APARRI 2011

Greetings APARRI folks!

The Managing Board at APARRI has decided to cancel the APARRI 2011 conference.

For those who have not heard the news, Frank Yamada, one of the co-chairs of the Managing Board, and the current Director of the Center for Asian American Ministries at McCormick Theological Seminary has been called to be the tenth president of McCormick. He will become the first Asian American president to serve a Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) seminary. He will be concluding his directorship on June 30, 2011. His presidency begins effective July 1, 2011. Because, there is no plan, as yet, to replace the Director of CAAM, the APARRI Managing Board decided in a vote last week to cancel the conference. Without someone working full-time at McCormick to manage the staff for APARRI 2011, the conference would have been extremely difficult to pull off logistically.

The Managing Board will be meeting in August to work on how we will re-envision the conference and the APARRI network in new and productive formats. This strategic planning was part of the MB’s original plan, which began a couple of years ago. We will be in touch with you as we re-think how to facilitate our work together. We have a lively network of creative and forward thinking scholars. We are excited about the new directions that APARRI will take in coming years.

Please pass this news on to your networks and AA list serves. If you have any questions or complications resulting from the cancellation of APARRI 2011, please contact us at this email or call 773-947-6331.

All best wishes,

The APARRI Managing Board

Updates will be posted at www.aparri.wordpress.com

Congratulations to those presenting papers at APARRI 2010.

Read the abstracts.

Download Call for Papers PDF

APARRI 2010 Conference: Bridging Yesterday and Tomorrow: Memory and Generational Change in Pacific and Asian North America

August 5–7, 2010 | McCormick Theological Seminary, Chicago, IL

We encourage work in multiple and diverse religious contexts.
View Presentation & Panel details.

Submission Deadline: Monday, June 28, 2010.
Submit proposals via email: Joe Cheah,  jpcheah @  aol.com

As we begin the second decade of the 21^st century, this year’s conference theme calls for a look back and a forward vision to see the connections between generations. For many people, memory and generation modifies or recreates religious identity. We can see these dynamics in the processes accompanying immigration, but we can also see them when people pass their faith on to future generations or develop a new religious identity themselves. How the dynamics of memory and generational change occur for APA communities depends on the particular ways each group and generation negotiates life in the U.S. Whether APA communities can point to five generations in North America, or are recently arrived, religion and how it sustains and transforms Asian Pacific America is the focus of our 2010 APARRI meeting.  This year’s theme calls for analyses of the experiences across generations, inviting participants to pursue nontraditional fields of study and other topics needing research and investigation. Stepping across theoretical and disciplinary boundaries is encouraged.

Entitled “Bridging Yesterday and Tomorrow: Memory and Generational Change in Religious Pacific and Asian North America” the 2010 conference will be held August 5-7 on the campus of McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago, IL. Plenaries feature a discussion on memory, the role of personal faith in academia, and an intergenerational panel.  Plenary Speakers include Anju Bhargava (Member of President Obama’s Council on Faith Based and Neighborhood Partnerships), Bandana Purkayastha (Associate Professor of Sociology, University of Connecticut), Peter Cha (Associate Professor of Pastoral Theology, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School), Soong-Chan Rah (Milton B. Engebretson Associate Professor of Church Growth and Evangelism, North Park Theological Seminary), Roy Sano (Bishop, the United Methodist Church), and Mai-Anh Tran (Assistant Professor of Christian Education, Eden Theological Seminary). Concurrent sessions will showcase research-in-progress, and structured mentoring sessions will be available for students and junior faculty members.

The APARRI conference began among a group of doctoral students and early career scholars of religion and theology, who desired to support and engage each other’s scholarship in an interdisciplinary fashion.  Allotted concurrent sessions are designed to continue this cross-disciplinary engagement.  Presenters are encouraged to share their research and works-in-progress with other APARRI participants by organizing panels, presenting papers on their research, and/or by structuring small group dialogue sessions on an important topic of inquiry in the study of Asian North American and Pacific Island religions. Selected papers/sessions will be scheduled during our concurrent session times.

Some concurrent session time will also be designated for papers/panels that have come from managing board invitations.

APARRI is a community advancing the interdisciplinary study of Asian Pacific Americans and their religions. Through conferences, mentoring, and collaboration, APARRI promotes the professional development of scholars and the distinctive field of Asian Pacific American religious studies.