Heritage, Religion and Travel Network Conference

Theoretical and Empirical Journeys

www.heritagereligionandtravel.com

(Mersin Congress and Exhibitions Centre, Turkey 27th-29th May 2016)

Call for Papers

Around the globe and across a wide variety of religious traditions,
heritage has become central to our understanding of landscape, space and
time. Heritage sites attract hundreds of millions of visitors each year,
often as a form of pilgrimage to sacred destinations. Their popularity
has provoked a burgeoning interest in both ‘sacred’ and ‘secular
pilgrimage’ as a legitimate focus of academic enquiry and on tangible
and intangible heritage more broadly.

This unique conference seeks to build on four decades of research on the
relationship between Heritage, Religion and Travel and to advance new
theoretical and empirical perspectives concerning this relationship. It
also offers an interdisciplinary space for debate. Hence, and not
coincidentally, the conference will be hosted in the ancient city of
Tarsus in Turkey ̶ a country that could be defined as at the crossroads
of history, i.e. between east and west. It is a land deeply influenced
by religious traditions and heritage of extraordinary variety and
richness. It also has been the setting for the rise and fall of many
cultures and entire civilizations. Drawing on the work of leading
academics, we hope to evoke the depth and breadth of the importance of
heritage and its connection to religion and new and old forms of travel
and tourism.

The focus of the conference will be on re-assessing old and building new
theoretical frameworks for the study of heritage, religion and travel,
with particular emphasis on the study of pilgrimage and religious tourism.
Publication Opportunities

Heritage, Religion and Travel: Empirical and Theoretical Journeys, is
pleased to announce that we will be able to offer authors the potential
to publish their work in three separate series run by academic
publishers (Ashgate, Routledge and Lexington books) on the topic of the
conference. The Ashgate series editors include Dr. Dee Dyas (University
of York), Prof. John Eade (Roehmapton University/Toronto), Prof. Simon
Coleman (University of Toronto) and Prof. Jas’ Elsner (University of
Oxford/Chicago). The Routledge series is edited by John Eade, Diogine
Albera (University of Aux-Marseille), Ian Reader (Lancaster University),
Alana Harris (King’s College London) and Ellen Badone (McMaster
University). The Lexington series is edited by Dr. Michael A. Di Giovine
(West Chester University) and Prof. Noel B. Salazar (University of Leuven).

The quality of papers will be the guide to the potential for publication
and submission is automatic with the acceptance of the paper’s abstract.
This is a great opportunity for new upcoming scholars as well as
established authors to showcase their work. We expect wide-spread
interest in this conference so please register ASAP for places are very
limited! To register go to www.heritagereligionandtravel.com

We are open to the suggestions for thematic panels which may include,
but are not limited to, the following themes:

Conference Themes

۞ Heritage & Religious Traditions

– Past, present and future of Heritage and its Religious meanings
– The relationship between Heritage and Spirituality
– Religious Tourism: old and new theoretical and empirical perspectives
– Heritage and Landscape: communalities and differences between place
and space
– The framing of Heritage as Secular Cultural Symbolism
– Heritage and Politics of Identity
– Art, Heritage and Religious, Spiritual meanings
– Heritage and Memory
– Consumer Culture and Heritage sites
– Organizing bodies (UNESCO, WTO)
– Food as Sacred Objects, Food as Heritage.
– Heritage and the Oral Traditions
– The Mechanisms and Outcomes of Transitions from sites of Heritage to
sites of Pilgrimage
– The Mechanisms and Outcomes of Transitions from sites of Religious
Significance (Pilgrimage) to Heritage (Tourist) sites

۞ Religion and Travel

– Tourism and its discontents
– Contested sites: the Politics of site formation and maintenance
– Religion, Travel and the Media
– The Hermeneutics of Place and Space
– The Relationship between Religion and the Travel and Tourism Industry
– Religious Heritage of Minority Groups
– Religion, Heritage and Migration

۞ Pilgrimage, Landscape and Heritage

– Perspectives on Pilgrimage as a Spiritual Journey
– Pilgrimage and Territorial Boundaries
– Pilgrimage in Memory and Narratives
– The Centrality of Heritage for Pilgrimage
– Relationship between Religion and the Travel and Tourism Industry
– Pilgrimage and Nature (ecological perspectives of movement and sacred
places)
– The Hermeneutics of Place
– Literature as a focal point for Pilgrims and Travelers
– Religious Tourism and/or Secular Pilgrimage
– The Diversity of Cultural/National/Linguistic/Artistic representations
in Pilgrimage Sites
– Historical sites and Modern sites
– Gender, Ethnicity and other Identity Issues

