Posted on by katieaston Calls for Papers, News and Events

CFP: EASR 12 panel abstract Submission now open

ENDS AND BEGINNINGS, Annual Conference of the European Association of the Study of Religion (EASR)

Södertörn University, Stockholm. 23-26 August, 2012

Religion, it has been claimed, is generated by our desire to escape from the tyranny of time. Through certain thoughts and practices, people have sought to evade the end that our temporal existence so inevitably seems to lead up to. Religion often circles around the promise of a new beginning – a prosperous life in this world or a renewed existence in the hereafter. In the Abrahamic traditions, humankind is placed at the heart of a cosmic drama that is framed by notions of an absolute beginning, an apocalyptic end, and, beyond that, an eternity that obliterates the boundaries of time. Ritualized activities, furthermore, are often performed as expressions or celebrations of ends and beginnings – of seasons, communities or of phases in an individual’s life.

Stolen kiss, collage paintingPicture: Stolen kiss, collage painting by Anna-Karin Brus, 2009. © Anna-Karin Brus.http://www.haka.nu/

All these matters have attracted the attention of scholars of religion, as has the larger question of whether there can be said to be a beginning or an end of religion in general. Can we – in the darkness of prehistory or in the evolution of human cognition – localise a beginning of religion? And, is it – in a time when theories of secularisation, rationalisation and disenchantment are increasingly put into question – still possible to speak of the decline of religion or of its end?
We are pleased to invite scholars of different disciplines to take part in this conference, by which we hope to stimulate theoretical, methodological and empirical progress within the academic study of religion. Ends and beginnings is the 11th annual conference of EASR (European Association for the Study of Religion). It is organized in collaboration with SSRF (Swedish Association for the History of Religions).
Abstract submission deadline: 1 May, 2012

It is now possible to pre-register to the conference. In order to preregister, please use the link below.

We now also accept abstracts for panels, these may be submitted by following the same link below. Abstracts for individual papers will be possible to submit from January 2012. If you have pre-registered you will be sent an e-mail to remind you of this.

Preregistration and Panel sessions

Submit abstracts here

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Reminder: What have we learned about Radicalisation? 7 March 2012

Wednesday 07 March 2012, 5.30-7pm, 61 Whitehall

Details below or visit the Religion and Society webpage

Since 9/11 and 7/7 billions have been invested in tackling and understanding religious radicalisation. This debate brings together academic and policy experts to consider what have we learned:

About its nature and causes?

About parallels and precedents?

About the effect of policies designed to tackle the problem?

About future threats and where we go from here?

Download the academics’ presentations below, under their photographs

Register your place

If you would like to take part in the debate, please email

p.ainsworth@lancaster.ac.uk

When registering, please let us know which of the following categories best describes you ‘Academic’, ‘Faith-based Organisations and Voluntary Sector’, ‘Media’, ‘Policy’, ‘Religious Communities’ or ‘Other’

Matthew Francis

Matthew Francis

View website

Mat is editor of radicalisationresearch.org for the Religion and Society Programme and Researcher on the Religious Literacy Leadership Programme.

 

Mark Sedgwick

Mark SedgwickView website

Mark is a Professor in the Department of Culture and Society, Aarhus University. His publications include Muhammad Abduh (2009) and he recently wrote a piece for radicalisationresearch.org

 

Marat Shterin

Marat ShterinView website

Dr Shterin is Lecturer in Sociology of Religion at King’s College London. His publications include Dying for Faith co-authored with Madawi Al-Rasheed (2009) and he recently co-edited a special issue of Religion, State and Society.

 

Mehdi Hasan

Mehdi Hasan View website

Mehdi is the New Statesman’s Senior Editor (Politics).

 

Ed Husain

Ed HusainView website

Ed is co-founder of the Quilliam Foundation and author of The Islamist (2007).He is currently a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, Washington, DC.

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CFP: ‘Death in modern Scotland, 1855-1955: beliefs, attitudes and practices’

‘Death in modern Scotland, 1855-1955: beliefs, attitudes and practices’

New College, University of Edinburgh, Friday 1 February 2013 – Saturday 3 February, 2013.

‘There remains a huge agenda for death research, offering a unique vantage point for the study of Scottish history’ (Professor Elaine McFarland of Glasgow Metropolitan University, 2004). Since those words were written, there have been increasing signs of interest, research and publications in death studies in Scotland.

This conference invites those who are researching death from whatever disciplinary perspective to offer papers whose total range will illuminate one hundred years of death in modern Scotland. These hundred years began with the passing of the Registration Act and the Burial Grounds (Scotland) Act in 1855 and end with the opening of Daldowie Crematorium in 1955.

