Category Archives: Calls for Papers

CFP: Historical Re-Enactment, Contemporary Paganism and Fantasy-Based Movement

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Vytautas Magnus University / Faculty of Humanities / Center for Cultural Studies

International Scientific Conference
on Cultural Group Behaviour

Historical Re-Enactment, Contemporary Paganism
and Fantasy-Based Movements
20–21 May, 2016. Kaunas, Lithuania

Call for Papers

Modern times are marked by rapid advances in technology, urbanization and globalization. The second half of the 20th century witnessed fragmentation of culture, ethnicity and religion as a reaction to disappointment in the progress of civilization. This promoted interest in natural, ethnic and indigenous aspects of localities. Orientation toward localities, as revealed in various worldviews and socio-cultural movements, has been related to the revival of traditional and nationalist ideas, orientation to nature-based spiritualities, (re)construction of local ethnicities and the need to return to ethnic and pre-Christian identities. A related trend manifests itself as return to old customs, indigenous values and attempts to reconstruct traditional pre-Christian religions. The existence of historical re-enactment groups and contemporary pagan movements, grounded in native faith, as well as fantasy-based movements raises the following questions: what drives them to look back to their roots? How and why do these groups emerge, exist and disappear? What is their social and cultural impact on society and members of historical re-enactment groups?

The conference welcomes both empirical and theoretical contributions from various disciplines, as well as interdisciplinary studies of historical re-enactment, contemporary pagan movements and fantasy-based movements. Early career researchers and students are also encouraged to participate.

We invite papers and panels including but not limited to the following topics:
Theoretical and methodological approaches to re-enactment
• Theoretical approaches to re-enactment and/or contemporary paganism;
• Fieldwork within re-enactment groups;
• Methodological implications and challenges.
Diversity of re-enactment movements
• Diversity of historical re-enactments and contemporary pagan movements;
• Past and present of the living history movement;
• Fantasy and live action role-playing (LARP) groups as a form of re-enactment;
• Historical cosplay in Western and other cultures;
• Aspects of the local and the global in re-enactment;
• Periodization and typology of re-enactment;
Worldviews and activities of re-enactors
• Identity of historical re-enactors and/or contemporary pagans;
• Authenticity and (re)construction in historical re-enactment and/or contemporary pagan movements;
• Traditionalism, nationalism and politics in re-enactment;
• Gender in historical re-enactment and/or contemporary pagan movements;
• Spirituality, religion and re-enactment;
• Culturally relevant or historically significant places within the context of historical re-enactments;
• Cultural heritage in historical re-enactment and/or contemporary pagan movements;
• Festivals, rituals and performance in historical re-enactment;
Re-enactment and society
• Influence of consumerism, globalization and the mass and social media for historical re-enactors and/or contemporary pagans;
• Historical re-enactment and/or the influence of contemporary pagan movements on the on mainstream society;
• Historical re-enactment in popular culture.

We expect individual paper proposals and panel submissions, including 3-4 presenters.

After the conference, participants are invited to observe historical re-enactment of Lithuanian history in the Hanse Day festival 2016, held on May 21–22.

Participants should complete the form at https://tgt.wufoo.com/forms/conference-entry-form/. Abstracts will be published on the Conference website. Each paper is allotted a time of 15 minutes, followed by up to 10 minutes for questions and discussion.
Participation fee: 40€ (for students 20€)
Travel and accommodation to attend the Conference will be at the attendee’s expense.
Abstract submission deadline: March 21, 2016.
Notification of acceptance: April 4, 2016.

Working languages: Lithuanian, English
Conference website: http://reenactment.vdu.lt/

Organizing Committee: Agnė Kalėdienė (Vytautas Magnus University, Lithuania), Rasa Pranskevičiūtė (Vytautas Magnus University, Lithuania), Gintarė Dusevičiūtė (Vytautas Magnus University, Lithuania), Aušra Kairaitytė-Užupė (Vytautas Magnus University, Lithuania), Gintaras Jaronis (Vytautas Magnus University, Lithuania).

