The Koinonia Forum

What is Koinonia Forum?

The Koinonia Forum is an annual graduate conference, held each spring at Princeton Theological Seminary, dedicated to fostering rigorous academic exchange and interdisciplinary dialogue among graduate students from institutions across North America. Organized and coordinated by Ph.D. students from diverse academic disciplines, the forum provides a unique platform for participants to present their research, engage in critical discussions, and expand their academic and professional networks. We invite paper proposals from current students for this upcoming conference on the theme of “Tech, Faithfully.”

Advances in technology are often catalysts for social change. As we face the promise and uncertainty of AI, we ask scholars to reflect on the relationship between religion and technology both past and present. What does it mean for individuals or communities to use technology faithfully? What is the role of religious communities in shaping the future of these technologies? How does technology determine the shape of religious belief and practice today? We are open to any topic that may fall under the rubric of technology and religious faith, but some topics we are interested in include:

Information technologies – from writing to social media
Mediation of the physical world – ritual, money, machines, screens…
Incentives and institutions – desire, capitalism, the state…
Ethics and frameworks – abundance, containment, ownership, asymmetry

We welcome submissions from any discipline, so long as it addresses religion or religious communities in some way.

The conference will begin with a Keynote speaker on the evening of March 6^th, followed by a reception. Papers will be presented in thematic panels the following day, Saturday March 7th.

Koinonia Forum 2026

Dates: Friday – Saturday, March 6-7, 2026.

Theme: “Tech, Faithfully.”

Keynote: Dr. Carolyn Chen.

Zoom Registration for the Keynote Lecture

Koinonia Forum 2026 Schedule

4:00 P.M. – Check-in available for Erdman Center guests. Koinonia Forum Registration Open.
5:00 P.M. – Keynote Address | Carolyn Chen
- Response: Conversation with Nathan Stucky | Erdman Center Cooper Room
6:30 P.M. – Wine Reception | Erdman Center Lobby

7:30 A.M. – Breakfast | Erdman Center Lobby
9:00 – 10:20 A.M. – Panel I: Christian Ethical Frameworks for AI | Erdman Center Cooper Room
- Dohyung Cha | Tech Faithfully After the Tower of Babel: Production Disalignment as AI Ethics
- Emily Pruszinski | Christian Ethics and AI: Between Hubris and Humility
- Donghyung Lee | Personhood, Soul, and the Ethics of AI
- Dawn Sutherland | Tech Beyond Its Maker: AI, Idolatry, and the Inversion of Human Agency
10:20 A.M. – Break
10:30 – 11:50 A.M. – Panel II: Ideologies of Tech | Erdman Center Cooper Room
- Sangeon Kim | Bitcoin and the Gospel of Empire: How American Imperialism Survives in the Digital Age
- Braxton Tanner | Wholly Grounded: Ecological Doctrines toward an Ethical Techno-Agriculture
- Shania Ciaccio | What Have We Raised? Saul, the Medium of Endor, and the Rise of Generative AI
- Marisa Hulstine | Resisting Exploitative Technology through Janelle Monaé and Embodied Theologies
12:00 P.M. – Lunch | Erdman Center Lobby
1:00 – 2:20 P.M. – Panel III: Technological Meditation 1: Subjectivity and Social Media | Erdman Center Cooper Room
- Joyada Gultom | PastorGram and the Theology of Friendship: Rethinking Pastoral Identity in Indonesia’s Digital Christianity
- Duygu Oksunlu-Beytur | Vlogging Modesty: Muslim Women, Modesty, and the Public Sphere
- Christian Pattavina | Faith in my Feed: Islamophobia, Secular Critique, and Social Media
- Monica Burt | “They, Like, Literally Crucified Him”: Christ and Cancel Culture
2:20 P.M. – Break
2:30 – 3:50 P.M. – Panel IV: Technological Meditation 2: Constructing Self and Other | Erdman Center Cooper Room
- Caleb Blair | The Brand is the Catechism: Evangelical Marketing as Spiritual Technology
- Seunghyun Kim | Language of Disgust in Ezra 9: Writing, Boundary-Making, and Precarious Subjectivity
- Naveen Alapati | Digitizing the Dead: Memory, Technology, and the Future of Eschatology
- Sarah Adegbite | Troubling Consumption: Famine Imagery and Black Experimental Poetics in the Digital Age
3:50 P.M. – Break
4:00 – 5:20 P.M. – Panel V: Using Technology in Religious Communities | Erdman Center Cooper Room
- Samuel Ocasio and Miluska Silencio | Technological Collective Connection through Memes: Religious Identity, Play, and Imagination of Latinos
- Ruth Kause (*presenting in absentia) | Briarpatch Preaching: Homiletics and Hidden Transcripts in an AI-world
- Jihn Ahn | AI Agents as RA and TA: Use of AI Agent IDE for Humanities Research and Teaching
- Luca Lima Iacomini | Thank God It’s Online: RELEVANT Magazine’s Digital Takeover
5:20 – 5:30 P.M. – Closing Remarks & Announcements | Theron Room, Wright Library

Images from the 2025 Forum

Call for Papers

The call for papers is now closed. Thank you for your submissions.

Conference Registration & Schedule

Register by February 23 for a chance to enter a drawing of our keynote speaker’s latest book: “Work, Pray, and Code.”

Registration Form