30 August -1 September 2018 TURIN (IT) University of Turin, Campus Luigi Einaudi

The relation between immigration, citizenship, integration/participation in host societies, and religion has been for quite some time central to the interest of scholars. Over time, the increase of migrations from non-European countries has further enriched the debate, drawing attention to various religious traditions. The growth in the number of Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists (as well as other religious affiliations) has re-directed scholars to the question of whether religious belonging (leading to convinced behavior) improves or hinders the process of integration of immigrants and, above all, of their children in the host society. At the same time, migration patterns have become quite complex. Migration from Latin America and Central and Eastern Europe has intensified and traditionally emigrant countries, particularly in Southern Europe, have also become destination countries. In addition, refugees and asylum seekers, associated with what has been usually termed as the “Mediterranean Crisis”, have prompted a profound social and political crisis across different European countries, contributing to anti-immigrant feelings. The issue of religious pluralism has thus become linked to wider interrelated issues such as citizenship rights; “deserving” and “non-deserving” migrants; how states and other institutions, including old and new religions, and in particular educational institutions, are managing the rising number of migrants; relations between different types of secularities and religious identities; understandings of cultural identities and so on.

The aim of the ESA RN34 mid-term conference is to respond to such challenges by welcoming papers that may contribute to:

• clarifying the relations between migrants and faiths in host societies;
• understanding the role played by ethnic churches/mosques/worship associations in the broader integration process;
• investigating about how native Europeans develop their identity in response/ relationship to the religious identities of the newcomers;
• addressing the relations between the European Convention on Human Rights and the role of regional and local authorities in managing religious pluralism;
• scrutinizing the issues of anti-religious racism, right-wing extremism, radicalization and fundamentalism;
• interrogating the treatment of various religious identities and different secular identities in host societies; –
• exploring the relations between religions and gender in the context of migration; –
• examining the implications for how immigrants, belonging both to first- and second-generations, (re)configure religious arrangements in the context of anti-immigrant discourse; –
• contributing to an innovative research agenda on to what extent religions matter in migrants’ daily life.
• Other topics related to the theme of the conference are also welcomed.

Beside papers, session /panel proposals are welcomed too. PhD students and post-doc fellows are particularly encouraged to submit a paper. There is a possibility to propose also a poster session, including work in progress. The best poster will get a small, but nice prize.

A specific workshop will be organized on “Mixed-methods in exploring religiousness within diaspora communities” for nonacademic researchers.

We look forward to your proposals and to welcoming you in Turin!
Roberta Ricucci & Siniša Zrinščak (ESA – RN34 Coordinator & Vice-Coordinator)

12–14 November 2018, Helsinki, Finland

Call for Papers and Presentations

The Finnish Society for Ethnomusicology and the Finnish Society for Hymnology and Liturgy hereby invite submissions for the conference ”Music and the Sacred”. In the conference, the aim is to address the various ways in which music intersects with sacred phenomena, and vice versa. This entails acknowledging the multidimensionality of both music and the sacred, and how music becomes sacralised in diverse ways and how the sacred becomes reconceptualised in musical contexts. A crucial point of departure for the conference is to understand the sacred not only as a religious idea but also as a broader conceptual field that, in the words of Gordon Lynch, pertains to “what people collectively experience as absolute, non-contingent realities which present normative claims over the meaning and conduct of social life” (The Sacred in the Modern World, 2012). In music, alongside explicitly religious songs and tunes, clearest examples include national anthems and other national(istic) forms of music, as well as ubiquitous ideas about music’s transcendental qualities and effects.

The topic relates also to recent discussions over multiculturalism and postsecularity, both of which imply a change towards a more diverse religious and spiritual cultural environment. While multiculturalism is associated with the spread of conventional religions, postsecularity in turn may be understood as the possibility to broaden the ethics and values of modernist secular states through world’s religions, traditional cultures and various alternative spiritualities. While there is ample literature on “rescripting the sacred”, as it were, in relation to these societal and cultural shifts, music features surprisingly rarely in these accounts. To emphasise the importance of music in the current conditions of religious diversity and re-enchantment, submissions dealing with the following themes, among other relevant ones, are invited:

·      musics within religious institutions and otherwise organised religions and religious movements;
·      religiosity in music;
·      “sacred” music in relation to its “mundane”, “profane”, “secular” or “unholy” counterparts;
·      the importance of religious doctrines for definitions of music;
·      origin myths and other forms of mythologisation of music;
·      ideologies of musical autonomy and authenticity;
·      stars and geniouses, fan(atic)s and aficionados;
·      music and sub-/occultures;
·      national(istic) musics;
·      music, racialisation and racism;
·      music, the sacred and gender;
·      music and indigenous belief systems;
·      music and paganism;
·      canonisation and other forms of historiographical sanctification of music;
·      music and dark tourism;
·      music and sacred spaces;
·      sacred politics of music;
·      music, the sacred and freedom of expression;
·      music, censorship and moral panics;
·      music and totalitarianism.

The organisers welcome proposals for individual 20-minute presentations, entire 90-minute sessions and 45-minute lecture-recitals. Alternative presentation formats will be considered. Proposals from Master’s students are also welcome.


The proposals shall include the following information:

·      the title of the presentation/session;
·      the name(s), position(s) and affiliation(s) of the presenter(s);
·      an abstract not exceeding 300 words (in case of sessions, please indicate individual topics if appropriate).


The proposals shall be sent preferably in pdf to musicandthesacred@gmail.com no later than 20 April 2018. Letters of confirmation will be sent by 31 May 2018.