The Scientific Committee will be announced later.
Conference participants are welcome to prepare papers to the Group and the Environments journal http://ejournals.vdu.lt/index.php/grupes/about/submissions#authorGuidelines

Organizers: Center for Cultural Studies, Faculty of Humanities, Vytautas Magnus University.
K. Donelaičio St 52-410 LT-44248 Kaunas Lithuania. http://ktc.vdu.lt/
 Contact person: Agnė Kalėdienė
 Phone number: +370 662 32 470
 E-mail: reenactment.conference@gmail.com

Please feel free to spread this message.

CFP – Blasphemy: Discourses and Practices

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BLASPHEMY: DISCOURSES AND PRACTICES

 

Call for Journal Papers

 

Special issue of State, Religious and Church, a Russian peer-reviewed academic quarterly

 

Blasphemy seems to be universal and unchanging term, and yet its meaning varies tremendously across times and cultures. Medieval inquisition guides discussed the boundary between blasphemy and heresy, while current virulent debates about the feelings of believers, radical reactions against contemporary art or caricatures are construed in terms of opposition of blasphemy and basic freedoms. 

Controversies around blasphemy have always been those of boundaries and limits: limits  of what is permissible in the statements about the sacred; boundaries of various physical and social spaces where these statements can be acceptable or not; finally, the boundaries of what is conceived as “sacred” in each particular historical and cultural context.

Blasphemy controversies have always reflected the fight for power. What communities, institutions, and individuals have the right to define the boundaries of the sacred, the norms of describing or speaking about the sacred, as well as the right to punish for the violation of these norms? Thus, blasphemy is, potentially, a hidden script bearing the agency of resistance and protest.

In this special issue, we propose to explore how theories and practices of blasphemy have been evolving in Christian, Muslim and Jewish communities from the Middle Age until now. We will see how blasphemy and its persecutions worked behind various religious, social and political conflicts. We will study how the norms disciplining blasphemy were imposed and implemented by religious and secular institutions, and how efficient such implementations were. Finally, we will study what happens with these discourses and practices in the modern secular society.

Although the phenomenon of blasphemy cannot be understood without exploring the macro-level of theological and legal interpretations, we will mostly focus our studies upon the micro-level – that is, the level of everyday situations where, in various societies, some pieces of speech or imagery are felt and labeled as “blasphemous;” and also upon those conflicting interpretations that occur at the intersection of various speech practices and behavioral patterns.

We welcome studies of blasphemy cases generated at the breaches and borders – religious, social, ethno-national, and political.

 

Major themes:

 

Ø      Theories of blasphemy: the construction of the category in theological, polemical and legal traditions;

Ø      The borders of the category: blasphemy v. heresy; blasphemy vs. reform; blasphemy vs. free thinking; blasphemy vs. risus sacer; blasphemy vs. carnival;

Ø      The practices of blasphemy: situations when they occur; people who say them; typical reactions; 

Ø      The poetics of blasphemy: what are the words that the sacred do not tolerate? The typical objects of blasphemous transgression; 

Ø      Blasphemy as an external challenge to tradition/religion/church vs. blasphemy as an internal, permissible transgression;

Ø      Blasphemy as sin and crime: criminalization and decriminalization of blasphemy; 

Ø      Blasphemy and the Other: offences of blasphemy in ethno-confessional and political conflicts;  

Ø      Blasphemy and religious skepticism: the problem of unbelief in the eras of supposedly “universal faint;”  

Ø      Debates about blasphemy in secular societies;  

Ø      The political “sacred and the political “blasphemy:” how religious rhetoric is transposed into a non-religious space.   

 

Please send your papers (in Russian, English or other languages) at two addresses: the email of the journal (religion@rane.ru), copied to the email of the guest editor Mikhail Maizuls (maizuls@gmail.com). The length of the papers is around 6000-7000 words. We accept high resolution pictures added to the text. The bibliographic rules can be found at the journal website here: http://religion.rane.ru/?q=ru/for-authors.

 

The deadline for submitting papers is 31 December, 2016.

 

You are also welcome to get in touch with us (emails same as above) for a preliminary proposal of a topic; in this case please send us a title and 150-200 word abstract until April 15, 2016.

