A Guide to the Latter Days (of AHA): Remaining #AHA2015 Highlights

Michael Graziano

Since many of us are in New York attending the 2015 AHA Annual Meeting (or following along on Twitter from afar, like myself) I thought I would take a moment to preview some of the interesting panels still to come, and briefly review some of yesterday's highlights.




One of the most anticipated panels on Saturday was "Futures of the American Religious Past: A Conversation about Mark Noll’s America’s God and John Lardas Modern’s Secularism in Antebellum America." The panelists (Sonia Hazard, Alexandra Kaloyanides, Dana Logan, and Caleb Maskell) previewed the panel on the blog in October. The excitement has been building ever since:

While I wasn’t able to catch the discussion in person, there were several attendees who generously took the time to live-tweet the panel (side note: thanks!). I’ve collected what I could find in a Storify (available here) or below.

I hope the Storify will help continue the discussion, which is still going strong on social media:

I’m sure there will be more to come about this on the blog, as well.

While the conference may be half-over, there are still a number of promising panels featuring RiAH contributors and friends-of-the-blog. Listed below are panels that may be of interest to readers, including some from the American Catholic Historical Association and American Society of Church History (#ASCH2015) which meet alongside AHA. Also, for a panel preview that focuses on digital history/religion, check out Monica's recent post here.

If I’ve failed to include a relevant panel or event, please let me know in the comments. If you'll be in attendance, send out a tweet or two for the rest of us!

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Sunday

American Religion Online: How Digital Projects Can Change How We Teach, Research, and Interpret Religious History
Sunday, January 4, 2015: 9:00 AM-11:00 AM
New York Hilton, Harlem Suite

Chair: John Fea, Messiah College

Papers:
The American Converts Database: The Database as an Expression of Scholarship on Religious History
Erin Bartram, University of Connecticut

The Jesuit Libraries Provenance Project
Kyle B. Roberts, Loyola University Chicago

Placing Pluralism: Digital Scholarship, Public History, and the Mapping of Chicago’s Religious Diversity
Christopher Cantwell, University of Missouri-Kansas City

Comment: John Fea, Messiah College


Caribbean Catholicism: A Transatlantic Odyssey, 1955–75
American Catholic Historical Association 16
Sunday, January 4, 2015: 9:00 AM-11:00 AM
Madison Suite 4 (Sheraton New York, Fifth Floor)

Chair:
David Badillo, Lehman College, City University of New York

Papers:
“An Appropriate Spiritual Mission of the Bishops?” Francis Cardinal Spellman, Bishop James E. McManus, CSSR, and the Relationship of Church and State in the 1960 Puerto Rican Gubernatorial Election
Stephen M. Koeth, CSC, Columbia University

Redemptorists and Vatican II: A Study of the Vice-Province of San Juan, 1965–75
Patrick Hayes, Redemptorist Archives of the Baltimore Province, Brooklyn, New York

"La Conciencia del Gran Miami": Monsignor Bryan Walsh, Cold War Catholicism, and the Making of a Multiethnic City
Anita Casavantes Bradford, University of California, Irvine

Comment:
Lillian Guerra, University of Florida


Religion in Public Schools: Church History, Law, Education, and Ethics
Sunday, January 4, 2015: 11:30 AM-1:30 PM
New York Hilton, Hudson Suite

Chair: Candy Gunther Brown, Indiana University Bloomington

Papers:
That Olde Deluder Reconsidered: The Devil and the Dawn of American Public Education
Charles McCrary, Florida State University

One Hundred Years of the Good Book As Textbook in American Public Schools
Mark Chancey, Southern Methodist University

Narratives of Moral Decline and the Civil Religion of Moral Education
Leslie Ribovich, Princeton University

Comment: Sarah Gordon, University of Pennsylvania Law School


On the Discourses of Secularism and Pluralism
Sunday, January 4, 2015: 11:30 AM-1:30 PM
Sheraton New York, Liberty Suite 5
Co-Sponsor: American Historical Association

Chair: Tisa Wenger, Yale Divinity School

Topics:
Pluralism, Secularism, and Religious Freedom in the Southern Baptist Convention
Tisa Wenger, Yale Divinity School

