Author Archives: Jim

Workshop on Methodological Approaches to the Study of Religion

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METHODOLOGICAL APPROACHES TO THE STUDY OF RELIGION
23-27  February 2015
University of Kent
Registrations now open!

This annual programme is designed to give post-graduate students core training in social research in relation to the study of religion. By the end of the programme, you will have an understanding of a range of key issues in designing and conducting research, as well as the potential and challenges of specific research methods. This should give you new ways of thinking about your own research work, as well as giving introducing you to resources and approaches that you will want to explore in more depth after completing this training. Whilst covering issues addressed on more generic social research methods training courses, the content will be designed and delivered by researchers with particular experience in studying religion, enabling us to focus on specific issues and resources relevant to this specific field.

This programme builds on Kent’s experience of delivering a similar intensive training programme, funded by the AHRC, for postgraduate research students in the study of religion in 2010. This project also led to the creation of the ‘Research methods for the study of religion’ website (www.kent.ac.uk/religionmethods) from which some of the preparatory work for this training programme has been set.

The 2015 programme will be led by Abby Day, with an international Academic Team including Lois Lee, Sarah Dunlop, Mia Lövheim, Melissa Caldwell, Sylvia Galandini, Anna Strhan, and Adam Dinham. They will  cover issues such as research design and rigour, visual methods, internet research, ethnography, qualitative research analysis, quantitative methods and resources, action research, making impact, and getting published and funded.

Numbers are strictly limited to encourage hands-on participation.

Students not registered at the University of Kent pay a nominal fee of £100.00 for the week. Accommodation and meals are not included.

For further information please contact
Dr Abby Day, Department of Religious Studies, University of Kent,
Canterbury UK
a.f.day@kent.ac.uk

The post Workshop on Methodological Approaches to the Study of Religion appeared first on ISA Research Committee 22.

Job Opening: Professor of Sociology of Religion

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Professor/Førsteamanuensis innen fagområdet religionssosiologi, ved Fakultet for humaniora og pedagogikk Ref. 116/14

http://uia.easycruit.com/vacancy/1304639/35068?iso=no

Universitetet i Agder tilbyr mer enn 150 studier og har et aktivt og ledende forskermiljø. Vi vektlegger respekt, åpenhet og evnen til å vise engasjement og stolthet over både egne og andres resultater. Våre over 1000 ansatte og omlag 10 000 studenter trives godt og har stort faglig utbytte av virksomheten på våre topp moderne og funksjonelle campuser I Kristiansand og Grimstad.

Ved Universitetet i Agder er det ledig en 100 % fast stilling som professor/førsteamanuensis ved Fakultet for humaniora og pedagogikk, Institutt for religion, filosofi og historie. Arbeidssted er for tiden Campus Kristiansand. Tiltredelsestidspunkt: 1. august 2015, eller etter avtale.

Institutt for religion, filosofi og historie har ca 40 vitenskapelige stillinger og ca 500 studenter knyttet til studieprogrammene i religion, filosofi og historie. Instituttet tilbyr undervisning på bachelor-,
master- og phd-nivå, samt i lærerutdanningene.

Den som ansettes, vil få ansvar for undervisning og veiledning på bachelornivå, masternivå og phd-nivå, og i lærerutdanningene.

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Call for panels and papers: “Transnational Religion, Conflict and Dialogue”

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Call for panels and papers: Section on “Transnational Religion, Conflict and Dialogue”, 9th Pan-European Conference of the European International Studies Association (EISA)
Wednesday 23 – Saturday 26 September 2015, Giardini Naxos, Sicily, Italy

Section Convenors: Jeffrey Haynes, London Metropolitan University, jeff.haynes@londonmet.ac.uk , and Luca Ozzano, University of Turin, luca.ozzano@unito.it

Website: http://www.paneuropeanconference.org/

Prospective participants can propose both panels and single papers, by logging in at the address https://www.conftool.pro/paneuropean2015/  submitting an abstract of up to 200 words by January 15, 2015. Please also send an email to the address luca.ozzano@unito.it.

