Members of the Union community will be at the Boston Marriott Copley Place in Boston, MA on November 23, 2025 for the 2025 Annual Meetings hosted by the Society of Biblical Literature (SBL) and the American Academy of Religion (AAR). This annual meeting is the world’s largest gathering of scholars interested in the study of religion.
During the Annual Meeting, Union will host a reception for friends and alumni from Union Theological Seminary.
On Sunday, November 25, at 8:00 pm ET at Union’s Reception at the AAR and SBL Annual Meeting at Boston Marriott Copley Place (Third Floor Atrium Lounge). Event will require registration.
Below is a list of Union faculty, students, staff, and alumni who will participate at the Annual Meeting.
*Alumni of Union Theological Seminary
Society of Biblical Literature
Biblical Exegesis from Eastern Orthodox Perspectives Section and AAR Middle Eastern Christianity Unit
Sat 11/22 | 9:00 AM – 11:30 AM | Hynes Convention Center – 110 (Plaza Level)
Theme: Christian Freedom in the Contemporary Middle East
Presenting: Tony Amoury Alkhoury, Union Theological Seminary • Discernment as a Way of Life: Reclaiming the Church’s Identity in the Syrian Context
Poverty in the Biblical World Section
Sat 11/22 | 9:00 AM – 11:30 AM | Hynes Convention Center – 109 (Plaza Level)
Theme: Special Panel Session with Dr. Richard Horsley
Panelist: Brigitte Kahl, Union Theological Seminary
Contextual Biblical Interpretation Section
Sat 11/22 | 11:18 AM – 1:33 PM | Marriot Copley Place – Exeter (Third Floor)
Theme: Global Readings for Liberation
Presenting: Adulin Prophete, Union Theological Seminary • The Spirit of Liberation: A Comparative Study of the Role of the Spirit in Jesus’s Baptism and Haitian Vodou in Confronting Oppression and Empowering Healing (15 min)
SBL’s Asian and Asian-American Hermeneutics Seminar, Bible in America Section, John’s Apocalypse and Cultural Contexts Ancient and Modern Section, Latino/a/e and Latin American Biblical Interpretation Section, and AAR’s Religion and Migration Unit
Sat 11/22 | 1:00 PM – 3:30 PM | Hynes Convention Center – 210 (Second Level)
Theme: Panel Review of Yii-Jan Lin’s Immigration and Apocalypse (Oxford: 2024)
Presiding: Jacqueline Hidalgo, University of San Diego*
SBL Annual Business Meeting
Sun 11/23 | 7:30 AM–8:30 AM | Hynes Convention Center – 200 (Second Level)
Presiding: Steed Davidson, (SBL)*
The Bible and Animal Studies Section
Sun 11/23 | 1:00 PM – 1:20 PM | Marriott Copley Place – Massachusetts (Fifth Floor)
Theme: Animals in the Hebrew Bible
Presenting: David Carr, Union Theological Seminary • “Animal” Means of Contingent Ethical Status and thus Exploitable/Expendable: Genesis 1 and the Power Basis of the Human-Animal Binary (20 min)
Union Theological Seminary Alumni & Friends Reception:
Sun 11/23 | 8:00 PM – 10:00 PM | Third Floor Atrium Lounge – Marriott Copley Place
Theme: Union Theological Seminary Alumni & Friends Reception
Children in the Biblical World Section
Mon 11/24 | 9:00 AM – 11:30 AM | Hynes Convention Center – 107 (Plaza Level)
Theme: God’s Stories as Told by God’s Children: Making Biblical Scholarship Accessible for Kids
Presiding: Julie Faith Parker, Union Theological Seminary
Pauline Theology Section
Mon 11/24 | 9:00 AM – 11:30 AM | Hynes Convention Center – 311 (Third Level)
Theme: The Apostle Paul and Freedom: Freedom in Romans
Presenting: Doerte Mohme, Union Theological Seminary • Freedom and Slavery in Rom 6: Collective and Geopolitical Flashlights (20 min)
Children in the Biblical World Section
Mon 11/24 | 9:00 AM – 11:30 AM | Hynes Convention Center – 107 (Plaza Level)
Theme: God’s Stories as Told by God’s Children: Making Biblical Scholarship Accessible for Kids
Panelist: Steed Davidson, (SBL)*
Academic Teaching and Biblical Studies Section
