We at Current are thrilled that one of our contributing editors, Wheaton College’s Timothy Larsen, is President-Elect of the American Society of Church History. As part of his responsibilities, Tim is the conference co-chair for the 2025 meeting of the society. Here is the call for papers:
CALL FOR PAPERS
ASCH 2025: “Legends”
American Society of Church History Annual Meeting
January 3-6, 2025 || Chicago, Illinois, USA
Program Chair: Timothy Larsen, Wheaton College, Wheaton, IL
The theme for the American Society of Church History’s 2025 annual meeting is Legends. This is deliberately a theme with layers of meaning.
- On the literal level “legends” can be about, for instance, aspects of early church or medieval lives of saints that have sometimes been deemed legendary; or modern analogs such as the Angels of Mons in World War I; or Christians grappling with the question of whether passages in the Gospels are legendary.
- Allegorically, the “legends” theme extends to all historians wondering about the reliability of their primary sources. The suspicion, for example, that oral history interviews have been shaped by subsequent perspectives – or the question of how to handle supernatural accounts in modern contexts. It can also mean any rethinking of the current viewpoint or revisionist work – New Perspectives on Montanism, or Aimee Semple McPherson, etc.
- Finally, “legends” is a nod to one of Chicago’s most celebrated nightclubs, Buddy Guy’s Legends – just a three-minute walk from The Blackstone, our conference hotel! In the same way that Buddy Guy’s Legends hosts legendary Blues musicians, the 2025 ASCH will host some legendary historians of Christianity. Indeed, Carlos Eire and Mark A. Noll have already agreed to come and speak to us, and, in the lead-up to the conference, more legendary speakers will be announced. As you construct proposals for panels or roundtables, perhaps you might consider inviting a “legendary” historian to offer a paper with which other papers interact. Or, perhaps you could organize a roundtable on a “legendary” book or even a “legendary” scholar’s entire body of work – inviting them to participate in the conversation. Chicago Blues musicians have a wonderful way of mutually encouraging and honoring one another across the generations. In this spirit, it would be particularly welcome to see panels or roundtables including a senior scholar and a graduate student, post-doc, or contingent faculty member on them.
- The “Legends” theme is meant to inspire rather than unduly restrict. The above prompts are suggestions offered to stir creativity and delight as we develop our 2025 ASCH Annual Meeting. As always, quite apart from the theme, any solid panel or roundtable proposals are welcome. Organizers do not need to strain their proposals to fit the theme.
Proposal Categories–Proposals from the following periods and categories are particularly welcomed:
- Early Christianity and Patristics
- Medieval and Byzantine Period
- Reformation and Early Modern
- American: Colonial to 21st century, including Native American, African American, Latinx, and Asian American religious histories
- Modern and Contemporary Period
- World Christianity
- Religious / Godless Chicago
It is our desire to have as many people on the program as possible. Therefore, any one scholar should not be on the program more than three times. Those making proposals are highly encouraged to use the slots for chairs and respondents as an opportunity to include more scholars on the program. You should aim to recruit a chair rather than having a presenter also serve as chair. If the same person shows up in multiple proposals, it will work against those proposals being accepted.
Types of Proposals: We solicit four types of proposals for presentation: regular panels, roundtables, professional/experimental panels, and individual papers. We strongly encourage panels and roundtables for full consideration.
- Regular Panel: Structured presentations from three scholars of original research papers. These papers must be no more than twenty minutes each. Moderated by a chairperson, these presentations are often commented upon by a respondent, after which there is a conversation with the audience.
- Roundtables: Short presentations on a topic, question, theme, career / legendary historian of Christianity, or book significant to the discipline of the history of Christianity. Roundtables are limited to five participants, including the chairperson. The aim of the roundtable is a discussion among the participants, who may present short papers (~five minutes each) to frame their further contributions. The roundtable format should reserve a substantial amount of time for interaction with the audience at the end of the formal discussion.
- Professional Development: This category is for professional development or experimental approaches to research, teaching, public scholarship, and career pathways. Please include a full description of the content of the session and its potential benefits for Society members. Issues facing contingent faculty members or graduate students are also welcome in this category.
- Individual Paper: While the Program Committee strongly prefers regular panel and roundtable proposals, one can also propose an individual paper. If accepted, an individual paper will be placed into a panel—usually constructed from multiple individual paper submissions—by the Program Committee.
For individual papers only (not for those proposing panels): papers should align well with the theme Legends or Religious Chicago or fields of the history of Christianity that need strengthening in the ASCH such as Early Church, Medieval, and World Christianity are preferred.
Deadlines for Proposals: March 31, 2024 Panels and individual proposals should be submitted via the ASCH online submission form, including all the relevant information requested. The Program Committee will do its best to announce the results of all submissions by early summer 2024.
Proposal Submission Guidelines:
Panel Submissions
Proposals for regular panels begin with the panel submission form. You will be prompted for a panel title, panel description (up to 300 words), a mini-abstract (up to 50 words; to be included in the conference program if accepted), email addresses for all participants (inviting them to submit abstracts for their papers), and names for the panel chair, respondent and all panelists. Once submitted, you will have the opportunity to either attach submissions already in the system or invite users to attach their papers. Please note: after a panel proposal has been submitted, all participants (but not chairs or respondents) will need to submit abstracts for their papers using the invitation to submit a standard submission form.
Roundtable Submissions
A roundtable is a panel that either contains short papers or no papers, both of which begin with the panel submission form. For roundtables that contain no papers, rather than inviting participants to upload papers, you will simply add the names, affiliations, and email addresses for roundtable participants in the appropriate text box.
In addition, you will be prompted for a roundtable title, one or two sentences on how each presenter will contribute to the roundtable, a mini-abstract (up to 50 words; to be included in the conference program if accepted), and the information for a Chair and Respondent. If no Respondent is required, simply list the name of the Chair twice.
Individual Paper Submissions
Proposals for a paper (either as part of a panel or as an individual submission) will use the standard submission form, on which you will only enter the name of the author. Submitters will be required to enter basic information about their proposal, including title, an abstract of their presentation (up to 300 words), a mini-abstract (up to 50 words; to be included in the conference program if accepted), and information about the author.
Note
If involving multiple presenters, all proposals must specify how their panel demonstrates diversity (gender, ethnicity, rank, scholarly location, etc.) in their composition. Again, the theme Legends especially encourages panels that span all career stages from graduate students to senior scholars. Sessions are typically 90 minutes in length and allow for three papers (or occasionally four shorter papers), a formal response, and audience interaction. The committee reserves the right to reconfigure sessions as needed.
Membership and Registration Requirements
All session participants, including session chairs and respondents, (with the exception of participants living and working outside the United States) must hold a 2025 ASCH membership by November 15, 2024 in order to remain on the program.
All session participants, including session chairs and respondents, must also register for the 2025 Annual Meeting by November 15, 2024 in order to remain on the program.
A/V Support
Panels or papers requiring video or audio projection should provide a clear rationale for doing so, as the expense involved is considerable. While we will make every effort to accommodate requests, the Program Committee cannot guarantee that A/V support will be available for every presentation.
Additional Questions
If you have any questions related to the Call For Papers or the conference program, please email the Program Committee at asch2025@churchhistory.org.
Thanks, John!