Submissions

Research Articles

Criteria for Research Articles

Research Articles should present sustained, well-argued analyses of how faith traditions operate within social, cultural, political, scientific, or global contexts, including university life and broader public life. Submissions should demonstrate both intellectual rigor and sensitivity to the lived realities of religious communities.

Strong Research Articles will typically include:

1. A Clear Research Question or Problem
Submissions should articulate a focused analytical question or problem rather than simply describing a tradition. Authors should explain why this question matters for understanding religion in contemporary social life.

2. Engagement with Scholarly Literature
Articles must cite and meaningfully engage with peer-reviewed academic sources from relevant disciplines (e.g., religious studies, sociology, anthropology, history, political science, philosophy, education). Sources should shape and challenge the argument, not function only as background.

3. Analytical Argument, Not Just Description
Successful essays develop a clear thesis about how a tradition functions, evolves, or is contested in a specific social or institutional context such as universities, migration, public policy, or cultural life

4. Methodological Transparency 
If the article includes empirical research or fieldwork such as interviews, surveys, participant observation, archival research,  authors must describe their methods, site of study, limitations, and ethical considerations.

5. Grounding in Lived Contexts
We especially welcome work that situates faith traditions within concrete social settings such as campuses, diaspora communities, religious institutions, or public debates. Abstract or purely theoretical work must clearly connect to lived communities and practices.

6. Historical and Cultural Specificity
Submissions should reflect awareness of historical development, internal diversity within traditions, and the cultural, geographic, and institutional contexts of the communities discussed.

7. Writing for an Interdisciplinary Undergraduate Audience
Articles should be accessible to a broad academic readership. Specialized terms should be explained, and the prose should balance scholarly rigor with clarity and readability.

8. Proper Citation and Academic Integrity
Submissions must follow a consistent citation style (Chicago, APA, or MLA) and include a complete bibliography.

Use of Large Language Models (LLMs) and AI Tools

welcomed recognizes that students may use AI tools during the writing process. We require transparency about such use and will conduct AI and authorship screening as part of the editorial review process.

Appropriate uses of LLMs include:

• Brainstorming research questions or outlines

• Helping clarify sentence structure or grammar

• Summarizing the author’s own notes or source material for personal understanding

• Generating editing suggestions that the author critically evaluates and revises

Inappropriate uses include:

• Generating large portions of the final text

• Producing or fabricating citations or sources

• Substituting the tool’s analysis for the author’s original thinking or interpretation

• Paraphrasing sources without proper attribution

Authors must include a brief AI usage disclosure statement (2–3 sentences) describing any AI tools used and how they were used in the research or writing process.

Our goal is not to prohibit tools, but to preserve the integrity of student scholarship and ensure that all analysis and interpretation remain the author’s own.

Lived Experience Narrative

Lived Experience Narratives offer reflective, first-person accounts of how faith shapes everyday life, ethical choices, identity, and belonging in contemporary university contexts. While grounded in personal experience, these pieces should also demonstrate intellectual depth, narrative craft, and awareness of broader social and cultural dimensions of faith.

Strong Lived Experience Narratives will typically include:

1. A Clear Narrative Arc

These essays should tell a coherent story. Strong pieces typically have:

• A central moment, tension, or question

• A progression or change in understanding

• A sense of movement across time or experience

For example, the author might trace how they learned an aspect of faith, resisted it, or reinterpreted it in a specific situation.

2. Reflection Beyond Description

While stories are central, reflection is equally important. Submissions should bothdescribe what happened, and also explore:

• Why the experience mattered

• How it shaped the author’s values, decisions, or sense of belonging

• What it revealed about faith in a broader university or cultural setting

The goal is meaningful reflection rooted in real experience. 

3. Connection to Broader Contexts

Strong narratives situate personal experience within a wider context, such as:

• Campus culture

• Family or community expectations

• Migration, diaspora, or generational change

• Ethical debates or institutional structures

Such context helps readers understand the experience as part of a broader social and spiritual world, not as an isolated moment.

4. Specificity and Detail

Effective narratives rely on concrete details: settings, moments, conversations, rituals, conflicts, and sensory experience. Specific scenes are more powerful than general statements.

For example, describing a late-night prayer room, a campus religious gathering, or a moment of ethical conflict in the lab helps make the story vivid and grounded.

5. Serious Engagement with a Faith Tradition

Submissions should clearly reflect engagement with a religious tradition as it is lived and practiced, rather than abstract belief alone. Authors need not defend, nor should they promote their tradition, but should demonstrate thoughtful, respectful engagement with its teachings, texts, practices, or community.