Plenary speakers include:

Professor Elaine McFarland, Dr Elizabeth Cumming and Professor Hilary J. Grainger.

Papers will be particularly welcome on the subjects of:

  • death, grief and mourning;
  • funeral rites and rituals; customs and costume;
  • demographic and statistical interpretations; registration of death;
  • public health and medicine;
  • death, poverty, gender and social class
  • death, urban and rural comparisons
  • burial and cremation;
  • the development of funeral directing services;
  • theology, liturgy and funeral ministry;
  • monuments and memorialisation;
  • issues of architecture and landscape design;
  • the folklore of death; ghost narratives and beliefs; spiritualism;
  • death in war-time;
  • death, grief, mourning;
  • death in literature and the arts;
  • death and Scottish law;
  • violent death; the death penalty;
  • disasters: air, rail, sea and industrial;

Established research and work-in-progress welcomed.

Abstracts of 200 words maximum may be sent to Peter C. Jupp, Braddan House, High Street, Duddington, Stamford, Lincs PE9 3QE email peterc.jupp@btinternet.com or peter.c.jupp@ed.ac.uk

A follow-up call for papers with full conference details and names of plenary speakers will be published soon.

Revd Dr Peter C. Jupp,

Honorary Fellow,

Department of Divinity,

University of Edinburgh, UK.

Posted on by katieaston Calls for Papers, Publications

CFP: Special Issue “Religion & Globalization”

Please note the CFP below for the special Issue “Religion & Globalization”. Areas of interest include  the re-enchantment of the world and the transient nature of religious practice. It would be interesting to see included some work on similar negotiations within secular practices and discourses or other view points on the secular.
A special issue of Religions (http://www.mdpi.com/journal/religions/)

http://www.mdpi.com/journal/religions/special_issues/religion_globalization/

Call for Papers

Whether globalization is considered as a worldwide structured system of interstate relationships (Friedmann, 1998) or as a world “in motion” (Tomlinson, 1999) crossed by human and cultural flows (Appadurai, 1998), it refers indisputably to a new set of environmental conditions for religions. Globalization is creating new dynamics of change including transnational expansions of traditions (Csordas, 2007), deterritorialized sites, cultic areas (even parishes), virtualized and networked “communities” of believers, electronic and mediatized gods (Stolow, 2010), the universalization of cosmopolitan values and the localization of universalized beliefs (Robertson, 1992). Also shifting religious geographies (for example, Christianity turning “southern” and “black”, Islam turning “Asian”, Buddhism turning “white” and “western”) have contributed to a reshaping of global geopolitics (Huntington, 1993), an “ecological” turn in religious beliefs (Taylor, 2005), a worldwide standardization of religious systems (Beyer, 1994, 1998, 1999) and re-enchantment on a global scale (Csordas, 2007). Migrations have been – and still are – major forces for the geographic redistribution of beliefs and cults, while the world is also becoming ‘proselytized’. This does not clarify the very specific modes by which each process of mobility affects the various ways different religions are acted upon by global forces in their specific contexts. Neither does it take into account the fact that global religious changes may have nothing to do with mobility (Friedmann, 1998) but rather with global systems (Beyer, 1994). A global perspective on religious changes and adaptations in the contemporary world requires a prudent examination of different case-studies as not all religions are subjected to the same forces and engaged with similar processes of changes. Indeed, the “great” historical religions do not face global changes like new expanding religious cults or sects do. Analysis must cautiously distinguish between globalizing religions in global conditions, the impact of globalization on religions, and the role of religions in the rise and the shaping of global (economic, political or ideological) forces.

This special issue aims at gathering papers in which scholars from different disciplinary backgrounds (religious studies, anthropology, sociology, political sciences, history, political economy or others) can explore, on an empirical basis and in clearly identified geographic, historical and cultural contexts, the effects of religion on globalization or of globalization on religions. Please contact Prof. Lionel Obadia, anthropologist, University Lyon 2 at: Lionel.obadia@univ-lyon2.fr

Keywords: Globalization, Global and globalizing religions, spiritual transnationalism, migration and missionary activism, mediatization of religions, religion and the Internet,  deterritorialization and new geographies of religions.

Expected deadline: September 30, 2012.

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Podcast: Grace Davie on the Changing Nature of Religion

Grace Davie discusses the changing nature of religion, particularly in the UK and Europe following her keynote address to the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion in Milwaukee last October.