Christianization, Colonialism, and the Secular
Pamela Klassen, University of Toronto

Religious Authenticity, Hegemony, and Agency
K. Healan Gaston, Harvard Divinity School

(Dis)establishments and the Paradoxes of American Judaism
Shari Rabin, Yale University

Comment: The Audience


An Aggiornamento of Twentieth-Century Italian American Catholic History
American Catholic Historical Association 19
Sunday, January 4, 2015: 11:30 AM-1:30 PM
Madison Suite 4 (Sheraton New York, Fifth Floor)

Chair:
Mary Elizabeth Brown, Marymount Manhattan College and Center for Migration Studies

Papers:
Catholic Political Thought, Modernity, and the Italian Constitution
Rosario Forlenza, Columbia University

The Great Earthquake: Catholics Face a Challenge
Salvatore La Gumina, Nassau Community College

Liberty and Identity: Faith and Art in the Italian American Colonies in the Years of Mass Migration
Marina Loffredo, School of Archival Studies and Paleography, State Archive of Rome

Comment:
Mary Elizabeth Brown, Marymount Manhattan College and Center for Migration Studies


The Challenge of the Margins: American Women Religious on the Frontier in the United States and Canada
American Catholic Historical Association 20
Sunday, January 4, 2015: 11:30 AM-1:30 PM
Madison Suite 5 (Sheraton New York, Fifth Floor)

Chair:
Stephanie A.T. Jacobe, independent scholar

Papers:
“Abandoned for His Love”: Marie de l’Incarnation and Narrative Identity
Mary Corley Dunn, Saint Louis University

Adele Brise: Belgian Catholic Pioneer, Visionary, and Priest
Karen Park, St. Norbert College

The Saint Frances Orphan Asylum: The Oblate Sisters of Providence Mission to Save Orphaned African American Girls
Amy Rosenkrans, Notre Dame of Maryland University

Comment:
Stephanie A.T. Jacobe, independent scholar


Studying American Religion, Politics, and Foreign Policy All at the Same Time: Where Do We Go from Here? 
Sunday, January 4, 2015: 2:30 PM-4:30 PM
New York Hilton, Hudson Suite

Chair: Andrew Preston, Clare College, University of Cambridge

Speaker(s):
Raymond Haberski, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis
Darryl Hart, Hillsdale College
Christine Leigh Heyrman, University of Delaware
Leo P. Ribuffo, George Washington University


American Evangelicals Looking Abroad
Sunday, January 4, 2015: 2:30 PM-4:30 PM
Sheraton New York, Liberty Suite 5

Co-Sponsor: American Historical Association

Chair: Elizabeth Flowers, Texas Christian University

Papers:
The Global Apocalypses of Billy Graham
Matthew Avery Sutton, Washington State University Pullman

Seeking to Save the World: American Evangelicals and Global Population Control
David King, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis

Remember the Palestinians: Progressive Evangelicals' Rejection of Christian Zionism and Criticism of American Foreign Policy, 1977–2013
Brantley Gasaway, Bucknell University

“Packed With Joyous People”: Christianity Today, American Foreign Policy, and Christians Abroad
Sarah Ruble, Gustavus Adolphus College

Comment: Seth Dowland, Pacific Lutheran University

The Refugee in Transnational Catholic Social Thought in the Twentieth Century
American Catholic Historical Association 22
Sunday, January 4, 2015: 2:30 PM-4:30 PM
Madison Suite 5 (Sheraton New York, Fifth Floor)

Chair:
James McCartin, Fordham University

Papers:
Family Unity, Child Refugees, and the American Catholic Bishops’ Response to the Wagner-Rogers Bill, 1939
Gráinne McEvoy, Boston College

Here Come the Cubans: The American Catholic Church and Their Cold War Refugee Resettlement Efforts, 1960–80
Todd Scribner, Catholic University of America

Migration, Solidarity, and the Italian Church’s Response to the 1991 Albanian Refugee Crisis
Elizabeth Venditto, University of Minnesota Twin Cities

