AANARE is excited to welcome everyone to our first AANARE Research Groups gathering! We hope many of you can join, including members of AANARE and any Asian colleagues who have yet to connect to our network.
This schedule was set with those who had already confirmed participation, but if you’d like to join, please feel free! I know the time may not be perfect for everyone across our different time zones—thank you for your flexibility. This is just for our first gathering; in the future, subgroups may set schedules that better fit their contexts.
Date: Thursday, Sept 18
Time: 7–8 pm PT | 8–9 pm MT | 9–10 pm CT | 10–11 pm ET (US & Canada)
Zoom link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89887420932
For this first meeting, here are the three initial research group themes and conversation leads:
1. Identity Formation and Asianness
Conversation Leads: Christophe & Julia
- Exploring the “impossible plurality” of Asian identity—resisting simplification across cultural, religious, and generational lines.
- Navigating belonging, cultural adaptation, and heritage in diasporic contexts.
- Examining how spiritual, cultural, and academic identities are shaped across migration and transnational settings.
2. Reframing Religious Education
Conversation Leads: Joung Chul & Christophe & Raphael & Miseon
- Addressing diverse understandings of religious education across global contexts (e.g., U.S., Korea).
- Engaging in conceptual and semantic analysis to critically redefine the field.
- Using interpretive frameworks (e.g., fusion of horizons) to reimagine religious education as a dynamic discipline.
3. Interview and Wisdom-Sharing Projects
Conversation Leads: Garam & Eunjin
- Collecting intergenerational wisdom from senior scholars through interviews and storytelling.
- Fostering mutual reflection between junior and senior scholars (rather than one-way interviews).
- Potential expansion to include voices from Asia (e.g., Korea, China, Indonesia).
Looking forward to our conversation!
If you have any questions, please contact Rev. Heesung Hwang, PhD hhwang [at] psr [dot] edu