Religion

Posted on July 16, 2012 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 July 16, 2012 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 June 7, 2012 by katieaston Calls for Papers, News and Events

CFP: Rethinking Religion in India conference: Secularism, Religion and Law

Deadline for abstracts 15 August 2012

Rethinking Religion in India conference to be held on 24-27 November 2012 held by the the research programme Vergelijkende Cultuurwetenschap (Comparative Science of Cultures)

In 2003, the Research Centre Vergelijkende Cultuurwetenschap (“Comparative Science of Cultures”) was established at Ghent University, Belgium, under the directorship of Prof. S.N. Balagangadhara. The Research Centre promotes research on cultural differences between Asia and the West and has a special focus on European and Indian culture.

Parallel Paper Sessions

We invite submission of max. 300 word abstracts on the following themes:

The colonial construction of Hinduism
The caste system and Indian religion
Secularism in Europe and India
Religious conversion in India
Religious and communal violence
Religion and Law

In case there is a second author, please indicate this clearly in your abstract.

“How to…?” Workshops

We invite proposals for workshop sessions that address a concrete question such as ‘How to teach about the Indian religions and traditions?’ or ‘How to develop de-colonised descriptions of the Indian traditions?’ will be addressed. Even though the aim of these sessions is to involve the audience in a more active way, the structure of these sessions is left open: the sessions could consist of presentations, a discussion among a panel of experts on a particular theme, a discussion with the audience introduced and moderated by a chair. It is left to the organiser of a ‘how to…?’ workshop to decide upon this.

Workshop proposals should explain why this workshop is important vis-à-vis the general objectives of Rethinking Religion in India. They should also contain an outline of the planned structure of the session with the number and names of speakers, moderator and/or other participants.

Posted on April 25, 2012 by katieaston News and Events

First events listed for the new programme of the Study of Religion and Non-Religion at the London School of Economics.

The Forum on Religion is pleased to announce the establishment of a new Programme for the Study of Religion and Non-Religion at the London School of Economics.

The Programme for the Study of Religion and Non-Religion, based in the Department of Anthropology, aims to bring together staff and research students from across LSE, and within the wider academic and policy communities, working on issues to do with religion, secularism, and “non-religious” practices, beliefs, and traditions. The main aims of the Programme are to:

• Foster and provide a framework for primary research

• Facilitate academic and public discussions on issues relevant to religion, atheism, secularism, humanism and post-humanism

• Provide a platform for researchers and stakeholders to showcase and communicate their findings to broader academic, public, and public policy audiences

The Forum on Religion is becoming part of the new Programme for the Study of Religion and Non-Religion and will continue to host public lectures and an interdisciplinary seminar series. For more information on the Programme, visit the website or contact Dr Matthew Engelke at m.engelke@lse.ac.uk

We will continue to advertise Forum on Religion events through their mailing list.

FORTHCOMING EVENTS

Seminar

Religion and Non-Religion: A Roundtable Discussion
With Dr Amanda van Eck (INFORM), Dr Matthew Engelke (LSE Anthropology), Dr Simon Glendinning (LSE, European Institute), Dr John Madeley (LSE Government), Rev James Walters (LSE Chaplaincy)
9 May 2012, 16.30-18.00
Seligman Library, Department of Anthropology, Old Building, LSE

Public lectures

At the Origins of Modern Atheism
Speaker: Rev Dr Giles Fraser
Discussant: Prof John Gray (London School of Economics)
Chair: Dr Matthew Engelke (London School of Economics)
6 June 2012, 18.30-20.00
Sheikh Zayed Theatre, New Academic Building, LSE
This event will be followed by a reception and marks the public launch of the Programme for the Study of Religion and Non-Religion

Ethics as Piety
Speaker: Prof Webb Keane (University of Michigan)
Discussant: Dr Faisal Devji (Oxford University)
27 June 2012, 18.00-19.30
New Academic Building LG.09, LSE

ALL EVENTS ARE FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBLIC

Posted on April 5, 2012April 5, 2012 by katieaston News and Events

Religion and Belief in Higher Education, Derby 15 June 2012

Please see details below for a symposium on religion and belief in higher education, please note the inclusion of Dr Rebecca Catto and Dr Janet Eccles project findings, ‘Forming and Expressing Non-Religious Beliefs in Higher Education’.

RELIGION & BELIEF IN HIGHER EDUCATION

How are students and staff negotiating religion and belief in universities today? This symposium will bring together researchers examining the role of religion and belief in higher education and showcase a range of recent research projects. We will examine evidence from large-scale surveys and local case studies, and from projects spanning a range of faith and belief groups. Topics include multi-faith spaces on campus, non-religious students, Muslim chaplaincy and student Christianity. The symposium will bring together scholars from a range of disciplines, including sociology, religious studies, social policy, architecture, Islamic studies and theology.

