Calls for Papers

Posted on by Josh Calls for Papers, News and Events

CFP: Old religion and new spirituality: continuity and changes in the background of secularization

Research group of religious studies of the Centre of Excellence in Cultural Theory (Estonia) announces a call for papers for its conference:

Old religion and new spirituality: continuity and changes in the background of secularization

University of Tartu, Estonia

26-29 May 2015

Estonia is an extremely secularized European country, characterized by the diminishing institutionalization of religion (de-institutionalization) and the decline of the Christian practices and beliefs (de-Christianization). In order to investigate the historical roots of the situation and clarify the characteristics of the current picture, the research project about religiosity in Estonia was started in 2011. The staff of the project welcomes the researchers dealing with the religious situation in various regions and countries of Europe in order to make comparisons of certain features of the changing religious landscape. Papers that address contemporary developments or provide a historical perspective will be accepted.

Particularly interesting aspects may include:

– historical process of secularization, its specific features in different countries;

– combinations of religion and nationalism, effects of nationalism on public religion;

– changes in the traditional religious groups and churches in 21st century;

– atheism and nonreligion, their organized and individual manifestations;

– new spirituality, “New Age” and individual religiousness, mixed forms of organized and individual religion.

Invited speakers include: Stephen Bullivant (St Mary’s University, Twickenham), Abby Day (University of Kent), Paul Heelas (Erasmus University Rotterdam), Detlef Pollack (University of Münster).

The language of the conference is English. The length of papers: 20 minutes. A conference fee €80 will be applied for meals and materials, the participants are expected to pay for their travel and accommodation. The organizers plan to publish a selection of papers.

Please send abstracts of papers of 250-300 words to the conference e-mail: orns@ut.ee before 01.01.2015.

Pre-arranged panels are to be considered as well.

Notification of acceptance and opening of the registration: 01.02.2015.

For further inquiries you may also contact Riho Altnurme: riho.altnurme@ut.ee

Constantly updated information about the conference can be found at: http://orns.ut.ee/

Posted on by Josh Calls for Papers, News and Events

CFP: Sociology of Religion Study Group (Socrel) Annual Conference 2015

Sociology of Religion: Foundations and Futures

Sociology of Religion Study Group (Socrel) Annual Conference www.socrel.org.uk

Date of Conference: Tuesday 7 – Thursday 9 July 2015 hosted by Kingston University London High Leigh Conference Centre, Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire, UK http://www.cct.org.uk/high-leigh/introduction 

Deadline for abstracts and panel proposals: December 1, 2014.

Keynote Speakers:

Professor Nancy T. Ammerman (Boston University)

Professor James Beckford (University of Warwick)

Professor Grace Davie (University of Exeter)

Professor David Martin (London School of Economics)

Professor Linda Woodhead (Lancaster University)

Since its foundation in 1975, the Sociology of Religion Study Group has become one of the largest in the British Sociological Association (BSA). Its membership includes educators and researchers from across the UK and internationally, and in 2015 the Sociology of Religion Study Group will be celebrating 40 years!

Given this occasion, it is an opportune moment to reflect on religion in society, and religion in sociology. From its foundation, Socrel has foregrounded research on secularisation, gender, spiritualities, embodied and lived accounts, materiality, generational innovations, atheism, social difference, migration, institutions, politicised expressions and methodologies in the study of religion. While this list does not account for all the many ways scholars have been investigating religion in social life – its various forms, intersections and spaces – it does speak to how religions continue to be important subjective and collective experiences that are stable and continuous, resistant and shifting. This conference will bring together scholars who have shaped and are shaping the discipline. It will be an opportunity to pay heed, not only to the Study Group’s and discipline’s accomplishments, but also an opportunity to address questions that still need answering, and questions that are emerging to inform future agendas and areas of concern and study, such as:
 
– What are the key points of continuity and innovation in theorising religion? 
– How are methodologies emerging and informing research on religion? 
– How are new approaches adapting and transforming old practices? 
– What are the key controversies that will occupy sociologists of religion? 
– What are the pedagogical challenges and innovations in teaching the sociology of religion? 

We invite you to celebrate with us by engaging in the conference questions from your particular area of research in the Sociology of Religion. 

