Southwest Region PDF-NOTE: Internet Explorer Users, right click the PDF Icon and choose [save target as] if you are experiencing problems with clicking. Print

 

Regional Coordinator:

Donna Bowman
Honors College
University of Central Arkansas
Conway, AR 72035
USA
501-450-3631
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Region's Website

 

The Southwest Region, also known as the Southwest Commission on Religious Studies, gives out a variety of awards and grants throughout the year. Information is located below and can also be found on the region's website.

2013 Annual Regional Meeting

The 2013 Regional Meeting was a great success! It was held from March 8–10, 2013, at the Marriott Hotel, DFW Airport, Irving, Texas. Our two plenary speakers were Otto Maduro and Adela Collins.

Otto Maduro, Immediate Past President of the AAR and Latino sociologist of religion, teaches World Christianity and Latin American Christianity at Drew University. His work focuses on the interrelation of religious traditions and the yearnings for liberation among the economically, racially, culturally, and/or sexually oppressed peoples.  

Adela Collins, Buckingham Professor of New Testament Criticism and Interpretation at Yale Divinity School, focuses her research interests on the Gospel of Mark and the Book of Revelation, as well as other early Christian apocalypticism. Her recent book Mark: A Commentary (Hermeneia/Augsburg Fortress, 2007) has been hailed as a "magisterial study of the second Gospel." At the meeting, Collins will present a lecture entitled "1 Corinthians 15 and Debates about Resurrection in the Early Church."

Sections at the Regional Annual Meeting

  • Arts, Literature, and Religion
  • Comparative and Asian Studies in Religion
  • Ethics, Society, and Cultural Analysis
  • History of Christianity
  • Philosophy of Religion and Theology
  • Theta Alpha Kappa

Future Annual Regional Meetings

March 7-9, 2014
March 13-15, 2015

All meetings will be held at the Dallas/Fort Worth Airport Marriott, 8440 Freeport Parkway, Irving, Texas 75063.

Call for Regional Service

The Southwest Region invites nominations of persons interested in serving the region, especially as a future officer on the AAR Southwest Region Committee. In the past, potential committee members have been nominated by those currently serving as officers, but we would like to broaden the process so that those who are not known to committee members — but who, nonetheless, are interested in being involved in governance at the regional level — can be encouraged to make their interest known to current Committee members. In particular, please let us know if you have an interest in being nominated as Vice President.

On another, quite different matter, the Region is also soliciting expressions of interest in serving as AAR’s Regional Coordinator for the Southwest (see this description for information on the role). Recently, Donna Bowman has ably served us in this capacity but is now concluding her tenure in this position at the end of the current academic year.

Grants and Awards

John G. Gammie Distinguished Scholar Award

Persons nominated for the John G. Gammie Distinguished Scholar Award shall ordinarily be scholars recognized by their peers nationally or internationally for the quality and importance of their work. Nominees for the Gammie Award must be members of one of the participating societies and on the faculty or staff of a sponsoring institution of the Southwest Commission on Religious Studies.

Letters of nomination must be accompanied by the nominee's current curriculum vitae. Nominations will be kept on file for three years. Gammie Award decisions shall be based on the qualifications of nominees. Some consideration is given to seeing that the Award goes to a variety of schools.

Nominations for the award should be sent no later than December 1 to:

SWCRS
Stacy L. Patty, Secretary-Treasurer
Department of Religion
5601 19th Street
Lubbock, TX 79407-2099
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Junior Scholar Grant

The purpose of the Junior Scholar Grant is to encourage and support the scholarly work of newer scholars who are in the field of religious studies and who live in the Southwest Region. The grant may provide seed money for an initial project, but may also provide support for a project pursued by a Junior Scholar whose research agenda is already established.

One or two grants of up to $2,000 may be given annually, with funds provided by the Southwest Commission on Religious Studies.

Criteria

Applicants for the grant must be members of one of the participating societies and on the faculty or staff of a sponsoring institution of the Commission. Applicants for the grant shall ordinarily have completed their dissertation and have served in a faculty or staff position no more than ten years. Applicants should complete the Junior Scholar Grant application form, with special attention to the larger research project and how the grant would assist in completion of the project.

In the year following the grant, the Junior Scholar will provide the Board of Directors of the Southwest Commission a written report on research completed.

Application and all additional materials should be submitted by February 1. Junior Scholars applicants should attend the Regional Meeting reception in order to receive the grant.

Application Process

In order to apply for the Junior Scholar Grant, follow the directions below:

1. E-mail a letter of application to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it on or before December 1. The letter should include the following:

  • Name
  • E-mail address
  • Position and rank
  • Total number of years teaching and number of years at current institution
  • Title and nature of research project
  • Specific indication regarding how the grant will assist in the completion of the project; e.g., supplies, necessary travel, released time from summer teaching
  • Tentative time schedule for the entire project and current status
  • Some indication of the anticipated form of the published results (books or articles) and where the results might appear (publisher, if known, for a book and journal to which an article would be submitted)

2. Request two persons familiar with your scholarly work to send letters of support. Letters should be postmarked no later than February 1. Letters of support may be e-mailed to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or mailed to the SWCRS at:

Stacy L. Patty, Secretary-Treasurer
Department of Religion
5601 19th Street
Lubbock, TX 79407-2099

3. E-mail a current curriculum vitae to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it on or before February 1.

Frank P. Forwood Award for Academic Excellence in Presented Research

This award was created by the Association for the Scientific Study of Religion, Southwest, at the 2008 meeting of the Association for the Scientific Study of Religion, Southwest, as part of the Southwest Commission on Religious Studies. The Award was created to honor the service and dedication of Frank P. Forwood, a founding member and long-time program Chair of the ASSRSW. He was a professor of sociology and religion at Northeast Louisiana University (now the University of Louisiana, Monroe) for more than thirty years. Forwood passed away in 2007 and the award commemorates his memory, honoring his career service to the ASSRSW and Southwest Commission on Religious Studies and his many contributions to the study of religion in society.

For information regarding this award, contact the ASSR President:

Jon K. Loessin
Wharton County Junior College
911 Boling Highway
Wharton, TX  77488
979-532-6461
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This website contains archived issues of Religious Studies News published online from March 2010 to May 2013, and PDF versions of print editions published from Winter 2001 to October 2009.

This site also contains archived issues of Spotlight on Teaching (May 1999 to May 2013) and Spotlight on Theological Education (March 2007 to March 2013).

For current issues of RSN, beginning with the October 2013 issue, please see here.


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