Prospective panel convenors, particularly, are also requested to signal their interest by sending an email to the same address, possibly by December 20, 2014.
Please don’t hesitate to get in touch also to contact us for further information.

Abstract:
For a long time, the discipline of international relations has showed reluctance to take into account religion, both because of the dominant realist state-centric perspective, and as a consequence of the so-called secularization paradigm, regarding religion as an irrelevant or utterly negative factor. Scholars, particularly, widely accepted the so-called post-Westphalian pillars, according to which states are the only legitimate actors in international relations, and religion must not significantly influence politics, especially at the international level. As a consequence, until the recent rise of radical Islam, transnational religious actors were not regarded as legitimate actors in international affairs. Only since the 1990s, as a consequence of the growing relevance of such actors, often bypassing states, the discipline of international relations has started to take them into account. Researches have thus flourished about Muslim movements, but also about the transnational role
of the Catholic Church and the US-based Evangelical organizations. A growing corpus of literature about non universalist religions, such as Hinduism, has also developed, mainly in relation to the role of the diaspora communities. As a whole, researches have highlighted that transnational religion can become a source of understanding and dialogue, but also of conflict and violence. This section aims at casting light on both sides of this dichotomy by analyzing transnational religious movements belonging to different religious traditions and geographic/cultural areas both oriented towards conflict, violence and terrorism, and oriented towards peace, dialogue and reconciliation.

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CFP: “Crafting a Nuanced Sociology of Religious Experiences: Realities, Sensed-Experiences, Discourses”

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33rd ISSR Conference: “Sensing Religion” Louvain-la-Neuve (Belgium), 2-5th July, 2015 http://www.sisr-issr.org/

STS03 “Crafting a Nuanced Sociology of Religious Experiences: Realities, Sensed-Experiences, Discourses”

Organized by:

  • - James SPICKARD, University of Redlands (USA)
    jim_spickard@redlands.edu
  • Géraldine MOSSIÈRE, Université de Montréal (Canada)
    geraldine.mossiere@umontreal.ca

Sociologists and other scholars often write about ‘religious experiences’ as if these were only private phenomena. That is far from the case; they are social phenomena as well. This session invites sociologists to examine the social nature of religious experiences in any of three modes.

  • First, there is the question of reality: scholars of many types assume that religious experiences are ‘real’ – i.e., that they refer to real events in the outside world, whether those events are in fact ‘religious’ (e.g., real visitations by real angels) or are the by-product of something else (e.g., brain manifestations). We invite papers that explore the social aspects of any of these views.
  • Second, there is the question of experience: How do religious experiences appear to those doing the experiencing, leaving aside the question of their reality? What are their qualities, attributes, and consequences? How are they induced? How can we best grasp these as social experiences, not just as individual ones? Can any of the various schools of phenomenology help us in this task? If so, how?
  • Third, there is the question of symbols and meanings: How do people interpret their experiences and what is the meaning they attach to them? This brings up the issues of language and discourse: How do people report their religious experiences? In which frames? What is the role of cultural, social and political contexts in these narratives? Are there standardized narratives on religious experiences? Finally, we welcome discussions of why people talk so much about religious experience today and why so many people think that the question of whether religious experiences are real is so important.

We invite paper proposals that examine deeply any of these questions on any basis: theoretical, empirical, philosophical, etc.

Please submit your proposal (abstract around 300 words) at the the ISSR website (http://sisr-issr.org/Program/ ), before December 15, 2014.

The post CFP: “Crafting a Nuanced Sociology of Religious Experiences: Realities, Sensed-Experiences, Discourses” appeared first on ISA Research Committee 22.

