Biennial Conference of the ESA RN34- Sociology of Religion
Groningen (Netherlands), 26-28 August 2020

This conference wants to adopt a broad approach to the study of the relation between religion and different “environments”: the urban environment, the natural environment and the virtual environment. This threefold approach allows us to capture three areas of religious transformation and innovation, which are of high academic and societal relevance in contemporary European societies and beyond. By approaching these three topics, we aim to contribute both to the academic advancement of the sociology of religion in relation to its conceptual and methodological tools and to a broader societal reflection on the dynamic between religion and the urban, natural and virtual environments. Some of the questions we seek to address are the following:

• How do religions and cities interact with one another and transform each other? How does the urban environment affect religious practices and, conversely, how do religious practices and groups transform the urban environment? How are religious and secular meanings negotiated in urban spaces? How do tourism, heritage industries and gentrification processes produce and transform urban religious heritage?
• How do religious groups relate to the natural environment? How do religions see and interpret the ecological crisis and which alternatives do they suggest? How do religious groups conceptualise their role in relation to environmental concerns and claims? Which forms does faith-based environmentalism take? How do religions position themselves in relation to other social actors in environmental concerns?
• How do the virtual environment and religion interact with and affect one another? How does the virtual environment influence how we understand the idea of “religious community” and community in general? How are religion and the concept of religion affected and challenged by the increasingly digitalized world? What challenges and inspirations for religion can the developments in artificial intelligence and virtual reality bring about? What conceptual, epistemological, methodological and ethical challenges are faced by scholars exploring “virtual religion”?

Papers addressing these and other questions and topics relevant to the sociology of religion are welcome. Besides individual papers, it is possible to propose a panel with a maximum of four papers per panel.

Additionally, MA and PhD students will have the opportunity to combine their participation in the conference with a summer school. See more information here

Confirmed Keynote Speakers

• Dr. Giulia Evolvi, Erasmus University Rotterdam
• Prof. Dr. Jens Koehrsen, University of Basel
• Dr. Pooyan Tamimi Arab, Utrecht University

All interested should submit an abstract of 200 to 250 words, including a reference to the theoretical framework, research question, methodology and main findings. Panel proposals should include the title and a short description of the panel (200 to 250 words), the name and affiliation of the convener(s), and the title, author’s name and abstract (200 to 250 words) for each of the proposed papers. Proposals should be submitted to esarn34-groningen2020@rug.nl

Deadline: 31 January 2020 

Visit the conference website for more information: https://www.rug.nl/education/summer-winter-schools/religion-urban-natural-virtual-environments/

A three-day international conference funded and organised by the Department of Theology and Religion, University of Birmingham, in partnership with the Muslims in Britain Research Network

Dates: 20-22 April 2020

Across Europe there are numerous examples of recent linkages between universities and Islamic seminaries. In Germany the experiment, now over ten years old, of establishing departments of Islamic theology in five universities has now recruited close on 2000 students, many of whom will end up teaching confessional Islam RE in schools. At Vienna, in VU Amsterdam, and in UC Louvain there are programmes for Islamic leaders, teachers, and imams. In the UK, partnerships have been developed at under- and postgraduate level between e.g. Warwick, Birmingham and Middlesex universities and Islamic seminaries representing a range of Islamic traditions. Movement between confessional and non-confessional Islamic educational contexts by students and staff, both as a result of such formal links or informally, is now common.

The conference will explore the opportunities and challenges created by the emergence of bridges and permeable membranes between confessional and non-confessional Islamic educational contexts. It will bring together scholars from across Europe working in different policy and educational settings to look at how Islamic education operates, and the implications of this for the transmission and representation of the Islamic tradition, as well as the teaching of Islam in universities. The conference’s remit will be any arena where Islam is included as a part of higher-level study, from the confessional teaching of Islam, to theology and religious studies, history, politics and the social sciences. We have invited six main speakers to help us move the discussions along:

• Prof. Bekim Agai, Dept. of Islamic Studies, University of Frankfurt
• Prof. Ednan Aslan, Depts. of Teacher Education and Islamic Theology, University of Vienna
• Prof. Sophie Gilliat-Ray, Professor in Religious and Theological Studies, Director for the Centre for the Study of Islam in the UK, Cardiff University
• Prof. Birgitte Schepelern Johansen, Dept. of Cross-Cultural and Regional Studies, University of Copenhagen
• Dr Walaa Quisay, Teaching Fellow, University of Birmingham
• Prof. Alison Scott-Baumann, Professor of Society & Belief, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London

