NATURE PHILOSOPHY MUSIC HISTORY FEMINISM
& sometimes puny puns
Jennifer Rycenga's Website
for various and sundry idiosyncrasies, observations, research projects & more
"Of what a strange nature is knowledge! It clings to the mind when it has once seized on it like a lichen on the rock." - Mary Shelly, Frankenstein, ch. XIII

Music and Religion
The American Academy of Religion (AAR) is the leading body for scholars in the academic study of religion. For five years I was co-chair of the relatively young Music and Religion Group. This is the history of presentations to date, as included in our recent successful report to the AAR Program committee.
Music and Religion:
Sessions since Inception
2021 - San Antonio and online - Two sessions, both live, Music and Religion Unit
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1. "Music and Social Movements for Change" - Music and Religion Unit
a) Marilyn Batchelder, Claremont Graduate School, "The Uncovering of Black Pain through Marvin Gaye's "What's Going On""
(other participants had to cancel due to COVID-related family emergencies)
b) Jennifer Rycenga, presiding, Business Meeting
c) Alisha Lola Jones, presiding, Business Meeting
​
2. "Perspectives on Music and Mysticism" - Music and Religion Unit
a) Benjamin Griffin, Oblate School of Theology, Presiding
b) Molly Boot, University of Oxford, "Fleshing the Celestial: Music, Communion and Sacramentality from Hildegard to Helfta"
c) Ralph Craig, Stanford University, "Some Will Hear: Tina Turner as Lay Buddhist Teacher"
d) Nicholas Collins, Rice University, "The White String: Musical Exegesis, Autobiographical Memory and Pratyabhijna (Self-Recognition)"
​
2020 (online) - two sessions
1. Book Panel on Alisha Lola Jones' Flaming?: The Peculiar Theopolitics of Fire and
Desire in Black Male Gospel Performance (Oxford University Press, 2020)
a. Alisha L. Jones, Indiana University, Presiding and Responding
b. Ahmad Greene-Hayes, Princeton University, Panelist
c. Josef Sorett, Columbia University, Panelist
d. Quincy Rineheart, Chicago Theological Seminary, Panelist
e. Braxton Shelley, Harvard University, Panelist
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2. The Heart is a Bloom: U2's Theological Highways and Byways
a. Christopher Patrick Parr, Webster University, Presiding
b. David Barbee, Winebrenner Theological Seminary, “It’s A Beautiful Day, But I Still
Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For: the Eschatological Spirituality of U2”
c. Andrew Smith, Tennessee Technological University “‘America’s Making War on Itself’:
U2, Boston, and the Failure of Unity”
d. Steven R. Harmon, Gardner-Webb University “‘Souls on the Tree of Pain’: An
Ellacuría Echo in “Bullet the Blue Sky” and the Theological Framework of the “Two
Americas” of U2’s The Joshua Tree”
​
2019 - San Diego - one session, and one co-sponsored session (with Christian Systematic
Theology)
​
1. Diverse Theologies of Music
a. David Stowe, Michigan State University, Presiding
b. Brian A. Butcher, Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky Institute of Eastern Christian
Studies, Toronto “‘You Have Given Us the Grace to Pray Together in Harmony’:
Orthodox Liturgical Singing as a Criterion for Theological Aesthetics”
c. Octavio Carrasco, Union Theological Seminary “The Concert That Killed the Sixties:
Altamont, Religiosity, and the Rolling Stones”
d. Lisa M. Allen, Interdenominational Theological Center, “Over My Head, I Hear
Music in the Air: African Inheritance and Interconnections in Spirituals, Blues, and
Gospel Music”
​
2. Christian Systematic Theology and Music and Religion Unit: New Horizons in
Theologies of Music: Book Panel on Brown and Hopps’ The Extravagance of Music
(Palgrave Macmillan, 2018)
a. Awet Andemicael, Yale University, Presiding
b. Antonio Alonso, Emory University, Panelist
c. Kutter Callaway, Fuller Theological Seminary, Panelist
d. Heidi Epstein, University of Saskatchewan, Panelist
e. Christoph Schwoebel, University of Saint Andrews, Panelist