Comment:
James McCartin, Fordham University

Monday

Protestants and Catholics in Colonial New England
Monday, January 5, 2015: 8:30 AM-10:30 AM
New York Hilton, Holland Suite

Chair: Laura Chmielewski, Purchase College (State University of New York)

Papers:
Contesting the City on a Hill: Puritans, Catholics, and the Visible Church
Abram Van Engen, Washington University in Saint Louis

Rumors of Popery: Massachusetts Bay and the Politics of Restoration Anti-Catholicism
Adrian Chastain Weimer, Providence College

Travel Observations, World Religions, and Anglo-American Protestant Approaches to Catholicism from the Seventeenth to the Eighteenth Century
Mark Valeri, Washington University in St. Louis

Comment: David Hall, Harvard University


Journeying into Evangelicalism: Twenty-Five Years of Traveling with Randall Balmer's Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory
Monday, January 5, 2015: 8:30 AM-10:30 AM
New York Hilton, Hudson Suite

Chair: Edward J. Blum, San Diego State University

Speakers:
Brantley Gasaway, Bucknell University
Mary Beth Mathews, University of Mary Washington
Anthony Petro, Boston University
Daniel Vaca, Brown University

Comment: Randall Balmer, Dartmouth College


Mapping Religious Space: Four American Cities from the Colonial Era to the Twentieth Century
Monday, January 5, 2015: 11:00 AM-1:00 PM
New York Hilton, Harlem Suite

Chair: Brett Carroll, California State University, Stanislaus

Papers:
Houses of Worship in the Twin Cities: Using Spatial Mapping to Gauge Interaction among Immigrant Religious Groups, 1849-1924
Jeanne Halgren Kilde, University of Minnesota Twin Cities

Social Networks in Colonial Philadelphia: Using GIS to Map Religious Ties onto Geographic Space
Marie Basile McDaniel, Southern Connecticut State University

Mapping Boston’s Religions from the Revolution to 1800
Lincoln Mullen, George Mason University

Harlem Is Heaven: Utopic Space in the Kingdom of Father Divine
Judith Weisenfeld, Princeton University

Comment: Christopher Cantwell, University of Missouri–Kansas City


Silences in Protestant Autobiography: Exploring Sickness, Sexuality, and Race in American Religion
Monday, January 5, 2015: 11:00 AM-1:00 PM
New York Hilton, Hudson Suite

Chair: Catherine A. Brekus, Harvard Divinity School

Papers:
Silence, Pain, and the Act of Writing in Eighteenth-Century American Sickness Narratives
Philippa Koch, University of Chicago

“The Subject Is Unusual and Requires Extreme Delicacy”: Sex, Time, and Silence in the Journal of an Early-National Preacher
Seth Perry, Princeton University

Sex and Silence in the League of Nations’ “Enquiry into the Traffic in Women and Children”
Eva Payne, Harvard University

Purposeful Silence: African American Intellectual Tradition in the Autobiography of Adam Clayton Powell Sr.
Vernon Mitchell, Princeton University

Comment: Catherine A. Brekus, Harvard Divinity School


Catholics and 1970s America
American Catholic Historical Association 25
Monday, January 5, 2015: 8:30 AM-10:30 AM
Madison Suite 4 (Sheraton New York, Fifth Floor)

Chair:
Raymond Haberski, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis

Papers:
Making a Responsible Autonomy: American Catholics and the Turn to Conscience, 1968–80
Peter Cajka, Boston College

The Pope Comes to Buildings on Fire: Pope John Paul II’s First Trip to the United States and 1970s America
Anthony Smith, University of Dayton

From Humanae Vitae to Three Mile Island: Catholic Technocrats and American Culture in the 1970s
Charles T. Strauss, Mount Saint Mary's University

Comment:
Raymond Haberski, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis


Twentieth-Century Religious Adaptation and Transformation: A Multidisciplinary Examination of Catholicism in the Global Context
American Catholic Historical Association 27
Monday, January 5, 2015: 11:00 AM-1:00 PM
Madison Suite 4 (Sheraton New York, Fifth Floor)

