Category Archives: Calls for Papers

Conference CFP: “The Impact of Religion”

Posted on by

Invitation and Call for papers!

The Second International Conference on: The Impact of Religion: Challenges for Society, Law and Democracy

Uppsala University, Sweden, April 24-26th 2018

(Workshop for doctoral students April 23-24th)

Abstracts for paper presentations are invited on the following themes:                                         

  • Religion and migration
  • Religion in the public sphere, media and politics
  • Religious diversity, non-religion, secularism  
  • Religious freedom versus other human rights
  • Religion and youth, family, gender, sexuality
  • Religion and racism, discrimination, segregation
  • Religion and violence, terror and the security state
  • Faith based organisations as welfare providers, civil society, social capital
  • Existential health and well-being
  • Science and religion, relativism and absolutism
  • and other related  themes….
  • Additional special paper sessions are announced on the website

Comparative papers are particularly welcome. Theoretical, methodological and substantive issues will be given equal consideration. Thematic sessions will be organised out of the accepted abstracts. The conference language is English. Selected papers will be published!

Ø Deadline for the submission of abstracts (max 200 words): October 31st 2017

The conference is hosted by The Impact of Religion Programme and Uppsala Religion and Society Research Centre at Uppsala University.

For abstract submission, programme, registration, practical information etc. see conference website: www.crs.uu.se/research/conference/

IMPACT_ordbild_UUrod

Application Procedures for the 2018 Varga Prize

Posted on by

This award has been set in memory of Ivan Varga (1931-2012) and recognizes an outstanding new paper by a scholar who is at most three years beyond the PhD. The recipient is expected to present the paper at the next International Sociological Association (ISA) World Congress.

The prize consists of the registration fee for the ISA World Congress and a sum of 1000 Euro intended to cover part of the recipient expenses to attend the World Congress.

Guidelines

  • Candidates do not need to be members of ISA or members of ISA Research Committee for the Sociology of Religion (RC22)
  • All areas and topics of the sociology of religion are eligible for the Varga Prize.
  • Papers should be original and written in any of the three ISA official languages (English, Spanish or French).
  • There is no set length of the paper, but as a recommendation, a journal article length is appropriate. Authors could choose any bibliographic/citation format, as long as it is scholarly and the chosen format is kept coherently through the text

Evaluation of papers

An Evaluation Committee, appointed by the President of RC22, will be made up of members of the RC22 Board plus a few other scholars. The Committee will base its judgment on the papers scholarly quality, originality, and significance for furthering the sociological study of religion.

The Committee will choose the prize winner plus a runner-up, in case the winner is unable to accept the award due to an inability to attend the World Congress. The runner-up will also receive a monetary award. The winner and runner-up will be announced by February 1st 2018.

Application Procedure:

  1. Submit your paper proposal to one of the RC-22 sessions at the ISA website
    • Deadline is September 30th 2017, 24:00 GMT
  2. Send a copy of your abstract and the full finished paper to the President and the Secretary of the RC 22, along with a curriculum vitae and a letter describing your research and its significance. The paper and other documents should preferably be sent in PDF format.

FINAL REMINDER – Call for Papers/Abstracts: ISA Research Committee on the Sociology of Religion (RC22)

Posted on by

Abstracts due by 30 September, 2017 24:00 GMT.

https://isaconf.confex.com/isaconf/wc2018/webprogrampreliminary/Symposium459.html

XIX ISA World Congress of Sociology

Power, Violence and Justice: Reflections, Responses and Responsibilities

Toronto, Canada, July 15-21, 2018

RESEARCH COMMITTEE 22: SOCIOLOGY OF RELIGION

Religion, Power, and Resistance: New Ideas for a Divided World

Current environmental, economic, social, and political challenges indicate that people are losing faith in existing power structures and mechanisms for coping with crises. This creates increasingly divided societies, riven by ideological battles for the future of the human and the more than human world. Religion has a place in this picture. Not only is it often a source of divisions; it can also be a source for alternative means of addressing them.

These divisions take new and as yet unclear shapes, which sociologists are only now beginning to comprehend. It is not enough to refer to the struggle between ‘tradition’ and ‘modernity’, terms that dominated sociology through the 1970s. Nor do the tropes ‘colonialism vs. anti-colonialism’ and the ‘clash of civilizations’ adequately explain what is going on. Nor, arguably, does ‘populism vs neo-liberalism’ fully capture such things as the recent clashes between cosmopolitan and anticosmopolitan actors in the major Western democracies. Each of these has a piece of the picture; none of them captures it all.