f. David Brown, University of Saint Andrews, Respondent
​
2018 - Denver - two sessions, and one co-sponsored session (with Theology and Religious
Reflection Unit)
​
1. Music and Religion Unit and Theology and Religious Reflection Unit - Musicological
and Theological Approaches to Congregational Music in Conversation
a. Jonathan Dueck, Canadian Mennonite University, Presiding Panelist
b. Gerald Liu, Princeton Theological Seminary, Presiding Panelist
c. Mark Porter, Universität Erfurt, Panelist
d. Zoe Sherinian, University of Oklahoma, Panelist
e. Conner McCain, Catholic University of America, Panelist
​
2. Music and Religion Unit - Christian Accents in American Popular Music
a. Jason C. Bivins, North Carolina State University, Presiding
b. Kimberley Anderson, University of St Andrews “‘To Be a Rock and Not to Roll’:
Mountain Symbolism in Led Zeppelin IV and Houses of the Holy”
c. William Stell, Princeton University, “Changing God’s Tunes: A Rhetorical Analysis of
Lyrics in the WOW Franchise, 1995-2018”
d. Drake Konow, Yale University, “Dolly Parton and American Religion: Constructing,
Commodifying, and Consuming a Country Icon”
e. Mark Hulsether, University of Tennessee, “Four Levels of Religious Meaning in Bob
Dylan’s Music and Why It Matters to Hear Them All”
​
3. Music and Religion Unit -- From Cultural Appropriation to Spiritual Incorporation:
Transformative Encounters with African American Sacred Music
a. David Stowe, Michigan State University, Presiding
b. Monique Ingalls, Baylor University, “One in the Spirit? The British Gospel Choir as
Lens for Understanding Racial Formation and Religious Imagination in the
Contemporary United Kingdom”
c. Bo kyung Blenda Im, University of Pennsylvania “‘Gospel Worship’: Negotiating
Evangelical Belonging and the Modern Racial Order”
d. Marissa Moore, Yale University, “Singing Black Sacred Music in San Francisco:
Negotiating the Proximity of Race”
e. Alisha L. Jones, Indiana University “‘Be Grateful, We Celebrate Black History Month’:
Issues in African Americans’ Practitioning Gospel Music among European
Americans”
​
2017 - Boston - One session, and one co-sponsored session (with Theology of Martin Luther
King, Jr. Unit)
​
1. Music and Religion Unit -- Community Formation: Intersections of Congregations,
Religious Musics, and Popular Culture
a. Jeffers Engelhardt, Amherst College, Presiding
b. Andrew Mall, Northeastern University, “Resistance, Renewal, and Congregation at
Christian Music Festivals”
c. Joshua Busman, University of North Carolina, “Pembroke Bands, Brands, and Bodies:
“Corporate” Worshipping at the Passion Conference”
d. Katelyn Medic, University of Minnesota, “The Voice and Worship in Twin Cities
Churches”
e. Maren Haynes Marchesini, University of Montana “‘It’s Not Our Brand’: Mission,
Music and Race in a Twenty-First Century New Calvinist Megachurch”
​
2. Music and Religion Unit and Theology of Martin Luther King, Jr. Unit -- Voices of
Protest: Race, Religion, and Music
a. AnneMarie Mingo, Pennsylvania State University, Presiding
b. Thomas Breedlove, Baylor University, “Suffering and Translation: Christology and the
Spirituals of Roland Hayes”
c. Octavio Carrasco, Union Theological Seminary, “Singing Songs for Survival: Freedom
Songs in the Civil Rights Movement”
d. Leonard Lowe, University of North Carolina “‘After God is Music’: Combative Music
as a Response to Vulnerability among Independent Pentecostals in Haiti”
e. Marilyn Batchelor, Claremont Graduate University “The Social Consciousness of
Music during the Civil Rights Movement”
​
2016 - San Antonio - one session, one co-sponsored session (with the Kierkegaard,
Religion, and Culture Group), one additional session (film screening)
​
1. Kierkegaard, Religion, and Culture Group and Music and Religion Group --
Kierkegaard and Music
a. Vanessa P. Rumble, Boston College, Presiding
b. Joseph Westfall, University of Houston, “‘No One Knows What Music Can Express’:
The Irony of Music in the Early Kierkegaard”
c. Shao Kai Tseng, China Evangelical Seminary, “Kierkegaard and Music in Paradox?