Call for Papers: “Fleeting sentiment of the sacred. Between public space and religious territories”

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33rd ISSR Conference: “Sensing Religion” Louvain-la-Neuve (Belgium), 2-5th July, 2015 http://www.sisr-issr.org/

STS05 “Fleeting sentiment of the sacred. Between public space and religious territories”

Globalization entails transformations of territories (deterritorialization, transnationalism, virtualization via ICT, aso.) and of the forms of spatiality (fluid and rhizomic,  or on the contrary becoming the essence) which compel to revise the models of understanding societies and cultures that human sciences can offer. Religions are of course affected by the changes in their physical and social layouts, which transform their moral and symbolic components. The movement transforming the space of religion, and the acceleration of these dynamic of transformation, brings to life new modes  of experimentation and identification, and new forms of temporality and solidarity, which contribute to the reinvention of the universe of religion. However, religion aims at duration whereas our time is one of transience, one of the succes of contextual performative utterances that value immediate experience over the duration of an institution. Flash mobs, impromptu demonstrations, virtual communities, are all examples of this new relationship to space and time, that can be also found in the spiritual.

This workshop aims at grasping how the religious can be experienced in the immediate, how it invests fleeting spaces and generates momentary (though not necessarily imprecise) sentiment. It will take into account one-time manifestations of religions in public space (from the unexpected appearance of a sacred without institution  – such as pareidolia or hierophany – to religious denominations organising street prayers). It will interrogate the nature and form of religion these instant displays exhibit, what kind of emotion, and  which forms of temporality and spatiality are created or encountered through these demonstrations. In conclusion, we will discuss the relevance of the approcach  of contemporary religion in  terms of fleeting but territorialized sentiment.

Please send your proposal (abstract around 300 words), with a short CV,  to Anne-Laure Zwilling (anne-laure.zwilling@misha.cnrs.fr) and Lionel Obadia (lionel.obadia@univ-lyon2.fr), or via the ISSR website (http://sisr-issr.org/Program/ ), before December 15, 2014.

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Two PhD Positions Available

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Two PhD Positions available:

The Department of Archaeology, History, Cultural Studies and Religion has announced two PhD positions in the Mumbai project:

  • Religion in Public Spaces in Mumbai’ (advertisement at jobbnorge.no)
  • ‘Religion and Violence in Mumbai’ (advertisement at jobbnorge.no)

Application deadline for both positions: 2 January, 2015

The post Two PhD Positions Available appeared first on ISA Research Committee 22.

New Book: “Religious Transformation in Modern Asia”

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Religious Transformation in Modern Asia: A Transnational Movement

edited by David W. Kim (Australian National University)
Brill, March 2015

http://www.brill.com/products/book/religious-transformation-modern-asia

This volume explores the religious transformation of each nation in modern Asia. When the Asian people, who were not only diverse in culture and history, but also active in performing local traditions and religions, experienced a socio-political change under the wave of Western colonialism, the religious climate was also altered from a transnational perspective.

  • Part One explores the nationals of China (Taiwan), Hong Kong, Korea, and Japan, focusing on the manifestations of Japanese religion, Chinese foreign policy, the British educational system in Hong Kong in relation to Tibetan Buddhism, the Korean women of Catholicism, and the Scottish impact in late nineteenth century Korea.
  • Part Two approaches South Asia through the topics of astrology, the works of a Gujarātī saint, and Himalayan Buddhism.
  • The third part is focused on the conflicts between ‘indigenous religions and colonialism,’ ‘Buddhism and Christianity,’ ‘Islam and imperialism,’ and ‘Hinduism and Christianity’ in Southeast Asia.

The volume will certainly impress those who are interested in modern Asian history and religion, particularly with the colonial experiences of India, Korea, Japan, China, Tibet, Nepal, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, and Malaysia. By directing attention to the study of religions in Asia, David Kim’s Religious Transformation in Modern Asia goes some distance towards redressing the imbalance in Religious Studies, which, even in the study of the major religions of Asia, has favoured approaches that reflect topics of primary concern to students of religion in the West. This collection of essays written by experts in Northeast, South and Southeast Asia offers a rare insight into themes and issues that confront both practitioners as insiders as well as academics and informed outsiders. As such, it promises to contribute to the understanding of the study of religions in Asia, both historically and in contemporary settings, while at the same time offering important theoretical advances in the academic study of religions generally.

Contributors are: Carole M. Cusack, Catharina Blomberg, Christopher Hartney, Daniel Ahn, David W. Kim, Joshua Esler, Kevin N. Cawley, Laurens de Rooij, Lawrence C. Reardon, Lionel Obadia, Martin Wood, Nicholas Campion, and Ronnie Gale Dreyer.