Listen to the podcast

“In this interview with Chris, Professor Davie discusses the place of religion in modern Europe, paying particular attention to the place of the United Kingdom within the European context. In an effort to combat the caricatures that typify media accounts of religion in the contemporary world, Davie discusses the changing nature of religion, in academia and in the public square, and considers the impact of the arrival of new cultures into Europe, whilst reflecting on secular reactions to these”

Posted on by katieaston Calls for Papers, News and Events

CFP: Material Religion in Modern Britain and her Worlds 8-9 June 2012

Not strictly within the NSRN remit, but  there could be some scope for a secular/non-religious comparative paper within the conference.

Material Religion in Modern Britain and her Worlds

8-9 June 2012

University of Glamorgan, Cardiff

This two-day symposium will explore material cultures of religious belief and faith in modern Britain. As Birgit Meyer, David Morgan, Crispin Paine and S. Brent Plate have recently pointed out, studying material objects provides us with an alternative evidence base in the study of modern religious belief (Birgit Meyer et al; 2011). Yet few attempts have yet been made to do so. While many scholars now concede that Britain’s religious landscape is more varied and rich than the narrative of secularisation allows, a tendency remains in the historiography of religion to privilege written sources over material manifestations of religion. This means that all sorts of belief practices have been overlooked. Analysing the material past, we propose, will provide scholars with new and exciting ways of understanding the apparently fraught relationship between modernity and religion. As Jane Bennett points out, objects are culture constructions and lead active lives in our social and cultural landscape. Religious historians have too often been guilty of adopting an implicitly Protestant binary (set up in opposition to Catholicism) in which words are privileged over objects. Yet everyday cultures of Protestant belief in Britain relied on all kinds of material cultures which sustained religion in an age of uncertainty.

Despite Britain’s ‘official’ Protestant past, we are nonetheless keen to encourage papers which explore religious denominations or groups beyond the official cannon and which made up Britain’s multi-faith landscape in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Papers are welcome which consider either formal or informal aspects of religious materiality. We would especially like to encourage papers that consider ‘Britain’s worlds’, including investigations of religious objects in the Empire or commonwealth or geographical locations inhabited by British people.

We hope to encourage an interdisciplinary dialogue by bringing together scholars in history, religion, art/design history, architecture and sociology.

Keynote speakers to be annouced

Possible themes or topics include:

  • Religious objects
  • Religious ephemera
  • The materiality of religious and sacred texts
  • Sacred Dress and Clothing
  • Religious Architecture and the built environment
  • Construction of sacred space
  • Social identity/identities including class, gender and life stage
  • Ideas surrounding materiality and religion
  • Advertising and Consumption
  • Making of religious objects
  • Religious Interiors and the domestic display of material objects
  • Religious aestheticism
  • Iconography

Please send abstracts of 400 words either Lucinda Matthews-Jones [l.matthew-jones@ljmu.ac.uk] or Tim Jones [twjones@glam.ac.uk] by 31st March.

The Conference will be hosted by the University of Glamorgan, Cardiff Campus.

We plan a number of publication outputs from this conference. If you are unable to attend, but would like to express your interest for future events or outputs, please email Lucinda Matthews-Jones [l.matthew-jones@ljmu.ac.uk] with a brief description of your work and a short CV.

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Postgraduate Part-time Research Assistants: ‘Religious Diversity and Secular Models in Europe – Innovative Approaches to Law and Policy’

Advertisement for the post of Postgraduate Part-time Research Assistants

The Department of Law is seeking to employ two suitably qualified Postgraduate Research Assistants to work within the research project RELIGARE. These are EU grant funded positions. The project researches the area of: ‘Religious Diversity and Secular Models in Europe – Innovative Approaches to Law and Policy’.

Candidates will be required to undertake research in collaboration with and under the supervision of the Principal Investigator, Dr Prakash Shah, in order to realise the objectives and development of the research programme. Duties will involve writing case notes, assisting in the organisation of project meetings, attending project meetings, coordinating volunteers’ activities, and writing and editing research papers and reports. Good academic and legal writing skills are necessary.

These are part-time, fixed term posts available for 6 months. The posts are to commence mid March 2012 or as soon as possible thereafter. Remuneration will be made on an hourly basis and will be in the range of £15.43 – £16.27 per hour depending on the tasks allocated and experience of the employee. Benefits include 30 days annual leave (pro-rata) and defined benefit pension scheme.

Candidates must be able to demonstrate their eligibility to work in the UK in accordance with the Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Act 2006. Where required, this may include entry clearance or continued leave to remain under the Points Based Immigration Scheme.