Bringing Mozart’s Don Giovanni to Terms with Kierkegaard’s Religious Life-View”
d. Jeffrey Hanson, Harvard University, “‘Music Is the Demonic’: Why Kierkegaard (not
Nietzsche) Is the Spiritual Father of Rock and Roll”
e. Hugh Pyper, University of Sheffield, “The Prayers of Kierkegaard: A Musical
Exploration”
​
2. Music and Religion Group -- Authors Meets Critics: Spirits Rejoice! Jazz and
American Religion (Oxford University Press, 2015) by Jason Bivins
a. Sean McCloud, University of North Carolina, Charlotte, Presiding
b. Paul W. Harvey, University of Colorado, Panelist
c. Tracy Fessenden, Arizona State University, Panelist
d. Kathryn Lofton, Yale University, Panelist
e. Joseph Winters, Duke University, Panelist
f. Jason C. Bivins, North Carolina State University, Respondent
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3. Music and Religion Group, Additional Session - Screening of Purple Rain (Prince) and "Lazarus" (David Bowie)
a. Jennifer Rycenga, San José State University, Facilitator
​
2015 - Atlanta - Music and Religion Group - one session, and three co-sponsored sessions
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1. Music and Religion Group - Like You Mean It: Religious Sincerity in American Popular Music
a) Stephen A. Marini, Wellesley College, Presiding
b) Anne E. Monius, Harvard University "Get Up, Stand Up: Bob Marley in Performance"
c) Chad Seales, University of Texas, "For Africa With Love: U2’s Bono and the Religious Sincerity of Millennial Capitalism"
d) Tracy Fessenden, Arizona State University, "Billie Holiday’s “God Bless the Child”: The Gospel of Uplift and the Double Consciousness of Spirit"
e) Kathryn Lofton, Yale University, "Passing Religion: Bob Dylan and the Musical Politics of Difference"
f) Jason C. Bivins, North Carolina State University, Respondent
g) Philip Stoltzfus, University of Saint Thomas, Minnesota, Presiding, Business Meeting
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2. Music and Religion Group and Religion and Migration Group - Belief and Blessings: Migration, Music, and Affect
a) Philip Stoltzfus, University of Saint Thomas, Minnesota, Presiding
b) Alemayehu Bahta, Duke University "Bäsdät ‘ägär Mänor: An Analysis of Ethiopian Sacred Music and the Changing Definition of Migration"
c) Lisle Dalton, Hartwick College, "“The Gospel Train to Heaven”: Technology and Salvation in Railroad Songs"
e) Alison Marshall, Brandon University "Affective Tetherings: Blessings and Bayanihan in Filipino Canada"
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3. Critical Approaches to Hip-Hop and Religion Group, and Music and Religion Group - Re-”Shaping” Music, Race, and Religion: From Sacred Harp to Southern Rap
a) Christopher Driscoll, Rice University, Presiding
b) Jesse P Karlsberg, Emory University, "The Black in “White Spirituals”: Sacred Harp’s Nineteenth-Century Black Belt Roots"
c) Timothy Eriksen, Wesleyan University "Shape Note Music, Postmillenialism, and Antislavery: Black and White “Old Folks’ Concerts” in Western New England"
d) Christopher Rapko, Marietta, GA , "“I Cannot See Heaven Being Much Better Than This”: Prosperity Gospel and Conceptions of Heaven in Country Rap Lyrics"
e) Kendall Marchman, Young Harris College, "What’s Good for Hip-Hop May Not be Good for My Soul: The Dilemma of Big K.R.I.T."
