Posted on by katieaston Publications

Publication: Scientific Study of Atheism – Religion, Brain and Behavior

From the EDITORIAL “The scientific study of atheism”

“This issue of Religion, Brain & Behavior focuses on the scientific study of atheism.
With a pair of target articles from Catherine Caldwell-Harris and Dominic Johnson,
a large collection of expert commentaries on those articles, and two responses from
the authors, this is one of the richest discussions of the scientific study of atheism in
print. Johnson reviews the various ways of conceiving of atheism in evolutionary
terms, while Caldwell-Harris analyzes the evidence for atheism as a matter of
individual differences. These two essays represent fundamentally contrasting
strategies for making sense of atheism and it is likely that future scientific study
will have to navigate between the two perspectives.”

 

Read more of this open access edition Religion, Brain & Behavior, Volume 2 Issue 1

Posted on by katieaston Calls for Papers, News and Events

CFP: Socrel / HEA Teaching and Studying Religion, 2nd Annual Symposium

Call for Papers

The 2012 Socrel / HEA Teaching and Studying Religion symposium will explore the theme: Religion and Citizenship: Re-Thinking the Boundaries of Religion and the Secular.

The symposium is organised by Socrel, the BSA Sociology of Religion Study Group, with funding from the Higher Education Academy, Philosophy, and Religious Studies Subject Centre. Last year’s inaugural symposium was over-subscribed and therefore early submissions are encouraged.

Keynote speaker: Dr Nasar Meer, Northumbria University

Venue: BSA Meeting Room, Imperial Wharf, London
Date: 13 December 2012
10 a.m. – 5 p.m.

Religions today are implicated in a wide variety of publics. From contests over the environment and democracy to protests against capitalism, religions remain important factors in political and public life across diverse, and interconnected, global contexts. A variety of diverse responses have been articulated to the so-called ‘return of religion’ in the public sphere, drawing into question relations between the religious, the non-religious and the secular. As scholars have developed new theoretical understandings of the terms of these debates and questioned how these are bound up with cultural conceptualizations of citizenship, education – in schools, universities and less formal educational contexts – has often been a site where contestations of the religious and the secular have been acutely felt.

The aim of this symposium is to consider the interrelation between conceptions of the religious, the secular, citizenship and education, and to explore how these issues affect the study of religion in higher education. We hope to attract presentations of sufficient quality to lead to an edited publication.

The day will be highly participative and engaged. The symposium will be organised as a single stream so that the day is as much about discussion as it is about presentation, and therefore the number of formal papers will be limited.

Papers are invited from students, teachers, and researchers in the disciplines of sociology, anthropology, geography, theology, history, psychology, political science, religious studies and others where religion is taught and studied. Empirical, methodological, and theoretical papers are welcomed.

Presenters will circulate a five-page summary of their paper before the day so that all participants can come prepared for discussion. Presentations will last 10 minutes and will be structured into three sessions, each followed by a discussant drawing out key points. The day will conclude with a discussant-led, focused panel discussion.

Key questions to be addressed may include, but are not limited to:
What are the relationships between the religious, the secular and the public sphere, and how do these affect the study of religion, in both universities and schools?
How do different historical constructions of religion and secularity shape understandings of the civil sphere and citizenship, and what are the implications of this for the study of religion?
Does the increased public visibility of religion in national and global contexts affect how we study it?
What is the role of religious education (school and/or university) in forming citizens and shaping understandings of citizenship?
Are there distinct regional, national or international conceptions of the secular?
Are there distinct regional, national or international conceptions of citizenship?
How do different disciplines approach and study these conceptions, and what are the advantages and disadvantages of these approaches?

Abstracts of 200 words are invited by September 15 2012. Please send these to: Dr Paul-François Tremlett p.f.tremlett@open.ac.uk

Costs: £36.00 for BSA/SocRel members; £45.00 for non-members; £20.00 for SocRel/BSA Postgraduate member; £25.00 for Postgraduate non-members.

