Conference Agenda
The Online Program of events for the 2026 AMS Annual Meeting appears below. This program is subject to change. The final program will be published in early November.
Use the "Filter by Track or Type of Session" or "Filter by Session Topic" dropdown to limit results by type. Some of the sessions are also color-coded: purple indicates performances, grey indicates paper forums, and orange indicates sessions which have been organized by one of the regional associations of IMS (ARLAC or IMSEA). (Sessions which are both IMS sessions and performances are only colored orange.)
Use the search bar to search by name or title of paper/session. Note that this search bar does not search by keyword.
Click on the session name for a detailed view (with participant names and abstracts).
Please note that all times are shown in the time zone of the conference. The current conference time is: 1st Sept 2026, 02:57:09am EDT
|
Daily Overview |
| Session | |
|
Popular Music and Faith Session Chair: Andrew Shenton | |
    | |
From Vegas to Kolob: Latter-Day Saints Influence & The Killers’ Pressure Machine University of Ottawa With their 2021 album Pressure Machine, The Killers’ period of relative stealth Mormonism came to an end. The band’s religious affiliation had not been kept a complete secret though many secular fans were surprised as it became more widely known, a sentiment encapsulated by Audrey Vieira’s article “Fans Horrified to Learn The Killers Tricked Them Into Enjoying Mormon Rock,” (2022). Hailing from Las Vegas, Nevada in the early 2000s, their early and mid career albums featured upbeat tracks void of profanity while Pressure Machine alternatively, as a concept album, features graphic themes and spoken dialogue. The song “West Hills (III)” is melodically and harmonically analyzed in this paper, as it is a traditional SATB choral arrangement and features a melody akin to “If I Could Hie to Kolob;” one of the most popular hymns in the Latter-Day Saint’s hymnal. Traditional hymn arrangements are not often found on rock/alternative albums - concept or otherwise - and in many ways was how The Killers to lifted the veil metaphorically on their religious beliefs. Mormonism is one of the fastest growing religious sects in America. The Utah Legislature consists primarily of Mormons with upwards of 86% of sitting members active in the church, while the state’s congressional seats and statewide political offices are 100% Mormon (Davidson, 2021). In a state where only 60% of the general population identify as Mormon these numbers represent how prominent and influential the Mormon church is with global population projections predicted of 265 million by the year 2080 (Stark, 2014). Did The Killers intentionally deceive fans? Would their audiences have been as keen to support the group had they known a percentage of ticket and album sales would be given to a church with deeply entrenched views of bigotry, racism and misogyny through tithe? Incorporating Linden’s (2016) methodology of insistence for lyrical analysis this paper explores The Killers’ discography, examining the band’s use of LDS themes, the manner in which the band straddled secular and religious genres, and how the convergence of religion, political power and music led to their success. | |