Author Archives: Jim

PhD Studentship: Religion, Belief and Progressive Localism

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Fully-funded Ph.D in Progressive Localism: the search for new partnerships and forms of co-production between local authority, faith sector and third sector actors as a response to ongoing austerity, increased despair and inequality and decline in institutional resources and knowledge.

Three years full-time to start January 2018. The Ph.D scholarship is for a total of £25,170 over three years to cover fees (£4,195 p/a) and maintenance (£4,195 p/a).

2 – 3,000 words proposals are invited from prospective candidates to develop new critical thinking and empirical research around the concept of progressive localism in UK settings. The concept, devised by David Featherstone et al., recognises that policies of ‘Localism’ have been associated with pushing responsibility for policy and funding away from the centre to local authorities and settings, thus connecting localism with austerity and neo-liberalism. Yet localism has the potential – and track record – for driving genuinely empowered, localised resilience and flourishing. Progressive localism is ‘outward looking and creates positive affinities between places and social groups negotiating global processes. These affinity groups and networks are expansive in their geographical reach … and productive of new relations between places and social groups.’ (2011)

We are looking for innovative and empirically based research that critically tests out the ideas behind this concept, addressing issues of power and partnership, leadership and change management, the postsecular, co-production, performative apologetics etc. We are interested in how new policy landscapes create or inhibit an ‘outwards facing approach’ to working alongside increased diversity, as part of ethical and tactical approaches towards increased engagement, leading to new and sustainable forms and expressions of progressive localism.

The proposal should outline how the candidate would construct a research thesis on this area, addressing issues of research questions, methodology, public impact and publications. A bibliography should be submitted as an appendix.

Background

The Faiths and Civil Society Unit at Goldsmiths, University of London and William Temple Foundation have invested in five fully funded Ph.D studentships to explore the role and impact of religion and belief in modern British life. William Temple was Archbishop of Canterbury in the 1940s whose theological and political thought and leadership led to the creation the post-war universal and comprehensive welfare state (a phrase that he coined). 

Both institutions are committed to critical, innovative and interdisciplinary research on trajectories in political, social and economic life, and policy. The new visibility of globalised religion within UK life, coupled with a steep rise of those who identify with ‘no-religion’ is a phenomenon of 21st century life, redefining key debates in public life; healthcare, education, law, community development, social cohesion, poverty and exclusion, human rights, wellbeing and flourishing. 

Four William Temple Scholar studentships were awarded in September 2017. Students will co-design one public impact event each year highlighting their research, as well as contributing regular blogs and social media feeds for both FCSU and WT Foundation platforms.

Deadline for applications: 12 noon, 1st December, 2017.

Successful applicants will be called to interview on 12th December, 2017.

Applications to Thomas Greenwood on  T.Greenwood@gold.ac.uk. Further queries to Professor Chris Baker on c.baker@gold.ac.uk.

Call for Sessions & Papers: Conference on Media, Religion and Public Scholarship, August 8-11, 2018

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The Center for Media, Religion and Culture and the College of Media, Communication and Information at the University of Colorado Boulder will host the 11th biennial conference of the International Society for Media, Religion, and Culture (ISMRC), which will explore the relationship between media, religion and public scholarship. This conference will bring together international scholars from various disciplines including media studies, journalism, politics, religious studies, the anthropology and sociology of religion, history, the study of literature and public policy. The conference, since its first meeting in 1996, has become the leading international gathering for the discussion of research in religion, media and culture. We invite proposals for panels, workshops and/or roundtable sessions as well as for individual papers. The Call for Papers can be found here.

Following the success of the first doctoral student pre-conference at the 2016 ISMRC conference in Seoul, we will also host a workshop for PhD students on Tuesday, August 7. Participants register for this during conference registration. Details about this workshop, along with the Call for Papers, can be found here.

Conference Location
Village Center Dining and Community Commons
University of Colorado Boulder
3300 Baseline Road
Boulder, Colorado 80303

Details online at: https://www.colorado.edu/ismrc/conferences/conference-media-religion-and-public-scholarship

Call for Papers: Doctoral Colloquium Pre-Conference of the International Society for Media, Religion and Culture

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Pre-Conference date: August 7, 2018
Deadline for paper proposals: January 15, 2018
Notification of acceptances: End of February 2018

The International Society of Media, Religion & Culture will be hosting a Pre-Conference for doctoral students on the day before the ISMRC bi-annual conference at the University of Colorado, Boulder.

