2024 NetVUE Regional Gathering – Preceding the AAR/SBL Annual Meeting

Nonviolence and/as Vocation

NetVUE hosted an AAR/SBL pre-conference meeting on the theme of “Nonviolence and/as Vocation.” Aligning with the 2024 AAR theme (“Violence, Nonviolence, and the Margins”) and building on previous NetVUE pre-conference meetings, this event considered how we, as educators in the field of religious studies and theology, might confront the issues surrounding violence in our world, with particular attention to helping our students see nonviolence as a vocation. The gathering took place from Thursday, November 21, at 2:00 p.m. through Friday, November 22 at noon. The cost for those from member institutions was only $25, which includes a Thursday evening reception and dinner, as well as a light breakfast on Friday. Interested parties from non-NetVUE institutions may participate as well, at a slightly higher cost.

Description of the Gathering

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This NetVUE gathering provided an opportunity for teachers and scholars in the field of religious studies to explore the ways that their classroom teaching and their research agendas can become sites for thinking through critical issues relating to violence and nonviolence. As our students explore and discern their own vocations, what are our responsibilities for helping them do so in ways that step away from an easy reliance on violence (broadly defined)? As participants discussed last year in our gathering on “Vocation and/as the Work of Our Hands,” our work in theology, scripture, and religious studies is certainly focused on the life of the mind, and sometimes of the soul; but it also affects, and is affected by, our bodily presence in the world. Taking a cue from this year’s AAR theme “Violence, Nonviolence, and the Margins,” participants considered the degree to which scholars of religious studies and theology can help students pursue their efforts at vocational exploration and discernment in dialogue with commitments to nonviolence. This pre-conference gathering addressed questions such as these: 

• How might the undergraduate classroom become a space where students can engage in discussions of violence and nonviolence that will help them think carefully about how their own callings will intersect with these issues?
  
• How could we—as scholars of religious studies, scripture, and theology—shape our research agendas in ways that might address issues of violence and nonviolence?

• What resources (readings, discussion topics, and pedagogical approaches) are available to scholars who want to address these issues in the classroom?
  
• How are these questions shaped by the texts and traditions that drive our academic engagements?

This gathering was of interest to those who teach courses or carry out research in religious studies, theology, scripture, ethics, and related fields–as well as to those who carry out advising and mentoring duties with undergraduate students.

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Meals, Accommodation, and Transportation

Registered participants were invited to a Thursday afternoon reception (complimentary snacks, hors d’oeuvres, and bar), as well as dinner at a local restaurant. A light breakfast was available on Friday morning. The cost of these meals was included in the $25 registration fee. Many participants continued the discussion over lunch on Friday as well.

Members of AAR or SBL who are registered for the Annual Meeting can obtain discounted lodging through the organization of which they are a member. Information concerning area hotels, as well as airport transfer and parking information, is available on the SBL website or  the AAR website. Limited assistance for one extra night of lodging, or for travel, is available to those registered for the pre-conference gathering whose institutions are unable to cover this cost; if you are in need of this assistance, please write to David Cunningham, executive director of NetVUE, at [email protected], with details of your circumstances.

Other Optional Sessions

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Saturday, November 23 · 5:30-7:30 p.m. | Grand Hyatt San Diego, Vista ABC (32nd floor)

NetVUE Reception for Members and Friends

Hosted by David S. Cunningham, Executive Director of NetVUE, and Lynne Spoelhof, Director of NetVUE Operations

NetVUE also hosted a reception during the AAR/SBL Annual Meeting. All SBL and AAR participants were invited to stop by this reception, whether or not their institutions are members of the network, and whether or not they are able to participate in the pre-meeting gathering. Attendees learned more about NetVUE (including faculty development and grant opportunities), connected with friends and colleagues with similar interests, and enjoyed one another’s company.

Saturday, November 23, 1:00-300 p.m. | San Diego Marriott Marquis, Temecula 3 (North Tower – First Floor)

SBL Session: The (Scripture) Scholar’s Vocation: Max Weber and Wendy Brown in these “Nihilistic Times”

As an affiliate member of SBL, NetVUE was able to host a session within the SBL meeting itself. This year’s session examines the work of Max Weber, whose 1917 lecture Wissenschaft as Beruf (“The Scholar’s Work”) was explored in Wendy Brown’s recently published Tanner Lectures, Nihilistic Times: Thinking with Max Weber (Harvard, Belknap, 2023). A panel of four theologians with a strong interest in scripture considered the implications of Weber’s work (and Brown’s response to it) for the teaching and research agendas of those who regularly work with scriptures and traditions as source materials. The panel gave particular attention to Weber’s call for “value-free” teaching and to Brown’s critique.

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