Rachel Kraus, Executive Officer

Preparations for this summer’s Annual Meeting are in full swing.  The meeting will be held August 12-14, 2017 at the InterContinental Montreal Hotel, located just steps from the main ASA conference hotels.  We will begin with a Welcoming Reception on the evening of Saturday, August 12th, during which we will announce the winners of our awards and introduce our newly elected officers.  The Presidential Address will be given by Michael Emerson on Sunday evening, August 13th, and the Furfey Lecture will be delivered by Mark Juergensmeyer on Monday evening, August 14th.  The ASA Sociology of Religion Section day is Tuesday, August 15th.

The preliminary meeting program, the hotel reservation link, meeting registration page, and information about Montreal are available on the ASR website, www.sociologyofreligion.com.  If you have not yet made your hotel reservations, please do so immediately because the ASR room block is selling out quickly, and ASR’s discounted room rate is good only through Tuesday, July 11.  Please consider supporting our association by staying in the ASR hotel.  Staying at the ASR designated hotel helps you and our association in several ways:

* The cost to rent our meeting space is kept to a minimum.

*The amount of food and beverage the hotel requires us to purchase for our meeting is more reasonable

* Our nightly hotel rates for future meetings are more competitive.

* We have access to high quality hotels for future conferences that may not otherwise offer to host our meetings.

Simply stated: The more sleeping nights we book at a hotel, the better deal the hotel can give our conference attendees and our association.

If you haven’t already done so and you plan to join us in Montreal for our annual meeting, please register for the conference as soon as possible.  Pre-registration is required for people presenting a paper and/or participating in any sessions (including Author-Meets-Critic sessions) or panels.  Even if you are not part of the conference program, please consider pre-registering as the cost is cheaper and it will help with a smooth check-in process at the registration desk.  You may pre-register for the conference by logging into your account on the ASR webpage and selecting the “Pre-register for a Conference” button. You should automatically be directed to PayPal to complete your registration.  If you are not, simply log directly into your PayPal account and “send money” to ASREO@bsu.edu with a note stating that your payment is for the 2017 Annual Meeting.  You and I will both receive receipts and your registration will be complete.  If you do not have a PayPal account you may:

  • Mail a check made out to Association for the Sociology of Religion to the ASR Executive Office, Ball State University, Department of Sociology (NQ 222), 2000 W. University Ave., Muncie, IN
  • Email me at ASREO@bsu.edu and we will arrange a credit card payment by phone.

Registration fees help to cover the costs of many annual meeting expenses, such as printing programs, name badges and holders, meeting room rental fees, food and beverage minimums for our various receptions and breaks, shipping AV equipment (especially costly with international shipping and customs), hotel labor to assist with our AV equipment, and wages for people working at the registration desk.

As always, thank you for your participation in the ASR.  Please feel free to contact me with any questions or concerns.  Looking forward to seeing many of you in Montreal!