What is religion’s role in this situation: as a creator of divisions, as a locus of power, and as a ground of resistance?  How does religion influence our divided societies? How is religion influenced in turn?

We invite paper abstract submissions for the following RC22 sessions:

  • Religion and National Identity
  • Religion and Secularity
  • Religion and Non-Violent Social Movements
  • Religion, Gender and Family Violence
  • Religion in the East Asian Public Sphere
  • Religion in the Public Square
  • Social Theory and Religion
  • Religion and Migration: Contrasting First and Second Generations
  • Dynamics of Gender, Religion and Intersectionality
  • Prejudice, Exclusion and Violence in a Transnational World
  • Media and Religious Radicalization: Gatekeeping and the Construction of Extremism
  • Gender, Feminism, and Islam and the West
  • Religious Texts of Diversity Vs Exclusion

We will also be including the following invited sessions in our RC22 program:

  • Presidential Address: The Sociology of Religion in a Post-Colonial Era (Invited Session) Session Organizer: James SPICKARD, University of Redlands, USA
  • Religion and Diversity: An International Study (Invited Session) Session Organizer: Lori BEAMAN, University of Ottawa, Canada
  • Diffused Religion. Beyond Secularization – Author Meets Critic Session (Invited Session) Session Organizer: Roberto CIPRIANI, University Roma Tre, Italy
  • The Case for an Indeterminate Sociological Theory of Religion (Invited Session) Session Organizer: Tak-ling WOO, York University, Canada

The ISA CONFEX website site is now accepting paper abstracts between 25 April and 30 September, 2017 24:00 GMT.

https://isaconf.confex.com/isaconf/wc2018/webprogrampreliminary/Symposium459.html

Please address any questions to the Program Coordinators:

     Anna Halafoff: anna.halafoff@deakin.edu.au

     Sam Han: HanSam@ntu.edu.sg

     Caroline Starkey: C.Starkey@leeds.ac.uk

Sacred Journeys 5th Global Conference: Pilgrimage & Beyond; July 5-6, 2018

Posted on by

Indiana University (IU) Europe Gateway, Berlin, Germany
(https://global.iu.edu/global-gateways/europe/index.html)
Located in the Kreuzberg neighborhood in Berlin, the IU Europe Gateway is housed within the Council on International Educational Exchange (CIEE) Global Institute.

Call for Papers
The latest research indicates that more than 400 million people embark annually on traditional pilgrimages in Saudi Arabia, India, Japan, and elsewhere, with the numbers steadily increasing. Pilgrimage is one of the most ancient practices of humankind and is associated with a great variety of religious and spiritual traditions, beliefs and sacred geographies. As a global phenomenon, pilgrimage facilitates interaction between and among diverse peoples from countless cultures, occupations, and walks of life. In the 5th Global Conference, we will continue to explore the many personal, interpersonal, intercultural, and international dimensions of these often profound events. This includes similarities and differences in the practice in Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity, Judaism, Taoism, and other traditions, as well as secular pilgrimage. The impact of the internet and globalization, pilgrimage as protest, and pilgrimage and peace building, among others, are all topics of interest, as are the concepts of the internal pilgrimage and the journey of self-discovery.
Among the key issues that emerged from earlier Sacred Journeys conferences were:

  1. Definition of Pilgrimage: ‘Travel for transformation’ embraces the sacred journey as a potential turning point in one’s life. Questions arise as to how and when a journey becomes ‘sacred’. Does tourism merely observe the authentic in others, whereas pilgrimage seeks it for oneself? When is a tourist a pilgrim and vice versa?

  2. Reinforcing a Vision of the Unity of Humanity: While many pilgrimages have a political dimension and political leaders often manipulate pilgrims in ways detrimental to peace, how can the concept of pilgrimage lend itself to envisioning a world united in difference?

  3. Pilgrimage and Globalization: Technology is impacting pilgrims in innumerable ways. Infrastructural and support services are also improving, and journeys once thought to be too difficult are now within reach of vast numbers of pilgrims. Will modern conveniences alter the traditional experience of pilgrimage or create entirely new experiences?