 

The journal Gosudarstvo, religia i tserkov’ v Rossii i za rubezhom (State, Religion and Church in Russia and Worldwide) is a peer-reviewed, SCOPUS-indexed academic quarterly. It is published in the Russian language; however, manuscripts in other languages are also accepted. The website is: www.religion.rane.ru  

Sociology of Religion Group, American Academy of Religion, San Antonio, Texas, November 19-22, 2016

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https://papers.aarweb.org/content/sociology-religion-group

 

Statement of Purpose:

The Sociology of Religion Group of the American Academy of Religion serves
as a bridge between religious studies and the subdiscipline of sociology of
religion. It functions as a two-way conduit not only to import sociological
research into religious studies but also to export the research of
religious studies into both the subdiscipline and the broader field of
sociology. Only through a cross-fertilization transgressing departmental
boundaries can there be breakthroughs in research in both fields. The group
has a wide conception of sociology of religion. It is open to a
multiplicity of paradigms and methodologies utilized in the subfield and
sociology more broadly: theoretical as well as empirical, quantitative,
qualitative, and comparative-historical. By liaising with other Program
Units, the Sociology of Religion Group is able to bring the rich diversity
of critical and analytical perspectives that are housed in the American
Academy of Religion into mainstream sociology of religion. Conversely, it
aims to provide scholars of the study of religion with a deeper
understanding of the landscape of sociology of religion.

Theory, Method, and their Application:

Sociology of Religion as part of a larger discipline is marked by a
canonization of its theory and its division by paradigms and
methodologies–whether these be the classics (Weber and Durkheim), the old
paradigm (functionalism and social constructionism), or the new paradigm
(rational choice) on the one hand or quantitative, qualitative, or
historical-comparative sociology on the other. As it intersects with
sociology of religion, the study of religion has drawn from theories and
methodologies in conversation with sociology, anthropology, critical
theory, psychology, history, and other related disciplines. We are
interested both in papers that utilize the methods and theories in the
study of religion and bring them into the sociological canon as well as
those that help religious studies gain a better grasp of the sociological
theory of religion. We encourage papers that exploit both the theory and
methodology of sociology of religion and religious studies and use them as
frames for analysis of concrete cases. In particular, we request papers
that touch upon social divisions examining race, class, gender, sexual
orientation, ethnicity, region, age, etc.

 

Internationalism and Diversity:

Critics of sociology of religion have pointed out that the field is
dominated by North Americans scholars primarily interested in
Protestantism. The discipline of religious studies provides a clear
antidote to these perceived limitations. Therefore, we encourage
contributions from academics who study the various religious traditions
around the world as well as those studying North American religious
communities. In particular, we would like submissions from scholars from
all academic ranks across the lines of nationality, region, race,
ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, etc.

 

Call for Papers:

The Sociology of Religion Group (SOR) invites both panel and paper
proposals across a wide range of topics of interest to both the sociology
of religion and religious studies and are particularly interested in
papers, which speak to both thereby encouraging increased dialogue between
them. In particular, this year’s CFP expresses interest in the following
topics:

• Following the theme of AAR’s 2016 annual meetings, the Sociology of
Religion Group invites papers that address the multi-dimensions of
“Revolutionary Love.” This includes but is not limited to love communism
(or the communism of love), brotherly/sisterly love, or love as an impulse
for social change. Conversely, it could include the inverse hypothesis –
where love is not revolutionary at all but is egoistic or narcissistic
(self-love), where revolutions are not based on love but on hate, where
love is harmful and tears down dreams rather than build them up. Finally,
papers could contain a synthesis addressing the contradictory impulses of
revolutionary love – e.g. paradoxical reflections of the religious adage to
love thy enemy.

• Social and Religious Movements and/or Social Movements Theory and
Religious Movements Theory

• Competing Canons within the Sociology of Religion and Religious Studies

• Theory and Methodology including issues of reproducibility, validity, and
empiricism

• Religion and the Public Sphere

• Religion and Education including but not limited to “Religion and
Education in Pluralistic Societies” or “Religion and Education in the
Postsecular Age.”

• In a co-sponsored paper session, the Quaker Studies Group and Sociology
of Religion Group invite proposals on normative religious identity and
notions of the ‘true Church.’ We are interested in papers that utilize
sociological theories and methods in the analysis of this topic. We are
particularly interested in the following questions: What mechanisms do
religious groups use to establish normative identities, particularly
against deviants or schismatics within their own group? How is ‘membership’
and ‘authenticity’ counted and measured? What types of authority are used
to sustain particular identities and how are these operationalized within
the group? How are notions of ‘the world’ constructed and sustained, and
how are these notions adapted when they no longer serve their original
purpose (for example during the processes of denominationalization or
internal secularization)?