Abstracts for individual papers (250 words max.) and panel proposals (500 words max.) are invited by 1 December 2014. Panels may take a standard 20-minute paper format or take alternative modes such as pre-circulated papers/work in progress/or ‘points of view’ that are 10-minutes long. Submissions should be made in Word format and include in the following order: Name, institutional affiliation, email address and paper title.

**All presenters must be members of Socrel.
Abstracts will be subject to peer review. Please note, presenters will be limited to one paper per person at the conference, but you may also organise a panel. 

-Abstract submissions open: 1 September 2014 -Early bird registration opens: 1 September 2014 -Abstract submissions close: 1 December 2014 -Decision notification: 15 January 2015 -Presenter registration closes: 16 March 2015 -Draft programme online: 16 April 2015 -Early bird registration closes:  11 May 2015 -Registration closes: 15 June 2015 

Please send abstracts to the attention of the conference organisers:
Dr Sylvie Collins-Mayo (Kingston University London) and Dr Sonya Sharma (Kingston University London) at: socrel2015@gmail.com  

Should you have other questions about the conference please also contact the conference organisers at the above email address.

Online Registration: http://portal.britsoc.co.uk/public/event/eventBooking.aspx?id=EVT10391 

A limited number of bursaries are available to support postgraduate, early career, low income or unwaged Socrel members to present at the conference. Please visit www.socrel.org.uk for instructions, and to download an application form, and submit your bursary application along with your abstract by 1 December 2014.

Socrel is the British Sociological Association’s study group on Religion. For more details about the study group and conference please visit www.socrel.org.uk.

Posted on by Josh Calls for Papers, News and Events

CFP: Religion and Realism

The American University of Rome are pleased to announce a CALL FOR PAPERS for an International Conference on RELIGION AND REALISM

Date of the conference: November 28, 2014

Deadline for paper proposals: September 1, 2014

Rome, The American University of Rome.

Religion remains one of the most significant social forces and cultural constituencies. It can be said that religion and religious truths are becoming increasingly important in the so called “post-secular” times, when the sphere of the (secular) social/political and the sphere of the religious have to be re-thought again. The relevancy of religious truths and the way they structure our understanding of “reality” overcomes the sphere of theology and particular religious practices. Religion, truth, and reality, and the way these concepts are approached and understood, continue to be vital for a broader cultural discourse as well, from philosophy and science, to politics, mass media and show business.

“Realism,” on the other hand, is usually understood as a position and method, which is opposite to “idealism” and the “imaginary.” “Realism” implies a certain way of approaching the reality and truth. Looking from a positivistic perspective, many would find it difficult to associate concepts of “realism” or “truth” with phenomena such as religion. However, the experience of the post-modern times has taught us that relations between the “reality,” “truth,” “knowledge” and “interpretation” are far more complex, and that even the purest “fiction” is sometimes capable of being more effective (and therefore more “real”) in influencing our lives and in structuring the world in which we live, than most of the things that are directly exposed to our sensuous experience and rational reflection. On the other hand, we have also learned from the experience of modernity that certain metaphysical narratives, and their claims for “absolute truth” and “absolute reality,” could be very dangerous in their practical, social and political manifestations.

The conference seeks to explore philosophical, social, political, and theological dimensions of religion and realism. The themes and subjects for paper proposals include (but are not limited to) the following:

  • Secularism, post-secularism, new religiosity
  • Religion and reality
  • Religion and truth
  • Religion and subversion
  • Religion and political reality
  • Religion and economic “realisms”
  • Absolute “truths” and social/political freedom
  • Ultimate truth: tyranny or liberation?
  • Realism as epistemology
  • Realism – the political dimension
  • Realism – the aesthetic dimension
  • Realism – the religious/theological
  • Realism and the “New Realism”
  • Understanding metaphysical, physical and social “reality”
  • Reality and creativity
  • Reality and religion: the need for interpretation or for a social change?
  • Power, reality and knowledge

Submitting proposals: English will be the working language of the conference. Paper proposals (abstracts) should contain no more than 250 words.

There will be no conference fee for speakers. All presented papers will be published in the conference proceedings.