Mon 11/24 | 1:00 PM – 3:30 PM | Sheraton – Back Bay C (Second Floor)
Theme: Using Biblical Teaching Strategies
Presenting: Kay Apigo, Bexley Seabury Seminary* • Let Them Fight: Staging a Dialogue between Biblical Voices on the Topic of Suffering
Utopian Studies Section
Mon 11/24 | 1:00 PM – 3:30 PM | Marriott Copley Place – Harvard (Third Floor)
Theme: Utopian Hierarchies, Boundaries, and Spaces
Responding: Jacqueline Hidalgo, University of San Diego*
Social History of Formative Christianity and Judaism Section
Mon 11/24 | 4:00 PM – 6:30 PM | Hynes Convention Center – 301 (Third Level)
Theme: Enslavement and the Social History of Texts
Panelist: Margaret Aymer, Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary*
American Academy of Religion
Eastern Orthodox Studies Unit, Middle Eastern Christianity Unit, and SBL’s Biblical Exegesis from Eastern Orthodox Perspectives
Sat 11/22 | 9:00 AM – 11:00 AM | Hynes Convention Center, 100 (Plaza Level)
Theme:Christian Freedom in the Contemporary Middle East
Presenting: Tony Amoury Alkhoury, Union Theological Seminary • Discernment as a Way of Life: Reclaiming the Church’s Identity in the Syrian Context
Black Theology Unit and Class, Labor, and Religion Unit
Sat 11/22 | 9:00 AM – 11:00 AM | Provincetown (Fourth Floor) – Marriot Copley Place
Theme: Review on Black Theology and The Black Panthers
Presiding: Cornel West, Union Theological Seminary
Liberation Theologies Unit
Sat 11/22 | 9:00 AM – 11:00 AM | Berkeley (Third Floor) – Marriot Copley Place
Theme: Liberating Freedoms
Presiding: Nixon Cleophat, Union Theological Seminary*
Womanist Approaches to Religion and Society Unit
Sat 11/22 | 9:00 AM – 11:00 AM | Hynes Convention Center, 207 (Second Level)
Theme: Author Meets Respondents Session on Immaculate Misconceptions: A Black Mariology with Amey Victoria Adkins-Jone
Panelist: Kelly Brown Douglas, Episcopal Divinity School at Union Theological Seminary*
Christian Systematic Theology Unit
Sat 11/22 | 12:30 PM – 2:30 PM | Hynes Convention Center, Ballroom C (Third Level)
Theme: Creaturely Freedom: Human and Non-Human
Presiding: Andrea C. White, Union Theological Seminary
SBL’s Asian and Asian-American Hermeneutics Seminar, Bible in America Section, John’s Apocalypse and Cultural Contexts Ancient and Modern Section, Latino/a/e and Latin American Biblical Interpretation Section, and AAR’s Religion and Migration Unit
Sat 11/22 | 1:00 PM – 3:30 PM | Hynes Convention Center, 210 (Second Level)
Theme: Panel Review of Yii-Jan Lin’s Immigration and Apocalypse (Oxford: 2024)
Presiding: Jacqueline Hidalgo, Williams College*
Ecclesial Practices Unit and Latina/o Religion, Culture, and Society Unit
Sat 11/22 | 12:30 PM – 2:30 PM | Sheraton, The Fens (Fifth Floor)
Theme: La Herida Abierta and Freedom: Trauma, Memory and Crossing Boundaries
Panelist: Teresa Delgado, St. John’s University*
Christian Systematic Theology Unit
Sun 11/23 | 9:00 AM – 11:00 AM | Hynes Convention Center, Ballroom C (Third Level)
Theme: Book Panel: Natalie Carnes, Attunement: The Art and Politics of Feminist Theology
Panelist: Andrea C. White, Union Theological Seminary
Psychology, Culture, and Religion Unit
Sun 11/23 | 9:00 AM – 11:00 AM | Sheraton, Gardner (Third Floor)
Theme: 23 Years After Spotlight: Trust, Justice, and Healing for the Life of the Christian Church
Responding: Lisa M. Cataldo, Fordham University*
Religion and Cities Unit
Sun 11/23 | 12:30 PM – 2:30 PM | Marriot Copley Place, Provincetown (Fourth Floor)
Theme: Harvard and the Hood: Religious Scholars and Community Practitioners
Presenting: Spencer Williams, Union Theological Seminary • City as Congregation: Moving Beyond a Community of Proximity Towards a Community of Practice
Native Traditions in the Americas Unit
Sun 11/23 | 12:30 PM – 2:30 PM | Sheraton, Back Bay B (Second Floor)
