Deadline: December 12, 2016)

Seattle University’s new Center for Religious Wisdom & World Affairs is seeking to bring together theologians and scholars of religion from a variety of faith traditions and disciplines to explore the ways in which religious wisdom and the resources of faith communities can lend assistance in the analysis, diagnosis, and community responses needed to address the problem of homelessness.

Scholars will:

• Participate in two academic symposia (April 2017 and April 2018)
• Contribute to a publication
• Receive an honorarium and have travel expenses covered

For more details:

https://seattleu.edu/stm/grants–initiatives/center/call-for-scholars-interreligious-explorations-of-homelessness

Call for Papers

The fourth biennial Christian Congregational Music: Local and Global Perspectives Conference

Conference dates: 18-21 July 2017

Deadline for proposals: 15 December 2016

Conference website: http://congregationalmusic.org

Venue: Ripon College Cuddesdon, Oxford, United Kingdom

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.

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: 

• Gender, Sexuality, and the Worshipping Body In what ways do gender and sexuality condition the production and experience of congregational music?  How are these differences constructed, perpetuated, or challenged in musical performance? In what ways does social anxiety around sex and gender condition who is involved in congregational music and how they participate?
• Soundscapes and Resonant Spaces  How have particular built environments (e.g., concert halls, theatres, public spaces) shaped the sounds of Christian congregations? What do these spaces afford sonically and what do they preclude?  How might considering the broader landscape or soundscape enhance our understanding of congregational music and sound? Perspectives from architecture, cultural geography, and ecomusicology are particularly encouraged.
• Congregational Music in and as Prayer In congregational worship, music exists alongside a range of other sonic, spoken, internal, textual, material and visual forms through which congregations engage in personal and communal prayer. What role does music play within the wider activity of corporate prayer? How does music facilitate prayer, and in what ways can textless music be considered prayer?
• Ecumenical and Interfaith Dialogues How does music erect or challenge the boundaries among different Christian traditions, and among Christian music and music of other faiths? How can music promote ecumenical and interfaith relationships and conversations? What insights and approaches can scholars studying Christian communities draw from scholars of other faith traditions?
• Music and Reformation In marking 500 years since the start of the Protestant Reformation, we welcome new perspectives on the role of music in the Protestant Reformation and counter-Reformation, as well as continuing effects of the Reformation in discourse and practice on music in the present-day. How can studying music challenge or nuance received narratives and historiographical models? What new perspectives can be brought to bear on this much-considered historical moment?
• Rethinking “Congregation” How have new transportation and communications technologies changed the way Christians gather and understand themselves as congregations? How does gathering in spaces outside local church congregations—from festivals to concerts to online worship environments—influence the production and experience of Christian music-making? How does music work within these spaces to facilitate new modes of congregating?

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 at http://congregationalmusic.org/content/proposals. Proposals must be received by 15 December 2016. Notifications of acceptance will be sent by 31 January 2017, and conference registration will begin on 15 February 2017. Further instructions and information will be made available on the conference website at http://congregationalmusic.org.

CONFERENCE INFORMATION

Location:

Most conference sessions will be held at Ripon College Cuddesdon, a theological college affiliated with the University of Oxford. The college is located seven miles south-east of the Oxford city centre and is accessible by car or bus. This year, we will also take an afternoon excursion to Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford.

Fees:

Fees for conference registration, room and board will be posted in January. Ripon College Cuddesdon has extended reasonable rates to make this conference affordable for domestic and international scholars in various career stages. There are a small number of bursaries available for graduate student presenters. Students interested in being considered for a bursary should tick the box on the paper proposal form.

Conference schedule:

The schedule for the four-day conference maintains a unique balance of presentations from featured speakers, traditional conference panel presentations, and roundtable discussions. A draft conference programme will be available in February 2017 on the conference website.

Featured speakers:

• Prof. Nancy Ammerman Professor of Sociology Boston University
• Prof. Jeremy Begbie Thomas A. Langford Research Professor of Theology Duke Divinity School
• Dr. Sylvia A. Nannyonga-Tamusuza Associate Professor of Ethnomusicology Makerere University
• Dr. Bettina Varwig Senior Lecturer in Music King’s College London
• Prof. John Witvliet Professor of Worship, Theology, & Congregational and Ministry Studies Calvin Institute of Christian Worship
• Dr. Abigail Wood Senior Lecturer, Department of Music University of Haifa

For all programme-related queries, please contact: conference@congregationalmusic.org.