​
4. Bible in Racial, Ethnic, and Indigenous Communities Group, and Christian Spirituality Group, and Music and Religion Group, and Pentecostal-Charismatic Movements Group — Gendering Gospel Music
a) David Stowe, Michigan State University, Presiding
b) Cheryl Townsend Gilkes, Colby College, "I Opened My Mouth to the Lord! Authoritative Women’s Voices and Prophetic-Apocalyptic Biblical Discourse in Gospel Music"
c) Alisha L. Jones, Indiana University, "Singing High: Black Countertenors and Treble Timbres of Transcendence in Gendered Gospel Performance"
d) Charrise Barron, Harvard University, "Sweeter: The Gospel Music and Performance of Kim Burrell"
e) Cory Hunter, Princeton University, "Gospel Love Albums: Sex, Sensuality, and Spirituality"
​
2014 - San Diego - Music and Religion Group - one session and two co-sponsored sessions
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1. “Religious Dimensions of the Performing Voice”
a) Theodore Trost, University of Alabama, Presiding
b) David Stowe, Michigan State University, "Babylon Revisited: History, Memory, and Forgetting in Psalm 137"
c) Andrew Moss, Durham University, "John Coltrane’s A Love Supreme: Voicing the Spirit of a Modern Psalmist"
d) Jason C. Bivins, North Carolina State University "“Religion” in and beyond A Love Supreme"
e) Sarah Dees, University of Tennessee, "Public Displays of Reconciliation: Healing Historical Trauma through Music"
f) Genevieve Nrenzah, University of Bayreuth, "Watch Night Wonders by Nana Kwaku Bonsam: Changing Notions of Indigenous Religious Performances in Ghana"
g) Philip Stoltzfus, United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities, Presiding Business Meeting
​
2. “Law, Love, and Life: Conversations Theological and Musical with Luther, Bach, and
Schweitzer” - Co-sponsorship with Martin Luther and Global Lutheran Traditions Group: w/ live performance
a) Kirsi Stjerna, Lutheran Theological Seminary, Gettysburg, Presiding
b) Philip Stoltzfus, United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities, Presiding
c) Robert Allan Hill, Boston University, Panelist
d) Scott Jarrett, Boston University, Panelist
e) Lawrence Whitney, Boston University, Panelist
3. “Interreligious Aesthetics” - Quad-sponsorship with Arts, Literature, and Religion Section, Interreligious and Interfaith Studies Group; Religion, Film, and Visual Culture Group, and Society for the Arts
in Religious and Theological Studies
a) Diane Apostolos-Cappadona, Georgetown University, Presiding
b) Peter Doebler, Graduate Theological Union, "Seeing the Things You Cannot See: (Dis)-solving the Sublime in Interreligious Aesthetics through the Paintings of Hiroshi Senju"
c) Michelle Voss Roberts, Wake Forest University, "Rasa: A Framework for the Aesthetics of Interreligious Engagement"
d) Peter Schadler, Oxford University, "Ritual Preparation for Artistic Production: The Spiritual Aesthetics of Spiritual Ascetics in the Abrahamic Faiths"
e) William A. Dyrness, Fuller Theological Seminary, Respondent
2013 - Baltimore - Music and Religion Group - One session, and one co-sponsored session with Religion, Film, and Visual Culture Group
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1. "Hearing Images: Film Music, Meaning-Making, and Lived Religion" - Music and Religion Group and Religion, Film, and Visual Culture Group
a) John Lyden, Grand View University, Presiding
b) Kutter Callaway, Fuller Theological Seminary, Panelist
c) Vaughan S. Roberts, Collegiate Church of Saint Mary, Panelist
d) Philip Stoltzfus, United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities, Respondent
e) Clive Marsh, University of Leicester, Respondent
f) Maeve Louise Heaney, Australian Catholic University, Respondent
g) Rebecca Ver Straten-McSparran, King’s College London, Respondent
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2. "Negotiating Identity in Music" - Music and Religion Group
a) Philip Stoltzfus, United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities, Presiding
b) Alexandra Gelbard, Michigan State University Leaves, "Cleansing, and Battles: Examining Religious Ritual Behaviors within the Conga Music Genre of Santiago de Cuba"