Posted on by katieaston News and Events

Event: Women, Authority and Leadership in Christianity and Islam Conference

Details below of a conference looking at the role of women, representation and participation within the traditions of Christianity and Islam, posting for the stream relating to Secularism and women’s rights.

Dates of Event

10th September 2012 – 12th September 2012

The role of women is one of the most challenging issues facing Christianity and Islam today. This international, interdisciplinary conference will bring together leading academics, religious leaders and representatives of Muslim and Christian communities to explore questions of women’s representation, participation and leadership, and to look at diverse responses to these issues within the two traditions.

Academic Conference:

10th and 11th September

The first two days will be for academic participants. We invite offers of papers and expressions of interest.

Dialogues and Encounters:

12th September

A day of workshops, discussions and seminars involving conference participants and invited representatives of religious communities
Conference Themes

  • Revelation and interpretation: women, authority and leadership in religious texts.
  • Women interpreters of the Bible or the Qur’an.
  • Theological and doctrinal issues relating to the role of women.
  • Historical and contemporary perspectives on women as leaders, religious representatives, spiritual figures or role models.
  • Women’s devotional practices in relation to institutions and authority structures.
  • Secularism and women’s rights.
  • Women’s religious communities and societies.
  • Women imams, preachers, priests and ministers.

Key Note Speakers Confirmed to Date

Professor Tina Beattie, Professor of Catholic Studies, University of Roehampton

Dr Simonetta Calderini, Reader in Islamic Studies and World Religions, University of Roehampton

Revd Dr Essie Clark-George, Presiding Elder, Christian Methodist Episcopal Church, Gary District, Indiana, USA

Professor Mona Siddiqui, Professor of Islamic Studies and Director of the Centre for the Study of Islam, University of Glasgow

Revd Lucy Winkett, Rector, St James’s Piccadilly, London

Professor Amina Wadud, Professor Emerita of Islamic Studies, Starr King School for the Ministry, Berkeley and Virginia Commonwealth University, USA

Professor Ursula King, Professor Emerita of Theology and Religious Studies and Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Studies, University of Bristol

Professor Fatima Sadiqi, Senior Professor of Linguistics and Gender Studies, University of Fez, Morocco, Director of the Isis Center for Women and Development, and President of the National Union of Women’s Organisations

This event has been made possible by a generous grant from Southlands Methodist Trust.

 

Last Booking Date for this Event
3rd September 2012
Description
International Conference Monday 10th September to Wednesday 12th September 2012.

Held at Southlands College, University of Roehampton, 80 Roehampton Lane, London, SW15 5SL, UK.

A three-day conference bringing together academics and community organisers to explore key issues concerning the role of women in Christianity and Islam today.

Posted on by katieaston News and Events

Event: Pilgrimage and Sacred Places in Central and Eastern Europe: Place, Politics and Religious Tourism

During the NSRN Annual conference (details to follow) there was much debate around the usage of the word sacred. This conference may be of interest for that general purpose, but more specifically the stream Secular pilgrimage and tourism

Pilgrimage and Sacred Places in Central and Eastern Europe: Place, Politics and Religious Tourism
University of Zadar, 27-30 September 2012

With the global expansion of travel and tourism more and more people are engaged in what can be broadly described as religious tourism. According to the UNWTO, for example, in 2008 300 million tourists claimed that their trips were motivated in one way or another by religion. Pilgrimage plays a key role in such religious tourism and it is now attracting the attention of a wide variety of experts, e.g. religious leaders, those involved in the travel and tourism industry and academic researchers. Theoretical debates are moving beyond earlier communitas and contestation models and a more global reach is emerging as researchers explore beyond W. Europe and the Americas, examine the increasing religious diversity caused by global migration and investigate the

intimate, historic links between pilgrimage, sacred places, politics and tourism. In this conference we want to contribute to this widening focus by bringing together academics from different disciplines and travel and tourism professionals to explore pilgrimage across Eastern Europe broadly conceived as extending beyond W. Europe. In this way we seek to look at different religious traditions, e.g. Orthodox, Catholic and Muslim, and territorial ties (local, national, transnational, global).

