With the generous help of the Catharina Halkes Fonds, I was able to participate in the Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion in San Diego, CA (November 23 – 26, 2024). This is said to be, “the world’s largest gathering of scholars interested in the study of religion,” and as a theologian it had always been a dream of mine to participate in one of these gatherings. Now, with the end of my PhD-trajectory (on trauma and theology) in sight, this seemed like the perfect opportunity.
I got selected to present a paper in the panel of Creative Research Methodologies in Practical Theology, which was held on Saturday morning. This panel featured eight short presentations focused on methods and practices, with room for some discussion and interaction in between. I presented on the “I” in embodied research, arguing from a feminist point of view that we need to include ourselves – our bodies – into our (theological) research more: “We need the ‘I’ in embodied theological research, because bodies – especially female bodies – have been ignored for too long. We need the ‘I’ in embodied theological research, because we do research with and from our bodies. And our bodies are not clean slates: they have stories to tell.” The presentation was well-received and led to some interesting connections and follow-up discussions.
Presenting at the AAR was a great learning experience for me, as it gave me the opportunity to exchange thoughts with scholars from all over the world. Furthermore, it was a privilege to be able to visit so many other interesting paper presentations and panels, many of which also discussed issues around trauma and religion/theology. I learned so much from this experience and am very thankful to the Catharina Halkes Fonds for helping me to make this possible!