Category Archives: Conferences

AASR and NZASR joint Conference 2018:

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Ngā Wāhi Tapu/Sacred Place: Continuity and Change

at: University of Auckland – visit conference website:  http://www.nzasr.ac.nz/conference/index.php/annual/2018

November 29, 2018 – November 30, 2018

The third Joint Conference of the New Zealand Association for the Study of Religions (NZASR) and the Australian Association for the Study of Religions (AASR) will be  hosted by the University of Auckland 29-30 November 2018. The plenary sessions of the conference this year will be held in the Waipapa Marae and the Maclaurin Chapel, two sacred sites on the University of Auckland campus, which reveal both continuity and change in this particular context.

The study of sacred place has been receiving renewed attention in the interdisciplinary study of religion. It includes a consideration of familiar institutions—temples, shrines, and churches—but also extends to less visible sites that ground everyday life in ritual practices in the home or in public spaces that are outside the boundaries of “official” religion. In spite of the evidence for secularization, the renewal and revitalization of sacred places is occurring in contemporary societies and transforming many urban areas such as Auckland, Sydney, and Melbourne. This is due in part to recent patterns of immigration and the growth in religious diversity with the arrival of new religious traditions and the flourishing of diaspora communities. The movement of peoples and the increase in interreligious encounters is creating a dynamic situation of mutual transformation and contributing to both de/re-territorialization of religion as some sacred sites are appropriated by new actors and groups representing alternatives to established religious institutions.

Click HERE for the Conference Program (PDF)

INFORM Seminar: “Health & Healing in Minority Religions”, 24 November, King’s College, London

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Early Bird Registration ends 4th November.

Registration is now open for the next Inform Seminar, Health and Healing in Minority Religions, in conjunction with the Department of Theology and Religious Studies, King’s College, London.

Saturday 24th November 2018, 10am-5pm (registration at 9.30). Bush House Lecture Theatre 1, King’s College, London, 30 Aldwych, London, WC2B 4BG.

Please visit http://inform.ac/seminar-payment to book tickets via paypal or credit/debit card.

Registration costs:

Standard: £38

Unwaged/ university student: £18

A Level student: £10

After 4th November, ticket prices will increase by £10, across all three categories and refunds will not be offered.

Provisional Programme:

10.00-10.10           Welcome

10.10-10.35           Eileen Barker, FAcSS, FBA, OBE, Professor Emeritus of Sociology at the London School of Economics  – Religious Attitudes to the Body, Health and Healing

10.35-11.00           Tony Brace, The European Association of Jehovah’s Witnesses – Jehovah’s Witnesses and Blood Transfusion: Faith or Fanaticism?

11.00-11.25           Carole M. Cusack, University of Sydney – G. I. Gurdjieff on Health and Healing: Diet, Fasting and Spiritual Exercises

11.25-11.55           Coffee

11.55-12.20          Sarah Harvey, Senior Research Officer, Inform – Illness as Impurity: practices for cleansing and purifying the body

12.20-12.45          Chris French, Head of the Anomalistic Psychology Research Unit in the Psychology Department at Goldsmiths – The psychology of belief in and use of complementary and alternative medicine 

                                (CAM)

12.45-13.10           Robin Harragin Hussey, District Manager of Christian Science Committee on Publication for UK and Ireland – Holiness and Healing in Christian Scientists’ Practice Today

13.10-14.10           Lunch

14.10-14.35           Suzanne Newcombe, Research Fellow at Inform, Lecturer in Religious Studies at the Open University – The Body in Contemporary Yoga and Ayurveda

14.35-15.00           Simon Dein, consultant psychiatrist in Essex UK, honorary clinical professor at Durham University – The End of Suffering:  Mysticism, Messianism and Medicine in Lubavitch

15.00-15.30           Tea

15.30-15.40           Website launch

15.40-16.40           Panel

We look forward to seeing you there! Feel free to circulate the attached pdf and help spread the word.

Inform@kcl.ac.uk

020 7848 1132

c/o Dept. of Theology and Religious Studies, King’s College London

Virginia Woolf Building, 22 Kingsway, London WC2B 6LE.

