Events

2020 Annual Meeting

Your AAR staff continues to work toward holding the Annual Meeting in Boston, Nov. 21-24, 2020. We are aware of the uncertainty and contradictory projections related to the COVID-19 pandemic and with health and safety as a priority, we will continue monitoring the guidance of governments and health experts as we plan and make decisions. Should any changes need to be made related to the 2020 Annual Meeting, we will promptly notify you.

2020 Regional Meetings

Open Registration:

All remaining regional meetings for 2020 have been canceled

Department Services

As a professional association, the AAR includes among its primary responsibilities collecting and analyzing data about the field; monitoring trends in the profession that affect individuals and departments; and keeping members apprised of such developments. In addition to surveys and data collecting, the AAR, through the work of the Academic Relations Committee, offers consulting and reviewing services to religion and theology departments.

AAR to Conduct Survey to Analyze Long-Term Impact of the Religious Studies Major

The AAR requests insitutions with an undergraduate major in religious studies support a survey of their former majors that will help determine the impact of the religious studies major. Institutions can participate in the survey by providing a list of graduates with current e-mail addresses along with a letter from an institional figure (department chair or otherwise) that will accompany the survey when it is sent to former students. Participating institutions will receive a report of their institution's results as well as national data. Grants are available to help instiutions that need resources to conduct the survey. The project is supported by the Teagle Foundation and administered by an IRB protocol by Georgia State University. To learn more, please see here.

2015 AAR-Teagle survey results are available here. For analysis, see articles from Melissa M. Wilcox and Charles Mathewes published in Religious Studies News in October 2015.

Consulting Services

  • Guide for Reviewing Programs in Religion and Theology
    This guide provides department chairs with a set of strategic questions and suggested steps for conducting a program review and preparing for an outside evaluation. The guide was prepared by the AAR Academic Relations Task Force in 1999.
  • Program Consultants and Reviewers
    In conjunction with the Guide for Reviewing Programs in Religion and Theology, departments can request assistance with their reviews, and program consultants can volunteer their services.

Religion Majors

The Religion Majors website, created with generous support of the Teagle Foundation, profiles departments' undergraduate major in religion. It's a place where faculty seeking to conceive or reconceive their major can explore how colleagues on other campuses describe and structure their programs.

Survey Data: Undergraduate and Graduate