Abstracts, together with a short CV (not to exceed 1800 characters) should be sent no later than September 1, 2014 to: religionrealism@gmail.com

 

Posted on by Lorna Mumford Calls for Papers

Call for Papers: Atheism, Secularism, and Science

Announcing CFP: Atheism, Secularity, and Science, a special journal issue in Science, Religion & Culture
.
Guest edited by: John R. Shook Ph.D., Ralph W. Hocfpod Jr.
Ph.D., and Thomas J. Coleman III.
Over the past 10 years research and scholarship on secularity in general, and atheism in particular, has increased significantly. Moreover, these phenomena have been researched, studied and documented by multiple
disciplines ranging from cognitive science to religious studies, and from anthropology to sociology. The study of atheism and secularity is of high interest to not only scholars, but also the public in general.
Atheism and secularity are often seen as two constructs that are intimately related with a third, that of ‘science’. Where one finds the scientific method, positivist epistemology and naturalism in general, one typically finds atheism and secularism. Continue reading →

Posted on by amschutz Calls for Papers, News and Events

CFP: Religion and Spirituality in Society

Fifth International Conference on Religion and Spirituality in Society

16-17 April 2015

University of California at Berkeley


Berkeley, California, USA

http://religioninsociety.com/the-conference/call-for-papers

SPECIAL CONFERENCE FOCUS: Social Movements and Faith

Religious commitments are, as often as not, social commitments. In addition to its usual range of themes, this year’s special focus of the Religion and Society knowledge community is the relation of religion to social movements, ranging from movements for nominally “progressive” or “liberal” social change, to “fundamentalisms” whose religious practices are often explicitly or implicitly social and political. The conference will ask the questions: under what conditions and to what extent are religious communities socially activist, either in their doctrine or their practices? How do religious communities, support or align with other social movements?

The 2015 meeting will feature a special focus on this provocative subject. We welcome open debate, discourse and research from participants that center on this special topic, as well as any other themes or issues relevant to religion and spirituality in society. Continue reading →

Posted on by amschutz Calls for Papers, News and Events

CFP: European Conference on Ethics, Religion & Philosophy 2014

The European Conference on Ethics, Religion & Philosophy

24-27 July 2014

Thistle Hotel Brighton, UK

http://iafor.org/iafor/ecerp2014-call-for-papers/

2014 Conference Theme:
“Individual, Community & Society: Conflict, Resolution & Synergy”

 Conflict is an integral part of the human condition. The universal struggle between our personal selves—who we are as unique, separate and different from others, with our specific blend of experiences, abilities, attitudes, aspirations, needs and wants—and our social selves, intricately connected to, and interdependent on, others—our loved ones, our friends and favoured groups, our communities and cultures—leads inevitably to internal as well as interpersonal conflict.

Conflict among our communities and societies is also natural, given that these groups are founded on commonality—of geography, values, attitudes, beliefs, aspirations—and differentiated from others based on these. Diversity, however, though it may lead to conflict, plays an important role in the flourishing of communities and societies. One of the challenges of modern society is harnessing the synergy that emerges from the interaction of these differences.

Abstracts of no more than 250 words should be submitted by the extended deadline of June 1, 2014.

Posted on by Chris Calls for Papers

Call for Papers: Annual Review of the Sociology of Religion – “Atheism”

Proposal for a special issue of the Annual Review of the Sociology of Religion, edited by Franco Garelli and Roberto Cipriani, on atheism (cut-off date for delivery of papers, 30th June 2015; forthcoming 2016)

arsrIn the spring of 1969 an International Symposium on the Culture of Unbelief was held in Rome, organized by the Vatican Secretariat for Unbelievers, with the participation of illustrious sociologists like Parsons, Berger and Luckmann: see R. Caporale, A. Grumelli (eds.), The Culture of Unbelief, University of California Press, 1971 (published in Italian as Religione e ateismo nelle società secolarizzate, Mulino, 1972). This pioneering experience sought to understand the evolution of the secularization then taking place. Later, the topics of religious non-belonging, indifference, agnosticism, ceased to attract the specific attention of sociologists, who began taking a greater interest in pluralism, globalization, multiple modernity and intercultural phenomena. But for some years now the issue of non-religious attitudes and behaviour has come to the fore again. The Sociology of Religion review devoted most of one of its recent issues (Winter 2013, with two essays by Stephen LeDrew and one by Jesse M. Smith) to the phenomenon of atheism. The Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion (March 2013) also showed an interest in unbelief by publishing essays by Jesse M. Smith (Godless Community), Eran Shor and David J. Roelfs (Nonreligious Participation). Previously the Journal of Contemporary Religion had devoted a special issue (January 2012) to the topic of “Non Religion and Secularity”.

