2026 Midwest Regional Meeting for Biblical Studies

We are pleased to invite you to the 2026 Midwest Regional Meeting for Biblical Studies. This conference is an exciting cooperative initiative of the Chicago Society of Biblical Research (CSBR), the Catholic Biblical Association (CBA), and the Michigan Center for Early Christian Studies (MCECS). The meeting is scheduled for Friday–Sunday, March 13–15, 2026, at Saint Mary’s College in Notre Dame (South Bend), Indiana. The Student Religious Studies Conference (SRSC) will occur in conjunction with the Midwest Regional Meeting on Friday, March 13. No society memberships are required to participate in this meeting.

See below for detailed descriptions of the conference sections accepting paper proposals. All paper proposals must be submitted by January 9, 2026, through the online form at the proposal submission link.

The form system will generate an automated e-mail confirmation message when the proposal is submitted. Please contact Jeffrey Stackert (stackert@uchicago.edu) if you submit a proposal but do not receive a confirmation message.

Proposals include the paper title and a 100-word paragraph abstract. Abstracts will be printed in the conference program and for that reason may not exceed 100 words. Papers that are accepted for the program will be scheduled in thirty-minute slots, ideally with twenty minutes for presentation and ten minutes for discussion.

Email addresses for the section chairs are included with the section descriptions below. Please contact the appropriate chair if you have questions about the section and its program, but you should submit all proposals through the online link. Please contact the program coordinator if you are uncertain about the best section to which to submit your proposal.

A person may submit one proposal to present one paper, and the same paper may not be submitted to multiple sections. Usually, graduate students who present at the Midwest Regional Meeting should be enrolled in doctoral programs. Other students should see the information below about the Student Religious Studies Conference (SRSC). Student papers that cannot be included in the Midwest Regional Meeting program will be referred to the SRSC.

As noted above, all proposals for the Midwest Regional Meeting must be submitted by January 9, 2026. Program decisions will be communicated on or about February 1, 2026. Presenters must be registered for the Midwest Regional Meeting by February 15, 2026.

If you are a professor, please encourage your doctoral students to participate in the Midwest Regional Meeting. Please also encourage your students who are undergraduates through pre-dissertation doctoral students to participate in the Student Religious Studies Conference (SRSC) on Friday, March 13, 2026. The SRSC proposal deadline (with full paper) is February 7, 2026. Proposals may be submitted at the SRSC proposal submission link.

The meeting has arranged for blocks of hotel rooms at the Hilton Garden Inn South Bend and the Inn at Saint Mary’s, both of which are adjacent to the Saint Mary’s College campus. The conference rate is available until February 11, 2026, and reservations must be placed by phone (Hilton Garden Inn: 574-232-7700; Inn at Saint Mary’s: 574-232-4000). Please mention the “Midwest Regional Meeting for Biblical Studies.” There are many additional hotel options available within a fifteen-minute drive of St. Mary’s. For maps and transportation information, click https://www.saintmarys.edu/admission-aid/visit-campus/maps-directions.

Registration for the meeting is available online through Zeffy at the registration link. Please note that any donation added during the registration process goes to Zeffy, not to the Midwest Regional Meeting, and is completely optional. Zeffy does not charge the Midwest Regional Meeting any fees of any sort for the registration module, and their own funding comes through donations. Regular registration is available through February 15, 2026, and all presenters are required to be registered by this date. Regular registration is $60, retiree registration is $30, student registration is $25, and SRSC-only registration is $15. Rates for spouse/partner attendees are also available in the registration process. We strongly encourage everyone to utilize the online registration option; a $25 fee will be added for late/on-site registrations.

Some Highlights for the 2026 Meeting

Friday Evening Midwest Regional Spotlight
This session features a presentation and question-and-answer period with a prominent scholar from our region. Our speaker this year is Jeremy M. Hutton, Professor of Classical Hebrew Language and Biblical Literature at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Editor-in-Chief of the leading journal Vetus Testamentum.

Sunday Morning Plenary Book Panel Session
The book panel will focus on the new volume, Constructing Femininity in the Book of Jubilees (Brill, 2025), by Chontel Syfox. Chontel Syfox is Assistant Professor in the Department of Classical and Ancient Near Eastern Studies at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

Graduate Student Paper Awards
Graduate students who submit a proposal for the Midwest Regional Meeting are invited also to submit their paper for consideration for the Graduate Student Paper Award, which is sponsored by the Michigan Center for Early Christian Studies. Two prizes will be awarded—one for Hebrew Bible/Early Judaism and one for New Testament/Early Christianity. Winners will be recognized at the Friday evening regional spotlight session. Papers in the form they are to be presented should be submitted by email to Jeffrey Stackert (stackert@uchicago.edu) no later than February 15, 2026.

The Midwest Regional Meeting and the Student Religious Studies Conference offer wonderful opportunities to meet new colleagues, see old friends, try out research ideas, enjoy a lively exchange in a supportive environment. All students, professors, and others interested in biblical studies and the study of the ancient world are welcome. Please feel free to contact us at the e-mail address below with any questions.

Sincerely,

Mark Lester & Jeffrey Stackert
Program Co-coordinators, Midwest Regional Meeting for Biblical Studies
mlester2011@gmail.com
stackert@uchicago.edu

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