  4. The Challenge of Modernity: What does pilgrimage offer that is not found in the routines of modern daily life? In the search for meaning, belonging or identity, some pilgrims will cling to the familiar and reaffirm what is believed ‘true’ at local levels. What kinds of trends along these lines might we forecast for the future?

  5. Secular Pilgrimage: Each year, large numbers of pilgrims visit secular pilgrimage sites, like those of pop culture heroes. What are the similarities and differences between sacred and secular pilgrimages? What does it mean to be an ‘authentic’ pilgrim?

Many other related themes can be considered for presentation. Among these are (1) pilgrimage and the marketplace; (2) the metaphor of the journey as explored by writers, artists, performers, and singers, including humanists, agnostics, atheists, and musicians; (3) pilgrimage and ‘miracles’ and the related topic of thanksgiving; and (4) ‘dark’ pilgrimages to sites of remembrance and commemoration.
Submitting Your Proposal
Proposals should be submitted no later than Wednesday, 28 February 2018 to:
Ian McIntosh, Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI): imcintos@iupui.edu
Chadwick Co Sy Su, University of the Philippines Manila: ccsysu@up.edu.ph
E-Mail Subject Line: Sacred Journeys 5 Proposal Submission
File Format: Microsoft Word (DOC or DOCX)

Call for Papers: Special Issue on Religion & Poverty

Posted on by

Religion and Poverty

Editors: Dr Gottfried Schweiger and Dr Helmut P Gaisbauer (Centre for Ethic and Poverty Research, University of Salzburg, Austria); Prof Clemens Sedmak (Department of Theology and Religious Studies, King’s College London, UK/Centre for Ethics and Poverty Research, University of Salzburg, Austria).

Poverty and religion are interrelated in different ways. On the one hand, for various religious traditions poverty is both an aspect of a particular faithful life (e.g. monastic communities) and giving to the poor is seen as a religious duty. Such traditions have evolved over time and expanded the role of faith-based organisations nowadays play in welfare provision and international development. Faith-based organizations play an important role in poverty alleviation both in rich and poor countries. These actions and practices, as well as their religious and theological underpinnings, deserve scrutiny. On the other hand, religion plays an important role in the life of people living in poverty: how they experience and shape their living, and how they find their place in society and the communities in which they. The role of religion in justifying certain inequalities and processes of exclusion (e.g. in India) and thus contributing to the sustainability of poverty is another important theme worth reflection.

We invite papers, from a range of disciplinary perspectives, that consider the following overarching question: how can religion be used as a vehicle to overcome structures of poverty, and how does it sometimes hinder such processes?

Contributions from sociology, development studies, religious studies, economics, theology, and other social sciences and humanities are welcomed; as are insights from different geographical settings, forms of poverty, and religious traditions.

This is a rolling article collection and as such submissions/proposals will be welcome throughout 2017. However, full submissions received by September 30 will be considered for publication as part of the collection’s formal launch.

This special issue is run in collaboration with the 2017 Salzburg Conference on Interdisciplinary Poverty Research, organised by the Centre for Ethics and Poverty Research of the University of Salzburg.

See: https://www.nature.com/palcomms/for-authors/call-for-papers#religion-poverty

Call for Papers: Special Issue on Religion & Poverty

Posted on by

Religion and Poverty

Editors: Dr Gottfried Schweiger and Dr Helmut P Gaisbauer (Centre for Ethic and Poverty Research, University of Salzburg, Austria); Prof Clemens Sedmak (Department of Theology and Religious Studies, King’s College London, UK/Centre for Ethics and Poverty Research, University of Salzburg, Austria).

Poverty and religion are interrelated in different ways. On the one hand, for various religious traditions poverty is both an aspect of a particular faithful life (e.g. monastic communities) and giving to the poor is seen as a religious duty. Such traditions have evolved over time and expanded the role of faith-based organisations nowadays play in welfare provision and international development. Faith-based organizations play an important role in poverty alleviation both in rich and poor countries. These actions and practices, as well as their religious and theological underpinnings, deserve scrutiny. On the other hand, religion plays an important role in the life of people living in poverty: how they experience and shape their living, and how they find their place in society and the communities in which they. The role of religion in justifying certain inequalities and processes of exclusion (e.g. in India) and thus contributing to the sustainability of poverty is another important theme worth reflection.

