Author Archives: SISR/ISSR General Secretary

Exploring the Extraordinary 5th Conference

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Exploring the Extraordinary 5th Conference

20th-22nd September, 2013York, UK

CALL FOR PAPERS

Since its inception in 2007, members of Exploring the Extraordinary have organised four successful academic conferences that have brought together researchers from a variety of different disciplines and backgrounds. The purpose of these events has been to encourage a wider dissemination of knowledge and research, and an interdisciplinary discussion of extraordinary phenomena and experience. By ‘extraordinary’ we refer to phenomena and experiences that are considered to be beyond the mundane, referring to those that have been called supernatural, paranormal, mystical, transcendent, exceptional, spiritual, magical and/or religious, as well as the relevance of such for human culture.

We are looking for submissions for our fifth conference, and would like to invite presentation proposals on topics related to the above. Please submit a 300-500 word paper abstract to Dr Madeleine Castro and Dr Hannah Gilbert (ete.network@gmail.com) by the 1st April 2013. Accepted papers should be on powerpoint, no longer than 20 minutes in length, and intended for an interdisciplinary audience. Please include contact information and a brief biographical note.

For more information, and to see past schedules and abstracts, visit http://etenetwork.weebly.com or email ete.network@gmail.com

Call for papers – RELIGION, REFORM AND THE CHALLENGE OF PLURALITY – UCSIA Summer School, 25 Aug-1 Sept 2013, Antwerp, Belgium

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Call for applications

2013 UCSIA summer school on “Religion, Culture and Society”
Sunday 25 August – Sunday 1 September 2013
Antwerp, Belgium

In 2013 the UCSIA summer school focuses on the topic of Religion, Reform and the Challenge of Plurality. We will research processes of change that arise in the interaction between religions and societies in contexts of plurality – especially and also in a global world. Where a diversity of religions and societal perspectives are present, identity-claims are problematised, and the understanding of citizenship is evolving. What role can religions play in shaping such societies? How do plural societies affect religions towards changing their own attitudes towards one another and revising their role in society? How do religious convictions and perspectives on citizenship relate to one another? Can one ‘belong’ to various cultures and religions? These challenges can be studied in various areas: changes in the perception and self-image of religions and faith-based organizations (so-called ‘identity-issues”), education, public health management, welfare programs, the relevance of voluntary work, attitudes towards (im)migration, gender and race issues, culture, politics, involvement in the public sphere, etc.

Guest lecturers:
Guest lecturers are José Casanova (Berkley Center for Religion, Peace and World Affairs, Georgetown University, Washington DC), Robert W. Hefner (Boston University), John Hutchinson (London School of Economics) and Louise Ryan (Social Policy Research Centre, Middlesex University, London).

Practical details:
Participation and stay for young scholars and researchers are free of charge.
Participants should pay for their own travel expenses to Antwerp.
You can submit your application via the electronic submission http://www.ucsia.org/main.aspx?c=.SUMMERSCHOOL&n=48426 on the summer school website http://www.ucsia.org/summerschool. The completed file as well as all other required application documents must be submitted to the UCSIA Selection Committee not later than Sunday 28 April 2013!

For further information regarding the programme and application procedure, please have a look at our website: http://www.ucsia.org/summerschool.
Contact:
Sara MelsProject coordinator
UCSIAPrinsstraat 14 2000
AntwerpBelgiumTel: +32/3/265.45.99Fax: +32/3/707.09.31
http://www.ucsia.org
http:///www.ucsia.org/summerschool

Survey of scholars of religions on methodological and theoretical resources in the study of religions

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Dear colleagues and friends

I am conducting a survey of scholars of religions on methodological and theoretical resources in the study of religions that originate from outside Western Europe and North America. (Those that do originate from Western Europe and North America are known throughout the world.) Among other things I will use the results of the survey to determine how I might continue the project begun with Religious Studies: A Global View.

Please consider following this link and participating in the survey:
https://mcdaniel.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_6qVqtQRDmdQs7Kl
All responses will be strictly anonymous.

If you consider theoretical and methodological resources that originate from outside Western Europe and North America to be unimportant, that would be worth knowing, too. You will have the opportunity to rate these resources on a scale from very important to not at all important. The best answers are, of course, simply honest ones.I have tried to make the survey short. It consists of: (a) Three boxes in which to type country names (birth, citizenship, residence – unfortunately, drop down lists didn’t transfer across languages) (b) Seven questions about your education and employment – but please do not include information that would identify you personally (c) A request for *at most* five older titles and five newer titles – and two sets of (4) radio boxes: very important … not at all important. One person has estimated that it will take 10 minutes to complete.