Chair:
Michael Geyer, University of Chicago

Papers:
The Sorrowful Mother Stood Weeping: Catholic Women and Total War in Central Europe, 1914–62
Patrick J. Houlihan, University of Chicago

Religious Difference and “The Human Spirit”: French Catholic Orientalism after Secularism
Brenna Moore, Fordham University

Francis I, Evangelical Catholicism, and the Global Struggle over Sexual Ethics
Kimba Tichenor, Kalamazoo College

Comment:
Michael Geyer, University of Chicago


American Catholic Social Action from the Progressive Era to the New Deal
American Catholic Historical Association 28
Monday, January 5, 2015: 11:00 AM-1:00 PM
Madison Suite 5 (Sheraton New York, Fifth Floor)

Chair:
Thomas F. Rzeznik, Seton Hall University

Papers:
Mystical Body Theology Crosses the Atlantic: The Case of Virgil Michel, OSB
Timothy Gabrielli, Seton Hill University

Restoring All Things in Christ: Catholic Social Activity in the Progressive Era
Michael Lombardo, Anna Maria College

Public Opinion from the Pulpit: Catholic and Protestant Responses to FDR’s 1935 “Letter to the Nation’s Clergy”
Julie Yarwood, Catholic University of America

Comment:
Thomas F. Rzeznik, Seton Hall University


The Irish in Diaspora: Rebuilding Families, Faith, and Identity
American Catholic Historical Association 29
Monday, January 5, 2015: 11:00 AM-1:00 PM
Madison Suite 6 (Sheraton New York, Fifth Floor)

Chair:
Gráinne McEvoy, Boston College

Papers:
“Everything Depends on the First Year”: Archbishop Hughes and His Thousand-Dollar Cathedral Donors
Kate Feighery, Archdiocese of New York Archives

Lowly Laborers: Labor on Colonial Monserrat at the Culture Construction of Identity
Nicole Jacoberger, St. John's University

Comment:
The Audience


Science and Religion across Time, Space, and Disciplinary Borders
AHA Session 263
Monday, January 5, 2015: 8:30 AM-10:30 AM
Riverside Suite (Sheraton New York, Third Floor)

Chair:
Ronald L. Numbers, University of Wisconsin–Madison

Topics:
Magic (Wu), Medicine (Yi), Religion (Jiao), and the Scope of Rationality (Li) in Imperial China
TJ Hinrichs, Cornell University

A Quest for Authenticity: Science and Religion in the Medieval and Modern Middle East
Ahmed Ragab, Harvard University

Modernity’s Enchantments: Science and Religion in Japan and Western Europe
Jason Ānanda Josephson, Williams College

Historicizing the Here and Now: Science and Religion in Modern America
Andrew Jewett, Harvard University

Comment:
Ronald L. Numbers, University of Wisconsin–Madison


Twentieth-Century Religious Adaptation and Transformation: A Multidisciplinary Examination of Catholicism in the Global Context
American Catholic Historical Association 27
Monday, January 5, 2015: 11:00 AM-1:00 PM
Madison Suite 4 (Sheraton New York, Fifth Floor)

Chair:
Michael Geyer, University of Chicago

Papers:
The Sorrowful Mother Stood Weeping: Catholic Women and Total War in Central Europe, 1914–62
Patrick J. Houlihan, University of Chicago

Religious Difference and “The Human Spirit”: French Catholic Orientalism after Secularism
Brenna Moore, Fordham University

Francis I, Evangelical Catholicism, and the Global Struggle over Sexual Ethics
Kimba Tichenor, Kalamazoo College

Comment:
Michael Geyer, University of Chicago


Sixty Years of Religious Decline? An Interdisciplinary Conversation
American Society of Church History 31
Monday, January 5, 2015: 11:00 AM-1:00 PM
Holland Suite (New York Hilton, Fourth Floor)

Chair:
J. Tobin Grant, Southern Illinois University Carbondale

Panel:
Joseph Blankholm, Columbia University
Michael Clawson, Baylor University
Elesha Coffman, University of Dubuque Theological Seminary
Matthew Phillips, Wake Forest University
Benjamin Zeller, Lake Forest College

* Image from Wikimedia.