Conference Theme and Call for Proposals

The 2026 APT Biennial meeting will center practical theological research and methods that help us attend to or recover practices of communal “world making and world maintaining.” These
include practices of resistance to chaos, injustice, and dehumanization: practices such as rest as resistance, play as theological meaning making, joy and human flourishing, imagination and improvisation as portals to making a way out of no way.

As practical theologians, we study communities and practices of meaning making and world-making—such that we can attend to the communities that take seriously the practices of rest, recreation, and resistance,and to communities in peril when they do not.

Peter Berger in The Sacred Canopy described humanity as involved in the work of world creating and world maintaining; as always in the process of creating a nomos or normative structure that protects against the chaos of not knowing or not understanding one’s place in the world. He defined religion as providing this sacred canopy, this unseen and unnamed nomos. However, many have come to not only question the idea of a sacred canopy but whether meaning, flourishing, or healing can exist. Considering so many different global, political, religious, cultural, and environmental realities as well as on-going distrust of the institutions that once provided the canopies under which we lived, their questions are warranted.

Beyond the academic theorizing about sacred canopies, there remain long-standing traditions and practices, often embedded in communities, of creating and maintaining worlds. These include traditions of storytelling, creation narratives and dystopian/utopian writing, that afford us opportunities to imagine and try on new worlds and alternate ways of being in our current realities. Examples such as Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower, and even various justice movements and strategies (such as adrienne maree browne’s Emergent Strategy and Adrian Ritchee, Practicing New Worlds) remind us that one of the primary steps in creating better worlds and working for change is to dream or imagine that change is possible. Others, like José Esteban Muñoz, argue that queer people are already enacting utopia by living queer lives that show that another world is possible beyond the norms of today (Cruising Utopia). Trisha Hershey, theologian and creator of the Nap Ministry, writes “There is information in [our] dreams, in [our] DreamSpace, and in [our] daydreaming…There is a collection of wisdom and knowledge waiting for you in a DreamSpace.” and has built a “ministry” around practices of dreaming and slowing down.

We invite proposals for research presentations, knowledge collaborations and interactive art/practices demonstrations that help us wrestle with the issues above to imagine anew what communities of rest, recreation, and resistance might look like; and what world-making and world-maintaining might look like in the face of our current realities. All proposals due October 1, 2025

Research Presentations– In these more conventional conference papers, you are invited to share fully developed research that makes an original contribution to the field. Your presentation of your work will be discussed with a small group of attendees who will have read the papers in advance. Completed papers of up to 6000 words must be made available to attendees prior to the conference (by February 1, 2026). Authors will be invited to present their papers in less than 10 minutes, allowing 20 minutes of conversation with an interested group of attendees. Your 250-300 word paper proposal submitted through the link below should briefly identify the primary research question/thesis, methodology, major theoretical/scholarly conversation partners, and significance to the field of practical theology. Proposers should also include 4-5 tags or keywords that will help participants to identify the primary focus of the paper.

Proposal Form for Research Presentations

Knowledge Collaborations– The collaboration sessions are meant to be lively, participative conversations about critical ongoing challenges in the field, emerging areas of research and teaching, or new directions in practical theology demanded by this moment in history. They should not be presentations of completed research, but rather a structuring of collaborative time to build networks of learning. Propose a theme for a two session sequence, 3 hours total. Your proposal should include 2-3 practical theologians who will work together to design a process over both sessions that creates space for sharing and furthering important conversations, exploring resources and/or framing of significant questions and approaches, and leveraging connections across distinctive perspectives to build strength in the field. Participants who join the initial team in the sessions will commit to participating in both sessions in the hope of developing an extended, in-depth conversation. The process can include a range of options for interaction, such as:

• presentations of ongoing quantitative or qualitative research projects for collaborative analysis and feedback
• panel discussions about emerging areas of practical theological work from teaching or research paired with small group responses/imagination for how they might be incorporated in different contexts
• a space for storytelling, poetic reflection, contemplative practice, or artistic creation related to vocational discernment inviting reflection on “what’s next” for participants in terms of research projects, teaching directions, program/curricular development, or commitment to public engagement
  several presentations of new texts within a particular topic and discussions of how they would shift research or teaching in practical theology if we took them seriously
• a process for developing a shared volume, podcast, or collaborative research effort on an important topic that conference participants could help shape and perhaps join as contributors
  These ideas are meant to be suggestive not comprehensive, so feel free to propose a collaboration that takes other forms. Proposals of 250-300 words should include the names and institutional locations of the members of the leadership team, the topic of collaboration, a brief outline of how the two 1.5 hour sessions will be structured (including a description of how other conference attendees will be meaningfully engaged in the sessions), and significance of the collaboration to the field of practical theology.

Proposal Form for Knowledge Collaborations

Artist/Practice Demonstrations–The conference themes of imagination and worldmaking lend themselves to artistic inspiration, reflection, and expression. We invite artists in many forms (visual, dance, music, digital, film, game design, etc.) to submit a proposal for participant engagement within the space of the conference. This might involve curating an exhibition, gallery walk, live performance or installation related to the theme. Perhaps you might collaborate with colleagues for a poetry reading or storytelling session. As this is a new format for engagement for the guild, we invite your creativity in curating new kinds of conference spaces for learning and inquiry.

Proposals of 250-300 words should include the names and institutional locations of the members of the leadership team, a description of the art/practice/demonstration, a brief description of how other conference attendees could be meaningfully engaged, and significance of the art/practice to the field of practical theology.

Proposal Form for Artist/Practice Demonstrations

Questions about these formats or which one you should submit? Please email Jennifer Ayres with questions: jennifer.r.ayres@emory.edu