The survey is currently available in English, French, German, and Spanish. If you think it would be helpful to have the survey translated into other languages as well, please let me know ? especially if you can suggest a way to accomplish that translation. I would also very much appreciate you forwarding this announcement to colleagues who you think might not otherwise see it. I am hoping for as broad a range of participation as possible.
My thanks!
Greg Alles

Gregory D. Alles Professor, Religious Studies, McDaniel College, Westminster, MD 21157, USA Executive Editor (with Olav Hammer [Odense]), Numen, journal of the International Association for the History of Religions
_______________________________________________

Lived Religion: Studying Religious Practice

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CPF for the annual meeting of the Dutch Association for the Study of Religion which will take place at the University of Leiden 24-25 October 2013 and have as theme Lived Religion: Studying Religious Practice

Outline of theme
The 2013 Annual Meeting of the NGG focuses on lived religion, that is religious practice such as it is actually enacted and religious identities and beliefs such as they are actually held. The opposite of lived religion is thus not ‘dead religion’, but ‘prescribed religion’, the religion of catechisms, canons, and creeds. We invite papers that explore the lived religion of groups and individuals, including the unofficial and everyday dimensions of the great religious traditions, non-institutional and post-Christian religion (e.g., ‘new age’, neo-paganism), and tensions between lived and prescribed religion. The conference welcomes anthropological, sociological, cognitive, and historical perspectives, and we especially encourage papers of a methodological or theoretical nature. The conference aims to advance the study of lived religion by critically and systematically reflecting on the core question ‘how do we approach and theorise lived religion’?

We invite proposals for papers, panels, and posters on lived religion from all theoretical perspectives within the study of religion. In addition, PhD and MA students are given the possibility to present their ongoing research either with a poster or in a paper session that is not related to the conference theme. Deadline for all proposals is 1 June 2013. See detailed calls for papers, panels, and posters below.

We are honoured to present two distinguished keynote speakers:
* Prof.Dr. Ronald Hutton, “Lived Religion in History, History in Lived Religion: The Case of Contemporary Paganism” (speaker confirmed; title provisional)
* Dr. Nathal Dessing, “How to Study Everyday Lived Religion”

A. Call for individual papers
Each individual paper will be given a total of 30 minutes, i.e. 20 minutes for presentation and 10 minutes for discussion. We invite proposals from various disciplinary perspectives (the academic study of religion, sociology, anthropology, history, etc.) on lived religion. Topics can include (but are not restricted to):
– Unofficial and everyday religious practices within great religious traditions
– Practices, beliefs, and identities in contemporary, non-institutional religion (e.g., ‘new age’, neo-paganism)
– Tensions between lived and prescribed religion, between specialists and laity, and between theological correctness and theological incorrectness
– Theories of religion focusing on action, activity, or practice (e.g., Weber, Geertz, Bourdieu, Riesebrodt, and Whitehouse)
– Processual approaches to religion: Practicing, experiencing, cognising, and feeling as the core of religion
– Discursive practices as lived religion
– Rituals and religious acts: ritual theory and ritual dynamics
– Religion and material culture
– Lived religion as a theoretical concept
– Lived religion in the past and the historical context of contemporary lived religion
– The interlace of lived religion with media, leisure, entertainment, fiction, and play
– The internet as a new site of religious practice and the methodological challenges it poses
– The study of social organisation beyond the religious group: network analysis, field work, and more
– The methodology of studying religious experience (including altered states of consciousness): seeking a third way between going native and scanning brains

Candidates should submit both an abstract (of max. 150 words) for the programme book and a more detailed proposal (of max. 400 words). Deadline for submitting abstract and proposal for an individual paper is 1 June 2013. Abstracts and proposals should be emailed to NGG secretary Markus Altena Davidsen (m.davidsen@religion.leidenuniv.nl).

B. Call for PANELS
Groups of scholars are invited to submit 3 to 5 papers on similar topics as one coherent panel (1.5-2 hours length, depending on the schedule). Panels should fit into the perspectives outlined above.
Deadline for submitting a panel is 1 June 2013. When submitting a panel, please include in one document both individual abstracts and proposals for the papers (respectively max. 150 and 400 words), as well as a panel abstract (max. 150 words) for the programme book and a more detailed panel proposal (of max. 400 words). Abstracts and proposals should be emailed to NGG secretary Markus Altena Davidsen (m.davidsen@religion.leidenuniv.nl).