۞ The Sacred & The Secular: Contesting and/or Re-affirming Religion

– The Relationship between Religion and Culture in the formation of
Sacred Places and Landscapes
– The Sociology and Anthropology of Religion and their importance for
the study of Heritage, Religion & Travel
– Secular Societies and their Religious Heritage: Past, Present and Future
– To Go on a Pilgrimage or to Walk on a Pilgrimage Trail?
– Secular Lands, Sacred Journeys: The Dichotomies of Culture, Religion
and Politics

۞ Theoretical & Methodological Perspectives

– Tangible and Intangible Heritage
– Theoretical Perspectives on the Study of Heritage, Religion and Tourism
– Empirical & Methodological Perspectives on the Study of Heritage,
Religion and Tourism
– Liminality as a central Concept in the Study of Heritage and Tourism
– The Social Sciences and the Study of Heritage, Religion and Travel
– Religion, Consumerism and the making of Tourist Spaces
– Globalization and the expansion of Tourism in the 21st Century
– Travel and Tourism: Past, Present and Future
– Visiting Places from Home: The Internet and Virtual Travel
– The Meaning of Tourism for Tourists and Hosts
– Movement and the Limits to Freedom: Barriers and Contradictions
– Methodological Challenges in the Study of Heritage, Religion and Travel
– The Semiotics and/or Hermeneutics of Heritage Travel
– Other types of Travel (air, sea, rail, walking)

Keynote speakers:

Prof. Dr. John Eade – University of Roehampton/University of Toronto
Prof. Dr. Ian Reader – Lancaster University
Dr. Avril Madrell – University of the West of England
Prof. Maria Coroucli – Universite Paris Ouest Nanterre

Program committee:

Dr. J. Eduardo Chemin (Çağ Üniversitesi, Turkey)
Prof. Dr. John Eade – University of Roehampton (U.K.)/ University of
Toronto (Canada)

Submission details:

Abstracts (up to 350 – words in Word doc.), with contact details and
affiliation, should be submitted to the following e-mail address:
Chemin@cag.edu.tr by Dezember 15, 2015. You will be informed about
acceptance or non-acceptance of your proposal by January 15, 2016.

Registration fee

On or before January 15th 2016 (early bird): € 50 (170 TL)
Regular Fee (after early-bird deadline – January 15th 2016): € 75 (250 TL)

Graduate Students presenting papers: € 50 (170 TL)

Co-authors or accompanying person: € 50 (170 TL)

Please note: All bank transaction costs are to be paid by the author

Registration fee covers:

– Conference proceedings (backpack with book of abstracts)
– Welcome reception (drinks and snacks)
– All meals during the conference hours
– Refreshments and snacks during session breaks
– Excursion with Tourist Guide
– Reception and Dinner

Payment Method:

In EURO (€) (for academics from outside of Turkey) to be made to the
following account number:
SWIFT CODE: 6070
held with İŞ BANKASI A.Ş.
IBAN: TR380006400000260700032846
Çağ Üniversitesi (Mesep Oti)
Yenice Mahç Cemal Girsel Bul. 142 D
Tarsus/Mersin

In Türk Lirasi (TRY) (for academics from Turkey) to be made to the
following account number:
HESAP SUBESI: 6070 (Adana Ticari/Adana)
held with İŞ BANKASI A.Ş.
HESAP NUMERASI: 26603
IBAN: TR510006400000160700026603
Çağ Üniversitesi (Mesep Oti)
Yenice Mahç Cemal Girsel Bul. 142 D
Tarsus/Mersin

*we kindly ask you to send us confirmation of your payment via e-mail:

WE WELCOME YOU WARMLY TO MERSIN IN 2016!!!!

The post Heritage, Religion and Travel Network Conference: Theoretical and Empirical Journey appeared first on ISA Research Committee 22.

Islam and the Modern State
Graduate Student Conference
7-8 April 2016

Evanston, IL

The Buffett Institute for Global Studies at Northwestern University will
host a graduate student conference that examines how modern states exist
in tension with the practices, institutions, and sensibilities
associated with Islam. This interdisciplinary conference will draw
together advanced graduate students and senior scholars to probe the
enduring entanglement of religion and modernity, and to understand how
this entanglement bears on contemporary debates about modern statehood.

Panels will investigate:

·how states grapple with nationalism, neo-liberalism, and secularism in
relation to local and global iterations of Islam;

·the strategies that individuals and communities employ to subvert,
comply with, or otherwise amend state sovereignty and its projects to
cultivate ideal citizens;

·and the modes through which the Islamic tradition is being transformed
as a result of these processes.