• The topics mentioned above are meant merely as suggestions. We encourage
submissions of all papers that utilize sociological theories, methods, and
questions in their analysis of religion. We are particularly interested in
papers that address issues of inequalities of race, class, ethnicity,
gender, sexual orientation, or those that utilize critical paradigms
including but not limited to critical theory, Marxism, feminism, queer
theory, post-colonialism, post-structuralism, and environmentalism.

Publication:

The Sociology of Religion Group of AAR regularly co-sponsors panels with
the peer-reviewed print and online journal Critical Research on Religion
(CRR) (http://crr.sagepub.com). Published by SAGE Publications, over 2600
libraries worldwide have subscriptions to the journal. Presenters of
promising papers in SOR panels will be invited to turn their papers into
articles and submit them for peer review to CRR.

 

Deadline for Submissions: Tuesday, March 1, 2016

 

Leadership:

Co-Chairs:
Rebekka King (Middle Tennessee State University) rebekka.king@mtsu.edu
Warren S. Goldstein (Harvard University)
goldstein@criticaltheoryofreligion.org

Steering Committee:
Afe Adogame (Princeton University)
Courtney Bender (Columbia University)
David Feltmate (Auburn University)
Volkhard Krech (Ruhr-Universität Bochum)
Katja Rakow (Universiteit Utrecht)
Randy Reed (Appalachian State University)

Conference: Oral Histories and Contributions of Intellectual and Religious Movements in Philippines

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Oral Histories and Contributions of Intellectual and Religious Movements in Philippines

2nd PASCHR International  Conference

Philippine Association for the Study of Culture, History and Religion

A National Association of IAHR(International Association of History of Religions) under the auspices of the CIPSH , affiliated to the UNESCO

Hosted by

ILOILO SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY UNIVERSITY (ISAT-U)

Lapaz, Iloilo City

&

GUIMARAS STATE COLLEGE

Buenavista, Guimaras

 

First Announcement

The nation-states’ narratives and social histories have always been monopolized by the epical tales of great men and heroes usually in records of combats among the powerful and in accounts of conquests of the weak by the strong. Meanwhile nation building and state formations are recounted as stories of industrial movements and of civilizations progressing towards modernity such that the national narratives and social histories are silent on alternatives streams of histories. Societies in the margins, the conquered peoples and communities who have remained traditional have no accounts of these histories, where memories of their own histories remain undocumented narratives.  To reconstruct their histories, one has to excavate them from the side assays of colonial journals and travelogues and exhume from footnotes of world almanacs and atlases. The oral accounts and peoples’ anecdotal testimonies are however rich resources that are little explored. Oral traditions and histories from the ground are important resources complementing that of accounts of oft-sidelined accounts byintellectual movements and religious and cultural reformisms thatare off-stream processes in societal progress through time.

 

OBJECTIVES:

There is need to capture the multiple-narratives and reconstruct myriad diversities of experiences in political and state formations by reclaiming the voices of the margins. This conference will highlight the following:

1.     Accounts of inter-religious and cultural processes in social change by accessing historical resources from the alternative vantage of intellectual and religious movements;

2.     Intellectual dialogue and active adherence to cross-cultural linking-back and in opening new modalities of cultural exchanges

SUBTHEMES:

–          Political Reformism and Counter-Hegemony in Philippines

–          Local Histories and/of  the Indigenous People

–          Religion, Histories of Religions and Religious Movements

–          Rituals, Symbolism and Indigenous Material Culture

–          Cross-borders, cross-cultural exchanges and Globalization

Other papers are also welcomed covering the study of culture and religion in the region.