This pre-conference will provide doctoral students the opportunity to present their research, receive feedback from leaders in the field, discuss theoretical, methodological and professional challenges, as well as network with other peers.

Interested students should prepare a) 1-2 page (500-800 word) extended abstract of the student’s thesis/major research project and b) a sample paper/chapter (up to 5000 words) of writing related to the topic.

All materials are to be prepared in English and are due on or before 15th of January 2018.

Please send all applications to the Doctoral Colloquium Chair, Associate Professor Heidi Campbell (heidic@tamu.edu), with subject: ISMRC doctoral colloquium application.

Questions may also be directed to the same email.

https://www.colorado.edu/ismrc/conferences/conference-media-religion-and-public-scholarship/call-papers-doctoral-colloquium-pre

Call for Papers: Doctoral Colloquium Pre-Conference of the International Society for Media, Religion and Culture

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Pre-Conference date: August 7, 2018
Deadline for paper proposals: January 15, 2018
Notification of acceptances: End of February 2018

The International Society of Media, Religion & Culture will be hosting a Pre-Conference for doctoral students on the day before the ISMRC bi-annual conference at the University of Colorado, Boulder.

This pre-conference will provide doctoral students the opportunity to present their research, receive feedback from leaders in the field, discuss theoretical, methodological and professional challenges, as well as network with other peers.

Interested students should prepare a) 1-2 page (500-800 word) extended abstract of the student’s thesis/major research project and b) a sample paper/chapter (up to 5000 words) of writing related to the topic.

All materials are to be prepared in English and are due on or before 15th of January 2018.

Please send all applications to the Doctoral Colloquium Chair, Associate Professor Heidi Campbell (heidic@tamu.edu), with subject: ISMRC doctoral colloquium application.

Questions may also be directed to the same email.

https://www.colorado.edu/ismrc/conferences/conference-media-religion-and-public-scholarship/call-papers-doctoral-colloquium-pre

“Religious? Secular? Re-thinking Islam and Space in Europe” (Workshop: Cambridge, 30 Nov – 1 Dec)

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Religious? Secular? Re-thinking Islam and Space in Europe

Overview

Date: Nov 30, 2017 – Dec 1, 2017
Organised by: Mr Chris Moses (University of Cambridge), Mr Tobias Müller (University of Cambridge) and Ms Adela Taleb (Humboldt University of Berlin)

Confirmed key note speakers:

Professor Kim Knott, Professor Riem Spielhaus, Dr Marian Burchardt

This inter-disciplinary workshop presents a welcome opportunity to evaluate questions of space within the study of Islam in Europe, with particular interests in Germany and the UK. It draws together researchers for a two-day event exploring challenges and suggesting solutions for theoretical, conceptual, and methodological debates associated with the topic.
From identity-framed accounts of territory to contests over mosque construction, questions associated with Islam and space underlie major academic and public sphere debates in contemporary Europe. The extent of these enquiries is broad, affecting scholarly topics such as place, networks, and the dynamics of identity, as well as familiar policy issues such as values, migration, and political participation.

This workshop seeks to develop this area of scholarship by engaging with this breadth of both content and approach in a systematic fashion. It draws on and seeks to extend existing work, including theories such as the “Islamisation of space”, dichotomies of “the religious” and “the secular”, and accounts of local Muslim “cultures”. In our experiences as researchers, these perspectives have not always done justice to the complex empirical and conceptual issues involved, such as diversity, time, power, units and scales of analysis, matrices of identity, and the inter-weaving of secular and religious.