6. Intellectual and Ethical Maturity

We look for essays that show:

• Self-awareness and critical thinking

• Respect for others in the story, including those of different beliefs

• Sensitivity to complexity rather than oversimplified conclusions

Narratives should avoid stereotyping, polemic, or dismissive treatment of other traditions or communities.

7. Writing Quality and Voice

Strong submissions will have a clear, reflective voice; careful organization; and polished, readable prose. This doesn’t mean detached academic writing—it means thoughtful, disciplined storytelling.

Use of Large Language Models (LLMs) and AI Tools

We recognize that students may use AI tools during the writing process. We require transparency and discernment in their use.

Appropriate uses include:

• Helping outline the narrative structure

• Assisting with sentence clarity and editing

• Helping reflect on themes in the author’s own experience

• Assisting with grammar or language support for multilingual writers

Inappropriate uses include:

• Generating or rewriting the narrative’s core content

• Fabricating personal experiences

• Producing emotional or reflective content in place of the author’s own voice

• Creating fictionalized stories presented as lived experience

Required AI Disclosure

Authors must include a brief disclosure statement (2–3 sentences) at submission, for example:

In the preparation of this narrative, I used an AI tool to help clarify sentence structure and improve organization. All personal experiences, reflections, and interpretations are my own.

Our goal is not to police AI use, but to ensure that lived experience narratives remain authentic expressions grounded in the author’s own life, reflection, and voice.

Hermeneutics of Sacred Texts

Hermeneutics of Sacred Texts

This section invites short, focused interpretations of sacred texts that connect enduring teachings to contemporary civic, academic, or interpersonal questions. Submissions may engage canonical scriptures, classical commentaries, or authoritative liturgical and ethical texts from established religious traditions.

We welcome pieces that demonstrate careful reading, intellectual humility, and respect for the integrity of the tradition being interpreted.

Criteria for Hermeneutics Submissions

Strong submissions will typically include:

1. A Clearly Identified Text or Passage

Authors should specify the exact text, passage, or excerpt under examination. This work may include scriptural verses, sections of a canonical text, or a recognized interpretive tradition or commentary.

Submissions should make clear:

• The tradition the text belongs to

• The historical or canonical significance of the text

• The context in which it is typically read or taught

2. Close Reading and Interpretive Precision

Essays should demonstrate careful attention to language, structure, metaphor, and argument. We value close textual analysis over general commentary.

Students do not need to read the original language but should show attentiveness to translation choices and interpretive challenges where relevant.

3. Connection to Contemporary Questions

Submissions should link the text to present-day issues in areas such as:

• University life and learning

• Ethics in research, technology, or professional spaces

• Civic responsibility and public discourse

• Interpersonal relationships and moral decision-making

These connections should feel intellectually grounded, not forced or superficial.

4. Engagement with Interpretive Traditions

Strong essays acknowledge that sacred texts have interpretive histories. Authors may draw on:

• Classical commentaries

• Theological, philosophical, or legal traditions

• Contemporary interpreters within the tradition

Submissions should show awareness that interpretation happens within communities over time and include a literature review where relevant.

5. Respect for the Tradition and Its Community

Submissions should reflect seriousness and respect toward the tradition being engaged. Critical perspectives and thoughtful, non-polemical approaches are welcome.

Authors should demonstrate an understanding that sacred texts are living sources of meaning for real communities today.

6. Clarity of Voice and Purpose

Effective hermeneutic essays have a clear through-line: a question they are asking of the text and a reason it matters now. The best pieces leave readers with a sharpened understanding of both the text and the contemporary issue it illuminates.

Use of Large Language Models (LLMs) and AI Tools

We recognize that students may use AI tools as part of their interpretive and writing process. Because this section centers on interpretation and voice, we require careful transparency.

Appropriate uses include:

• Helping clarify organization or structure of the essay

• Assisting with sentence-level editing or language support

• Supporting summarization of secondary interpretations for personal understanding

• Brainstorming possible contemporary connections for further human reflection

Inappropriate uses include:

• Generating the interpretive argument or insights themselves

• Producing or fabricating quotations or references

• Replacing the author’s own reading and judgment with AI-generated interpretation

• Creating pseudo-commentaries presented as original insight

Required AI Disclosure Statement

All authors must include a brief disclosure (2–3 sentences) describing any AI tool usage. For example:

In developing this hermeneutic essay, I used an AI tool to assist with outlining and language clarity. All interpretations, textual analysis, and theological reflections are my own.

Rather than ban tools, we want to ensure that interpretive work remains rooted in the author’s own reading, intellectual engagement, and respect for the sacred texts they address.