Graduate Student Participation

We welcome papers that address the conference theme in comparative and
international perspective. Advanced graduate students are invited to
submit abstracts
<http://buffett.northwestern.edu/programs/grad-conference/abstracts.html> of
no more than 300 words by November 9, 2015.

Applicants will be informed of the outcome of the selection process by
December 4, 2015. Selected applicants will be asked to submit their
papers of no more than 10,000 words in length by March 4, 2016.

The Buffett Institute will subsidize travel costs and provide hotel
accommodations for conference participants.

Faculty Involvement

The keynote address will be given by Ebrahim Moosa, Professor of
Islamic Studies at the University of Notre Dame with appointments in the
Department of History and the Kroc Institute for International Studies
in the Keough School of Global Affairs.

The following faculty will provide comments on the conference papers:

·Alireza Doostdar (University of Chicago Divinity School)

·Mohammad Fadel (University of Toronto Faculty of Law)

·Mayanthi Fernando (Anthropology, University of California, Santa Cruz)

·Haider Ala Hamoudi (University of Pittsburgh School of Law)

·Naveeda Khan (Anthropology, Johns Hopkins University)

·Rudolph Ware (History, University of Michigan)

Conference Organizers

·Mona Oraby is a Ph.D. candidate in Political Science at Northwestern
University. Her research investigates the legal regulation and
administration of religious difference in the contemporary Middle East.

·Bilal Nasir is a Ph.D. student in Anthropology and part of the
Initiative for Comparative Race and Diaspora at Northwestern University.
His research examines the intersection between racialization, social
movements, and Islamic learning among Muslim youth in the greater Los
Angeles area.

·Nathaniel Mathews is a Ph.D. candidate in History at Northwestern
University. He works on the history of modern citizenship, ethnicity and
the nation-state in Zanzibar, Oman and the Swahili Coast.

·Nurhaizatul Jamil is a Ph.D. candidate in Anthropology at
Northwestern University. Her research focuses on Muslim women’s
participation in Islamic self-help classes in contemporary Singapore.

For inquiries regarding this event, please contact
buffettgradconference@northwestern.edu
<buffettgradconference@northwestern.edu>.

Please submit your abstracts using the following link:

<http://buffett.northwestern.edu/programs/grad-conference/index.html>http://buffett.northwestern.edu/programs/grad-conference/index.html

The post CFP: Islam and the Modern State Conference appeared first on ISA Research Committee 22.

CALL FOR PAPERS

Art Approaching Science and Religion
11-13 May 2016 at Åbo Akademi University, Turku, Finland

Symposium website: http://www.amoslab.fi/?page_id=214

The symposium aims at bringing together the fields of art, science and
religion. How can science and religion be explored from the perspective
of the arts? Themes to be discussed will unwind from and be elaborated
on contemporary notions of beauty, ornament, and public art. The public
and aesthetic space offer not only timeless objects of appreciation,
aesthetic value and use, but also habits and rituals. The aim is to
bring out different images of how aesthetics, as a historical and
contemporary tradition, is formed together with strands of artist
research, art criticism, art history as well as the humanities,
philosophy, and religious studies.

Keynote Speakers (12 May 2016):
Kent C. Bloomer, Chief Designer, Professor, Yale School of Architecture, USA
Melissa Raphael, Professor of Jewish Theology, University of
Gloucestershire, UK
Serafim Seppälä, Professor of Systematic Theology and Patristics,
University of Eastern Finland
Mark C. Taylor, Professor of Religion, Columbia University, USA

Call for Papers for the Roundtable seminar on 13 May 2016 is now open:

http://www.abo.fi/forskning/en/News/Item/item/10299

Proposals are welcome on the interconnectedness of art, science and
religion, including (but not restricted to) the following themes:

• Truth claims in philosophy, art, science, and religion.
• Art criticism, art history, and artist research.
• Commerce and communication.
• Technology and tradition.
• Artefacts in science and religion.
• Power and politics of beauty.

*Deadline: 15 November 2015***

Arranged by:
AmosLAB/Amos Anderson Laboratory for Artful Making: www.amoslab.fi
<http://www.amoslab.fi>
The Donner Institute for Research in Religious and Cultural History:
www.abo.fi/donnerinstitute <http://www.abo.fi/donnerinstitute>

The post CFP: Art Approaching Science and Religion, Turku 11-13 May 2016 appeared first on ISA Research Committee 22.