We invite papers, from a range of disciplinary perspectives, that consider the following overarching question: how can religion be used as a vehicle to overcome structures of poverty, and how does it sometimes hinder such processes?

Contributions from sociology, development studies, religious studies, economics, theology, and other social sciences and humanities are welcomed; as are insights from different geographical settings, forms of poverty, and religious traditions.

This is a rolling article collection and as such submissions/proposals will be welcome throughout 2017. However, full submissions received by September 30 will be considered for publication as part of the collection’s formal launch.

This special issue is run in collaboration with the 2017 Salzburg Conference on Interdisciplinary Poverty Research, organised by the Centre for Ethics and Poverty Research of the University of Salzburg.

See: https://www.nature.com/palcomms/for-authors/call-for-papers#religion-poverty

Deadline for World Congress Paper Proposals is approaching!

Posted on by

Paper Proposal Deadline: 30 September, 2017

World Congress of Sociology, Toronto, Canada, July 15-21, 2018

The deadline for submitting paper proposals for the 2018 World Congress is fast approaching.  They must be submitted online by midnight GMT on 30 September.

Read the session descriptions and find the most appropriate session for your paper.  Follow the links to submit your paper.

Each session organizer will choose 10 papers for formal presentation — 5 as primary (“oral”) papers and 5 as backups (“distributed papers”), many of which will end up being presented orally.

The remaining acceptable submissions will be passed to the Program Coordinators, who will find another place for them on the program.

Each scholar can appear on the program a maximum of twice.

Deadline for World Congress Paper Proposals is approaching!

Posted on by

Paper Proposal Deadline: 30 September, 2017

World Congress of Sociology, Toronto, Canada, July 15-21, 2018

The deadline for submitting paper proposals for the 2018 World Congress is fast approaching.  They must be submitted online by midnight GMT on 30 September.

Read the session descriptions and find the most appropriate session for your paper.  Follow the links to submit your paper.

Each session organizer will choose 10 papers for formal presentation — 5 as primary (“oral”) papers and 5 as backups (“distributed papers”), many of which will end up being presented orally.

The remaining acceptable submissions will be passed to the Program Coordinators, who will find another place for them on the program.

Each scholar can appear on the program a maximum of twice.

CFP: Multiple Religious Identities – Individuals, Communities, Traditions

Posted on by

16th Annual Conference of the EASR
Regional Conference of the IAHR
17-21 June 2018, Bern/Switzerland

The organisers of the conference invite contributions from all areas and disciplines of the study of religion to allow for broad, interdisciplinary discussion of the conference topic

Multiple Religious Identities – Individuals, Communities, Traditions

More information on the conference theme can be found on the website (www.easr2018.org).

The deadline for submission of pre-arranged session proposals: October 1, 2017.

  • · Your proposal will be forwarded to the Program Committee for evaluation to ensure a high academic standard of the conference program.
  • · To submit for a pre-arranged session (panels of 90 minutes), you will be asked to give the title of the session, an abstract of its content and purpose (max. 500 words), the designated format, the name of the chair and, if already fixed, the speakers and preliminary titles of their papers.
  • · Papers should be limited to 20 minutes. Panel chairs should make sure that there is time reserved for discussion. For encouraging academic exchange, please consider trans-national panels.
  • · The complete list of all proposed open sessions will be made available as from November 15, 2017 for individuals to submit matching papers.

Oxford Symposium on Religious Studies, 4-6 December, 2017

Posted on by

We are pleased to invite you to participate in the Oxford Symposium on Religious Studies. Abstract submission and Registrations are now open for our 4–6 December 2017 session.

The meetings will be held at The Old Library in the Oxford University Church of St Mary.  Constructed in 1320, The Old Library is the first university (as opposed to college) building in Oxford and therefore uniquely important; this is where the nascent University began.

The sessions will be hosted by Canon Brian Mountford MBE, former Vicar of St Mary’s. Dr Mountford is a Fellow of St Hilda’s College in the University of Oxford.

You are invited to present a paper on an aspect of religious studies, or you may wish to attend as an observer. The symposium is inter-disciplinary and has a broad-based theme.

The abstract submission deadline 10 November. Early registration expires 16 October, and the last payment date is 15 November 2017.

Consult the Oxford Symposium on Religious Studies website for registration deadlines and other information.