Submission and review    

All Proposal should be submitted to Dr. Lilian Diana B. Parreno, VP for Research and Extension, Guimaras State College

MclainBuenavista, Guimaras

Email add: 2ndpasharintercon@gmail.com

 

Copy to:

Dr. Richard De Leon

Research Director

ISAT- U

Lapaz, Iloilo, City

email add: richardcdeleon@gmail.com

 

Dr.Emeralda Sanchez

President, PASCHR

UST, Manila

email add: esmeraldasanchez297@gmail.com
Registration fee can be made either on-site at the start of the conference ,or through the PASCHR account with the BDO Dapitan,Cor. Lacson. account No. PASCHR 007280035776 Deposit receipt / proof of payment should be presented upon registration at the conference


 

Dates                                                                          Other Details

Conference Date:
 

Registration and other pertinent details—to include information regarding lodging facilities and travel to and from the conference venue — will be available online which will be announced later thru the Conference email address at email add: 2ndpasharintercon@gmail.com

March 2-4, 2016
Early Registration Feb. 4 2016
Late Registration February 23 ,2016 or On-site Registration
Last Submission of Abstract Feb. 25, 2016
Submission of Full Paper Feb. 26 , 2016

 

Registration Fees

Foreign (Professionals)     400 USD Coverage:

–        2 lunch, 5 snacks, kit and souvenir, for 3 days

–        with single-room hotel accommodation.

–        hotel to airport service.

–        Kit and souvenirs

 

1.     Local (Professional) – 4,000.00

Coverage:

–        2 lunch, 5 snacks, kit and souvenir, for 3 days

–        (without accommodation)

2.     Local (Students) – [TBA]

 

 

Prof . Esmeralda Sanchez   Dr. Raul F. Muyong            Dr. Rogelio T. Artajo

Conference Chair                   Co-Chairperson                 Co-Chairperson

Call for Abstracts: Nordic Conference for the Sociology of Religion – deadline March 15th

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NCSR Abstract submission opened!

We invite you to submit your paper abstract to the 23rd Nordic Conference for the Sociology of Religion. The conference will be held on the 17th–19th of August in 2016 at the University of Helsinki, Finland.

You can access the abstract submission form directly via this link
or at the conference web page: http://blogs.helsinki.fi/ncsr-2016/

Before submitting, please view the call for papers, and the list of available sessions!

The deadline for submitting an abstract is March 15th!
More information about the conference program, the venue and travel is continuously being updated to our web page.

Stay on top of the latest news by subscribing to our mailing list!
Looking forward to the summer and meeting you in Helsinki!
Kati Tervo-Niemelä
Jenni Spännäri and the whole conference team

CFP: Conference Freedom of Religion or Belief in Situations of Crisis (16-19 06 2016, Tallinn, Estonia)

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The University of Tartu Faculty of Law in cooperation with its international partners is organizing an international conference entitled “Freedom of Religion or Belief in Situations of Crisis: Why Can’t We Get Along?” on 16 – 19 June 2016 in Tallinn. It is an interdisciplinary conference intended for academics, professionals and students interested in human rights issues in the current migration crisis.
The aim of the conference and its future publication is to tackle these issues in a multidisciplinary manner. Contributions are not required to be written from a legal perspective. The theme itself is interdisciplinary and allows contributions from scholars from multiple backgrounds, including law, history, religion studies and political science. A combination of theory and practice is also encouraged.

We specifically call for contributions that address above themes that will be addressed in separate panels during the conference:

1. Freedom of Religion or Belief of Refugees and Migrants
2. Freedom of Religion or Belief in the Conflict Zone
3. Hate Speech and Migration
4. Religious Symbols in Public Space
5. Accommodation of Diversity
6. Secular State as a Gate and Peace Keeper?
Authors are also welcome to address interrelated issues such as combating terrorism and extremism. For example, to some degree we can talk about ‘securitization of rights’ or security as a meta-right.

During the conference there is also a session for students to introduce their work, get feedback from international scholars and test their ideas in a less formal academic environment.
Important Deadlines
01 February 2016 Title and abstract of proposed contributions to the Conference Lead
14 February 2016 Organizing committee decision on acceptance of the contributions to the conference
01 May 2016 Draft paper or outline of main thesis and points to the Conference Lead (to support distribution to conference attendees for feedback and discussion)
01 November 2016 Final revised, peer reviewed contributions to the editorial team

All expressions of interest and questions can be sent to Dr. Merilin Kiviorg (Senior Research Fellow in Public International Law) at the University of Tartu, Faculty of Law (merilin.kiviorg@ut.ee).

CFP EASA 2016: Alternative Religiosities in the Communist East-Central Europe and Russia

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Dear colleagues,

We invite papers for the panel ‘P128 Alternative Religiosities in the Communist East-Central Europe and Russia: Formations, Resistances and Manifestations’ at the upcoming EASA conference in Milan, 20-23 July 2016. Please find the CFP information bellow; also feel free to contact the convenors if you have any questions.

