordham University in New York City. He is the coeditor, with Harold Horell, of Human Sexuality in the Catholic Tradition (Rowman and Littlefield, 2007); and the coeditor, with Michael Warren, of Perspectives on Marriage: A Reader (3rd ed., Oxford University Press, 2006).

Sections at the Regional Annual Meeting

Christian History and Theology
Contemporary Theology (Nineteenth Century to Present)
East Asian Religion
History of Christianity
Medieval Studies
Pedagogy
Philosophy of Religion
Psychology and Religion
Religion and the Arts
Religion and Ethics
Religion, Gender, and Sexuality
Religion in America
Religion in India
Religion, Pop Culture, and Media
Scriptural Reasoning

Note about Registration Fees for Non-Presenters

Conference attendees who are not presenting may register at a discounted rate of $30. Note that presiding at a session is not considered presenting, and non-presenters who volunteer to preside at sessions will still be charged this discounted rate of $30. Both presenters and non-presenters are encouraged to volunteer to preside at sessions. The preregistration form below has an area that you may check off if you are interested in presiding at a session.

Mid-Atlantic Regional Awards

As has become our custom, MAR–AAR will award the Kate Connolly-Weinert Prize of $200 to the most innovative group session (or panel) dealing with peace issues or women’s studies.

To help foster graduate student participation, the Executive Committee of the MAR–AAR will again award the Robert F. Streetman Prize of $200 for the best student paper presented at the conference by an AAR regional member.

Both awards will be presented at the joint regional meeting of the Mid-Atlantic and New England–Maritimes Regions.

New England–Maritimes Regional Awards

To help foster graduate student participation, the Executive Committee of the New England–Maritimes Region will again bestow the NEMAAR Graduate Student Awards for Excellence for the three best student papers presented at the conference by a NEMAAR regional member.

Preregistration

Online preregistration is now available through the AAR website. Please utilize the AAR website for registration, as it saves paper and helps the region fulfill our national AAR mandate to promote environmentally sustainable gatherings. Preregistration for the meeting using a paper form is no longer available.

Hotel Information

Hyatt Regency New Brunswick
Two Albany Street
New Brunswick, NJ 08901
Phone: 732-873-1234
Fax: 732-873-1382

The Hyatt Regency is offering online hotel room registration for the MAR/NEMAAR regional meeting. In order to receive the discounted conference rate when booking online, you must reserve your room through this website and NOT through the general Hyatt website.

Alternatively you may call Hyatt Central Reservations at 888-421-1442 to reserve rooms. Please indicate that you are attending our conference so that you can receive the conference rate. Normal hotel rates will apply given the lateness of the date. Since only fifty discounted rooms have been reserved for Wednesday, March 16, and Thursday, March 17, and fifteen discounted rooms have been reserved for Friday, March 18, we strongly encourage you to reserve your room early. Parking is available at the Hyatt for conference participants at a discounted rate of $6 a day.

If you are looking for a roommate for the conference, please contact NEMAAR at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . All we can offer in this regard is to pass on contact information.

Sustainability

As part of the American Academy of Religion’s commitment to host environmentally-sustainable meetings, we are asking participants to consider bringing reusable beverage containers and name badge holders from previous conferences in order to cut down on waste at the conference.

For any ongoing updated conference information please consult our website at http://www.aarweb.org/About_AAR/Regions/Mid-Atlantic. Information will be posted as it is available during the upcoming academic year.

Please note that the system for electronic submission of paper proposals is now closed.

Religious Studies News

March 17–18, 2011Hyatt Regency New BrunswickNew Brunswick, NJ, USA