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Conference CFP: “Old Religion and New Spirituality”, Tartu, Estonia

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The conference

Old religion and new spirituality:
continuity and changes in the background of secularization

University of Tartu, Estonia, 26-29 May 2015

Estonia is an extremely secularized European country, characterized by the diminishing institutionalization of religion (de-institutionalization) and the decline of the Christian practices and beliefs (de-Christianization). In order to investigate the historical roots of the situation and clarify the characteristics of the current picture, the research project about religiosity in Estonia was started in 2011. The staff of the project welcomes the researchers dealing with the religious situation in Europe in order to make comparisons of certain features of the changing religious landscape. Papers that address contemporary developments or provide a historical perspective will be accepted.

Particularly interesting aspects may include:

  • historical process of secularization, its specific features in different countries;
  • combinations of religion and nationalism, effects of nationalism on public religion;
  • changes in the traditional religious groups and churches in 21st century;
  • atheism and nonreligion, their organized and individual manifestations;
  • new spirituality, “New Age” and individual religiousness, mixed forms of organized and individual religion.

Invited speakers include:

  • Stephen Bullivant (St Mary’s University, Twickenham)
  • Abby Day (University of Kent)
  • Paul Heelas (Erasmus University Rotterdam)
  • Detlef Pollack (University of Münster)

The language of the conference is English. The organizers plan to publish a selection of papers.

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Job Opening: University Lecturer, Study of Religions, University of Helsinki

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University Lecturer, Study of Religions

http://academicpositions.fi/ad/university-of-helsinki/2014/university-lecturer-study-religions/29564/

Apply at latest on: Jan 7, 2015
Fixed-term: Permanent
Employer:
Faculty of Theology

The Faculty of Theology (http://www.helsinki.fi/teol/tdk/english/) is the largest of the three theological units in Finland and has one of the highest numbers of theology students in Europe. The Faculty is a non-denominational academic community.

The university lecturer will provide teaching and supervision in the study of religions at all levels of study and in the English-language Master’s degree programme Religion, Conflict and Dialogue. 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/. The appointee is expected to possess an applicable doctoral degree, to have the ability to provide high quality research-based teaching and to supervise theses and dissertations. Non-Finnish-speaking appointee is required to begin studying Finnish one year from the beginning of the employment at the latest. To successfully fulfill the duties of the position, the appointee must also have good English skills, as well as expertise in world religions and the research methods used in the study of religions.

Applicants should write a letter of application and enclose with it a development plan and an academic portfolio, as follows:

– The development plan (max. one page) must specify how the applicant, if appointed, intends to develop teaching and research in the field.

– The academic portfolio must present the applicant’s key qualifications and adhere to the following Faculty guidelines: http://www.helsinki.fi/teol/tdk/english/administration/posts.htm.

Applications and the required enclosures must be addressed to the Faculty of Theology and emailed to the University Registry at HY-kirjaamo@helsinki.fi (or mailed to the following address: Registry of the University of Helsinki, PO Box 33, 00014 University of Helsinki, Finland). The deadline for applications is Wednesday, 7 January 2015. (The Registry closes at 15.45 local Helsinki time.)

Further information about the position is available from the discipline coordinator Tuula Sakaranaho, tuula.sakaranaho@helsinki.fi, tel. +358 2941 24334.

For details about the salary and recruitment for the position, please contact Head of Faculty Administration Mikael Vänttinen, mikael.vanttinen@helsinki.fi, tel. + 358 2941 22550.

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New Issue: Approaching Religion Vol. 4/2 (December, 2014)

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Theme:  Concord, Conflict and Co-Existence: religion and society in the Middle East and North Africa.

Available at: www.abo.fi/approachingreligion

The current issue consists of articles based on presentations given at the conference “The role of Theory in Folkloristics and Comparative Religion” arranged in Turku/Åbo, Finland in June, 2014 .

AR is published by the Donner Institute in Åbo, Finland. Its purpose is to publish current research on religion and culture and to offer a platform for scholarly co-operation and debate within the field. The articles have been selected on the basis of peer-review.

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