Best,

Rasa Pranskeviciute
Convenors

Rasa Pranskevičiūtė (Lithuanian University of Health Sciences)
Egle Aleknaitė (Vytautas Magnus University)

Short Abstract

In the communist East-Central Europe and Russia, underground activities, including access to alternative spiritual and esoteric ideas and practices, mainly existed in parallel with the official culture and institutions and appeared as a form of resistance to the Soviet regime and communist ideology.

Long Abstract

The panel addresses alternative religiosities in the communist East-Central European region and Russia, which due to Soviet control, mostly existed underground and could remain only if they acted in secret. Beside the officially established Soviet culture, connected with the Communist Party’s aim to control all aspects of the public sphere, there was an unofficial cultural field that was very accepting arrival, formation, spread and expressions of diverse alternative religiosities and spiritual ideas. The disappointment with the existing narrowness of the official communist ideology and the loss of the absolute allegiance to it led to the formation and rise of unofficial socio-cultural alternatives within the system. The underground activities, including access to alternative spiritual and esoteric ideas and practices, generally existed in parallel with, or even jointly with, the official culture and institutions. In the panel, we invite both empirical and theoretical anthropological as well as interdisciplinary papers including, but not limited to the following topics:

• Networks and inter-community connections

• Flows of ideas within the communist East-Central Europe and Russia and from the outside

• Centers and peripheries of alternative religiosity milieu in the communist East-Central European region and Russia

• Politics and actions of regime towards alternative religiosity

• Restrictions, repressions and survival strategies of practitioners of alternative religiosity

• Milieu of alternative religiosity as a space of resistance

• Relationships of communities of alternative religiosity with dominant religious traditions

• Theoretical frameworks and methodological problems in research on alternative religiosity of the communist East-Central European region and Russia
Propose a paper via:

http://nomadit.co.uk/easa/easa2016/panels.php5?PanelID=4377

Online application deadline: 15 February 2016

General instructions and rules
http://www.easaonline.org/conferences/easa2016/cfp.shtml

General information on the conference
http://www.easaonline.org/conferences/easa2016/

Please feel free to spread this message.

CFP: Lived Religion. An ethnographical insight – 6th Ethnography and Qualitative Research Conference

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Dear Friends and Colleagues,

We would like to inform you that the the deadline for submitting your
abstract to the 6th Ethnography and Qualitative Research Conference
which will be held in Bergamo (Italy) on June, 8-11 2016
(http://www.etnografiaricercaqualitativa.it/) has been postponed to
January 24, 2016.

We are organising the session Lived Religion. An ethnographical insight

Religion today lies at the heart of a cultural and political debate,
related to immigration, human rights, the role of women and democracy in
general.

Since the 1980s, the concept of “lived religion” has expressed a living,
fluid, pluralistic and everyday dimension of religions: religion is part
of daily life; religiosity is expressed through a variable set of
collective and individual, institutionalised and informal, hybrid and
codified practices.

We invite contributions in an ethnographical prospective dealing with
the theme of religion in daily life – lived religion – based on solid
empirical analysis.
The areas in which the theme may be declined include:
– Native religions in today’s world;
– Religious tradition and innovation;
– Female religious experience, for example in churches, in
alternative spirituality, in religious groups/movements and in politics;
– Mobile religion including pilgrimages and religious tourism;
– Religion, economics and consumption;
– Religion, the human body and mass media.

So we invite you again to send to conveners Alberta Giorgi
(albertagiorgi@ces.uc.pt) or Stefania Palmisano
(stefania.palmisano@unito.it) or Gioovanna Rech (giovanna.rech@unitn.it)
and to the conference committee (erq.conference@unibg.it), indicating
the title of the chosen session:
– the title of your talk and an abstract of maximum 1000 words (.doc,
.docx, .odt, .txt, .rtf);
– your contact details (full name, e-mail, post address and affiliation)
and those of your coauthor/s, if any.

Abstracts (and video talks) must be submitted in English.

Proposal must be submitted by January 24, 2016.
Acceptance of proposals will be notified by March 15, 2016.
Contributors must register by April 15, 2016 to be included in the program.