Call for Papers Christianity and the Rule of Law in Chinese Societies

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Dates: March 29-31, 2019 (arriving on 28th and departing on April 1st)

Place: Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana, USA

The Center on Religion and Chinese Society at Purdue University invites papers that examine the relationship between Christianity and the rule of law in a Chinese society. We welcome both scholarly research papers of empirical, historical, or case studies, and personal reflection papers by Christian practitioners of the law (lawyers, judges, legislators, law enforcement agents, etc.).  A personal reflection paper by a law practitioner should reflect on one’s own conversion, Christian beliefs, and the impacts of faith on the practice of the law. A scholarly paper may address any of these topics below and the analysis may be at the micro, meso, or macro levels, but they must be on Christianity in one of the Chinese societies.  We particularly welcome papers on the following topics:

  • Christian roles in the making or remaking of the constitution in the ROC or PRC, or the Basic Law in Hong Kong or Macau
  • Christian roles in the development of the modern judiciary system
  • Christian roles in the making of some particular law or regulation
  • Christian roles in the defense of civil rights or human rights
  • Christian perceptions of the rule of law
  • Christian organizations and civil society
  • Christianity and the legal culture in Chinese societies
  • Christianity and public theology regarding the rule of law
  • Faith and law practice among Christian lawyers, legislators, judges, or enforcement agents (such as police)

Based on submitted abstracts, we will select 20 participants to make presentations. Hotel expenses of the presenters will be covered. A limited number of travel funds is available to subsidize transportation costs for those who apply.

Deadline to submit abstracts: October 31, 2018. The abstract should be between 500 and 1,000 words. Please include a brief c.v. and a note about whether or not applying for a travel subsidy and if so, how much. We will notify the selected participants of acceptance and travel funds by November 30, 2018.

Deadline to submit draft full paper: February 28, 2019. The paper should be no less than 5,000 words, with proper footnotes and referenced bibliography. We plan to publish a volume of the edited papers.

Please submit your abstract, c.v., note about travel subsidy, and full paper to Lily Szeto lszeto@purdue.edu

Call for Papers Christianity and the Rule of Law in Chinese Societies

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Dates: March 29-31, 2019 (arriving on 28th and departing on April 1st)

Place: Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana, USA

The Center on Religion and Chinese Society at Purdue University invites papers that examine the relationship between Christianity and the rule of law in a Chinese society. We welcome both scholarly research papers of empirical, historical, or case studies, and personal reflection papers by Christian practitioners of the law (lawyers, judges, legislators, law enforcement agents, etc.).  A personal reflection paper by a law practitioner should reflect on one’s own conversion, Christian beliefs, and the impacts of faith on the practice of the law. A scholarly paper may address any of these topics below and the analysis may be at the micro, meso, or macro levels, but they must be on Christianity in one of the Chinese societies.  We particularly welcome papers on the following topics:

  • Christian roles in the making or remaking of the constitution in the ROC or PRC, or the Basic Law in Hong Kong or Macau
  • Christian roles in the development of the modern judiciary system
  • Christian roles in the making of some particular law or regulation
  • Christian roles in the defense of civil rights or human rights
  • Christian perceptions of the rule of law
  • Christian organizations and civil society
  • Christianity and the legal culture in Chinese societies
  • Christianity and public theology regarding the rule of law
  • Faith and law practice among Christian lawyers, legislators, judges, or enforcement agents (such as police)

Based on submitted abstracts, we will select 20 participants to make presentations. Hotel expenses of the presenters will be covered. A limited number of travel funds is available to subsidize transportation costs for those who apply.

Deadline to submit abstracts: October 31, 2018. The abstract should be between 500 and 1,000 words. Please include a brief c.v. and a note about whether or not applying for a travel subsidy and if so, how much. We will notify the selected participants of acceptance and travel funds by November 30, 2018.

Deadline to submit draft full paper: February 28, 2019. The paper should be no less than 5,000 words, with proper footnotes and referenced bibliography. We plan to publish a volume of the edited papers.

Please submit your abstract, c.v., note about travel subsidy, and full paper to Lily Szeto lszeto@purdue.edu

Call for Papers: “Tracking the ritual year: On the move in different cultural settings and systems of values”

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The paper submission for the 14th SIEF congress in Santiago de Compostela, Spain (14-17 April 2019), “Track Changes: Reflecting on a Transforming World” is currently ongoing.

