Author Archives: SISR/ISSR General Secretary

Call for Papers: Global Religious Experiences and Identities among Lesbians

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Call for Papers: Global Religious Experiences and Identities among Lesbians

The Journal of Lesbian Studies (Taylor & Francis) will devote an entire issue to the topic of global religious experiences and identities among lesbians, guest edited by S.J. Creek. The intention behind this special edition is to generate richer and more varied scholarship around the lived experiences of lesbians connected to (or alienated by) religious practices or faiths around the world. Papers from sociology, history, anthropology, political science, english, psychology, religious studies, gender and women’s studies, religious studies, communication studies, linguistics, criminology, queer studies, international studies, art history, or other fields are welcome.

Topics may include, but are not limited, to: the intersection of race/class/gender/sexuality and religion, religious movements, orthopraxy, orthodoxy, representation in media/literature/art, trends in religiosity, clergy/religious officials, resistance and activism, indigenous religions, Wicca, Santeria, Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism, Shintoism, Confucianism, Taoism, Sikhism, Baha’i, Judaism, Islam, Christianity, atheism, popular religions, Mujerista theology, practice, belief, religious socialization, disability, size, critiques of lesbian sexualities or spiritualities from post-colonial or transgender studies perspectives, religious individualism, secularism, celibacy, “religious nones,” nuns, intentional communities, state control of religious practice, reproduction, families, identities, cognitive dissonance, oppression, reparative therapies, migration, religious education, or emotions. Works attending to the experiences of queer, bisexual, and transgender individuals will also be considered, if these pieces strongly connect to the central theme.

Please direct inquiries or proposals of no more than 500 words to S.J. Creek at creeksj@hollins.edu by December 20, 2012. Invitations for full manuscripts will be issued in January 2013. Both abstracts and manuscripts will be evaluated for originality, style, and fit within the overall edition. Authors of selected abstracts will be invited to submit a full manuscript of 5,000-6,500 words, due May 15, 2013.

S.J. Creek, PhDVisiting Assistant Professor
Department of Sociology
Hollins University
Phone: (540)362-6668
Fax: (540)362-6286

Socrel / HEA Symposium Religion and Citizenship: Rethinking the Boundaries of Religion and the Secular

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Socrel / HEA Teaching and Studying Religion, 2nd Annual Symposium: Religion and Citizenship: Re-Thinking the Boundaries of Religion and the Secular

BSA Meeting Room, Imperial Wharf, London
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. To find out more about how participants from a variety of disciplines and contexts have engaged with these issues, join us on December 13 at the BSA Meeting Room in London, for a BSA Socrel symposium, organized by Paul-François Tremlett (Open University), Anna Strhan (University of Kent) and Abby Day (University of Kent and Chair of Socrel). It won’t be your usual ‘stand-and-deliver’ event. Our presenters are working hard to condense their work into short summaries that will be distributed to all participants in advance of the day via e-mail. All participants will be expected to read the summaries and come prepared for a full day of engaging in vibrant exchanges across disciplines, countries, methods and other conventional boundaries.
Total delegate numbers are restricted to 30. Last year’s inaugural symposium was oversubscribed, and early registration is encouraged. Registration for the symposium is now available on the BSA website at http://portal.britsoc.co.uk/public/event/eventBooking.aspx?id=EVT10230
Information on the venue location and transport links, is available at
http://www.britsoc.co.uk/events/london-meeting-room.aspx
For any further information, please contact Anna Strhan (A.H.B.Strhan@kent.ac.uk<mailto:A.H.B.Strhan@kent.ac.uk>), Paul-François Tremlett (p.f.tremlett@open.ac.uk<mailto:p.f.tremlett@open.ac.uk>) and Abby Day (A.F.Day@kent.ac.uk<mailto:A.F.Day@kent.ac.uk>).
The full programme for the day will be published on the BSA Socrel website: http://www.socrel.org.uk/
Keynote lecture by Nasar Meer, Reader in Sociology, Northumbria University