Abstracts are now invited for papers that address any of the conference themes:

• How students and staff navigate between confessional and non-confessional Islamic educational contexts
• How policy contexts affect the development of linkages between seminaries and mainstream higher education institutions;
• Teaching about Islam beyond Islamic and religious studies (for example, in history, politics and the social sciences);
• ‘Insider’ and ‘outsider’ dynamics in the teaching of Islam in European contexts
• Complementarities and tensions between confessional and non-confessional approaches to the study of Muslims and Islam
• Securing the study of Islam within and beyond higher education institutions

The organisers will cover the costs of accommodation and scheduled meals for accepted paper authors, but they will need to cover their own travel costs.
If you are interested in presenting at this conference,  please send a 250 word abstract to the email address below by 17 January along with a biographical note of no more than 50 words. We intend to invite selected speakers to develop their contribution into an article for publication in a thematic volume.

Abstract submissions and any general questions should be sent to the conference organisers at MuslimsinBritainRN@gmail.com.

Call for Contributions to a conference panel at the International Association for the Study of Forced Migration (IASFM) Accra, Ghana July 27-30, 2020

Violent conflicts, social unrest, and other humanitarian crises around the world have led to growing numbers of people seeking refuge both in the North and in the South. Migrating and seeking refuge have always been part and parcel of spiritual development. However, the current ‘refugee crisis’ in Europe and elsewhere in the world has brought to the fore fervent discussions regarding the role of religion in defining difference, linking the ‘refugee crisis’ with Islam, and fear of the ‘Other.’ Many religious institutions, spiritual leaders, and politicians invoke religious values and call for strict border controls to resolve the ‘refugee crisis.’ However, equally many humanitarian organizations and refugee advocates use religious values to inform their call to action to welcome refugees and migrants, provide them with assistance, and facilitate integration processes.

We are seeking panelists whose work fits a wide range of issues related to religion and forced migration, including, but not limited to, the examination of:

• re-politicization of religion and forced migration;
• religiously motivated violence as a root cause of forced migration;
• debates, policies, and activism based on values rooted in different religions;
• faith and the secular in realizing humanitarian values and principles;
• clashes between different religious values hindering immigrant integration;
• multi-religious responses to the ‘migration crisis;’
• engagement of religious institutions in providing assistance to refugees and migrants; • role of religion in populism;
• role of religion in coping with trauma of forced migration;
• methodological challenges involved in empirical studies of religion and forced migration;
• lived experiences of religion/s and forced migration.

The geographic focus of the panel is global. We welcome papers based on rigorous empirical research, policy analyses, and refugee narratives. We welcome submissions exploring issues from historical, philosophical, anthropological, theological, and interdisciplinary perspectives. If you are interested in participating, please send a title and a 250-word abstract to Elzbieta M. Gozdziak at emg27@georgetown.edu by October 25, 2019 at the latest.

All detailed information about the Conference can be found at our web site: www.irtp.co.uk

Please submit your abstract till 31st January 2020 and join us at the conference the next year.

Kind regards,
Organising Committee of IRTP conference
Razaq, Kevin, Carla and Carlos

PS :  our Journal is LIVE at : http://arrow.dit.ie/ijrtp/

Monday 6th-Tuesday 7th April 2020
The Aga Khan University, Institute for the Study of Muslim Civilisations
10 Handyside Street, London, N1C 4DN

Call for Papers and Panels: Following the success of its conferences in Edinburgh (2014), London (2015 and 2016), Chester (2017), Exeter (2018) and Nottingham (2019), the British Association for Islamic Studies is delighted to invite proposals for individual papers, or whole panels, for its Seventh Annual Conference which will be hosted by the Aga Khan University’s Institute for the Study of Muslim Civilisations, London. Papers and panels may be proposed by senior and early scholars from Professor to PhD level.