You are all warmly invited to submit your papers to the panel organized by our working group: (Reli06) Tracking the ritual year on the move in different cultural settings and systems of values

Convenors: Irina Sedakova and Laurent Fournier

https://nomadit.co.uk/sief/sief2019/conferencesuite.php/panels/7122

Looking forward to seeing you in Bucharest, in a couple of months, and next year in Santiago,

Irina Stahl,
Researcher, Institute of Sociology, Romanian Academy
Secretary of “The Ritual Year” Working Group,
ritualyear@siefhome.org

Call for Papers: The Fifth Biennial Christian Congregational Music:

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CALL FOR PAPERS: The Fifth Biennial Christian Congregational Music: Local and Global Perspectives Conference
Ripon College Cuddesdon, Oxford, United Kingdom
30 July-2 August 2019

Congregational music-making is a vital and vibrant practice within Christian communities worldwide. It reflects, informs, and articulates convictions and concerns that are irreducibly local even as it flows along global networks. The goal of the Christian Congregational Music conference is to expand the avenues of scholarly inquiry into congregational music-making by bringing together world-class scholars and practitioners to explore the varying cultural, social, and spiritual roles music plays in the life of various Christian communities around the world. We are pleased to invite proposals for the fifth biennial conference at Ripon College in Cuddesdon, near Oxford, United Kingdom between Tuesday, July 30 and Friday, August 2, 2019. The conference will feature guest speakers, roundtables and workshops that reflect the ever-broadening scope of research and practice in Christian congregational music-making around the world. 

Paper proposals on any topic related to the study of congregational music-making will be considered, but we especially welcome papers that explore one or more of the following themes: 

Congregational music and the Black Atlantic

Choir and congregation

Voice and vocality

Beyond the congregation

Practices of power

Comparative religious musical ontologies

We are now accepting proposals (maximum 250 words) for individual papers and for organised panels consisting of three papers. The online proposal form can be found on the conference website: http://congregationalmusic.org/content/proposals. Proposals must be received by 14 December 2018. Notifications of acceptance will be sent by 31 January 2019, and conference registration will begin on 15 February 2019. Further instructions and information is available on the conference website at http://congregationalmusic.org.

Call for Session & Paper Proposals: EASR Conference, June 2019

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17th Annual Conference of the European Association for the Study of Religions (EASR) ’Religion – continuations and disruptions’

25-29 June 2019 in Tartu, Estonia
https://easr2019.org/

Religions are works in progress. New ideas, doctrines and practices have appeared time and again and often spread across cultural and confessional boundaries. Some of the changes have been intentional, introduced by powerful individuals and institutions, others have emerged more spontaneously as vernacular reactions to innovations imposed from ?above?. Some elements in religions have persisted for centuries, some have disappeared and some reappeared in completely new forms or acquired new meanings. Similar processes can be observed around us in contemporary societies as well.

Yet, oftentimes scholars of religion have struggled with studying such constantly changing and transforming phenomena. This leads us to ask how many disruptions or interruptions can a tradition adapt or even embrace, while still maintaining its identity. At the same time studying change (or the lack thereof) arises several conceptual and methodological problems. First of all, how does one conceptualize change without implying a static research object? This is also a problem of evaluation and rhetorical power ? who has the authority to claim that something is extinct or that a new tradition has been established? What is the scholar?s responsibility for the field of studies? When and to what extent do scholars have to take into account the views of insiders in reflecting upon religious traditions or in drawing boundaries between them?

Aside from ?conventional? religion and religiosity, considering various ?spiritualities? and the rise of the numbers of people with no clear religious affiliation, how does one study a phenomenon which has lost its visibility or moved into the private sphere?  Or how does one make sense of the continuities and disruptions in a world where more and more people simultaneously participate in several traditions, either religious or secular?

The conference will focus on these and related questions, examining religious traditions worldwide. In addition, it calls for reflecting upon continuities and disruptions in the history of religious studies. Our conceptual tools, theoretical frameworks, methodologies and even the category of religion have been changing. Is it necessary to strive for unity in the discipline or rather celebrate the pluralism in the study of religions? And how to depict change, so that the complicated dynamic of religious transformation is also reflected through the conceptual tools we use?

Papers may include (but not be limited to) following topics:

  • – conceptual and theoretical reflections on terms and models
  • – methodological challenges in the study of ?invisible? religion and nonreligion
  • – transformation and persistence in and of religious education
  • – social, political and gendered aspects of religious change
  • – tradition and creativity in vernacular religions
  • – discursive and ritual practices: continuity, change, disruption
  • – encounters and interactions between religious communities
  • – entanglements of media, digital world and religiosity
  • – inspirations, actions and reactions between religion and migration
  • – psychological, ecological and cognitive aspects of religious change and continuity
  • – agents and victims of change and disruption
  • – religious liminality and residuality
  • – materiality of religion

Important dates

  • Call for session proposals: 15th of September 2018 – 31st of October 2018
  • Notification of acceptance of panels on the 10th of November 2018
  • Call for individual papers: 15th of November 2018 – 15th of December 2018
  • Notification of acceptance: 15th of January 2019

Registration:

  • Early bird registration 1st of February – 31st of March 2019
  • Standard registration  1st of April – 31st of May 2019

Call for Papers: The International Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage Conference

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The International Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage Conference (IRTP) organized by the Institute for Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage (IRTP) in conjunction with the International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage (IJRTP) and Singidunum University, Belgrade, Serbia invites abstracts for their 11th International Conference to be held from 26th – 29th June 2019 at the Singidunum University, Belgrade, Serbia.