SPEAKERS:

Professor Paul Weller & Nicki Moore (Derby) ‘Religion and Belief in Higher Education: Findings, Questions and Reflections from a Research Project for the Equality Challenge Unit’

Jacqueline Stevenson (Leeds Metropolitan) ‘Struggling, Striving, Strategising, Surviving: Religious students in UK higher education’

Dr Ataullah Siddiqui (Markfield Institute) ‘Bridging the Gap between the “Islamic Studies” and “Islamic Sciences”: Some Challenges’

Dr Mike Higton (Cambridge) ‘A Theology of Higher Education’

Dr Adam Dinham (Goldsmith’s) ‘An Ambiguous Role for Religion in the Universities: A Case Study in Practice’

Dr Andrew Crompton (Liverpool) ‘The Architecture of the Multifaith Space: Designing for Inclusion’

Dr Rebecca Catto & Dr Janet Eccles (Lancaster) ‘Forming and Expressing Non-Religious Beliefs in Higher Education’

Maulana Dr M. Mansur Ali (Cambridge Muslim College) ‘Muslim Chaplaincy in UK and US Higher Education: A Comparative Study’

Dr Kristin Aune (Derby) ‘Student Christianity in English Universities’

DATE: Friday 15th June 10am-4.45pm

VENUE: The Enterprise Centre, University of Derby, Bridge Street, DE1 3LA

REGISTRATION: No charge but places are limited so please register soon. Vegetarian lunch and refreshments provided.
Register by email to Frauke Uhlenbruch (f.uhlenbruch@derby.ac.uk) by Friday 18th May

Dr. Kristin Aune
Senior Lecturer in Sociology
Head of the Society, Religion & Belief Research Group
Faculty of Education, Health & Sciences
University of Derby
Kedleston Road
Derby DE22 1GB
Tel: 01332 591428

Posted on March 19, 2012 by katieaston Calls for Papers, News and Events

CFP: The International Conference on Media, Religion, and Culture 8-12 July 2012

Please see details below of The International Conference on Media, Religion, and Culture of particular interest to the network is the thread Media and The Boundaries of the Religious and the Secular

Call for papers deadline: April 15th,2012

There has been great interest to the conference and there are still requests for submitting abstracts.

Local committee decided to extend the deadline for abstract submissions until April 15, 2012.

There will be a great religious sites tour all around Turkey after the conference.

Please use nezihorhon@gmail.com for abstract submissions.

The International Conference on Media, Religion, and Culture, organized every two years by the International Society for Media, Religion, and Culture, invites papers for its July 8-12, 2012 conference to be held in Eskisehir, Turkey (outside of Istanbul), at Anadolu University.

In contemporary societies, electronic media such as smart mobile phones, satellite television, radio, and laptop computers have become ubiquitous. Although historians point out that world religions have always been mediated by culture in some way, people have incorporated these electronic media into everyday practices, and industries and state organizations have arisen to profit from those practices, in ways that are unprecedented. Today’s media can connect people and ideas with one another, but they also foster misunderstandings and reinforce societal divisions. They may provide the means for the centralization of religious authority, or the means to undermine it. Scholars of religion, as well as scholars of media and of culture, must consider how these various societal institutions of the media interact with one another and with systems of religion, governance, and cultural practices, as our societies demand better means by which to understand emergent concerns in an increasingly interconnected, globalized context.

The contemporary location of Turkey has long been the meeting place between Eastern and Western culture, religion, trade, and communication. This conference provides a crossroads for scholars, doctoral students, media professionals, and religious leaders from a variety of religious and secular traditions to meet and exchange ideas. Interdisciplinary scholarship is welcome, as is comparative work, theoretical development, and in-depth ethnographic studies that shed light on contemporary phenomena at the intersection of media, religion, and culture.

Papers, panels, workshops, and roundtable proposals could address, but should not be limited to:

* Global and Glocal Media and Religion(s)

* Mediation and Mediatization of Religion

* Media and The Boundaries of the Religious and the Secular

* Media, Power, Religion and Democracy

* Religion and Visual Expression

* Crossroads of Old/New Media and Religion

* Religion, Gender and Media

* Dialogue/Conflict: Media and Religion

* Islam and Media/ Islamic Media

* Social Media, Religion and Cultures

Presentation Formats

This year we will be accepting proposals in four formats: papers, panels, workshops and roundtables.

