networking – Feminism and Religion

Kecia Ali Bio pic office Ten thousand people descend on San Diego this weekend for the American Academy of Religion and Society of Biblical Literature joint Annual Meeting. We will present papers, interview and be interviewed, shop for books, and network busily. Many will feel overwhelmed, lost, and/or hungry – convention center food somehow always manages to be lousy and expensive.

I have attended nearly every AAR Annual Meeting since 1999. I have presented papers, spoken on panels, responded to sessions, led tables at pre-conference workshops, and presided at business meetings. I have served on program unit steering committees and chaired a Section. I have gone to editorial board breakfasts and AAR committee meetings. I have had coffee with editors with whom I’ve gone on to publish books. I have served as a mentor at the Women’s Mentoring Lunch. Though I never used the Employment Center as a job candidate, I have put in cubicle time as part of two search committees.

In other words, I know something about the Annual Meeting. Continue reading “So You’re Going to the AAR/SBL Annual Meeting by Kecia Ali”

A few months ago I sat down to eat with Dr. Kwok Pui Lan. We were meeting because I had voiced some personal struggles during our class, and she offered to have a meal with me.

I was nervous, mesmerized by her accessibility – by her – for all the many things she has accomplished.

Over plates of chicken and rice, we sat, chewing. Professor and student. She smiled, and waited for me to start speaking. I told her in spurts that I was struggling through my semester at seminary and didn’t know what gave me hope anymore. I didn’t know why I was doing this. I asked what gave her hope.

“Well,” she said, “thirty years ago, there was no such thing as Asian feminist theology. My friends and I got together, and we started it.” She said, between bites of chicken. “You just started it?” “Yes,” she replied. She and her friends sat around, over glasses of wine, and talked.

And those nights of friendship became a global conversation.

Continue reading “When Networking Feels Like My Soul is Dying by Melody Stanford”