BRAIS 2017 Call for Papers

Fourth Annual Conference of the British Association for Islamic Studies

Tuesday 11 April (5pm) – Thursday 13 April (5pm) 2017

Chester Centre for Islamic Studies, University of Chester

Call for panels and papers

Following BRAIS’s successful conferences in Edinburgh (April 2014) and London (April 2015 and April 2016), the organisers invite proposals for whole panels or individual papers on any aspect or sub-discipline of Islamic Studies, for the Fourth Annual Conference of BRAIS. Islamic Studies is broadly understood to include both Muslim-majority and Muslim-minority contexts as well as historical, textual, and contemporary anthropological and sociological approaches.

Pre-arranged panels are particularly welcome on themes within the subject area, such as:

• Qur’anic studies
• Sociology of Islam
• Law
• Muslims in Britain/Europe/North America and other minority contexts
• History, Medieval and Modern
• History of Science
• Philosophy and Theology
• Muslims in Africa and Asia
• Intellectual History
• Islamic Art and Architecture
• Diversity within Islam
• Economics and Finance
• Education
• Gender Studies
• Islam in the Media
• Interreligious Relations

Individual proposals will also be considered, and, if accepted, will then be grouped with similar submissions by the conference organisers. 

How to submit you panel/paper proposal

For panels, a 200-word outline of the theme of the panel, together with 200-word abstracts of each paper and the details of each presenter, should be submitted using the form which is availableHERE. Please save the document as follows: “Surname of panel chair_first name of panel chair_panel”. Example: “Smith_John_panel”.

For individual papers, a 200-word abstract of the paper should be submitted using the form which is available HERE. Please save the document as follows: “Your surname_your first name_paper”. Example: “Smith_John_paper”.

ALL PANEL AND PAPER SUBMISSIONS MUST BE IN ENGLISH. SUBMISSIONS IN LANGUAGES OTHER THAN ENGLISH WILL NOT BE CONSIDERED.

All completed forms should be sent by email attachment to brais@ed.ac.uk by 5pm (UK time) on Wednesday 30^th November 2016. You will receive an email notification confirming the receipt of your form.

IF YOU DO NOT RECEIVE A NOTIFICATION RECEIPT, PLEASE CONTACT US.

All panel and individual paper proposals will be reviewed (double blind) by two members of the BRAIS Conference Committee. We will contact you at the end of January 2017 to inform you as to whether your panel/paper has been accepted.

If you have any questions, please contact the Conference Committee on: brais@ed.ac.uk. 

Plenary sessions at the conference

The conference committee is very pleased to announce that plenary lectures at the conference will be delivered by Prof Bryan Turner (Australian Catholic University) on ‘Can there be a “Sociology of Islam”?’; Profs Humayun Ansari (Royal Holloway, London) and Ron Geaves (Cardiff University) on ‘The History of Muslims in Britain’; and Profs Everett Rowson (New York University) and Gudrun Krämer (Free University of Berlin) on the new edition of The Encyclopaedia of Islam (kindly sponsored by Brill).

Travel to/from Chester

Chester is easily accessible, either by train from London Euston (2 hours) or via Manchester Airport and Liverpool John Lennon Airport.

The Jagiellonian University Institute for the Study of Religions and the Jagiellonian Centre for the Interdisciplinary Studies of Culture invite you to participate in 

The Fifth International Kraków Study of Religions Symposium: Religions: Fields of Research, Methods and Perspectives.

The symposium will take place between 7th and 9th November 2016 in Kraków and the submission deadline has been extended to 14th Semptember.

The event, titled Understanding and Explanation in the Study of Religions, will be dedicated to the memory of Walter Burkert. Three excellent keynote speakers will deliver their lectures.

Keynote speakers:

• Jan N. Bremmer (University of Groningen, Emiritus)
• Ralph W. Hood, Jr. (University of Tennessee at Chattanooga)
• Joanna Jurewicz (University of Warsaw)

Please find an overview of the conference, as well as the list of proposed topics, in the attachment.

Please send paper proposals in doc. format, including name and affiliation of the candidate, paper title, and abstract (up to 200 words) to religions.confer@gmail.com.

Submission deadline is 14th September 2016.
Submissions will be evaluated by The Academic Committee by 21th September 2016.

Participation fee (payable upon paper acceptance, until 1st October 2016) is 70 EUR / 300 PLN.

http://www.religions.confer.uj.edu.pl/en_GB/home