C. Call for papers and posterS for off-theme PhD and MA student session(s)
PhD students are invited to propose papers for the perspectives outlined above. Additionally, both PhD students and MA students are cordially invited to submit a poster or a paper for a separate off-theme session. This can be a great opportunity for MA students to report on the results of their MA thesis and for PhD students to present some of their preliminary conclusions. Each individual paper will be given a total of 30 minutes, i.e. 20 minutes for presentation and 10 minutes for discussion. Posters should be A1 size and should not include too much text. Make sure to include pictures, graphs etc. to enhance readability. We suggest that posters are accompanied with a number of handouts for people to take. Unfortunately, we cannot help with the printing of the poster. Most universities, however, do offer templates and/or facilities for making conference posters. Abstracts for posters and papers for the off-theme session(s) (max. 150 words) together with a more detailed proposal (of max. 400 words) should be sent no later than 1 June 2013 to NGG secretary Markus Altena Davidsen (m.davidsen@religion.leidenuniv.nl).

Practical Details Organisers.
The Dutch Association for the Study of Religion (Nederlands Genootschap voor Godsdienstwetenschap) in cooperation with Leiden Institute for Religious Studies, University of Leiden.

Organising committee.
Prof.Dr. Kocku von Stuckrad (chair, NGG), Markus Altena Davidsen (secretary, NGG), William Arfman, (PhD representative, NGG), Dr. Wim Hofstee (Leiden Institute for Religious Studies).

Venue. Leiden Institute for Religious Studies, University of Leiden.

Time. 24-25 October 2013. The conference will begin around 14.00 on Thursday the 24th and end around 16.00 on Friday the 25th.

Deadline. Deadline for all proposals is 1 June 2013. Proposals should be sent to the secretary of the Dutch Association for the Study of Religion, Markus Altena Davidsen (m.davidsen [at] religion.leidenuniv.nl).

Registration. Registration costs will be kept as low as possible (and depend on further funding that the organisers applied for). Discounts will be available for members of the NGG and for students. Registration includes coffee/tea breaks, the conference dinner on Thursday evening, and a lunch on Friday. The organisers will help with finding accommodation in various categories. Please check the website for updates and further information.

Homepage. For updates and information, please see the website of the NGG at www.godsdienstwetenschap.org or follow us on Twitter at @NGG_nl.

Book release

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Dawson, A. 2012.
Santo Daime: A New World Religion.
London: Bloomsbury.

ISBN: 978-1-4411-0299-7; 978-1-4411-5424-8.

‘One of the best case studies of a new religion ever published.’ Lorne L. Dawson (University of Waterloo, Canada).

‘Provocative and instructive, this is a book to be recommended to anyone interested in the ever-increasing varieties of religious experience.’ Eileen Barker (London School of Economics, UK).

Santo Daime: A New World Religion deals with a young, exotic and controversial religious movement. Emerging in the Brazilian Amazon in the 1930s, Santo Daime has since spread to many of the world’s major cities. Santo Daime is a mixture of indigenous, popular Catholic, Afro-Brazilian, esoteric, Spiritist, and new age beliefs and activities. Ritual practice is centred on the consumption of a psychotropic beverage called ‘Daime’ which members believe enhances their interaction with the supernatural world. Because Daime is treated as an illegal narcotic in many parts of the world, outside of its Brazilian homeland most Santo Daime rituals are practised clandestinely. This book unites extensive fieldwork experience with an established theoretical background and makes a significant contribution to understanding the contemporary interface of religion and late-modern society. Individualization and religious subjectivism, pluralization and religious hybridism, transformation and detraditionalization, globalization and religious identity, and commoditization and religious consumption are among the many issues engaged by this book.

Santo Daime: A New World Religion is an accessible and multi-disciplinary book suitable for undergraduate students and researchers working in Religious Studies, Sociology of Religion, Anthropology, Cultural Studies and Latin American Studies. Andrew Dawson is Senior Lecturer in Religion at Lancaster University, UK.
http://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/search?q=santo+daime&Gid=4

Esa 2013 – session cfp: ‘Sport and religion/spirituality’

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Dear colleagues, the forthcoming ESA conference in Turin 2013 includes a session on ‘Sport and religion/spirituality’; for abstract submissions, see session 07JS28JS34 at:
http://esa11thconference.eu/call-for-papers/research-networks/RN280

The session is jointly organized together with the RN.7 ‘Sociology of culture’ and RN34 ‘Sociology of Religion’.
Extended submission deadline: 15th February 2013

We would be glad if you consider to submit a paper and attend the session (engagements and travel distances permitting), as well as advertise the call among the colleagues who might be interested.