Confirmed Speakers:
Discussants: Lois Lee (University of Kent), Paul-François Tremlett (Open University), Mujadad Zaman (University of Cambridge)
Presenters
Carool Kersten (King’s College, London) Indonesian Debates on Secularity and Religiosity: Islamists, Liberal Muslims, and Islamic Post-Traditionalists
Angela Quartermaine (University of Warwick) Investigating Warwickshire pupils’ perceptions of religious forms of terrorism Trevor Stack (University of Aberdeen) Getting Beyond Religion as an Issue for Citizenship
Steven Kettell (University of Warwick) Barbarians at the Gates? Exploring the Rise of ‘Militant Secularism’
Rodrigo Cespedes Proto (Lancaster University) A Legal Perspective on Teaching and Studying Religion: Lessons from the European Court of Human Rights
Leni Franken (University of Antwerp) Religious and Citizenship Education in Belgium / Flanders
Olav Hovdelien (Oslo University College of Applied Sciences) A Secularist School in a Multicultural Society – The Norwegian Case
Slawomir Sztajer (Adam Mickiewicz University) Confessional Religious Education in State Schools: The Case of Poland
Simeon Wallis (University of Warwick) Faith beyond Belief in Religious Education
Graeme Smith (University of Chichester) Blurring the Boundaries: A critical evaluation of the concept of ‘resonance’ and its importance for understanding the relationship between the religious and the secular through the early work of Reinhold Niebuhr
Christos Tsironis (Aristotle University of Thessalonika) Perceptions of Greek students on the relation between the study of religion and volunteering
Kit Kirkland (University of St Andrews) The Christian Right’s Influence on Higher Education

Digital Methodologies in the Sociology of Religion – Registration Open

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Digital Methodologies in the Sociology of Religion http://www.derby.ac.uk/digital-methodologies-in-the-sociology-of-religion 16th November 2012, Enterprise Centre, University of Derby

Organised by the Centre for Society, Religion & Belief<http://www.derby.ac.uk/health/social-care/research-groups/society-religion-and-belief-research-group> (SRB), University of Derby

Funded by Digital Social Research<http://www.digitalsocialresearch.net/wordpress/> (DSR)

To book your place please visit http://unishop.derby.ac.uk/browse/extra_info.aspmodid=1&prodid=592&deptid=76&compid=1&prodvarid=0&catid=77

This conference is generously subsidised by Digital Social Research. There is a small registration fee of £30 (+ £6 VAT)

Within an era of a growing reliance on digital technologies to instantly and effectively express our values, allegiances, and multi-faceted identities, the interest in digital research methodologies among Sociologists of Religion comes as no surprise (e.g. Bunt 2009; Cantoni and Zyga 2007; Contractor 2012 and Ostrowski 2006; Taylor 2003). However the methodological challenges associated with such research have been given significantly less attention. What are the epistemological underpinnings and rationale for the use ‘digital’ methodologies? What ethical dilemmas do sociologists face, including while protecting participants’ interests in digital contexts that are often perceived as anonymised and therefore ‘safe’? Implementing such ‘digital’ research also leads to practical challenges such as mismatched expectations of IT skills, limited access to specialized tools, project management and remote management of research processes. Hosted by the Centre for Society, Religion, and Belief at the University of Derby and funded by Digital Social Research, this conference brings together scholars to critically evaluate the uses, impacts, challenges and future of Digital Methodologies in the Sociology of Religion.

Please forward this to your invitation to your professional networks and to your students. A few travel bursaries are available for post-graduate students in the UK. Please write to either Sariya Contractor (s.contractor@derby.ac.uk<mailto:s.contractor@derby.ac.uk>) or Suha Shakkour (s.shakkour@derby.ac.uk<mailto:s.shakkour@derby.ac.uk>) for further details.

Plenary Speakers:
Prof. Heidi Campbell, Texas A&M University Methodological Challenges, Innovations and Growing Pains in Digital Religion Research
Dr. Eric Atwell, Leeds University Applying Artificial Intelligence to the Understanding of Islam

Draft Programme
09:45 – 10:15 Registration & Refreshments

10:15 – 10:40 Welcome, Introduction and Housekeeping
Dr. Sariya Contractor & Dr. Suha Shakkour
Prof. Paul Weller, Head of Research and Commercial Development, EHS
Dr. Kristin Aune, Director, Centre for Society, Religion & Belief

10:40 – 11:25 Plenary: Methodological Challenges, Innovations and Growing Pains in Digital Religion Research Prof. Heidi Campbell, Texas A&M University

11:25 – 12:40 Social Networking Sites
Anti-Social networking: Facebook as a site and method for researching anti-Muslim and anti-Islam oppositionDr. Chris Allen, University of Birmingham
Role of Digital Communication Technology in the Muslim Brotherhood’s Lead Revolution in Egypt Dr. Abul Hassan & Prof. Toseef Azid, Markfield Institute of Higher Education
Ethical Challenges of researching Muslim women’s closed religious newsgroups Dr. Anna Piela, Independent Researcher

12:40 – 13:40 Lunch

13:40 – 14:55 Digital Resources and Tools
Surveying the Religious and the Non-Religious        Dr. Tristram Hooley & Prof. Paul Weller, University of Derby Research Approaches to the Digital Bible         Dr. Tim Hutchings, Durham University
Employing Distance Learning to Improve the Quantity and Quality of Islamic Studies Dr Muhammad Mesbahi, Islamic College & Morteza Rezaei-Zadeh, University of Limerick