Informal enquiries should be addressed to please contact Dr Prakash Shah (prakash.shah@qmul.ac.uk).

Details about the department and further particulars are available from: www.laws.qmul.ac.uk

Further details and an application form can be found at: http://webapps.qmul.ac.uk/hr/vacancies/jobs.php?id=2882

Completed application forms, quoting 12012/NL, should be returned to law-recruitment@qmul.ac.uk. Applications must be made on the official College application form and must include the applicant’s CV and the names of three referees.

The closing date for applications is 4th March 2012 at 17:00 hrs BST and interviews will be held shortly thereafter.

Posted on by katieaston Calls for Papers, News and Events

CFP: International Workshop on Religion, Politics and Policy-making in Russia: Domestic and International Dimensions

For members of the group interested in secularism and religion in the public sphere and distinctions in the role of policy making, this conference has some scope for inclusion.

International Workshop

Religion, Politics and Policy-making in Russia: Domestic and International Dimensions

Center for EU-Russia Studies (CEURUS), University of Tartu, Tartu, Estonia

June 6-7, 2012

Organizers: Prof Jerry G. Pankhurst (Wittenberg University, USA; visiting Fulbright scholar at the University of Tartu) and Alar Kilp (University of Tartu)

The Center for EU-Russia Studies (CEURUS) at the University of Tartu invites your participation in a workshop on Religion, Politics and Policy-making in Russia: Domestic and International Dimensions. The workshop is meant to highlight new research on the questions of religion and politics in Russia, to foster collaborative relations for future projects, and to provide an opportunity for everyone to learn about high-quality research that is being carried out in this area of inquiry.

The program organizers seek to explore the politics of religious affairs in Russia and the former Soviet countries and to assess the activities and role of the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) and other organized religious groups in domestic and foreign policy. Issues related to religious diversity and religious tolerance in Russia and the neighboring countries are also of interest.

Confirmed keynote speakers include Irina Papkova, Professor of Political Science, Public Policy and International Relations at the Central European University, and Viacheslav Karpov, Professor of Sociology at Western Michigan University.

Workshop organizers will actively seek opportunities to publish selected papers in a special issue of a journal or in an edited volume.

Workshop Venue: University of Tartu, Estonia. Tartu is a home to one of the oldest universities in Eastern Europe. It was founded by the Swedish king Gustavus Adolphus in 1632. Today the University of Tartu is the only classical university in Estonia. It is a leading center of research and training, ranked among the 400 best universities of the world by Times Higher Education. The city of Tartu is a charming university town whose relaxed and sophisticated atmosphere creates a perfect environment for scholarly conversations. Tartu is well-served with bus and train connection with the city of Tallinn and its Lennart Meri Airport. There are also flights to Tartu from Tallinn (Estonian Air) and Helsinki (Flybe, in connection with Finnair). For more information, see: http://www.tartu.ee; http://www.ut.ee.

Who may participate? We invite scholars of Russian religious affairs and scholars with research focusing on the activities of the Russian Orthodox Church both in and outside of Russia. Graduate students carrying out advanced work are welcomed to submit proposals for a presentation.

The workshop sessions will be open to the public. Anyone who has a serious and informed interest in scholarly research on the topical issues is invited to attend the presentations and participate in question and answer sessions.

Cost: There will be no registration fee for this workshop. The sponsoring organizations will host a reception and a dinner but are not able to cover travel or accommodation expenses of individual participants. However, limited travel support is available to participants from the CIS countries. CEURUS will assist as much as possible with information about local accommodations and other arrangements. If you have questions, please contact Britt Ressar at britt.ressar@ut.ee

Proposing a paper: If you are interested in presenting a paper, please consider the topic preferences below and send your abstract (250-300 words) and a succinct statement of your present position and recent publications and grants (if any) to Alar Kilp (alar.kilp@ut.ee).

The deadline for receiving abstracts for consideration for the program is April 2, 2012.

Abstracts will the evaluated by the workshop organizers for quality of scholarship and appropriateness for the program structure and workshop theme. Authors of abstracts selected to be presented will be notified by April 13 via email.