The workshop has five main aims:
– To offer an evaluation of “space” as a heuristic tool within the study of Islam in Europe.
– To bring together a diverse series of scholarly projects, in the expectation that this breadth will benefit participants’ respective research undertakings.
– To evaluate and compare various conceptual approaches to space, drawing on the inter-disciplinary character of the workshop.
– To consider the different methodologies researchers have employed when handling issues of space, e.g. ethnography, history, discourse analysis.
– To explore the value and stability (or otherwise) of questions of place.

http://www.daad.cam.ac.uk/workshops/religious-secular-re-thinking-islam-and-space-in-europe

“Religious? Secular? Re-thinking Islam and Space in Europe” (Workshop: Cambridge, 30 Nov – 1 Dec)

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Religious? Secular? Re-thinking Islam and Space in Europe

Overview

Date: Nov 30, 2017 – Dec 1, 2017
Organised by: Mr Chris Moses (University of Cambridge), Mr Tobias Müller (University of Cambridge) and Ms Adela Taleb (Humboldt University of Berlin)

Confirmed key note speakers:

Professor Kim Knott, Professor Riem Spielhaus, Dr Marian Burchardt

This inter-disciplinary workshop presents a welcome opportunity to evaluate questions of space within the study of Islam in Europe, with particular interests in Germany and the UK. It draws together researchers for a two-day event exploring challenges and suggesting solutions for theoretical, conceptual, and methodological debates associated with the topic.
From identity-framed accounts of territory to contests over mosque construction, questions associated with Islam and space underlie major academic and public sphere debates in contemporary Europe. The extent of these enquiries is broad, affecting scholarly topics such as place, networks, and the dynamics of identity, as well as familiar policy issues such as values, migration, and political participation.

This workshop seeks to develop this area of scholarship by engaging with this breadth of both content and approach in a systematic fashion. It draws on and seeks to extend existing work, including theories such as the “Islamisation of space”, dichotomies of “the religious” and “the secular”, and accounts of local Muslim “cultures”. In our experiences as researchers, these perspectives have not always done justice to the complex empirical and conceptual issues involved, such as diversity, time, power, units and scales of analysis, matrices of identity, and the inter-weaving of secular and religious.

The workshop has five main aims:
– To offer an evaluation of “space” as a heuristic tool within the study of Islam in Europe.
– To bring together a diverse series of scholarly projects, in the expectation that this breadth will benefit participants’ respective research undertakings.
– To evaluate and compare various conceptual approaches to space, drawing on the inter-disciplinary character of the workshop.
– To consider the different methodologies researchers have employed when handling issues of space, e.g. ethnography, history, discourse analysis.
– To explore the value and stability (or otherwise) of questions of place.

http://www.daad.cam.ac.uk/workshops/religious-secular-re-thinking-islam-and-space-in-europe

CFP: European Academy of Religion First Annual Conference Bologna, March 5-8, 2018

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The European Academy of Religion (EuARe) is a research initiative launched under the High Patronage of the European Parliament which offers an exchange platform to academies and scientific societies, associations, research centres and institutions, university labs, clusters and departments, journals, publishers, the media and scholars in Europe and the surrounding regions.

The 2018 Conference will be held in Bologna from Monday 5th to Thursday 8th March. The program will be composed of plenary (lectiones magistrales and roundtables) and working sessions (panels and papers).

  • Lectiones magistrales will be held by: Andres Winroth (Yale University); Philip Reynolds (Emory University); Risto Saarinen (University of Helsinki); Else Marie Wiberg-Pedersen (Aarhus University); Mona Siddiqui (University of Edinburgh); John Zizioulas (Thessaloniki School of Theology); Christoph Markschies (Humboldt-Universität Berlin) and many others. 
  • Three roundtables will be convened on the topic of ‘Change and Religion in Europe’, and on the figures of Aristotle and Moses. 
  • On Tuesday 6th and Wednesday 7th, the Conference will host an international Moot Court Competition in Law & Religion, organized in cooperation with ICLARS — International Consortium for Law & Religion Studies. Teams from within and outside Europe will argue a case before either/both the European Court of Human Rights and the Supreme Court of the United States. Pre-eminent scholars and actual judges from both jurisdictions will sit as judges of the two Courts.

Submission forms for panel and paper proposals will be available in the next few days. In the meanwhile, proposals and ideas can be sent to: eu_are@fscire.it .  See the attached PDF file for details.

Job Opening: Uni­versity Lec­turer in Is­lamic Theo­logy

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The Faculty of Theology at the University of Helsinki invites applications for a permanent position of UNIVERSITY LECTURER IN ISLAMIC THEOLOGY in the Study of Religions to begin on 1 August 2018.