Here below is the session call :
Sport and religion/spirituality
Whereas the analogy between sport and religion has been criticized by many scholars mainly because of the lack (or low relevance) of the transcendent dimension in traditional sport practices, the recent sociological elaborations of the concept of spirituality seems to provide new interesting tools for interpreting the emerging forms of bodily movement. At the same time, the study of the analogies between traditional sports and institutionalized religions still generates relevant sociological insights. In order to contribute to these streams of analysis and to open new horizons for further studies, the ESA research networks ‘Sociology of Culture’, ‘Society and Sports’, and ‘Sociology of Religion’, invite potential contributors to submit abstracts to the joint session on ‘Sport and religion/spirituality’. The session will thus provide a forum for exchange and sharing among sociologists of culture, sport and religion, who deal with these themes from different but overlapping perspectives.

Convenors: Davide Sterchele, Stef Aupers, Hubert Knoblauch
Should you need further information, don’t hesitate to contact us at:
D.Sterchele@leedsmet.ac.uk or davide.sterchele@unipd.it
All the very best,
Davide Sterchele

Call for submissions: E-journal: spring/summer 2013 issue

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The Religion and Diversity Project (www.religionanddiversity.ca) is pleased to announce that we are now receiving submissions for the Spring /Summer 2013 issue of our Graduate E-Journal: Regulating Religion.

The aim of this platform is to collect and make accessible innovative, well-written and well-researched graduate students papers on topics broadly related to the regulation of religion.

To access and read previous issues of the E-Journal please visit the E-Journal webpage: http://religionanddiversity.ca/en/projects-and-results/e-journal/.
Submissions guidelines can also be found on the E-Journal webpage.
If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact Amélie Barras at: amelie.barras@umontreal.ca

Berman Foundation Dissertation Fellowships in Support of Research in the Social Scientific Study of the Contemporary American Jewish Community

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The Association for Jewish Studies is pleased to announce the Call for Submissions for the Berman Foundation Dissertation Fellowships in Support of Research in the Social Scientific Study of the Contemporary American Jewish Community. The application deadline is Friday, March 22, 2013.

The Berman Fellowships – two awardsof $16,000 each for the 2013-2014 academic year – will support doctoral work that incorporates the social scientific study of the contemporary North American Jewish community.

We welcome proposals that focus primarily on the North American Jewish experience as well as those that incorporate this topic as part of a broader comparative study.

Applicants must be Ph.D. candidates at accredited higher educational institutions who have completed their comprehensive exams and received approval for their dissertation proposals (ABD). Doctoral students from outside the field of Jewish Studies are encouraged to apply.

Support for this project is generously provided by the Mandell L. and Madeleine H. Berman Foundation.

Application Deadline: March 22, 2013

Further information, including application instructions, can be found on the AJS website: www.ajsnet.org/berman.htm. Please contact Karen Terry, AJS Program and Membership Coordinator, at ajs@ajs.cjh.org or 917.606.8249 if you have any questions regarding the application process or fellowship program.

Representation of Religions in the Media: Multidisciplinary Approaches

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Symposium:
Representation of Religions in the Media: Multidisciplinary Approaches
Liverpool Hope University, 29 and 30 July 2013

Keynote Speaker:
Professor Debra Mason
Director, Center on Religion & the Professions, Missouri School of Journalism, USA

Religion remains a significant aspect of contemporary social, political and cultural life, and continues to be an object of media scrutiny. Religions are represented in documentaries, serial dramas, comedies, soap operas and on Reality TV. Religions are depicted in films and portrayed in the broadcast and print media, on the internet, and within multi-platform texts. This two-day symposium will explore both positive and negative representations of religions in the contemporary media from a multi- and interdisciplinary perspective. The symposium will be used to develop a network of academics whose expertise on media representations of religions will support new initiatives and open new areas of study. We are negotiating with a leading academic publisher for an edited volume of selected papers.