Islamic Studies is broadly understood to include all topics and disciplinary approaches to the study of Islam and Muslim societies (majority and minority), across all time periods from the formative to the classical, and pre-modern to the contemporary. Though not an exhaustive list, papers are welcome, for instance, on the following:

  *   Art, Architecture and Material Culture in the Muslim world
  *   Diversity within Islam and Islamic Studies
  *   Economy, Marketing and Finance
  *   Education
  *   Gender Studies
  *   Hadith Studies
  *   History, Intellectual History, History of Science
  *   Interreligious Relations
  *   Law
  *   Literature, Media and Cultural Studies including Postcolonial Studies
  *   Muslims in Africa and Asia
  *   Muslims in Britain/Europe/North America and other minority contexts
  *   Philosophy, Theology and Ethics
  *   Qur’anic and Tafsir Studies
  *   Representations of Islam and Muslims
  *   Sociology, Anthropology and Political Science
  *   Sufism and Mysticism

An Inclusive Conference: BRAIS is committed to the principles of equality, diversity and inclusivity. We welcome papers from scholars of all backgrounds and will work hard to ensure that BRAIS 2020 is a welcoming environment where everyone feels valued and supported.

Submitting Your Paper Proposal: Your paper proposal should be submitted via the online submission form which is available HERE http://bit.ly/2Bvg2v7

In addition to information about yourself, you will need to provide a paper title and an abstract. Abstracts should not exceed 200 words and must be written in English.

Submitting Your Panel Proposal: BRAIS particularly welcomes proposals for whole panels curated around certain themes or methodologies. Panels will ideally include four individual papers, but panels of three individual papers will also be considered.

Your panel proposal should be submitted via the online submission form which is available HERE  http://bit.ly/31Cleb5

We will require contact details, paper titles and abstracts for all papers submitted as part of the panel.  The panel should be submitted by the panel Chair who will be contacted by BRAIS once a decision has been made about your panel.

Submission Deadline  The deadline for submissions is midnight GMT on Sunday 17th November 2019.

PhD Fee Waivers A number of fee waivers will be available for UK-based PhD students whose papers are accepted for the BRAIS 2020 conference. Details of how to apply for fee waivers will be emailed to all those whose papers have been accepted for the conference.
Any Questions? If you have any questions, please contact the Conference Committee on: brais@ed.ac.uk.

St Mary’s Conference Centre, Sheffield, UK, Friday 24 January 2020

The UK Modern Slavery Act 2015, and similar legislation being pushed forward in many countries of the world, has led to a rapid expansion of responses to severe exploitation in recent years. This includes growth of statutory, NGO and faith based organisation services, public communications, and policy development to identify and support people in or at risk of severe exploitation. A vast amount of activities are focused on defining and identifying individuals considered at risk of, or to be perpetrators of, ‘modern slavery’. Less attention has been given to considering the efficacy, quality and direction of support and policy responses, the ramifications of victimising imagery that frequently circulates in campaigns, and how religious responses may (or may not) shape how ‘modern slavery’ is framed and addressed.

Faith-based organisations and faith leaders are prominent in ‘modern slavery’ discourse, policy development and services. New ‘post-secular’ partnerships are being forged between statutory, third sector and faith actors to deliver specialist welfare provision. Examination of faith based organisations’ roles in responding to homelessness, drug and alcohol dependency, food poverty and development variously suggest that faith identity can be significant or insignificant, strategic or hidden, helpful or unhelpful in providing services.

This 1-day conference will bring together academics, researchers, policy makers and service providers to explore how responses to ‘modern slavery’ can best secure the human rights and maintain the dignity of people experiencing severe exploitation. Instead of focusing on efforts to categorise ‘human trafficking’ or ‘modern slavery’, we will examine if the type and framing of responses and the faith identity of who delivers them matter for efforts to ‘end modern slavery’ and to support people exiting exploitation in building secure futures.

Keynote speaker:  Dr Yvonne Zimmerman, Associate Professor, Methodist Theological School in Ohio, Author Other Dreams of Freedom: Religion, Sex and Human Trafficking, Oxford University Press.

We invite papers and other types of contributions (e.g. poetry, film, art) which reflect on these questions:

1) Standards and effectiveness
o   What do we know about the effectiveness of responses to human trafficking and modern slavery?
o   What constitutes best practice in working with people with past experiences of coercion and deception?