Theme: Survivance and the Sacred: Native Traditions in Colonial Binds
Presenting: Octavio Carrasco, Independent Scholar* • The Ghost Dance: Ritual, Resistance, and a New Religion
Religion and Ecology Unit
Sun 11/23 | 12:30 PM – 2:30 PM | Marriott Copley Place, Boylston (First Floor)
Theme: Reconceiving Freedoms: Roundtable on “Building a Moral Economy: Pathways for People of Courage” Books 1 & 2
Responding: Melanie Harris, Wake Forest Divinity School*
Class, Labor, and Religion Unit and Evangelical Studies Unit
Sun 11/23 | 3:00 PM – 4:30 PM | Sheraton, The Fens (Fifth Floor)
Theme: Evangelicals and Labor
Panelist: Ken Estey, Brooklyn College*
Interreligious and Interfaith Studies Unit
Sun 11/23 | 3:00 PM – 4:30 PM | Hynes Convention Center, 312 (Third Level)
Theme: Interactive Workshop
Presiding: Jeannine Hill Fletcher, Fordham University*
Institute for American Religious and Philosophical Thought
Sun 11/23 | 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM | Westin Copley Place, Empire (Seventh Floor)
Theme: American Journal of Theology and Philosophy Lecture
Lecturing: Monica Coleman, University of Delaware*
Union Theological Seminary Alumni & Friends Receptions
Sun 11/23 | 8:00 PM – 10:00 PM | Third Floor Atrium Lounge – Marriot Copley Place
Theme: Union Theological Seminary Alumni & Friends Receptions
Presiding: Serene Jones, Union Theological Seminary
Presiding: Su Yon Pak, Union Theological Seminary
Black Theology Unit
Mon 11/24 | 9:00 AM – 11:00 AM | Sheraton, Olmsted (Fifth Floor)
Theme: Black Queer Pathways in Black Theology
Presiding: Nixon Cleophat, Union Theological Seminary*
Responding: Kelly Brown Douglas, Episcopal Divinity School at Union Theological Seminary*
Religion and Sexuality Unit
Mon 11/24 | 9:00 AM – 11:00 AM | Marriott Copley Place, Boylston (First Floor)
Theme: Panel Discussion of Danielle Tumminio Hansen’s Speaking of Rape: The Limits of Language in Sexual Violations
Panelists: Monica Coleman, University of Delaware*
Black Theology Unit
Mon 11/24 | 9:00 AM – 11:00 AM | Sheraton, Olmsted (Fifth Floor)
Theme: Black Queer Pathways in Black Theology
Responding: Kelly Brown Douglas, Episcopal Divinity School at Union Theological Seminary*
Religion and Ecology Unit
Mon 11/24 | 12:30 PM – 2:30 PM | Hynes Convention Center, 310 (Third Level)
Theme: Doctrine of Discovery and Environmental Devastation
Panelist: Karenna Gore, Center for Earth Ethics and/or Union Theological Seminary
Christian Systematic Theology Unit
Mon 11/24 | 12:30 PM – 2:30 PM | Hynes Convention Center, Ballroom C (Third Level)
Theme: The Difference Resurrection Makes
Panelist: Kelly Brown Douglas, Episcopal Divinity School at Union Theological Seminary*
Black Theology Unit, Karl Barth Society of North America, and Womanist Approaches to Religion and Society Unit
Mon 11/24 | 3:00 PM – 4:30 PM | Hynes Convention Center, 108 (Plaza Level)
Theme:The Politics of Redemption: A Conversation with M. Shawn Copeland
Responding: Andrea C. White, Union Theological Seminary
Interreligious and Interfaith Studies Unit
Mon 11/24 | 3:00 PM – 4:30 PM | Marriot Copley Place, Simmons (Third Floor)
Theme: Weaponization of Religious Freedom
Presenting: Rachel Nireso-Paralkar, Union Theological Seminary • Bruja, Christian, or Other? Politics of Categorizing “Brujería” alongside Mexican Spiritual Practices
Religion and Human Rights Unit
Mon 11/24 | 3:00 PM – 4:30 PM | Marriot Copley Place, Simmons (Third Floor)
Theme: Panel discussion of Slavica Jakelić, ‘Pluralizing Humanism: Religions and Secularisms Beyond Power’
Panelist: Sarah Azaransky, Union Theological Seminary
Constructive Muslim Thought and Engaged Scholarship Seminar
Mon 11/24 | 5:00 PM – 6:30 PM | Sheraton, Republic A (Second Floor)
Theme: The Shape of Our Engaged Endeavors
Responding: Jerusha Rhodes, Union Theological Seminary