The aim of the conference is to provide both empirical and personal insights into the changing nature of religion in society and to further the debate for both policy-makers and academics to consider these evolving challenges within the future development of faith tourism and pilgrimage. The main emphasis for acceptance at this event is based on participants presenting papers, which apply to the main themes of the conference.

The key themes of the conference include (but are not limited to) the following:

  • * Theory and Theology of Religious Tourism
  • * Pilgrimage as Process
  • * Secular v Ritual Tourism
  • * Virtual Religious Experience
  • * Risks and Conflicts of/at Sacred Sites
  • * Motivation of Pilgrimage and Religious Tourism
  • * Media and Cultural Challenges for Pilgrimage
  • * Pilgrimage Routes Modern and Ancient
  • * Pilgrimage, Spirituality, Religion and Tourism
  • * Promoting and Experiencing Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage
  • * Religious and Culture Tourism

Important Dates:

  • Abstract submissions: 31st January 2019
  • Notification of Abstract Acceptance: 28th February 2019
  • Conference Registration Deadline and
  • submission of extended abstract: 15th May 2019
  • Full Paper Submission: 15th July 2019

The conference takes place at the Singidunum University, Belgrade, Serbia – Boulevard Peka Dapčevića (Kumodraška St., 261a). The University is located in two locations (Danijelova St., 32, and Boulevard Peka Dapčevića (Kumodraška St., 261a – our event location). To see the location, follow this link

The international “Nikola Tesla” airport in Belgrade is 15-20 minutes away from the city centre. There are various transfers available to and from the airport. We suggest mini bus line A1 which takes you to the city centre (Slavija square) or a taxi service. A flat-rate taxi service can be booked in the arrivals hall for approximately 20 Euro. For more information see the airport website. Taxis are available throughout the city of Belgrade, especially at the airport, train station and hotels.

All detailed information about the Conference can be found in the attached Call for papers or at our web site: www.irtp.co.uk

Call for Papers: “Religiosity in East and West – Conceptual and Methodological Challenges”

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In Munster (Westphalia), Germany; June, 25th– 27th, 2019

Organizers: Dr. Sarah Demmrich (University of Munster) & Prof. Dr. Ulrich Riegel  (University of Siegen)

The concept of religiosity as a highly individual aspect of religion and its research was shaped in Protestant circles in the Western context (Belzen, 2015). It inspired a huge body of research and further developments in the psychology of religion, the sociology of religion, and theology. In non-Western contexts, however, this concept has been proven only partially effective for the description and measuring of religiosity. This observation raises the question if research on religiosity is a science of Western Christianity (Cutting & Walsh 2008; Hill & Hood, 1999). Even within the Western context the present concepts and instruments are only partially applicable to measure religiosity in highly religious individuals adequately. For example, an orthodox belief, which is practiced in some Protestant Free Churches, often does not contradict with life in a modern society (Vermeer & Scheepers, 2017). This observation raises the question if the contemporary conceptualizations and operationalization of religiosity are too strongly oriented towards the ideal of an enlightened and individualized belief.

In light of these two observations, the Munster conference discusses the established concepts of religiosity and aims to expand them by alternative concepts where appropriate. For example, genuine approaches from non-Western cultures can add to the contemporary discourse of religiosity research (e.g., concepts of Muslim or Hindu religiosity). Similarly, a new understanding of highly religious milieus, which are – against the secularization theory – growing in modern societies, can stimulate a new concept of religiosity beyond individualized belief (e.g., Fresh Expressions, Mega Churches).Besides conceptualizing non-individualized religiosity, another challenge is the application of measures that grew out of the classic concepts of religiosity to the non-Christian and/or non-Western context (Dover, Miner, & Dowson, 2007; Ghorbani, Watson, Sarmast, & Chen, 2018).