Fifth Annual Conference of the
Irish Society for the Academic Study of Religions (ISASR)
In association with the Department of Study of Religions
University College Cork

Religion and Revolution

Thurs 16th – Fri 17th June 2016

We are pleased to invite scholars to take part in the fifth annual
conference of the Irish Society for the Academic Study of Religions
(ISASR), themed ‘Religion and Revolution’. 2016 is the centenary of the
iconic Irish revolution, also known as the Easter Rising, which is
arguably the most celebrated occurrence of revolution in Ireland. The
Rising represents a historic disjunction with British colonial rule and
occurred within a context of social and political upheaval. Across the
world, political upheaval is often accompanied by religious change which
in turn can bring about dramatic social and political tranformation.
Conceptualising revolution in its broadest sense, the conference will
discuss, reflect upon and explore these themes. The Society invites
papers and contributions on the varied theme of religion and revolution
including areas such as:

· political change and religion
· religions and social movements
· radical religious change
· media representations of religion and revolution
· the impact of revolution on religious practices
· theorising concepts: revolutions, reformations and cycles
within religious traditions
· transformations in cosmologies and crises of faith
· changing paradigms in the academic study of religions

Scholars working in Ireland are free to submit paper proposal on any
aspect of religion both at home and globally.

Call for papers: Please submit your proposal in the form of a title and
an abstract (max. 250 words).

Call for slam contributions: We invite ‘slam’ contributions for a
maximum duration of 6 minutes on in-progress research, new projects and
publications, research networks and new programmes. Please submit a
title and brief description of your slam (max. 150 words).

Both paper and slam proposals are to be submitted via email to
isasr2016@gmail.com by the deadline of 21 January 2016. Notification of
abstract/slam acceptance will be given by 05 February 2016.

Please bear in mind that papers should contribute to the aims of ISASR
as set out in the Society’s constitution, specifically that ‘The main
object [is] to advance education through the academic study of religions
by providing a forum for scholarly activity (…). The Society is a forum
for the critical, analytical and cross-cultural study of religions, past
and present. It is not a forum for confessional, apologetical,
interfaith or other similar concerns’.

The final programme will be posted on the ISASR website:
http://isasr.wordpress.com/

The post CFP: Religion and Revolution appeared first on ISA Research Committee 22.

Call for Papers

Conference on

“Shia Minorities in the Contemporary World: Migration, Transnationalism and Multilocality”

University of Chester, Chester (UK), 20-21 May 2016

Global migrations flows in the 20^th century have seen the emergence of Muslim diaspora and minority communities in Europe, North America and Australia. In addition to these new Muslim presences in the global “West”, there have been, since the late 19^th century, migration flows from the Middle East (Lebanon and Syria in particular) to South America and West Africa. Likewise, South Asian Muslims settled in East and South Africa in the 19^th century. While there is a growing body of research on these Muslim minorities in various regional contexts, the particular experiences of Shia Muslim minorities across the globe has only received scant attention.

As “a minority within a minority”, Shia Muslims face the double-challenge of maintaining an Islamic as well as a particular Shia identity in terms of communal activities, practices, public perception and recognition. Often coming from minority contexts of marginalisation and discrimination, their experience of migration and settlement in other parts of the world, whether enforced or voluntary, is often different from those of other Muslim immigrants. The rich tradition of Shia ritual practices and the authority structures specific to different forms of Shia Islam likewise shape the post-migratory minority experience of Shia.

The conference will bring together researchers working on Shia minorities outside of the so-called “Muslim heartland” (North Africa, Middle East, Central and South Asia). The conference will focus on Shia minorities in Europe, North and South America, Sub-Saharan Africa, Australia, the Pacific Rim and East Asia that emerged out of migration from the Middle East and South Asia in the 20^th and 21^st centuries, in particular. The papers presented at the conference will offer unique comparative insights into Shia minorities in a variety of contexts across the globe.

Paper proposal can address but are not limited to the following topics:

–          dynamics between centre and periphery in global Shia Islam

–          multilocality and transnationalism of global Shia networks

–          transnational impact of events in the Middle East on post-migratory Shia minority communities

–          institutionalisation and organisation of post-migratory Shia minorities

–          public representation and perception of post-migratory Shia minorities and their interaction with state and majority-societies

–          sectarianism and Sunni-Shia relations in minority contexts

–          gender and generational dynamics within post-migratory Shia minorities

–          ritual practices and their adaptation in post-migratory minority contexts

–          adaptation of legal practices and legal reforms in minority contexts

–          role of clerical authority and leadership (whether transnational or local) in Shia minority contexts

Key note speakers:

Prof Liyakat Takim, McMasters University, Canada

Dr Sabrina Mervin, L’Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris / Centre Jacques Berque, Rabat

Dr Mara Leichtman (Michigan State University) will launch her book Shi‘i Cosmopolitanisms in Africa: Lebanese Migration and Religious Conversion in Senegal (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2015) at the conference.