The time seems to have come for sociology to take stock of the situation, not merely in partial or territorial terms, but in a much broader sense, in order to obtain a better understanding of the dynamics presently at play in this area. Among other things, it is significant that, in the meantime, a neologism, previously unknown to the literature of sociology has been coined: Nones, those who deny, do not believe, do not belong, do not participate, do not pray, do not refer at all to values of a religious nature.

However, adequate statistical references and specific research devoted entirely to the issue of unbelief are lacking. Without claiming to present a comprehensive picture of the situation at world level, nevertheless, the intention underscoring this proposal is that of trying to provide as varied an analytical perspective as possible, one capable of acting, maybe, as a new starting point for a future sociology of non-religion.

Possible topics include:

  • Irreligion
  • Religious nones
  • Agnosticism
  • Non religious education
  • Non religious participation
  • Non religion
  • Non religion in Britain
  • Atheism in India
  • Non religion in USA
  • Religious indifference
  • Atheism and religion in Eastern and Western Countries
  • World statistics of religion and irreligion
  • Atheism and islam in Eastern and Western Countries
  • Atheism and Orthodox Churches
  • American atheists
  • Teaching atheism
  • Paganism
  • Religion and Non Religion
  • Religion and Secularism
  • New Atheism and Non Religion
  • Atheism in International Social Survey Program

Please send all proposals (300 words) to Roberto Cipriani: rciprian@uniroma3.it

Deadlines:

  • Submission of proposals: June 30, 2014
  • Notification of acceptance: September 30, 2014
  • Completed manuscripts (7000 words): June 30, 2015
Posted on by Chris Calls for Papers

Call for Papers: Association for the Sociology of Religion Conference 2014

ASSOCIATION FOR THE SOCIOLOGY OF RELIGION

76th Annual Meeting:  RELIGION AS A SOCIAL FORCE

August 13-15, 2014. J.W. Marriott Union Square, San Francisco, CA

PROGRAM CHAIR:  Jeremy Uecker, Baylor University, Jeremy_Uecker@baylor.edu

Over the past three decades, a number of scholars have underscored the apparent role of religious institutions, practices, beliefs, and values in shaping social institutions and human behavior. This strand of work has been collectively labeled the “strong program” in the sociology of religion. Theorists and researchers working within this program have explored the role of religion with regard to a wide array of domains, including social movements and politics, social stratification, immigration, health and well-being, and many others. Notable contributions have come from scholars whose main specialization is the sociology of religion, and from others who are known for their scholarship in other areas, but who have come to recognize the relevance of religion for their own work. Others have critiqued the “strong program” on a number of important grounds. The 2014 ASR meeting will explore what can be learned by viewing religion and spirituality as independent influences in social life, as well as the potential pitfalls of doing so, along with the many other approaches that flourish within the highly pluralistic sociology of religion.

Papers and discussion sessions on all topics within the sociology of religion are welcome, but especially those related to the meeting theme, including, but not limited to the following:

  • Religion and demographic processes;  Religion and globalization;  Religion and politics;  Religion and social movements;  Religion and education;  Spirituality and religion;  Religion and socioeconomic inequality;  Religion, spirituality, and health/well-being;  Religion, race, and ethnicity;  Religion, gender, and sexualities;  Religion and immigration;  Non-western religion and social change;  Religion, terrorism, and violence;  Religion and pro-social attitudes and behavior;  Religion in adolescence and emerging adulthood;  Religion, marriage, and family life;  Religion, biology, and the body;  Religion, crime, and deviance;  Religion, spirituality, and emotions.

DEADLINES:  Session Proposals are due by March 31, 2014 (submit to Jeremy_Uecker@baylor.edu)

Paper Proposals and abstracts are due by April 30, 2014 (submit through the Member Portal at www.sociologyofreligion.com)

Meeting registration is due by July 1, 2014 (submit through the Member Portal at www.sociologyofreligion.com)

A pdf of this call for papers is available here.