However, first approaches of religion-and culture-sensitive measures for different contexts have been developed during the last years (e.g., Abu-Raiya & Pargament, 2011; Ağılkaya-Şahin, 2015; Kamble, Watson, Marigoudar, & Chen, 2014; Loewenthal & Solaim, 2016; Ok, 2016). These do not only allow a more differentiated description of such religiosities, but also facilitate a valid research on its correlates. However, there has been only a few of such alternative measures of non-individualized religiosity until today and more instruments of this kind are needed which proof appropriate to various cultural contexts. In view of the above considerations, the Munster conference wants to create an interdisciplinary scientific forum with scholars from diverse religious and cultural contexts. It aims to stimulate an international and intercultural scientific discourse on concepts and measures of individual religiosity and induce further conceptual developments in this kind of research. We, therefore, encourage scholars.

  • to share both empirical insights in and theoretical reflections on non-individualized religiosity within and outside Western contexts,
  • to critically assess the applicability of existing instruments in both non-Western and orthodox Western contexts, and
  • to present and discuss alternative instruments to measure individual religiosity without an individualization bias

We welcome contributions with a scope on the psychology of religion, the sociology of religion as well as on theology. Additionally, we would be glad to attract scholars from different cultural backgrounds.

Please submit a paper abstract (250 – 300 words) to Sarah Demmrich (kabogan@uni-muenster.de) by January 15, 2019.

For further details on the conference, including information on registration, please check:

https://www.uni-muenster.de/Soziologie/organisation/religiosity_east_and_west.shtml

SAFSOR: Scuola di Alta Formazione in Sociologia della Religione — Roma, 19-21 dicembre 2018

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ICSOR, viale delle Milizie 108, scala A, interno 1 (metro A: Ottaviano), tel. 3475160442

PROGRAMMA

Mercoledì, 19 Dicembre

  • 9:30 – 10:00: Inaugurazione e saluti, Roberto Cipriani, Cecilia Costa ed Emanuela C. del Re
  • 10:00 – 11:00: Relazione introduttiva del Presidente Onorario dell’ICSOR, Franco Ferrarotti, su “Sacro e religioso”
  • 11:00 – 12:00: Relazione di Cristián Parker, Università di Santiago del Cile, “Popular cultures and religions in the context of multiple modernities: a southern vision”
  • 15:00 – 16:00: “Economia e grandi religioni orientali: una rilettura di Max Weber”, Carlo Prandi
  • 16:45 – 17:45: “La ricerca qualitativa per studiare la religiosità”, Rita Bichi
  • 18:00 – 19:00: “Il Sinodo dei Giovani”, Cecilia Costa
  • 19:30: Visita alla Sinagoga ed al Museo Ebraico
  • 20:30: Cena Sociale: Nonna Betta (via del Portico d’Ottavia 16, quota individuale: 20 euro)

Giovedì, 20 Dicembre

  • 9:00 – 10:00: “Heidegger ed alcuni aspetti degli atteggiamenti religiosi contemporanei”, Paolo Montesperelli
  • 10:45 – 11:45: “Una nuova ‘ora di punta degli dei’. La fioritura delle nuove religioni in Corea del Sud”, Massimo Introvigne
  • 12:00 – 13:00: “Problemi metodologici della ricerca empirica in sociologia della religione”, Enzo Campelli
  • 15:00 – 16:00: “Il divino femminile in Italia: post-shamanism, neo-shamanism e femminismo spirituale”, Enrica Tedeschi
  • 16:45 – 17:45: Presentazione del volume Women and religion. Contemporary and future challenges in the global era, edited by Elisabetta Ruspini, Glenda Tibe Bonifacio, and Consuelo Corradi, Policy Press
  • 17.45-18:45: Cocktail’s lifestyle. Alcool, religioni e nuove ritualità (workshop), Simona Scotti
  • 18.45-19:45: Incontro conviviale con la Comunità Sikh

Venerdì, 21 Dicembre

  • 9:00 – 10:00: “La ‘politicità’ delle religioni assiali. A partire da S. Eisenstadt”, Pietro De Marco
  • 10:45 – 11:45: “Populismo e religione”, Monica Simeoni
  • 12:00 – 13:00: “Imam d’Italia: una ricerca sulle guide spirituali musulmane”, Paolo Naso
  • 15:00 – 16:00: “L’evoluzione della religione nella società digitale”, Costantino Cipolla
  • 16:45 – 17:45: “Minoranze e religioni”, Emanuela C. Del Re
  • 17:45 – 18:00: Dibattito. A seguire: Cerimonia di chiusura e Consegna degli attestati