Author: Beth

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Postdoctoral Fellowship Opportunity at the University of Göttingen

A new research network at the University of Göttingen has postdoctoral fellowship opportunities in secularism and new religiosities:

The two positions, to begin in October 2013, will be offered as two-year fixed-term contracts on a full-time basis (currently 39,8 hours per week) and will be remunerated at the TV-L E13 level (in accordance with the German public sector pay scale).The pilot project “Secularism and New Religiosities” examines new forms of religiosity that emerge under various regional or national regimes of secularism, and how these are shaped in transnational arenas of cultural, political and legal interaction […] Within this wider context, we invite post-doctoral research proposals that theoretically and empirically analyze new religiosities in comparative perspective; cross-religious as well as cross-regional comparisons are welcome. While the overall project’s main focus is on South Asia, East Asia, and Europe, proposals may broaden the comparative scope by including other regions.Successful applicants must have a PhD in a relevant field, such as history, anthropology, sociology, political science, religious studies, or area studies. Researchers will be based at the University of Göttingen, but will be permitted to conduct fully-funded field research for part of the two-year period, upon consultation with the principal investigators.

Posted on by Beth Calls for Papers, News and Events

CFP: Secularism and Secularity – American Academy of Religion (AAR) Annual Meeting

CFP: Secularism and Secularity – American Academy of Religion  (AAR) Annual Meeting

Over the course of the last few decades, theoretical reappraisals of the secular have tried in a variety of ways to destabilize and revalue the notion of the secular so that it no longer means simply the “absence of religion.” Yet vernacular uses of the secular frequently continue to orbit around that very understanding. With this in mind, we invite proposals for papers or panels that explore “the secular” at its various sites of construction. In concert with this year’s conference theme, we are particularly interested in proposals that critically engage public understandings of secularism as well as those that investigate the constitution of the secular in religiously plural publics, in multiple identity formations (especially among the so-called religious “nones”), and in and through a range of social practices (for example, those related to death and dying). In addition, for a possible cosponsored session with the Death, Dying, and Beyond Group, we seek proposals on secular approaches to death.

To submit a paper proposal please follow the instructions on the AAR website found here. All proposals must be submitted no later than March 1 March 4, 2013.

Questions can be directed to the program unit co-chairs (Per Smith and Jonathan VanAntwerpen) at secularism.secularity@gmail.com

UPDATE – The AAR has extended its deadline for proposals to Monday, March 4th.

Posted on by Beth Calls for Papers, News and Events

CFP: Is the Post-Colonial Secular?

Conference in Syracuse, NY
September 20-21, 2013

Description and Call for Papers:

Across the humanities, critical scholarship on the secular / secularism / secularization has recently ballooned. Scholars of history, anthropology, political theory, and religion have begun revisiting questions of enchantment and disenchantment, political theology, blasphemy, religious freedom, and much more. Charles Taylor’s A Secular Age in particular has garnered wide attention, but Taylor’s narrative focuses on the disenchantment of modern Christian Europe. Before and after A Secular Age, scholars have probed the boundaries of the secular beyond Christian Europe, and beyond the confines of intellectual history.

Some have asserted that the ideologies of secularism and colonialism are deeply intertwined. Others have asserted that post-colonial religiosity remains a symptom of colonial control of reason and affect. Still others have pointed to neo-liberalism as the shared basis of contemporary racial, religious, and post-colonial regimes.

We invite proposals that probe the question, “Is the Post-Colonial Post-Secular?” Projects may employ methods of history, literary criticism, theoretical reflection, ethnography, or cultural studies. We are interested in projects from a variety of regions and periods, for example contemporary Africa, the early U.S., or nineteenth century Haiti.

Please send 300 word abstracts, or questions, to: Owais Khan (mokhan01@syr.edu) and Vincent Lloyd (vwlloyd@syr.edu).
Deadline for abstracts: March 25; Notification: April 10.

CONFIRMED SPEAKERS: 
Gauri Viswanathan (Columbia, Literature)
Barnor Hesse (Northwestern, African American Studies)
Pamela Klassen (Toronto, Religion)
Uday Mehta (CUNY, Political Science)
Matthew Engelke (LSE, Anthropology)
Gyanendra Pandey (Emory, History)
Ludger Viefhues-Bailey (Philosophy, Le Moyne)

This symposium is sponsored by the Syracuse University Religion Department in cooperation with Le Moyne College.

Posted on by Beth Calls for Papers, Publications

CFP: Religion and Society in Central and Eastern Europe (RASCEE)

RASCEE

Religion & Society in Central and Eastern Europe – Journal of the International Study of Religion in Eastern and Central Europe Association (ISORECEA) | ISSN: 1553-9962 http://www.rascee.net

Religion and Society in Central and Eastern Europe (RASCEE) is an open-access peer-reviewed annual (published in December) academic journal reflecting critical scholarship in the study religion in the region. Journal Religion and Society in Central and Eastern Europe is included in Index to the Study of Religions Online (A cross-searchable database and bibliography of journal articles) and in EBSCO Publishing – Academic Search Complete, SocIndex with Full Text and in Central and Eastern European Academic Source., while it is in the review process with Religious and Theological Abstracts, ATLA Religion Databases and ProQuest.