Please circulate this announcement to colleagues who may be interested
in this conference.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Kind regards,
Giovanna Rech, Stefania Palmisano, Alberta Giorgi

CFP – In search of common language: Toward a dialogue between the anthropology of Islam, Christianity and Judaism

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Call for Papers ASA 2016 – Footprints and the future: The time of anthropology

 

University of Durham, 4-7th July 2016

 

Panel: P65 In search of common language: Toward a dialogue between the anthropology of Islam, Christianity and Judaism

 

***********Deadline for paper abstract submission: 15 February 2016***********

 

This panel seeks to create a bridge across the anthropological study of monotheistic faiths. Despite theological and historical commonalities and overlaps in the contemporary study of Islam, Christianity and Judaism, there appears to be little conversation between these disciplinary strands. For instance, debates on ethical self-cultivation and moral ambivalence in Islam rarely consider parallel tensions in Pentecostalism between “born again” Christian life and attachment to past relations and ways of being. There are also important overlaps in discussions about citizenship among diasporic Christian, Muslim or Jewish populations, which are rarely explored in much depth. The aim of this panel is not only to draw these disciplinary strands into a conversation, but also to consider whether this engagement on shared concerns can be grounded in a common language. Can the recent discourse on ethics serve as a meeting space? Is there any value in returning to the older and broader category of “religion”? Does the anthropology of humanism offer another alternative for situating discussions around the tensions in leading moral lives within Muslim, Christian and Jewish worlds? Can existential anthropology, with its focus on the complexities and ambiguities of lived experiences, offer potential points of connection? We welcome proposals from scholars working within the anthropology of Islam, Judaism and Christianity interested in initiating a cross-cutting dialogue, as well as those concerned with debating the broader value of approaches such as, but not limited to, the anthropology of ethics, existential anthropology, humanism, citizenship, selfhood and subjectivity.

 

Convenors: Yulia Egorova (Durham University), Giulia Liberatore (University of Oxford), Leslie Fesenmyer (University of Oxford), and Ammara Maqsood (University of Oxford)

 

**Paper abstracts (250 words maximum) can be submitted via the link below:

 

http://www.nomadit.co.uk/asa/asa2016/panels.php5?PanelID=4389

 

If you’d like more information on the panel or want to discuss possible proposals, please email any of the convenors at yulia.egorova@durham.ac.uk; giulia.liberatore@compas.ox.ac.uk; leslie.fesenmyer@anthro.ox.ac.uk; ammara.maqsood@anthro.ox.ac.uk.

CFP: Transnational Death (edited volume)

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CFP: Transnational Death, an edited volume

Editors: Eerika Koskinen-Koivisto (Postdoctoral Researcher, European
Ethnology, University of Helsinki), Samira Saramo (Postdoctoral
Researcher, John Morton Center, University of Turku), and Hanna Snellman
(Professor of European Ethnology, University of Helsinki) Publisher:
Finnish Literature Society (SKS), Studia Fennica Ethnologia series (the
final publishing decision will be made after the review process)

When people move and migrate, at some point families face the loss of
their loved ones. Death in the transnational migrant context raises
questions of distance and distinct traditions: What kinds of options for
burial and commemoration rituals exist in different places and cultures?
How are such practices shaped by time and place? Where and how do people
themselves wish to be buried, and how do burial choices speak to
identifications with home? Is it important for relatives to be present
at funerals and to be able to visit graves? How can transnationalism be
viewed through deaths occurring at war or peacekeeping in distant
frontiers? How are funerals and mourning rituals arranged in unusual
circumstances when people are on the move, such as during the current
refugee crisis? How has death and mourning been narrated by migrants,
and how do these narrations speak to transnationalism and identity?

This volume addresses the practices and representations of transnational
death. It welcomes articles based on ethnographic and historical studies
of transcultural mourning and commemorative practices in migrant
families, communities, and transnational cemeteries, with a broad
geographic lens. Abstracts (300 words) and a short bio can be sent to
eerika.koskinen-koivisto@helsinki.fi by February 29, 2016.

Timeline: Article abstract submission deadline: February 29, 2016
Notification of article acceptance: March 30, 2016
Submission of article (7000-8000 words): September 30, 2016
Articles returned with Editors’ comments: January 30, 2017
Deadline for final articles: May 30,
2017 Post-Review Revisions and Editorial work: Fall &Winter 2017