The conference is organised by the new Chester Centre for Islamic Studies and held in conjunction with a research project on transnational Shia networks that operate between Britain and the Middle East, funded by the Gerda Henkel Foundation. A limited number of travel bursaries is available for PhD students and early career researchers whose paper proposals are accepted. The publication of a selection of papers in an edited volume is also planned.

The deadline for abstract submission is 15 December 2015. Abstracts of up to 300 words and a short bio of (up to 200 words) should be sent in MS Word format as an email attachment to ccis@chester.ac.uk. Notifications of acceptance of papers will be sent out by 20 January 2016. Early career researchers should indicate whether they would like to receive a travel bursary when submitting the abstract.

Presentations of papers should be 15 minutes long, followed by 10 minutes for questions and discussions. Full papers should not exceed 8,000 words, including references and footnotes, and should be submitted, in full, prior to the conference by 1 May 2016.

For general enquiries, email Prof Oliver Scharbrodt, Director of Chester Centre for Islamic Studies, o.scharbrodt@chester.ac.uk.

Timeline:

Abstract submission:                      15 December 2015

Notification of acceptance:          20 January 2016

Full paper submission:                   1 May 2016

Conference:                                       20-21 May 2016

The post CFP: “Shia Minorities in the Contemporary World: Migration, Transnationalism and Multilocality” (20-21 May, 2016, Chester) appeared first on ISA Research Committee 22.

CALL FOR PAPERS

12th ISORECEA conference & ESA RN34 mid-term conference

The interplay between historical, cultural and political factors and events has contributed to processes where both religion and non-religion are features of contemporary societies. At the same time, religion and non-religion are integral to theories of secularisation and religious change. Faced with different empirical data around the world, secularisation theses have been debated for decades, while theoretical debates about religious change have occupied sociologists of religion. They have sought to better and more accurately understand and explain religious changes in different parts of the globe. Their points of view differ and include: privatization thesis, de-privatization thesis, religious economies thesis, religious bricolage, multiple secularities thesis. One angle, non-religion as religious counterpart, has been neglected in sociological research.  Indeed, until the end of the 20th century, it was only Campbell (1971) who gave a comprehensive insight into the sociology of non-religion, while many scholars wrote and published within the strand of the sociology of religion.

Non-religion has started to occupy the attention of sociologists since the beginning of this century, especially in the UK and USA. Its prominence has been influenced by its different appearances in the Western world: the rise of declared non-religious people, the appearance of a so-called New Atheism movement (inspired by books by R. Dawkins, S. Harris, D. Dennett, and C. Hitchens), numerous organizations and associations of non-religious people and their enhanced activities as an alternative to religious conservativism, the growing influence of religion in the public sphere and fundamentalist expressions of religion connected to terrorism. Researchers mostly based their work on theories of subcultural identities, identity politics and new social movements; yet, some authors also drew on the theory of religious economies. In spite of these strands, non-religion remains theoretically underdeveloped and under-researched. Interestingly, this refers particularly to former communist countries where atheism was enforced as part of the official ideology; more research would have been expected on non-religiosity and atheism there. Independently of the exact geopolitical context, non-religion and in particular the interplay between religion and non-religion in different dimensions seem to be a key for understanding contemporary religious changes.

This international conference would like to encourage scholars from various parts of the world to share their theoretical, empirical and methodological considerations on religion and non-religion and take part in discussion on different related topics, like:

• Social theory of religion and non-religion
• Comparative empirical data on religion and non-religion
• Methodological challenges of research on religion and non-religion
• Historical development of religion and non-religion
• Non/religious minority and majority
• Human rights, religion and non-religion
• Religion, non-religion and State
• Religion, non-religion and social inclusion/exclusion
• Religion and non-religion in the intersectional perspective (involving gender, age, socio-economic aspects, etc.)
• Religion and non-religion in everyday life
• Religious and non-religious activism

Please submit a 200-300 words abstract of your presentation by e-mail to: isorecea2016@idi.hr by November 15, 2015.

If you are interested in a specific topic related to the study of religion and/or non-religion, we encourage you to organize a session/panel. In this case, please submit a 300-400 words proposal with full session details (names and affiliation of contributors, titles of their presentations) by November 15, 2015 to the same email address.

The post CFP: Religion and Non-Religion in Contemporary Societies appeared first on ISA Research Committee 22.