The 9th Annual Conference (July 12 to 14, 2027), Kyung Hee Univ., Seoul, Korea

“Contemporary Religion and Non-human Companions In a Hyperconnected Society”

Call for Papers

Dear Colleagues,
The local Organizing Committee of the 9th EASSSR Conference welcomes you back to Seoul next year for our annual meeting. The EASSSR is a unique forum that welcome scholars working in a wide range of fields in humanities and social sciences who share an interest in looking at religions in Asia. In each of our conferences, participants present a variety of new theories and insights that are important for thinking about religions and societies outside of the region as well. This year again, the EASSSR is encouraging the presentation of a wide range of papers on the relationship between religion and political, economic, socio-cultural changes based on regional differences and similarities. We continue to look for papers that look at religion through a diversity of theoretical perspectives and concerns, including gender, welfare, education, social engagement, economics, and the media.
The local Organizing Committee invites submissions that aim to clarify the impact of multifaceted non-human companions on religious and spiritual levels. Here, “non-human companion” is defined broadly to include both natural creations attributed to God and entities crafted by humans. Any entity—living or non-living—that shares life and death with humans and is remembered or revered after death falls within this scope. We welcome research papers featuring diverse case studies from East and West that analyze supply-side and demand-side shifts in the spiritual market, offer theoretical interpretations of these phenomena, or apply interdisciplinary approaches.
Hyperconnectivity technology in modern society—based on artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, the Internet of Things (IoT), and virtual reality—is causing not only political and economic changes but also profound socio-cultural transformations. Contemporary religions face a major crossroads between passive adaptation to this massive wave of change and active utilization. The combination of hyperconnectivity technology and AI, which can connect and manage living beings, machines, objects, and even the universe within a single network, requires humans to build a new identity and spirituality based on ontology and epistemology. This raises more complicated questions about a way of coexistence with old or new non-human companions that was never imagined by traditional and human-oriented religions. As human dependence on hyperconnected technologies grows, non-human companions—such as industrial, household, and care robots, as well as autonomous mobilities—are increasingly granted ontological subjectivity, enabling them to engage in emotional, psychological, and even spiritual interactions with humans. This relationship broadens the meaning and scope of non-human companionship, extending beyond traditional discussions centered on plants, animals, and ecology to include living and dying alongside human-created entities.
For instance, East Asian Buddhist traditions like Huayan (華嚴宗) and Tiantai (天台宗) metaphysics of interpenetration long debated the Buddha nature of stone, tree, and so on. Daoist accounts of spontaneous transformation already accorded standing to entities well outside the human. The Catholic Church holds animal blessing ceremonies, Buddhist temples in Korea, Japan, and China utilize robot monks and conduct animal funeral rites, and certain Protestant churches in North America allow members to attend worship services with companion animals. Meanwhile, UFO religions such as Raëlism worship the extraterrestrial creators as saviors, and Mormon doctrine accommodates the spiritual salvation of animals.
Responding from these supply-side developments in the hyperconnected era, non-human companions which meet the physical and emotional needs of an increasing number of elderly and single-person households also go towards spiritual relationships with human companions. While emotional attachment and spiritual projection onto pets or artificial companions build upon long-standing human behaviors, today’s close-contact cohabitation powered by hyperconnected technology eventually marks a profound shift in lifestyles and family structures. Since discussions on these spiritual dimensions in modern and future society have not been widely conducted until now, this conference aims to expand such multidisciplinary discussions and bring them to a more open space for discussions with scholars from different academic backgrounds.

Submission of Abstract (Deadline: Feb 28, 2027)

     * Letter of Acceptance with registration notice will be sent by April 1, 2027.

If you have any questions or need more information, do not hesitate to contact the local organizing committee by email (gong417@khu.ac.kr).