14:55 – 15:40 Plenary: Applying Artificial Intelligence to the Understanding of Islam
Eric Atwell, Leeds University

15:40 – 15:55 Refreshments

15:55 – 17:10 Communication
Prospects and Limits for Mxit and Mobi Methodologies for Religion in Sub-Saharan Africa Dr. Federico Settler, University of KwaZulu-Natal
Researching Religious Discourses Online: Some thoughts on method Thomas Alberts, SOAS
The Online Communication Model: A theoretical Framework to Analyse the Institutional Communication on the Internet Juan Narbona & Dr. Daniel Arasa, Pontifical University of the Holy Cross

17:10 – 17:30 Concluding Comments, Publication Plans

Dr Sariya Contractor & Dr. Suha Shakkour Centre for Society, Religion & Belief<http://www.derby.ac.uk/health/social-care/research-groups/society-religion-and-belief-research-group> University of Derby

Changing Religious Movements in a Changing World

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The 2013 CESNUR Conference co-organized by Center for Studies on New Religions (CESNUR) International Society for the Study of New Religions (ISSNR) Institute for Studies of Religion, Baylor University Finyar (The Nordic Network for the Study of New Religiosity) Dalarna University

CHANGING RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN A CHANGING WORLD Dalarna University Falun (Sweden), 21-24 June 2013

http://www.cesnur.org/2013/swe-cfp.htm

CALL FOR PAPERS
2013 celebrates the 25th anniversary of the first CESNUR conference, held in Southern Italy in 1988, and the opening of INFORM (Information Network Focus on Religious Movements) in the UK.
How has the religious scenario evolved within the context of a changing world over the past 25 years? How are religious movements different today? How does society react differently to religious pluralism?
These will be the themes of the 2013 conference, with special attention being paid to the Nordic countries, contemporary spiritual and esoteric movements in a globalized and transnational perspective, and the reactions of the media, the mainline churches, the law and society in general to the new religious pluralism. The conference will start on Midsummer Night’s Eve, Friday 21 June 2013, when participants will congregate in Stockholm in the morning and board a bus for a field trip that will take them to culturally significant locations throughout the Swedish region of Dalarna. Dalarna is famous for its small and picturesque villages, beautiful nature, traditional culture and handicraft. We will first visit Falun’s World Heritage Site and the 17th century part of the town. At that time, Falun was one of the most important towns in Sweden because of its copper mine. Then we will continue to the old traditional villages around Lake Siljan, stopping on our way at some other places of traditional and cultural importance. The journey will culminate with a traditional Swedish Midsummer Feast in the village of Leksand, before our arrival in Falun late that evening.

The sessions of the conference will run from the morning of Saturday 22 June to the morning of Monday 24 June. On Monday 24 June buses will leave Falun at lunchtime (box lunches will be provided), taking participants either directly to Arlanda Airport in Stockholm or to a visit to Kalle Runristare, a neo-Pagan rune-carver on an island outside Stockholm. This island, Adelsö, is a World Heritage Site with historical importance, where the king lived in the Viking era. The journey ends in Stockholm in the evening. In this package is included the field trip (including meals) on Friday, lunches from Saturday to Monday, the reception on Saturday night, and the journey back to Arlanda/Stockholm on Monday. Price: 220 euro.

An option will be offered for those who only want to participate in the conference, have the lunches on Saturday and Sunday and attend the banquet on Sunday evening as well as the reception on Saturday night.
Participants opting for this package will not be included in any of the field trips and these participants will have to make their own arrangements to reach and leave Falun by train and plan their transfers privately. Price: 120 euro.

Option 1

Full package, including transportation from Arlanda airport, Stockholm, the field trip on Friday (including meals); lunches; the reception on Saturday evening and the banquet on Sunday evening and either transportation back to Arlanda only or the field trip with arrival in Stockholm on Monday evening: Euro 220.

Option 2:

Conference attendance only, including lunch on Saturday and Sunday, the Saturday reception and the Sunday banquet (but no field trips or transportation) at: Euro 120.

Papers and sessions proposals should be submitted by email before the close of business on 10 January 2013 to cesnur_to@virgilio.it, accompanied by an abstract of no more than 300 words and a CV of no more than 200 words. Proposals may be submitted either in English or in French.

