Years after critiques of the understanding of religions as texts to be interpreted, decoded, or translated, the notion of religion as belief-based still looms large in public discussion, teaching about religion, and policymaking. What are the remaining implications for the study of religion in our classrooms and civic spaces? In what ways are narratives, dispositions, bodily practices, and material culture overlooked—and with what consequences for American religion? Join IRCPL for a conversation with scholars and policy practitioners about the pitfalls and possibilities of understanding the category of religion in terms of belief.

American responses to the rise of AI have been mixed: is Artificial Intelligence our friend, or our foe? Hope for the future, or our undoing? IRCPL's "American Religion is…Human" program offers new ways of thinking about AI, humanity, and religion, going past the utopian-dystopian binaries that our public discourse is stuck in. We will think together about how the rise of potentially destabilizing AI technology might intersect productively with current efforts to rethink humanistic pedagogy and scholarship. Join IRCPL as we interrogate assumptions about religion’s “human-ness” and considerations of hierarchy and supremacy raised by the notion of religion as an innately human concept.