American Academy of Religion – Page 5 – Studying Religion in Culture

A Response to “Responsible Research Practices,” Part 3: Do No Harm

July 17, 2015 by Russell McCutcheon

This is an installment in an ongoing series on the American Academy of Religion’s recently released draft statement on research responsibilities. An index of the complete series (updated as each article is posted) can be found here. The previous post — concerned with a group of Academy members who, I argued, are necessarily absent from the draft statement on responsibilities (why necessarily? If they were explicitly acknowledged it would likely undermine our ability, as an Academy, to advocate for academic […]

A Response to “Responsible Research Practices,” Part 2: Academic Freedom

July 15, 2015 by Russell McCutcheon

This is an installment in an ongoing series on the American Academy of Religion’s recently released draft statement on research responsibilities. An index of the complete series (updated as each article is posted) can be found here. The first of the thirteen bullet points that comprise the main part of the draft document reads as follows: Should we follow Marx, then we’d make the relatively uncontroversial prediction that every institution contains contradictions that, if unaddressed, threaten its existence as a […]

A Response to “Responsible Research Practices”: Index

July 13, 2015 by Russell McCutcheon

As each successive part in this ongoing series is made posted, this index page will be updated with links. Introduction: Our Highest Ideals Part 1: General Reflections Part 2: Academic Freedom Part 3: Do No Harm Part 4: Research on Human Subjects Part 5: Sources and Interpretations Part 6: Irrevocable Commitments Part 7: Methodological Pluralism Part 8: Diverse Approaches Part 9: Broader Public Part 10: Peer Review Part 11: Research Assistants Part 12: Highest Standards Afterword: And Isn’t It Ironic? […]

A Response to “Responsible Research Practices,” Part 1: General Reflections

July 13, 2015 by Russell McCutcheon

A few days ago I wrote a brief post on this site, intended to draw attention to a document that had just been circulated publicly by the American Academy of Religion (our main professional organization in the US), entitled “Responsible Research Practices: A Statement on Standards of Professional Conduct for AAR Members.” (Click here to read it or click here to learn a little more about it and to find the names [posted as a PDF here] of the 10-person […]

Our Highest Ideals

July 8, 2015 by Russell McCutcheon

I recall a close friend, almost 30 years ago, to whom I asked the following often-heard question, when they’d just had their first child: Is he a good baby? His reply? We don’t believe in making moral judgments about our child. I admit that the answer came as a bit of a surprise, since I was simply interested in knowing if the baby was sleeping the whole night through and eating ok; but, sure, after I thought about it for […]

Wafer Thin Mint Veneer

November 28, 2014 by Russell McCutcheon

As I mentioned briefly yesterday in a post, I was recently a respondent on a panel at our field’s main annual conference; the panel was devoted to whether there could be a consolidation of different trends in inter-religious/interfaith dialogue. Now, this is not what I work on and, as I made plain in my response, my own work would take those who aim toward identifying so-called mutual understanding across religions as being themselves an object of study, inasmuch as it […]

It Ain’t Sexy But….

September 24, 2014 by Russell McCutcheon

We have Kelly Baker on campus, here to give the second annual Day Lecture. On the ride to Tuscaloosa form the Birmingham airport the other day, we got talking about the issue of contingent faculty in academia (a topic on which she has blogged) or, more specifically, about how the issue plays out in the academic study of religion. We talked about the American Academy of Religion’s current forays into the issue (e.g., a task force she is herself involved […]

Patience is a Professional Virtue

March 21, 2014 by Russell McCutcheon

Some years ago I met a grad student at the U.S.’s main national scholarly conference in our field — “the big show” is what we’d call it if we were baseball players — who knew some of my friends in the profession and who bumped into me while walking through the book display. Being new to the conference-scene, he asked me a question: So how do I present a paper here next year? […]

UA at SECSOR

March 12, 2014 by Eleanor Finnegan

This past weekend, several faculty members and one former student presented research and networked with colleagues at the Southeastern Commission for the Study of Religion (SECSOR) Annual Meeting in Atlanta, Georgia. Andie Alexander, a recent grad and office worker extraordinaire, presented a paper entitled “Shifting the Focus: Understanding the Teller Behind the Tale” for a Method and Theory in the Study of Religion undergraduate research panel. Dr. Finnegan presented a paper entitled “The Digital Discourses of Muslim Environmentalist,” which tracked […]

Backstory: Prof. Ted Trost

February 18, 2014 by Andie Alexander

“Backstory” is a series that asks the REL Faculty to tell us a little bit about themselves, to explore how they became interested in the academic study of religion and their own specialty, elaborating on their current work both within and outside the University. Where are you from? I went to elementary school in Pennsylvania, junior high school in New York, and high school in Michigan. After completing college in Michigan, I lived in England, California, and Massachusetts before coming […]

Studying Religion in Culture

Ongoing Discussions at the University of Alabama

Tag: American Academy of Religion