announcement from Harvey Whitehouse and David Sloane Wilson

Dear Colleagues,

We recently received a planning grant from the JTF to develop a larger proposal aimed at integrating the most promising scientific approaches to the study of religion currently available, doing so within an overarching evolutionary framework. A key feature of the methodology will be to establish ‘field stations’ for the intensive study of religious communities using methods borrowed from anthropology, psychology, and evolutionary biology. We envisage a sub-granting program enabling us to select on a competitive basis the most promising experimental designs to be replicated across the field stations and to develop also targeted projects on the evolution of religion.

During the current planning year, we are seeking to bring together several currently disparate schools of thought on religion in ways that will draw on the strengths of each and allow us to invent and deploy novel methods in high-impact fresh empirical research. This plan has three main components: first, the formation of a small group of scientists who will take the lead in brainstorming approaches that integrate ‘top down’ (ultimate causation) and ‘bottom-up’ (proximate causation) theories of religious representations and systems; second, the establishment of a ‘community of interest’, enabling online discussion of the evolving research proposal among a broad range of scientists engaged in the study of religion; third, piloting of new research designs in Binghamton, New York. The reason for choosing Binghamton as our first field site is because it is already being studied from an evolutionary perspective as a representative American City (seehttp://evolution.binghamton.edu/bnp), enabling us to add a religious dimension to an already extensive database. Work during the planning grant will include creating an inventory of religious congregations for the city of Binghamton as the beginning of a longitudinal database, initiating partnerships with at least six congregations in the city, developing survey materials, ethnographic methods and so on for work with the congregations.

The grant employs Jon Lanman (Oxford) and Ian Macdonald (Binghamton) and covers the costs of meetings and pilot research. We are writing to ask if you would be willing to join the ‘Community of Interest’ (COI) at this point. Members will receive periodic information on the developing research designs and plans for the establishment of field stations and will be asked to contribute comments and ideas to the web-based discussion forum.

To join the COI, simply contact Ian Macdonald (ifmacdonald@gmail.com) requesting that your name be added to the list of Faculty and Scholars on the Evolutionary Religious Studies (ERS) website. We will then keep you up to speed with developments via email, also using the ERS website to post news and other material relating to this project.

I do hope you will join us in this exciting venture.

All best,
Harvey and David

Animal Studies and CSR (G. Levy and A. Gross)

Gabriel Levy (University of Aarhus) is soliciting panelists for the following AAR session.

Aaron Gross (University of San Diego) and I are putting together an edited volume on the relation between animal studies (ethological approaches, primatology, animal cognition, etc...) and CSR. Specifically, what implications might animal behavior and intelligence have for thinking about religion? Of course understanding human beings and religion in the context of other animals is part of the background of many cognitive and neuro-scientific approaches to religion. But we want to focus on and foreground the question of the animal and its relation to religion from a cognitive/ethological perspective.

We are hoping to put together a panel for the AAR in Atlanta. I am writing to test the waters and see if there is interest for CSR people in the subject.

Please comment or write to either one of us.

Is it methods that defines CSR?

I heard from a number of people at the AAR that they would be more interested in CSR if it presented them with methods they could use in better understanding the material that is the focus of their research. A familiar adage of JZ Smith was cited in this regard (does anyone off hand remember the paper it comes from?). In short, what they were looking for were techniques or tools or methods. This brings me to ask two questions:

(1) What tools or methods or techniques are distinctive of CSR research?

(2) Is it correct to think of CSR as being primarily a toolbox, or does this approach misunderstand what's distinctive about the field and misrepresent the larger contribution it can make to the discipline of Religious Studies?

I've got my own ideas on (2), but (1) seems to be of more interest to a lot of folks, especially those who haven't made the commitment of identifying their scholarship with CSR. And whatever our answer to (2), if we can introduce people to new methods, then why not?

So while I could make my own list of methods that are familiar in CSR work, I'd like to hear what other people think: What tools or methods or techniques are distinctive of CSR research?

Topics for Panels at 2010 AAR in Atlanta

Post a comment here if you would like to propose a topic for a session at the 2010 AAR in Atlanta. Until a separate thread has been created for a particular topic, you can also discuss topics proposed here.

About This Blog

This blog has been set up by the Cognitive Science of Religion (CSR) consultation of the American Academy of Religion (AAR) as a communication tool for AAR members interested in studying any of the many cognitive approaches of religions. This blog has been set up by members of the CSR steering committee and does not necessarily reflect the views of the AAR.

This blog is moderated to allow only posts that are on topic, and to weed out discourteous comments.

As a practical matter, three main uses of the blog are envisioned. First, in the months leading up to the AAR's call for papers, this blog can be used to find potential panelists and to discuss topics for panels. For this purpose, a general thread will be created in which the comment feature may be used to suggest topics. The moderators will create separate threads for topics that appear to be sufficiently popular.

Second, threads may periodically be posted on particular topics in CSR, as a way for those interested in the field to have a forum for discussion outside of meetings of the AAR. If this use proves popular, it may be expanded and regular threads added.

Third, announcements relating to CSR may sometimes and sporadically posted here.

Fourth, papers may sometimes be posted or linked in advance of meetings of the AAR, specifically for research sessions in which participants are encouraged to read a paper in advance of the AAR meeting.