We invite papers which will explore:

– Construction and deconstruction of sacred places
– Embodied spaces and body as a mediator
– Pilgrimage as a form of religious tourism
– Relationship between pilgrimage and travel and tourism industry
– Pilgrimage and territorial boundaries
– Politics and Pilgrimage in the past and today
– Pilgrimage in memories and narratives
– Tourist ab/use of pilgrimage and sacred places
– Tourist perspectives on the pilgrimage journey
– Secular pilgrimage and tourism
– The realm of pilgrimage / tourism experience

Registration fee

On or before July 15, 2012: € 50
Co-authors or accompanying person: € 50
Please note: All bank transaction costs are to be paid by the author

Registration fee covers:
– Conference proceedings (backpack with book of abstracts)
– Welcome cocktail
– Refreshments during breaks
– Excursions to the Croatian royal city and a pilgrimage place of Nin
– Tourist guidance through Zadar

Payments (in EURO) to be made to the following account number:

SWIFT CODE: SOGEHR22
held with SPLITSKA BANKA SOCIETE GENERALE GROUP
IBAN NUMBER: HR53 2330 0031 1001 6324 3

Payments (in HRK) to be made to the following account number (according to CNB central exchange rate for EURO on date of payment):

2330003-1100163243
*we kindly ask you to put N. 37300 in your payment description

Posted on by katieaston News and Events

Event: Radical Secularization ?

September 20-22nd 2012
Conference – The Centre Pieter Gillis of the University of Antwerp

This three day international conference tries to frame a status quaestionis of secularization theory in the field of contemporary philosophy. It starts off with an assessment of the classic Löwith-Blumenberg debate. This debate centers around the relationship between monotheism and Christianity on one hand, and Modernity on the other. The focus of the conference then shifts to contemporary debates, with Charles Taylor and Marcel Gauchet as exemplary protagonists. The debate will revolve around ‘transcendent’ versus ‘immanent’ readings of Christianity. On its last day, the question of religion in the public sphere comes to the fore.

Though the conference is philosophical in nature, it hopes to explore interdisciplinary crossroads with theology, sociology, and the social sciences in general. The list of keynote speakers, including theologian John Milbank and Jonathan VanAntwerpen, program director of the Social Science Research Council, testifies to this ambition.

The extensive conference schedule can be downloaded in the separate flyer on the right hand side.

ORGANIZING BOARD

This conference is the result of an inter-university co-operation between the University of Antwerp (Centre Pieter Gillis; Department of Philosophy of Culture) and the Catholic University of Leuven.

The organizing committee consists of profs. Guido Vanheeswijck and Walter Van Herck (University of Antwerp), dr. Stijn Latré (University of Antwerp), and prof. André Cloots (Catholic University of Leuven, Higher Institute for Philosophy).

A conference schedule can be found on the website
Registration fees

Thursday 09-20th 30 €
Friday 09-21st 30 €
Saturday 09-22nd free of charge
Whole conference
60 €
Free of charge for Belgian undergraduate and graduate students

Fees include coffee breaks and sandwich lunch(es).

Registration due before September 3rd, 2012. For registration, click here.
Registration becomes only official after receipt of payment on this account

Number : IBAN BE98 7350 2990 5993 / BIC KREDBEBB.
Name : Universiteit Antwerpen.
Address : Prinsstraat 13, 2000 ANTWERPEN – BELGIUM
Reference : SC201158

Lodging suggestions

4 stars hotel near conference location: Hotel Prinse,
Prices for conference participants: 108 €/night single room; 128 € double room.
Please mention the conference title while booking.

