As promised, a report back on just a few highlights from the AAR-SBL.



My own paper on Monday morning was quite successful. My topic is such a sexy one that it always incites lots of questions (although this must be my last paper on that subject--it's getting a bit stale). William LaFleur offered a very nice response. "Delicious," he said. And "we always used to wonder back in the day at Chicago what would happen if someone used Eliade as a 'blueprint' for a new religious movement," which allowed me to explain how I understand that connection as a diffusion of his theories into popular culture, rather reflecting the "accuracy" of Eliadean theory per se, or as any kind of straight line transmission. I also met another Burner/Scholar from San Diego. And I even picked up another possible back-up publisher for my dissertation, should my first choice fall through (though conversations with relevant parties this weekend indicate that interest & support remains strong there).

Of the other sessions I saw, there were some interesting tidbits, but only one that really got me thinking deeply.--Ron Grimes' dancing, soaring, ducking, anti-theory of ritual theory. Theory as performance, as seeking connections, as inviting usage, as competition, as embodied, as an act of distancing, as perfromative (that is, not only "mean things" but "do things.") I do wish he would stop referring to his long toiled upon magnum opus as his tombstone. He of all people should know that speech can be performative. But it's also clear that he speaks thus in full irony.

I also caught a surprisingly compelling visual ethnography of Luther reenactment pageants in Wittenberg, and the way in which the idea and image of Martin Luther has become a commodity fetish and Wittenberg itself site of touristic pilgrimage, a paper on the declining practice of nudity in Mormon initiation rites and the ethics of ethnographic disclosure of such rites, a paper on the use of "the anxious bench" in early 19th century "camp meetings" as a site of agency in the formation of choice and conversion, a paper on mezuzahs which touched briefly upon, among other such artifacts, a Harry Potter themed mezuzah (who knew!), and Bron Taylor's paper on surfing as spirituality (though there was a lot missing there--and in the other papers in that session too, which all looked at various forms of "outdoor recreation" as spirituality--in terms of how and why such experiences become constructed as "spiritual." As prominent a figure as he is, this seemed more a review of the data than an in-depth analysis as he is presumably working on, though. He did, however, flatter me deeply by saying at the NRM reception that he'd heard of me and that I do good work, presumably by way of Sarah Pike).

On that note, Sarah appears to be grooming me for eventual leadership in the New Religious Movements group. She asked me to co-organize the "NRM methods meeting" this year, which went well considering I really had very little idea what to expect. This looks to be an ongoing role for at least another year or so.

Finally, alas, I was very sad to miss the inaugural session of the new Contemporary Pagan Studies consultation, but it conflicted with the one I was presenting in. Bummer. The pre-conference meeting on Contemporary Pagan Studies had some interesting moments--I especially liked Nikki Bado-Fralick's and Doug Cowan's performance of the scholar/practitioner question.

Alright, that's enough tinkering on this piece, I believe. I've toyed with a number of ways to describe what an odd, and variously frustrating yo-yo year it was for me personally, but best I think to continue my practice of keeping most such things on the other side of the screen in this space. If you know me, feel free to ask via some other medium.

A lovely dinner last night at chez onetruegrits et al, and today I shall write job application cover letters and perhaps even finish grading a big ole stack papers.

Tags: aar, pagan, ritual studies