Abstracts are invited from researchers on religion and media from any academic discipline. We encourage papers related to the depiction of religions in all areas of the media. Papers dealing with any faith tradition are welcomed. We welcome proposals from postgraduate students as well as from established academics. Papers may include, but not restricted to the following themes:
* Religion in news / features/ documentaries: positive or negative representations?
* Attitudes towards religions in interviews/ talk shows/ reality shows/ comedy shows/ advertisements etc.
* Representation of religious images/ symbols in the media
* Issues of authenticity in fictional representations of religions
* Depictions of Religions in films and audience response
* Role of media in creating Islamophobic/ Anti-Semitic/ Anti-Catholic/ Anti-religious sentiments
* Freedom of expression versus religious sensitivities
* Religion versus secularism: Role of the media

Proposals should be submitted electronically as an MS Word document together with a short c.v.. Abstracts should be of no more than 300 words. Proposals should be sent to Dr Salman Al-Azami alazams@hope.ac.uk by 28 February 2013. Successful applicants will be notified by 14 March 2013.

The symposium is jointly organised by the Archbishop Desmond Tutu Centre for War and Peace Studies and the Centre for the Applied Study of Muslims and Islam in the UK.

Appel à contribution – revue Religiologiques

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Voici un premier Appel à contribution d’articles pour un numéro thématique de la revue Religiologiques.

RELIGIOLOGIQUES — APPEL À CONTRIBUTION
Numéro thématique : « Le croire à l’ère du numérique »

Description :
Omniprésent aujourd’hui dans toutes les sphères de l’activité humaine, le numérique met nouveaux médias et « cyberenvironnements » à la disposition du religieux et du croire. De plus, la religion se voit interpellée par les récentes transformations de l’internet, à la suite de l’apparition de technologies numériques de plus en plus interactives propres aux développements du Web 2.0 (et ses nombreux médias sociaux comme Facebook).

Ainsi, les modalités de la présence du religieux et du croire en ligne, de leurs utilisations de ces nouvelles technologies et moyens de communication numériques et de l’impact qu’ils opèrent sur différentes facettes de la vie des individus et des communautés ont été, de ce fait, transformées.

Ces développements posent donc de nouveaux défis aux chercheur(e)s, tant au niveau de la recherche, qu’aux niveaux méthodologique et de l’analyse théorique. L’intersection de la religion et du numérique demeure donc un champ nouveau et propice pour la recherche, tant disciplinaire qu’interdisciplinaire, avec un ensemble de problématiques qui lui sont propres :
* rites, rituels et virtualité
* anciennes et nouvelles autorités et le Web 2.0
* théorie du religieux et du croire numérique
* aspects et enjeux du cyberprosélytisme
* terrain en cyberenvironnements
* cybercommunautés
* identités religieuses et internet

Longueur des articles
Les articles devront être de 6,000 à 8,000 mots et soumis en format WORD (.doc) à l’adresse courriel suivante religiologiques@uqam.ca

Échéances :
Les manuscrits devront être soumis pour évaluation (à double insu par les pairs), au plus tard, avant la fin du mois d’août 2013. La version finale des articles retenus devra être acheminée, au plus tard, avant la fin du mois de décembre 2013 (publication en 2014).

Pour de plus amples informations, veuillez contacter :
Roxanne D. Marcotte
Courriel : marcotte.roxanne@uqam.ca 
Département de sciences des religions
Université du Québec à Montréal

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INFORMATION sur la revue RELIGIOLOGIQUES

RELIGIOLOGIQUES est une revue de sciences humaines qui s’intéresse aux manifestations du sacré dans la culture ainsi qu’au phénomène religieux sous toutes ses formes. Elle s’intéresse également au domaine de l’éthique. Les articles qu’elle publie font l’objet d’une évaluation des comités de lecture spécialisés, indépendants de son Comité de rédaction (à double insu et par au moins deux évaluateurs).
RELIGIOLOGIQUES est la revue phare de la recherche francophone en sciences des religions en Amérique du Nord publiée de 1990 à 2005, avec ses plus de 31 numéros dont plusieurs disponibles en ligne sur le site de la revue (http://www.religiologiques.uqam.ca ).
RELIGIOLOGIQUES s’apprête donc à publier, de nouveau, deux fois l’an et ainsi poursuivre sa tradition de publication de numéros thématiques, tout comme d’articles hors thèmes (acceptés en tout temps) et de numéros réguliers. RELIGIOLOGIQUES UQÀM, Dép. de sciences des religionsC.P. 8888, Succursale Centre-Ville Montréal, Québec H3C 3P8Téléphone : (514) 987-4497Télécopie : (514) 987-7856 Courriel: religiologiques@uqam.ca