The participation fee for the conference is EUR 60 (no concessions). Members of the organising societies are exempt from the fee.

The conference will be honoured with guest lectures by Professor Philip V. Bohlman (University of Chicago), Professor Hannu Salmi (University of Turku) and Senior Lecturer Abigail Wood (University of Haifa). The conference is supported financially by the Emil Aaltonen Foundation.

All correspondence regarding the conference should be directed to musicandthesacred@gmail.com

CALL FOR PAPERS
Worldviews in creating meaning and purpose for learning
EARLI SIG 19 Conference

June 11-13, 2018, University of Eastern Finland, Joensuu, Finland
www.uef.fi/sig19conference2018/
email: EARLISIG19_2018@uef.fi

The sixth biennial conference of the European Association for Research on Learning and Instruction EARLI, Special Interest Group 19: Religious and Spiritual Education provides an international academic forum for presenting and discussing latest research findings on religious and spiritual education taking place in different societal and educational settings and across age groups. The EARLI SIG 19 is addressing both junior and senior scholars to present their work.

The topic of the conference discusses how worldviews impact people’s motivation to learn, how worldviews guide people’s life choices and future orientation, and how worldviews and religions help people to find meaning and purpose in life.

The conference includes keynote addresses from Professor Alyssa Bryant Rockenbach (North Carolina State University, USA), Associate Professor Jenny Berglund (Södertörn University, Sweden), Professor Kirsi Tirri (University of Helsinki, Finland) and Professor Ulrich Riegel (University of Siegen, Germany).

For submissions you will need to prepare:
An abstract of 200-250 words maximum (excluding references) submission December 1st – December 15th, informing about:
– Mention your preference for a paper or a poster presentation, or a particular roundtable session.
– Include your research questions and objectives,
– Theoretical framework and the referred literature,
– Research design (research approach, methods and tools for collecting and analyzing data) for empirical research or data sources, evidences and materials for others research projects,
– Findings of the study.

IMPORTANT DATES
December 1st – December 15th – Proposal submission via conference website
www.uef.fi/sig19conference2018/
January 15st – Review results and decisions
February 28th – Early bird registration fee
April 30th – Conference registration ends
April 30th – Deadline for full papers and contributions
June 11-13th – EARLI SIG 19 conference in Joensuu
You and your colleagues and students are warmly welcome to join us in Joensuu!

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.

WOCMES 2018 Seville, August 2018

Christians in the Middle East Research Network Call for Papers

After the success of the Christians in the Middle East (CME) Research Network organised panels at previous WOCMES conference in Barcelona, 2010 and Ankara, 2014, we are arranging another set of panels for WOCMES-5 in Seville in July 2018. The theme of the panels will be ‘Power, Agency and Christians in the Middle East: Historical and contemporary perspectives’.

In June 2011, Anglican Archbishop Rowan Williams described Christians in Bethlehem as a “marginalised minority”, echoing countless other voices which assert the relative powerlessness of Christians throughout the Middle East. Williams assertion illuminated the experiences of some Christians who face discrimination, marginalisation and persecution. However, this is only part of the story, as other Christians, including some in Bethlehem, enjoy certain structural privileges that nuance the idea of a marginalised minority. Furthermore, the term ‘minority’ is often rejected by Middle Eastern Christian communities themselves.

We invite papers to explore the concepts of “power” and “agency” as experienced by Christians in the Middle East, historically (from 1800) and presently. Papers can employ diverse disciplinary perspectives to analyze the complex way that Christians navigated the various manifestations of power, ranging from familial, local, regional, national, and international structures. We seek papers that move the discussion beyond binary framings to illuminate the complex web of entanglement of power and agency. Topics may include, but are not limited those listed below. We encourage submissions from an interdisciplinary perspective as well any relevant discipline.

• ● Transnational powers
• ■ Mission institutions
• ■ Humanitarian relief organizations
• ■ Jobs: Banking/educational/oil
• ■ Diaspora organisations
• ■ Churches
• ● Global/regional order
• ■ Arab League
• ■ United Nations
• ■ Western states
• ● The State in the Middle East
• ■ Ottoman/Qajar (shifting position; institutionalization of identity)
• ■ Mandate states (role within; minorization; opportunities for migration)
• ■ Independent states (role within; nationalism, activism)
• ■ Authoritarian regimes (C.f. retrenchment in contemporary Egypt and Syria)
• ■ Weak/failing states (responses to challenges/collapse of state authority e.g Lebanon, Iraq, Syria)
• ● Within religious communities
• ■ C.f. neutrality/cooption v-a-v state,
• ■ Religious legal structures (millet; personal status; waqf)
• ■ Clergy-lay relations
• ■ Hierarchies and roles within church/community (patriarchal roles, gender, generation, migrants)
• ● Social institutions
• ■ Sports
• ■ Cultural institutions
• ■ NGO
• ■ schools
• ● Personal/Familial
• ■ Family networks and migration
• ■ Personal Status Laws

Please send an abstract of 250-300 words for a paper of 15-20 minutes, as well as brief biographical details, to Dr. Fiona McCallum fm25@st-andrews.ac.uk by 10th November 2017.

Submissions will be reviewed by the Panel Convenors Dr Christine Lindner, Dr Mark Calder and Dr Fiona McCallum and successful panellists will be notified within two weeks of the deadline.

Further information on WOCMES-5 is available on the WOCMES-5 website (http://wocmes2018seville.org/web/index.php/en/).

Dr Fiona McCallum

School of International Relations

Arts Faculty Building

University of St Andrews

St Andrews

KY16 9AX

Tel: +44(0)1334 462940