The university lecturer will provide teaching and supervision at all levels of study with a special focus on Islamic theology. The applicant should have expertise in two or preferably in several of the following topics:

  • Qur’anic studies and interpretative traditions;
  • Islamic hermeneutics;
  • Islamic thought and culture;
  • Islam in Europe;
  • Islam in everyday life;
  • Islam and gender.

The university lecturer is also expected to carry out independent academic research, supervise and examine theses and dissertations, and attend to administrative and other duties jointly agreed upon. The position to be filled focuses on teaching, mainly at the Bachelor’s and Master’s levels. Thus it requires active engagement in the development of teaching.

The study of religions is a joint discipline of the Faculty of Theology and the Department of World Cultures of the Faculty of Arts. It has two professors and three university lecturers. Further information about the discipline is available at http://www.helsinki.fi/studyofreligions/

Call for Papers: Brokerage in a diverse Europe: intermediaries, go-betweens and bridges

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A workshop will be held on the 12-13 Jan 2018 in London, UK

As contemporary Europe has become ever more diverse due to globalization and international migration, processes of mediation and brokerage have become increasingly central to communication, cooperation, and conflict resolution in a range of political, institutional, and social domains. Whether as religious mediators, ethnic community leaders, diaspora experts or so-called migrant smugglers, middlemen and go-betweens bring together disparate communities and translate across different social fields.

To describe their role, the concept of brokerage is used across a variety of disciplines, including political science, sociology, anthropology, economics, linguistics, development studies and subfields of each discipline, such as social movement studies, network studies, religious studies, and organizational studies. However, disciplinary boundaries have meant that disparate conceptions of brokerage coexist with limited exchange across research fields.

This two-day multi-disciplinary workshop aims to bring together scholars working on brokerage in different social and political domains with the aim of identifying trends and divergences across various fields. We also seek to share and develop conceptual and methodological frameworks for studying brokerage in a diversifying Europe. We invite paper presentations on the following topics, but are open to any paper addressing brokerage in a diverse Europe: 

  • What are typical characteristics of brokers? Are certain groups or individuals more likely to act as brokers, and if so, why? 
  • What are the conditions of success of brokerage and what leads to its failure? 
  • How do brokers negotiate loyalty and conflicting interests between different social groups? 
  • How does brokerage reinforce or challenge static conceptions of ‘culture’, ‘communities’, ‘borders’? 
  • How can we understand brokers as gendered, racialized and classed subjects? 
  • What is the role of brokerage in the governance of diversity? 
  • What distinguishes brokers from related figures, such as native informants and mediators?

Please submit abstracts between 250 and 400 words by the 15 th of November to avi.astor@uab.cat

The workshop will be held on the 12-13 Jan 2018 in London, UK and is organised by Avi Astor (Autonomous University of Barcelona) and Sara de Jong (The Open University/Göttingen University). The workshop is sponsored by the Council for European Studies (CES). There is no registration fee, but participants have to fund their own travel and accommodation.

We seek to develop concrete plans for the publication of a special issue or edited volume on the basis of selected papers presented at the workshop.

Call for Papers: Special Issues of the Open Access Journal “Religions”

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Journal “Religions” announces five special issues open for submission

Transforming Encounters and Critical Reflection: African Thought, Critical Theory, and Liberation Theology in Dialogue (Deadline: 1 February 2018)
Guest Editors: Justin Sands, Anné Hendrik Verhoef

Women in Buddhism (Deadline: 1 March 2018)
Guest Editor: Lisa Battaglia

Current Trajectories in Global Pentecostalism: Culture, Social Engagement, and Change (Deadline: 30 April 2018)
Guest Editor: Roger G. Robins

Practicing Buddhism through Film (Deadline: 1 June 2018)
Guest Editor: Francisca Cho

Feminisms and the Study of “Religions” (Deadline: 28 February 2018)
Guest Editor: Darlene Juschka

To access the full list of open Special Issues, please click: http://www.mdpi.com/journal/religions/special_issues

NOTE: Article processing charge of 350 Swiss Francs.  See http://www.mdpi.com/journal/religions/apc