Call for papers

RELIGION IN THE SOCIETIES OF FORMER SOVIET UNION TERRITORIES:ROLES, MANIFESTATIONS AND TRANSFORMATIONS In the early 1990s the territories of the former Soviet Union opened up to social and religious innovations. After generations of nurturing the idea of a homogenous society, different states emerged,some of them with homogenous, and some of them with heterogeneous, religious fields, with different ways of living and coping with the new conditions of religious freedom, and with different conceptions of the role of religion in society. Looking back after two decades, we can state that religion in the territories of the former Soviet Union has undergone transformations: from forced secularization, to offering new roles, and having a variety of manifestations within contemporary societies that are marked by modernization, individualization and globalization. Is it possible to talk about a religious revival or not? What are the roles of religion in post-Soviet societies? What are the manifestations of new forms of religiosity? How has religion been transformed and mutated in the last two decades? Which religions have been successful and which have failed?Throughout this period a new generation of social scientists and humanities scholars have grown up,and we are particularly interested in their interpretations of the social situation in the region. How does the new generation of scholars understand and interpret the roles, manifestations and transformations of religion in the former Soviet Union?

Religion and Society in Central and Eastern Europe invites submissions for a special issue dedicated to religion in the former Soviet Union. We welcome both empirical and theoretical contributions from diverse areas of the social sciences, such as: sociology, anthropology, political science, religious studies, history and law, and that focus on the post-Soviet religious landscape and its post-Communist transformations.

Religion and Society in Central and Eastern Europe (RASCEE) is an annual, open-access, peer-reviewedacademic journal that reflects critical scholarship in the study of religion in the region.

Language: English

Website for the submission of articles: http://www.rascee.net/index.php/rascee

Deadline: June 1, 2013

Contact: Milda Alisauskiene at m.alisauskiene@smf.vdu.lt, or Annika Hvithamar ahvit@sdu.dk

Posted on by Beth Calls for Papers, News

CFP: Global Secularisms at NYU, Due 3/31

Call For Papers

Global Secularisms

The Global Liberal Studies Program at New York University is currently seeking paper submissions for its inaugural conference on the topic of Global Secularisms — to be held on November 15 and 16, 2013 in New York, NY.

From a global perspective, Western secularism, and for example the American debate regarding the separation of church and state, appear as very parochial issues. Secularism is a vexed topic with global implications and consequences, affecting virtually every part of the world, every nation state and every culture, traditional or modern. Questions related to secularism have become increasingly urgent and involve enormous real-world implications. From the emergence of the “new atheism,” to battles over shariah law in Europe and the Middle East, to the reemergence of religion in the politics of India, to battles over the authority of science in the United States, to struggles both intellectual and political over the shape of the public sphere, the question of secularism proves critical.

Some scholars question the assumption that the modern social order is undergoing, or indeed has ever undergone, the process of secularization; others hold that we have entered a post-secular era. Still others associate secularism with western cultural, social, economic or political hegemony. And on the other hand, some of the most compelling thinkers insist that secularism is the only possible means of negotiating sectarian strife and establishing and maintaining a democratic state. Equating secularism with the rejection of the transcendent, secular humanists insist that secularism is the best way to achieve real human flourishing. Yet the very meanings of the words “secularism” and “religion” have been questioned. The history of secularism — and the word should be made plural — helps define the crises of our moment. This conference returns to these issues, in the light of these recent discussions and of recent events that are having serious effects on the way we live now, on the shape of global politics and culture for the immediate future.

This conference hopes to appeal to scholars and creative authors from the major divisions of the academy, including the humanities, social sciences, and sciences, as well as to independent scholars and writers from outside of the academy. We welcome engagement with questions involving secularism and the arts, culture, economics, history, international relations, religion, philosophy, politics, and science. Among the possible broad areas that papers might address, we offer the following possibilities:

  • Secularist movements/figures, past and present
  • Secularism and/as religion
  • Secularism and the arts, literature
  • Secularism and human flourishing
  • Secularism and the state
  • Anti-secularism, anti-atheism
  • Secularism and imperialism
  • Secularism and rights
  • Secularism in colonial/postcolonial contexts
  • The secularization of knowledge, science
  • The secularization of culture
  • The secularization of the university
  • Secularism and feminism
  • Post-secularism

Please email abstracts of 150-300 words by March 31, 2013 to:
Dr. Michael Rectenwald (michael.rectenwald@nyu.edu)

The conference steering committee will respond to submissions by June 1, 2013.

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Event: IWM Lecture “‘Russia Beyond Belief’ Living in a Post-Modern Dictatorship”

Tuesday, February 26 2013, 6:00pm – 7:30pm
IWM library

Institut für die Wissenschaften vom Menschen
Spittelauer Lände
31090 Wien
Austria
 

Speaker: Peter Pomeranzev
´Russia beyond Belief´:
Living in a Post-Modern Dictatorship

Lecture Series: Russia in Global Dialogue

Communism, liberal euphoria, hyper-inflation, mafia state, oligarchy, oil boom: since 1989 Russia has experienced so many different realities at such blistering speed that by the start of the Putin era many Russians believed they could master all of them and live ‘beyond belief’. During the oil boom of the past decade, Moscow became a decadent, brilliant whirligig of a city, led by a generation of triumphant cynics who developed a new form of authoritarianism far subtler than the types familiar from the 20th century – a model I call ‘post-modern dictatorship’. In this lecture, Peter Pomeranzev will look at how this sense of being ‘beyond belief’ shapes contemporary life in Russia, and how the current protest movement can be seen as reflecting a conflict between the triumphant cynicism of the noughties and the desire to live in a value-driven society.

Peter Pomeranzev is a British television producer and non-fiction writer of Russian origin. He is also contributor to theLondon Review of Books and Newsweek Magazine (London). Currently he is Guest at the IWM in the framework of the “Russia in Global Dialogue” Fellowship program.

More information here:

http://www.iwm.at/index.php?option=com_events&task=view_detail&Itemid=&agid=359&year=2013&month=02&day=26