c) Usaama al-Azami, Princeton University, "Islam and Music in Modernity: Legal Norms, Popular Trends"
d) Cuilan Liu, Harvard University, "The Role of Music in Buddhist Canon Law"
e) Daniel Rober, Fordham University "Messiaen’s Saint Francois d’Assise in Conversation with Theological Aesthetics"
f) Christopher Roberts, Lewis and Clark College, "Against the Heroism of Death: Heidegger’s “Being-towards-Death” and the Late Johnny Cash"
g) Theodore Trost, University of Alabama, Presiding, Business Meeting
​
2012 - Chicago - Music and Religion Group - One session, and three co-sponsored sessions, with Feminist Theory and Religious Reflection Group, with Popular Culture Group, and with Tillich: Issues in Theology, Religion and Culture Group
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1. "The Study of Music and Religion" - Music and Religion Section
a) Stephen Marini, Wellesley College, Presiding
b) Peter Jeffery, University of Notre Dame, Panelist
c) Guy Beck, Tulane University, Panelist
d) Yuri Avvakumov, University of Notre Dame, Panelist
e) Tala Jarjour, University of Notre Dame, Panelist
f) Kay Kaufman Shelemay, Harvard University, Panelist
g) Awet Andemicael, University of Notre Dame, Panelist
h) Philip Stoltzfus, Saint Thomas University, Presiding, Business Meeting
​
2. "Feminist Identities and Musical Meaning: Religious Engagements with the Work of Susan McClary" -Feminist Theory and Religious Reflection Group and Music and Religion Group
a) Christine E. Gudorf, Florida International University, Presiding
b) Dirk von der Horst, Graduate Theological Union, Panelist
c) Jennifer Rycenga, San José State University, Panelist
d) Heidi Epstein, University of Saskatchewan, Panelist
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3. "Passion, Courage, and the Apollonian–Dionysian Dichotomy: Contesting Religion in Popular Music" - Music and Religion Group and Religion and Popular Culture Group
a) Chad Seales, University of Texas, Presiding
b) Courtney Wilder, Midland University, "The Courage to Be … a Dirty Little Freak: Tillich, Pink, and Gaga" c) Jeffrey Hanson, Australian Catholic University "“The Soul of a Man”: Sin-consciousness, Resurrection, and the Spiritualized Body of Rock and Roll"
d) Sam Mickey, University of San Francisco, "Tool and the Dionysian Future of Music: A Pop Analysis"
e) Paul Morris, Syracuse University, "Passions Private and Individualized in the Socioreligiousness of Popular Music"
f) Monica Miller, Lewis and Clark College, Respondent
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4. "Music and Ultimate Concern: Engaging Paul Tillich, Music, and Theology" - Music and Religion Group and Tillich: Issues in Theology, Religion, and Culture Group
a) Sharon Burch, Interfaith Counseling Center, Presiding
b) Russell Re Manning, University of Aberdeen, "Unwritten Theology: Notes Towards a Tillichian Theology of Music"
c) Laura Thelander, Collegeville Institute, "Prophetic Performance and Mystical Re-union: Considering the Theonomous Possibilities of Music"
d) Meredith Holladay, Baylor University, "Music as Theology: Using Tillich’s Theology of Culture to Understand the Prophetic and Theological in Popular Music"
e) Loye Ashton, Tougaloo College, "Rock, Reason, and Revelation: Tag-teaming Tillich at Rockandtheology.com"
​
2011 - San Francisco - Music and Religion Group - one session and one co-sponsored session with the Mysticism Group
1. Music and Religion on the Edge
a. Katy Scrogin, University of Texas, Austin, Presiding
b. Shannon Berry, Catholic University of America, "As for Our Friends: Patriotism and Peace in William Billings's Anthem Lamentation Over Boston"
c. Shawn David Young (title uncertain; he substituted for an absent presenter)
d. Samuel Hamilton-Poore, San Francisco Theological Seminary, "The John Coltrane Quartet's A Love Supreme: A Contemporary "Spiritual Classic""
e. Gerald Liu, Vanderbilt University, "Twig and Tafash: HIV/AIDS, Hip-Hop, and Ugandan Female MCs"
f & g. Ferdia Stone-Davis, Ely, United Kingdom, and Jason Dixon, University of East Anglia, "The Given Note: Language, Music, and the Enactment of Meaning"
g. Theodore Trost, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, presiding, Business Meeting