Low budget hotels

Youth hostel

Posted on by katieaston Calls for Papers, News and Events

CFP: Post-Atheism: Religion, Society and Culture in Post-communist Eastern Europe and Eurasia

Deadline for abstracts is 1st August 2012 for more details please visit the Melikian Center website

Post-Atheism: Religion, Society and Culture in Post-communist Eastern Europe and Eurasia

Start Time: February 7, 2013 (All day)
End time: February 9, 2013 (All day)
ASU Tempe campus
As of May 12, 2012:

“Post-Atheism”:
Religion, Society, and Culture in Post-Communist
Eastern Europe and Eurasia

The Melikian Center for Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies at Arizona State University is pleased to announce an international symposium on “Post-Atheism” in Eastern Europe and Eurasia, to be held on the ASU campus in Tempe, Arizona, February 7-9, 2013. The symposium will feature presentations by international visiting scholars from Armenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Russia, and elsewhere from the region. Professor Jose Casanova (Georgetown University), author of Public Religions in the Modern World, will keynote the symposium on Thursday, February 7.

The symposium is designed to address one of the most fascinating and controversial issues of the post-communist world—namely, the new public role of religion in East European and Eurasian society. Is there separation of church and state in today’s Eastern Europe, Russia or Eurasia? Are Iranian-like theocracies a possibility in some regions? Is the forceful entry of religion into the public sphere a fleeting fashion or a deeper phenomenon of lasting importance? How does this recovery of religious identity intersect with prevailing theory on secularization? How has religion been reintroduced into the Academy and public education? How are the relationships between dominant religious faith traditions and minority confessions (often stigmatized as “destructive sects”) affected in the region?

The conference is intended to generate sustained debate and discussion on a variety of perspectives relating to all the major faith traditions (Christianity, Islam, Judaism, and Buddhism) of the region, from Central and Southeastern Europe to Russia, Ukraine, Transcaucasia, Central Asia, and Mongolia. We will also welcome panels/roundtables/individual presentations dealing with non-traditional religious movements and transnational religious currents. Conference lodging will be provided, and limited funding will be available to support international travel.

While we are open to other topics, we specifically invite individual and panel proposals on the following themes:

• Religion, National Identity and Conflict: The Role of Religious Actors in Framing Ideologies of Nationalism and Transnational Globalization; Ethno-religious Conflict and Peacemaking.
• Religion and Policymaking: Clerics and Religious Institutions in the Public Arena.
• Religion and Education: Theology vs. Religious Studies in the Academy; Religion in Public Education.
• Religion, Sexuality, and Gender: Patriarchy, Gender Equality, and LGBT Issues in Modern Religious Culture.
• Religion and Culture: Popular Culture, Literature, TV/Film, Folklore.

Please send us a brief (250-word limit) abstract of your individual paper/panel proposal and a one-page bio or CV.

Deadline for Proposal Submission: August 1, 2012

Contact: Alexei Lalo, Research Administrator, ASU Melikian Center (alalo@asu.edu)
Stephen Batalden, Director, ASU Melikian Center (stephen.batalden@asu.edu)
Web page: http://melikian.asu.edu/events

Posted on by katieaston Publications

Publication: Samuli Schielke (2012). BEING A NONBELIEVER IN A TIME OF ISLAMIC REVIVAL

One of our conference speakers, Samuli Schielke has a recent publication which is freely accessible online and of great interest to the topic. Please see details below

What is the function of logic in al-Kindī’s corpus? What kind of relation does it have with mathematics? This article tackles these questions by examining al-Kindī’s theory of categories as it was presented in his epistle On the Number of Aristotle’s Books (Fī Kammiyyat kutub Arisṭū), from which we can learn about his special attitude towards Aristotle theory of categories and his interpretation, as well. Al-Kindī treats the Categories as a logical book, but in a manner different from that of the classical Aristotelian tradition. He ascribes a special status to the categories Quantity (kammiyya) and Quality (kayfiyya), whereas the rest of the categories are thought to be no more than different combinations of these two categories with the category Substance. The discussion will pay special attention to the function of the categories of Quantity and Quality as mediators between logic and mathematics.

