At the 2013 meeting of the American Academy of Religion, there was significant interest in religion, power and the ends of mass criminalization.  In paper presentations, panel discussions and roundtable forums, scholars and practitioners came together to explore:

• • the ways that religious ideas and practices enable mass incarceration,
  • the resources religious traditions have to interrogate and oppose mass incarceration, and
  • the partnerships that academics and activists can forge around these issues.

Out of this burgeoning interest, we are working to form a loose network of those interested in these issues.

We invite you to participate, and to invite others you may know with similar interests!

Potential areas of work include:

(1) Propose that AAR create a program unit on religion, mass incarceration and immigration detention.  We invite you to help us brainstorm what this might look like.

(2) Develop this Blog and Facebook page where ideas, events, and CFPs on these issues can be exchanged.  We invite you to contribute posts or links.

(3) Encourage dialogues, exchanges, and other forms of research and activism around these issues, within and beyond the religious studies/theology academy.  If you have any ideas along these lines, please share them through our listserv.