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2. Theme: Music, Mysticism, and Religion
a. LeRhonda Manigault-Bryant, Williams College, Presiding
b. Jonas Lundblad, Lund University, "The Musical Self: A Nonemotive Reinterpretation of Schleiermacher’s Aesthetics of Feeling"
c. Kenneth Schweitzer, Washington College, "“Drumming” Ritual Identity in Santería"
d. Neil Douglas-Klotz, Edinburgh Institute for Advanced Learning, "From Breath to Dance: Music as a Language of Experience in an American Sufi"
e. Christopher Driscoll, Rice University, "Taking Shape of Musical Theodicy: Monsters of Folk, the Roots, and Responses to Human Suffering"
f. Paul Cassell, Boston University, "What the “Strange Trip” of the Deadhead Community Can Teach Us about Religion"
​
2010 - Atlanta - Music and Religion Consultation - one session and one co-sponsored session with Arts, Literature and Religion Section
1. Explorations in Music and Religion
a. Philip Stoltzfus, Saint Olaf College, Presiding
b. Dirk von der Horst, Claremont Graduate University, "Exegesis, Eroticism, and Experience in the Era of Electronic Reproducibility: Two Performances of Thomas Tomkins’s Then David Mourned"
c. David M. Wilmington, Baylor University, "Freedom and the Groove: Why Virtue Ethics Needs Jazz Improvisation"
d. Christopher D. L. Johnson, University of Alabama, "The Aesthetics of Nonsense: Compositional and Interpretive Creativity in the Meaningless Syllables of Byzantine Chant"
e. Joseph Ballan, University of Chicago, "Vladimir Jankélévitch’s Apophatic Philosophy of Music"
f. Ferdia Stone-Davis, Ely, United Kingdom, "Music, Beauty, and Ekstasis"
g. Theodore Trost, University of Alabama, Presiding, Business Meeting
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2. Music of the American Southeast - co-sponsored with Arts, Literature and Religion section
a. Theodore Trost, University of Alabama, Presiding, Business Meeting
b. Roy Whitaker, Claremont Graduate University, "Hip-Hop as Sacred Canopy: KRS-One, Peter Berger, and La Frontera"
c. Jon Gill, Claremont Graduate University, "The Ethereal Etched into the Existential: Auerbach and Benjamin’s Literary Philosophy as Displayed Theologically by Tori Amos and Illogic"
d. M. Cooper Harriss, University of Chicago, "A Sense of Ending: The Album, Narrative, and Eschatology in Time (the Revelator) and The Tennessee Fire"
e. Alisha Lola Jones, University of Chicago, "In the Pocket: A Sacred Go-Go Beat Movement of Peculiar People"
2009 - Montréal - Music and Religion Consultation - one session
1. Explorations in Music and Religion
a. Theodore Trost, University of Alabama, Presiding
b. Shannon Berry, Catholic University of America, "A Bridge between the Sacred and the Secular: Igor Stravinsky's Symphony of Psalms and the Concept of Theosis"
c. Samuel Laurent, Drew University, "A Riff on A Love Supreme: A Model for Theological Engagement Based on the Improvisation of John Coltrane"
d. Iljea Lee, Yale University, "Resonance and Attunement: Musical Concepts in Religious Poetry"
e. Kris Oster, Pacifica Graduate Institute, "Oxum and Yansan: Candomble Trickster Archetypal Models for Female Drummers"
f. Clive Marsh, University of Leicester, and Vaughan Roberts, Collegiate Church of Saint Mary, Warwick "Scriptures, Soundtracks, and the Acrobatic Self Reception and Use of the Music of U2 in the Contemporary Process of Identity Formation"
g. Philip Stoltzfus, Saint Olaf College, Presiding, Business Meeting
​
2008 - Chicago - Music and Religion Consultation - one session
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1. Improvisation: Chicago and Beyond
a. Philip Stoltzfus, Saint Olaf College, Presiding,
b. Awet Andemicael, Yale University,
"Secularity in Black Gospel Music: A Theological Consideration"
c. Nathan Crawford, Loyola University, Chicago
"Attunement and the Religious Task: Using a Musical Metaphor to Think about Religion"
d. David Wilmington, Baylor University
"The Devil’s Music Goes to Church: Duke Ellington’s Sacred Concerts as Inter-community
Theological Engagement"
e. Katy Scrogin, Claremont Graduate University
"Religiosity and Non-conformism: The Curious Exception of the Violent Femmes"
f. Jason C. Bivins, North Carolina State University