Travelling

We urge you to make your travelling and lodging arrangements as early as possible, as midsummer is a very important holiday in Sweden. Journeys will be cheaper and more available if you book early. For those who arrange their own train journey between Arlanda and Falun, please observe that it is possible to buy train tickets from about three months before the journey, and that the tickets from that time on becomes increasingly expensive. See www.sj.se .

Lodging

Scandic Hotel, just beside the university, is offering special prices for our conference guests. The price, inclusive of a generous breakfast, is 700 SEK for a single room (en suite), 800 SEK for a double room (en suite). To get this price, please write the code “Changing Religious Movements”. See http://www.scandichotels.com/ Hotels/Countries/Sweden/Falun/ Hotels/Scandic-Lugnet/ . Write to falun@scandichotels.com A cheaper option is an old prison which has been converted into a youth hostel. Three nights, inclusive of breakfast, in a single room, costs 1250 SEK (sharing a common bathroom). Rooms with several beds cost 950 SEK per person for three nights. To get this price, write the code “Changing Religious Movements”. See http://www.falufangelse.se/ Write to info@falufangelse.se The youth hostel is situated about a 20-minute walk from the university, but is, on the other hand, closer to the town center.

Registration for the conference will open on 15 February 2013.

annonce colloque

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Nous sommes heureux de vous annoncer le colloque « Les minorités à l’épreuve des normes : autocompréhension, marginalité, visibilité »,
qui aura lieu les 12-13 novembre 2012, à la Faculté de droit de Strasbourg.

http://mineurel-france.sciencesconf.org/resource/page/id/3

Anne-Laure Zwilling
CNRS / PRISME-SDRE (www.sdre.eu <http://prisme.u-strasbg.fr/> )
MISHA 5 allée Rouvillois, CS 50008
F-67083 Strasbourg cedex
+ 33 (0)3 68 85 61 09

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Professor in the Study of Religion, Durham University, UK

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Vacancy: Professor in the Study of Religion, Durham University, UK
Durham is internationally renowned for its research in the social scientific study of religion. We are seeking to build additional depth and international impact with a new professorial appointment. This professorial appointee will provide academic leadership of the highest quality as the department seeks to build on its current achievements.

The appointee will be expected to have experience of empirical research (involving qualitative and/or quantitative methods), and to be able to work in an interdisciplinary fashion with other departments, such as anthropology. Durham’s focus in the study of religion is on anthropological and sociological perspectives in the analysis of mainstream traditions and alternative religious movements, and on the practical study of contemporary religion. Specialist staff interests include Mormonism; death, dying and disposal; shamanism; religion and emotion; religion/faith and globalization; religion and politics; sacred space; pilgrimage; myth analysis; contemporary evangelicalism and post-evangelicalism; and religion and generational change. The Department of Theology and Religion at Durham has a world-leading research profile and took top place in the UK’s last Research Assessment Exercise.

Enquiries can be directed to Professor Alec Ryrie:  alec.ryrie@durham.ac.uk

For further details and to apply online:

https://ig5.i-grasp.com/fe/tpl_durham01.asp?newms=jj&id=74398

Inform Seminar: Changing Beliefs and Schisms in New Religious Movements

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INFORM Seminar XLIX
CHANGING BELIEFS AND SCHISMS IN NEW RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS
Wolfson Theatre, New Academic Building,
London School of Economics, Saturday 1 December 2012

http://www.lse.ac.uk/resources/mapsAndDirections/howToGetToLSE.htm

To register: WE ARE NOW TAKING PAYPAL BOOKINGS:http://www.inform.ac/seminar-payment>
Or a cheque payable to ‘Inform’ to Inform, Houghton St., London WC2A 2AE. (Inform@lse.ac.uk; 020 7955 7677).
Tickets (including buffet lunch, coffee and tea) paid by 12 November 2012 cost £38 each (£18 students/unwaged).
NB. Tickets booked after 12 November 2012 will cost £48 each (£28 students/unwaged).
A limited number of seats will be made available to A-Level students at £10 before 12 November 2012 (£20 after 12 November). A party of 5 or more A-Level students from one school can include one member of staff at the same price.