Panels bring together in discussion four participants or presentations representing a range of ideas and projects. Roundtables may include more individuals who comment on a common theme in briefer formats.

Panels and roundtables are scheduled for 90 minutes and should include a mix of individuals working in areas of research, theory, and practice. We also encourage the use of discussants.

Workshops provide an opportunity for hands-on exploration and/or project development. They can be organized around a core challenge that participants come together to work on or around a tool, platform, or concept. Workshops are scheduled for 90 minutes and should be highly participatory.

Posted on March 11, 2012 by katieaston Calls for Papers, News and Events

CFP: Religion on the Move 12-14 September, 2012

Migration is a key concern in secularity studies, regarding the response of non-religious groups to incoming religious practice and the apparent rise of religiosity which appears as religions change and adapt through migration.

Call for Papers: Religion on the Move

How Motion and Migration influence Religion

10th Conference of the SIEF Working Group on Ethnology of Religion

Szeged, Hungary 12-14 September, 2012

In many ways movement is an important aspect of religion and spirituality. Not only has the significance of motion within the practice of religion and rituality increased (Coleman & Eade 2004), but also, through the movement and migration of people all over the world, religions and religious practices are relocating and changing (Jenkins 2007). Movement is significant for the practice of many religions. It seems that motion has been gaining in importance and that the performative expression and execution of religious practice play a stronger part than they used to do. There might be related to the more participative role of believers in religion and rituality and the enhanced relevance of individuals ‘doing’ religion. The popularity of walking the many pilgrim ways through Europe is an example of that trend, while other expressions of movement like dancing, meditations, processions and other rituals also seem to be more in focus.

A second strand of movement is connected to migration for, by moving, people bring faiths and religious practices to other places in the world where they were not previously known or practised. Nowadays, through mass migrations, refugees, displacements because of war and other translocations, religions and beliefs can expand both spatially and quantitatively. These are processes in which the faiths which are moving are being transformed, and the religion(s) of the areas in which people and their religion are newly settled are likewise affected (examples include Islam in Europe and the new Christians from Africa in Europe). Sometimes beliefs are appropriated through tourism or by ‘spiritual seekers’; aspects of Eastern religion and esoterism have been imported to Western society. In that regard the Internet has become a migratative instrument, in its capacity of ‘posting’ religion all over the globe and into people’s homes, regardless of what religion is practised there. The extension of religion through (digital) migration has an impact on social, cultural and political contexts (Woodhead et al. 2002). The movement of religion might lead to an adaptation to new circumstances, to inculturation, but also potentially to a transformation in the religious constituents of the local culture as well. Sometimes there is openness and religion finds new host communities. Evangelical, Pentecostal, neo-Pentecostal churches have spread across the Atlantic Ocean to Europe (Coleman 2007) and so have Afro-American religions, as Candomblé, Umbanda, or Santeria cubana (Capone 2004; Saraiva 2010). Sometimes the members of the host country become involved in such new practices, but movement may also lead to segregation within host communities and contested situations.

Papers connected to these two research strands on movement and religion are welcomed; one could for example think of the following topics:

• The influence of migration on religion

• Movement as constituative element in religion and rituality

• Effects of globalisation and transnationalism on religion

• Changes in religion through digital movement, via the Internet.

• Movement and spatiality related to the practice of religion

Format: the conference takes place over two days, followed by an excursion on the third day. Paper presentations are limited to 20 minutes each, followed by ten minutes of discussion. In total 20 paper presenters will be selected. Colleagues who do not present a paper are welcome to participate in the conference and its discussions. A business meeting of the SIEF Working Group on Ethnology of Religion will be held during the conference. Organizers: the conference is organized by the Department of Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology of the University of Szeged together with the Bálint Sándor Institute for Research on religion and the International Society for Ethnology and Folklore (SIEF).

Venue: University of Szeged and Gál Ferenc Theological College of Szeged Fee: the conference fee is 60 €, including conference materials, reception, coffee, brunch, excursion. Participants are responsible for travel and accommodation; there is no funding for expenses available.

Application: submit an abstract of your paper of maximum 300 words, together with your name, position, and institutional affiliation to Dr. István Povedák povedak@yahoo.com by March 15, 2012. The selection of the papers will be done in collaboration with the Board of the SIEF Working Group on Ethnology of Religion. The final selection will be communicated by April 1, 2012.

Contacts: povedak@yahoo.com; peter.jan.margry@meertens.knaw.nl

Posted on March 5, 2012 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.

Posted on March 5, 2012 by katieaston Publications

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”

NSRN Online