Full papers by presenters will be due by 25 May, 2012. Send papers via email to Alar Kilp (alar.kilp@ut.ee)

Potential Topics for Workshop Presentations: Below are some areas of special interest, but this is not a complete list of options for the program. Within the overall guidelines of the workshop, all proposals will be given serious consideration even if their topics are not explicitly listed below.

o What is the political and social role and influence of the Russian Orthodox Church (including its role in Russian politics in general, its role in Russian foreign policy/international affairs, contributions to EU-Russia relations)?

o What is the nature of religious or church engagement in various social and political institutions in Russia (schools, marriage, military, prisons, etc.)

o Given Russia’s religious diversity, what is the state of inter-group relations on a scale of tolerance-intolerance or accommodated-alienated? Of special interest is the state of adaptation and acceptance of Muslim groups in Russia.

o What are the issues related to religion in the Russian diaspora in the EU (including the Baltic states) and the Russian “Near Abroad” – religious practices, needs; role of Orthodox churches, Eastern orthodoxy in Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia?

o How well have Russian practices and policies lived up to European norms regarding religion? What are the European concerns regarding freedom of religion/religious life in Russia? What is the role of various European institutions: ECHR, Council of Europe, European Parliament, OSCE, etc.?

o To what extent have Russian religious groups been active in European governing institutions like those just named? How much do Russians see these institutions as appropriate venues for their own political or politically relevant pursuits?

o How much and in what ways have Russian religious groups expressed their concerns about problems in religious conditions in Europe, excessive secularity in Europe, and the like?

o To what extent and in what ways is the Russian Orthodox Church engaged in a “politics of family values” on the broader European stage? How are common interests with Orthodox churches of the countries of the European Union enlisted in these endeavors, and how are non-Orthodox churches (Roman Catholic, Lutheran, Anglican, other Protestant churches, etc.) involved with the Russian Orthodox? Are non-Christian groups, especially Jews and Muslims, involved in these efforts?

o Explorations of additional issues in the area of politics and religion related to Russia will be considered for inclusion in the workshop program.

Additional information: Workshop participants may be interested in a conference at the University of Tartu that is scheduled to take place in the week following this workshop. It is the 2012 annual conference of CIHEC, the Commission Internationale d’Histoire et d’etudes du Christianisme. For more information on this conference, see http://www.history.ac.uk/cihec/our-conferences

Posted on by katieaston Calls for Papers, News and Events

CFP: Alternative Salvations, 18 September 2012

Space for secular and non-religious readings of salvation, particularly for those working in a variety of Christian cultural contexts.
One Day Conference, Sept 18th 2012, University of Chester

The conference will explore how ‘unorthodox’ readings of sacred texts inform salvation experience; how life
transformations outside of religious contexts might be considered spiritual; how ideas of this-worldly salvation
are politicised; how ideas of salvation are simultaneously secularised and infused with new power; what alternative salvations can be discovered within Christianity and how might they be practised? In particular, we are seeking to  explore the ways that alternative religious, spiritual and secular understandings of the notion of salvation already shape, and have the potential to shape, how people live and act in Christian and post-Christian contexts .

This exciting conference breaks new ground in exploring alternative approaches to salvation. Proposals for
short papers are invited on any aspect of the theme of ‘alternative salvations’ as outlined here. Papers will normally be 20 minutes in length with an additional 10 minutes for discussion. Applications to submit a short paper should include:
• Proposer’s name and affiliation
• a title for the paper
• a 200 word abstract
• Details of any audio-visual equipment you will need to deliver your paper
Short paper proposals should be submitted to alternativesalvations@chester.ac.uk by no later than 4:00pm on 16th April 2012.

Applicants should know the outcome of their proposal by 18th May 2012.
Conference costs: £28 (£18 for unwaged and students) inclusive of lunch and refreshments.

If you would like any further information, please contact: alternativesalvations@chester.ac.uk

Posted on by katieaston News and Events

Event: SOCREL Postgraduate Event at Chester Tuesday 27 March – Wenesday 28 March

POSTGRADUATES EVENT

Aspiring Academics: From Research to Recognition.

There are still limited places left for this SOCREL Postgraduate Event at Chester, just before the conference. The event is being sponsored by the Higher Education Academy Subject Centre for Philosophical and Religious Studies and runs from Tuesday 27th March (2 pm) – Wed 28th March (2 pm). This event will take place at the same venue as the conference and is open to SOCREL PG members. Be sure to book accommodation, as it is not included in the registration price (see attached form to book Tuesday night accommodation for this).

For further information please visit www.socrel.org.uk

The 2012 SOCREL Conference is next month. We are looking forward to an array of rich papers that will be addressing religion in relation to the media, education, secularism, gender and diaspora, sexuality and race, health and work, and class and politics. An updated draft conference programme is now available: http://www.socrel.org.uk

If you have not registered yet and would like to, please go to the registration page (registration closes on March 14th.)