PROVISIONAL PROGRAMME
The presence of speakers on an Inform programme does not mean that Inform endorses their position. The aim of Inform Seminars is to help participants to understand, or at least recognise, different perspectives.
For Inform’s codes of practice see http://www.Inform.ac

9.30-9.50 Registration and coffee
9.50-10.00 Welcome and Introduction
10.00-10.25 Eileen Barker (Professor Emeritus, LSE; Chair & Honorary Director, Inform)”Re-vision and Division in New Religions: Some Introductory Remarks”
10.25-10.50 Claire Borowik (Co-Director of the Worldwide Religious News Service, and member of The Family International) “The Family International: Rebooting for the Future”
10.50-11.15  J. Gordon Melton (Distinguished Professor of American Religious History at Baylor University) “When Science Intervenes-Revising Claims in the New Age”
11.15-11.45 Coffee
11.45-12.10 Susan Palmer (Lecturer in Religious Studies, Dawson College / Concordia University)”Dr. Malach Z. York’s Spiritual Divagations”
12.10-12.35 Masoud Banisadr (PhD in chemical engineering and engineering mathematics, and former member of MEK) “The Metamorphism of MEK (Mujahedin e Khalgh) and its Schism”
12.35-13.00 Mike Mickler (Professor of Church History, Unification Theological Seminary) “The Post-Sun Myung Moon Unification Church”
13.00-14.00 Lunch
14.00-14.25 James Tong (Professor of Political Science, University of California, Los Angeles) “The Re-Invented Wheel: Revisioning and Diversification in the Falun Gong, 1992-2012”
14.25-14.50 David V. Barrett, PhD (Freelance Writer) “The Fragmentation of a Sect: Revisioning Beliefs and Schisms in the Worldwide Church of God”
14.50-15.20 Tea
15.20-15.45 Eugene Gallagher (Rosemary Park Professor of Religious Studies, Connecticut College) “The Branch Davidians” 15.45-16.10  Massimo Introvigne (Lawyer and Managing Director of CESNUR (Center for Studies on New Religions), Turin) “Mormon Origins – Revisionism or Re-Interpretation?”
16.10-16.50 Panel Discussion

ReligioWest Project

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Call for papers
ReligioWest Project

The ReligioWest Project based at the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies

(RSCAS) – European University Institute (EUI) is inviting submissions for its working paper series.

ReligioWest is a research project funded by the European Research Council and based at the European University Institute, Florence, Italy.  It aims at studying how different western states in Europe and North America are redefining their relationship to religions, under the challenge of an increasing religious activism in the public sphere, associated with new religious movements and with Islam.

The Working Paper Series benefits from contributions from the Project’s fellows as well as from leading scholars and experienced practitioners interested in and focused on the subject matter. The Working Papers Series aims at assessing theoretical issues, specific policies, and regulatory questions.

Submissions fort this call should address novel research in the field of:

– Religious practices in Europe and USA (including religious affiliations, religious practices, bulding of new workship places, recruitment of clerics, conversions)
– Court decisions on cases involving religion in Europe and North America (legal doctrines, common trends, definition of religion)
– Relationship between religions and secular law (interventions of religious groups in the public sphere, religious lobbying)
– Public debates on Western identities and values

The selection of the Working Papers takes place following a peer-review process.
Selected papers are published both in paper and in digital copy on the EUI Repository and ReligioWest webpage.  For the selected papers a compensation will be agreed with the Director of the project. Please find further information about this call and how to prepare your submission at:
http://www.eui.eu/Documents/RSCAS/Publications/AuthorsInfo.pdf

In order to discuss further the fit of your paper in the working paper series, or if you have any further inquires, please contact Dr. Pasquale Annicchino, at:
pasquale.annicchino@eui.eu

‘Religion and Territory’ Colloquium, 25/26 October

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This is to inform you that a small number of places are available on the forthcoming ‘Religion and Territory’ workshop, 25/26 October, run by CRESC, University of Manchester, and EUREL, a European network and online resource for law and sociology of religion in Europe led by the University of Strasbourg. 

The empirical and quantitative study of religious geography is a new subject with much opportunity. Following the   ‘spatial turn’, we have much to learn about the spatial mechanisms of religious change using formal methods.
Equally, the growing religious diversity of Europe has provided social and institutional challenges. Responses have differed greatly both across Europe and between different levels of government within countries.

Plenary talks are to be given by Professor Silvio Ferrari, Universities of Milan and Leuven, and Dr Ian Gregory, Lancaster University.
Additional contributions by Olivier Chatelan, Mikhail Chakhov, Niall Cunningham, Anne Fornerod, Thomas Lundén, Ulrich Messier, Meenakshi Parameshwaran and Matthew Bennett, Johanna Pettersson, Carlo Reggiani, Ringo Ringvee, Louise Ryan, Lucine Endelstein, David Voas, Mine Yildirim.

The workshop is hosted at Chancellors Hotel and Conference Centre and is generously subsidised by the Universities of Manchester and Strasbourg.
The draft programme is available here: http://eurel.sciencesconf.org/program
and places can be booked here:
http://estore.manchester.ac.uk/browse/product.asp?catid=217&modid=2&compid=1
with a standard fee of £55 for the 1.5 day event and £30 for non-wage earners.