"Ancient to the Future": Religion and Improvisation in the Association for the Advancement of
Creative Musicians
g. Theodore Trost, University of Alabama, Presider, Business Meeting
​
2007 - San Diego - New Program Unit - Religion, Theology, and Music Wildcard - one session
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1. Religious and Theological Reflection upon Musical Meaning
a. Theodore Trost, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, Presiding
b. David R. Brockman, Southern Methodist University
"The Beautiful Is Difficult": Divine Revelation in the "Out" Jazz of Sun Ra
c. Emily Bennett, Claremont Graduate University
"Big Beat Deliver Me": Theological Themes in Joni Mitchell's Music
d. Zachary Simpson, Claremont Graduate University
Inexplicability and Revelation in Music
e. Susannah Laramee Kidd, Emory University
Expecting Resonance: A Constructive Look at Theological Norms in Light of
Leonard Meyer's Emotion and Meaning in Music and Wallace Stevens' Sea-
Surface Full of Clouds
f. Heidi Epstein, University of Saskatchewan
Sour Grapes and Fermented Selves: Musical Shulamites Mottle the Sacred
Erotic
g. Philip Stoltzfus, Saint Olaf College, Presiding, Business Meeting
Co-sponsoring Units with Music and Religion
This list includes the eighteen separate groups that the Music and Religion group have worked with in their first fourteen years. The MRG is proud of this level of collegiality, collaboration, and far-ranging scholarship.
​
1. Christian Systematic Theology (2019)
2. Theology and Religious Reflection Unit (2018)
3. Theology of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Unit (2017)
4. Kierkegaard, Religion and Culture Group (2016)
5. Religion and Migration Group (2015)
6. Critical Approaches to Hip-Hop & Religion (2015)
7. Bible in Racial, Ethnic, and Indigenous Communities Group (quad-sponsorship 2015)
8. Christian Spirituality Group (quad-sponsorship 2015)
9. Pentecostal-Charismatic Movements Group (quad-sponsorship 2015)
10. Martin Luther and Global Lutheran Traditions (2014)
11. Arts, Literature, and Religion (quad-sponsorship 2014, co-sponsorship 2010)
12. Interreligious and Interfaith Studies Group (quad-sponsorship 2014)
13. Religion, Film, and Visual Culture Group (quad-sponsorship 2014, co-sponsorship 2013)
14. Society for the Arts in Religious and Theological Studies (quad-sponsorship 2014)
15. Religion and Popular Culture Group (2012)
16. Tillich: Issues in Theology, Religion, and Culture Group (2012)
17. Feminist Theory and Religious Reflection (2012)
18. Mysticism Group (2011)
Chairhumans and Steering Committee Members
Co-Chairs:
​
Joshua K. Busman, University of North Carolina at Pembroke (2022-)
Alisha Lola Jones, Indiana University, Cambridge University (2020-)
Jennifer Rycenga, San José State University (2016-2021)
David Stowe, Michigan State University (2015-2020)
Theodore Trost, University of Alabama (2008-2015)
Philip Stoltzfus, Saint Olaf College (2008-2013)
​
Steering Committee Members:
​
Lisa M. Allen, Interdenominational Theological Center (2018-
Awet Andemicael, Harvard University, University of Notre Dame (2013-
Jason C. Bivens, North Carolina State University (2016-2019)
Heidi Epstein, St. Thomas More College (2008-
Benjamin Griffin, Oblate School of Theology (2020-
Mark Hulsether, University of Tennessee, Knoxville (2008-2013)
Alisha Lola Jones, Indiana University (2016-
LeRhonda Manigault-Bryant, Williams College (2008-
Stephen A Marini, Wellesley College (2013-2019)
Marissa Moore, Piano Cleveland (2019-
Jennifer Rycenga, San José State University (2012-2016, 2022-
Katy Scrogin, Independent Scholar (2009-2014 at least)
Francis Stewart, Bishop Grosseteste University (2020-
David Stowe, Michigan State University (2019-
Theodore Trost, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa (2016-
Ralph Watkins, Columbia Theological Seminary (2008-
Shawn Young, York University of Pennsylvania (2013-2018)​​​​​
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Statistical Analysis of Subject Matter Coverage by Genre, Religion, Region, Named Musicians, Gender
This is a project-in-process. Little bits will be added as I have time. Check back for the latest updates!