Call for Papers: “The Ilkley Group at 50”

Call for Papers

The Ilkley Group at 50 – A reunion conference weekend

Online via zoom..

Friday 16th – Sunday 18th April 2021

In 1971 a gathering of (then) young sociologists who were followers of Jesus Christ met together in the Yorkshire town of Ilkley. Their concern was to reconcile their Christian faith and values with the overwhelmingly (with one one or two notable exceptions) secular ethos of the social sciences, to discover how to pursue faithfully their calling as academics and researchers and to influence the future of their chosen discipline. The “Ilkley Group” continued to meet twice yearly at Mill Grove into the early 2000s.

Fifty years on the group intends to hold a virtual conference (free of charge) and invites paper proposals from academics and researchers in sociology or closely related social sciences which address their topics within a Christian perspective. Papers may be autobiographical, theoretical, interdisciplinary or empirically based.

The papers should aim to be no longer than 20 minutes in length and in view of the online format are probably best presented alongside a power-point or other multi-media presentation.

Depending on numbers offering papers and registering for the event it is not at this stage possible to say whether papers will be in plenary or parallel workshop session. We hope that the papers will come from across the generations including some from early career scholars with a personal faith commitment. Our intention is that there will be plenty of space for questions and discussion as well as for informal networking with like-minded colleagues.

The two major themes we want to address are:

Looking back and looking forward: The environment in the academy, the church and society, for Christian and other faith based sociological perspectives over between 1971 and 2021. What are / have been the opportunities and constraints for Christians in sociology, what changes are discernible over that period and how might trends progress into the future? These themes could be discussed in the context of participants’ experiences, through their careers, reflecting on your own intellectual and spiritual journey.

The New Normal in Church and Society : The Covid-19 global pandemic has been a major disruption to social and religious life. Other disruptions have been happening in the same period, for example the financial crash of 2008, the wave of populist and anti-globalist politics, the refugee crisis, and rapid technological, cultural and religious change. What is the impact on the societies and communities in which we live, and on the churches that worship and serve among us?

If you are interested in offering a paper for this conference please send an abstract of no more than 300 words, together with a two sentence biography to gregcity3@yahoo.co.uk before 31st December 2020.

A programme for the conference and registration forms will be available via Eventbrite early in 2021

Please circulate this announcement to relevant networks and colleagues.

Shalom

Greg Smith
Associate Research Fellow, William Temple Foundation

CONTACT ME  by email; gregcity3@yahoo.co.uk
Phone – Mobile 07726177044
http://williamtemplefoundation.org.uk/

Personal web page with list of publications etc.
http://gregsmith.synthasite.com/