Report on the 2026 Annual Business Meeting

It was a pleasure to see—even if only virtually—so many of you, including European members, for our Annual Business Meeting this past weekend. I wanted to make sure to keep those of you who could not make it in the know, so a summary is below.

Program Committee Transition

In the name of our whole membership, I want to extend our deepest gratitude to our outgoing Program Committee members: Jennifer Larson, Nicola Denzey Lewis, and Kenneth Yu. Their dedication over the last three++(!!) years has been instrumental in shaping the rigorous programming at our recent conferences.

We are also thrilled to welcome our new program committee members, who will begin their terms immediately: Hannah Lents (Southwestern), Katie Rask (OSU), and Carl Rice (Vassar). We look forward to the fresh perspectives they will bring to our upcoming programming cycles.

Our Finances

Our Treasurer, Jacob Latham, shared details about finances: we remain in good financial standing. If you want more details, please reach out to him directly. Thanks to all of you who have paid your membership dues. And if you are behind, just remember that our membership is trained in magic and curses…. Do I need to say more?

Upcoming Calls for Papers

Please take note of the upcoming deadlines for our affiliated sessions at the major annual meetings:

The CfPs can be read here:

New Directions in Greco-Roman Religions (SBL)

Reading Texts, Reading Gods: Theory, Method, and the Reconstruction of Ancient Religion (SCS)

New Publication Series Spotlight: Edinburgh Studies in Religion in Antiquity

I am excited to announce the launch of a significant new book series, co-edited by one of our own long-standing members, James Rives. The series, titled Edinburgh Studies in Religion in Antiquity, is co-edited by Matthew V. Novenson, James B. Rives, and Paula Fredriksen. Their aim is to provide a platform for creative studies spanning time periods (classical antiquity and late antiquity), geographical regions (the Mediterranean and West Asia), religious traditions (Greek, Roman, Jewish, Christian, and more), disciplines (comparative literature, archaeology, anthropology, and more), and theoretical questions (historical, philological, comparative, re-descriptive, and more). Deconstructing literary canons and confessional boundaries, the series considers and questions what we moderns call "religion" as a prominent feature of the human past and a worthy object of historical inquiry.

Looking Ahead to this spring: Invitation for graduate students and early-career scholars

As we move into the spring semester, we remain committed to fostering a space where rigorous scholarship meets collegial support, especially for younger scholars (and, of course, those young at heart). We are looking for graduate students and early-career scholars who are currently working on a project that they would like to have some friendly but rigorous feedback on. We are planning for one or two evenings of short Zoom meetings with presentations followed by senior scholarly feedback. If interested, please reach out to varhelyi@bu.edu

Looking Ahead to May 2027: “Save the date”

We are in the early phases of planning an international conference to follow up on the success of our St. Andrews one in 2023. Our tentative title is “Migrating gods: Diffusion, invention, and the topographies of cult,” and the location is the Iseum in Szombathely, Hungary. If you have ideas, suggestions, etc., please be in touch! 

 With best wishes,

Zsuzsa

Zsuzsanna Várhelyi

President, Society for Ancient Mediterranean Religions