Samuli Schielke (2012). BEING A NONBELIEVER IN A TIME OF ISLAMIC REVIVAL: TRAJECTORIES OF DOUBT AND CERTAINTY IN CONTEMPORARY EGYPT. International Journal of Middle East Studies, 44 , pp 301-320 doi:10.1017/S0020743812000062 http://journals.cambridge.org/abstract_S0020743812000062

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CFP: Oppositions: An Interdisciplinary Postgraduate Conference

A conference of potential interesting for the network investigating the usefulness of opposition in the religious/nonreligious binary.

CFP: Oppositions Postgraduate Conference. University of Salford, 28-29 September 2012
Oppositions: An Interdisciplinary Postgraduate Conference

28th and 29th September 2012
University of Salford

This conference seeks to explore ideas of opposition through the full range of disciplines in the arts, media, and social sciences.

In the context of the current crisis of capitalism, there are many examples of the forms ‘opposition’ can take: the Tea Party in the United States, the rise of fascist groups, campaigns run via new technologies and social media, religious fundamentalisms, and general strikes in Greece. Though it carries radical overtones, ‘opposition’ in itself is not tied to any particular dogma, left or right. We invite papers that explore the value and values of opposition as a position to be adopted by individuals or groups.

We welcome proposals for papers from postgraduates that engage with any aspect of opposition. These could include, but are by no means limited to: the ‘culture industry’ and alternative youth cultures; opposition parties within parliamentary politics; grass-roots activism; the history and future of the labour movement; hegemony; Foucauldian ‘resistance’ and its limits; radical pedagogies and the role of the University; community and class; the aesthetic value of non-mainstream or outsider art; aesthetic oppositions such as contrapuntal music or bricolage; and the formation of creole or pidgin languages.

Papers are welcome from fields such as politics, literature, philosophy, anthropology, religions and theology, geography, sociology, history, classics, translation studies, linguistics and social linguistics, visual and screen studies, new media and communication studies, and the performing arts. Interdisciplinary papers are very welcome.

Keynote speakers TBC.
Abstracts of 250 words are invited for presentations of 20 minutes. Proposals for performances, screenings etc. are also accepted. The conference intends to publish an edited volume of the best papers presented.
Send abstracts to oppositionsconference[at]gmail.com by 6 July 2012.

Posted on by Chris News

The conference is here… we have a hashtag! #nsrn

Who would have thought that we would finally get here? In just a couple of hours we will be kicking off the NSRN Conference in a damp and dreary London. For those of you who know what a hashtag is, I just wanted to let you know that we will be using the tag #nsrn throughout the conference.

If you want to follow official and unofficial comments on what is happening ‘live’ in the room at Goldsmiths University, if you want to see some pictures or ask questions or just have a bit of entertainment in the background, then set up a search on Twitter for #nsrn and start using the tag in your own tweets. I will be doing my best to keep the feed as up-to-date as possible throughout the next three days… we then hope that this will be a lasting archived legacy of the event that is about to ensue.

All that we ask is that you treat what people say during discussion sessions, at the meal, in the bar etc as private… but general themes and what people say in presentations is fair game. And, of course, I shouldn’t need to ask everyone to be civil 🙂

I’ll also be doing my best to keep the Facebook page up-to-date… amongst other things.

So – for those of you in the room, I hope that you will do your best to keep the rest of the NSRN world informed about this fabulous conference… and for those of you who couldn’t make it, I hope that this and some of the other planned outputs over the coming months mean that you have missed out entirely.

Posted on by Chris News

New ‘NSRN in the News’ Page

Just in time for the NSRN Conference, Lorna Mumford – one of the new members of the NSRN Online Team – has added a new page to the website which provides links to press articles relating to the NSRN or the work of network members. It is available here: http://nsrn.net/news/nsrn-in-the-news-2/

We hope that you enjoy have the opportunity to check out the latest ‘splashes’ that the NSRN has been making in the popular press, and that you will join us in thanking Lorna very much for her hard work.