2) Representations, outcomes, rights and dignity
o   Do ‘modern slavery’ responses, discourse and visuals as currently framed adequately address the rights and dignity of people exiting severe exploitation?
o   Does a focus on individual rescue from a particular exploitation situation detract resources and attention from securing broader rights for vulnerable migrants and workers?
o   How do the images used to portray ‘modern slavery’ affect public imaginations and policy responses?

3) Religion and welfare provision
o   How might faith actors best articulate their contribution in this field?
o   What can we learn by comparing the roles of religious actors in different countries?
o   Are faith-statutory partnerships ‘postsecular’ if religious principles and identity are intentionally hidden?
o   What can we learn for the anti-trafficking field from faith based action in other areas such as food banks, homelessness and drug and alcohol dependency?

Submit abstracts at: http://bit.ly/2BxvfM3  max 250 words by 31 October 2019

Any queries contact Rebecca Murray (r.e.murray@sheffield.ac.uk<mailto:r.e.murray@sheffield.ac.uk>).

Register at: http://bit.ly/2pHJdZ5 before 10 January 2020.

The International Society for Religion, Literature and Culture is coming to Chester, 11-13 Sept 2020

Gender: Transmutations and Transgressions

Gender, feminist and women’s studies, and gender activism have always walked a tightrope between transformation, transmutation and transgression.  Attempts to transform existing structures and practices have often been dismissed – at least initially – as unacceptable transgressions, seeming to ignore the fact that transgression is often a precursor to change and transformation we come to embrace. This panel invites proposals that explicitly address the themes of the conference – transformations, transmutations, transgressions – across gender, religion, culture, theology, literature, and the arts. Potential themes include (but are not limited to):

1. inequalities in the academy – race, gender, religion, sexuality class, ableism, age
2. religion, gender, and activism
3. the relationships between literature and the arts, and gender and
   religion
4. religious feminisms and agency
5. queer theory, religion, and the arts
6. the body

Please send abstracts (around 300 words) for 20-minute presentations and queries to d.llewellyn@chester.ac.uk and a.e.jasper@stir.ac.uk no later than 1 December 2019. We also welcome alternative formats and suggestions for panels. Please do get in touch if you have any questions.

The 25^th Nordic Conference in the Sociology of Religion

17^th-19^th August 2020, Gothenburg, Sweden

THEME: Religious Organisation(s):  Challenges and changes in contemporary society

In today’s globalised and fast changing society, religious organisation and religious organisations face several challenges: Globalization, migration and different secularisation processes, together with political, technological and environmental changes/issues, influence, not only society in general, but also religious organisations and the ways in which religion is practiced and expressed in contemporary society. This situation prompts questions such as:

• · How do religious organisations handle an influx of new members from other parts of the world and at the same time, an increased loss of members who have been there for a long time?
• · How do religious organisations react to new technology such as digital communication instead of face-to-face interaction, and web-broadcasted religious meetings?
• · How do religious groups and organisations handle the late modern individual who has little need of belonging to religious groups, and who is sceptical of religious authority?
• · How can we explain why late modern individuals choose to belong to conservative and fundamentalist religious groups?

These, and other, questions concerning how religion is organised in contemporary society will be addressed at the 25^th NCSR conference held in Gothenburg, Sweden 17^th-19^th August 2020, which includes a pre-conference for doctoral students in the morning of 17^th August.

Dates

• 15^th November 2019          Deadline for submission of session proposals (paper sessions, panels, posters, authors-meets- critics, workshops etc.)
• 15^th Mars 2020                   Deadline for submission of abstracts for papers (max. 200 words)

Information on abstract format and delivery, programme, registration, venue etc. will be available at the conference website: https://lir.gu.se/forskning/konferenser/the-25th-nordic-conference-in-the-sociology-of-religion

The conference is hosted by Department of Literature, History of Ideas, and Religion, at Gothenburg University.

We look forward to seeing you in Gothenburg,

• · Magdalena Nordin, magdalena.nordin@lir.gu.se
• · Daniel Enstedt, daniel.enstedt@lir.gu.se
• · Mia Lövheim, mia.lovheim@teol.uu.se
• · Martha Middlemiss Lé Mon, martha.middlemiss@teol.uu.se