“Harvest of Endurance: A History of the Chinese in Australia 1788-1988” (detail) by Mo Xiangyi and Wang Jingwen (1988), National Museum of Australia, used with permission.

Date & time: Tue 08 Dec 2020, 9am – Thu 10 Dec 2020, 9pm

Location: Sir Roland Wilson Building, Australian National University

3rd ANU Religion Conference – Religion and Migration: Culture and Policy

Forms of human movement including global immigration, asylum-seeking, climate migration, and the internal migration accompanying mass urbanisation, have radically altered religious cultures around the world, especially in the Asia-Pacific region. The aim of this 3^rd ANU Religion Conference is to explore the various phenomena related to religion and migration; the political and social transitions impacting upon the transnational religiosity of contemporary communities.

Key dates

• Proposal deadline:  21 June 2020
• Notification:  30 June 2020
• Registrations open:  14 July 2020
• Registrations close:  10 September 2020
• Conference:  08-10 December 2020

3rd ANU Religion Conference Committee    

• Dr David W. Kim, ANU College of Asia & the Pacific (Co-chair)
• Dr Ibrahim Abraham, ANU College of Arts & Social Sciences (Co-chair)
• A/Professor Ven. Alex Bruce, ANU College of Law
• Ms Lina Koleilat, ANU College of Asia & the Pacific
• Dr Duncan Wright, ANU College of Arts & Social Sciences

For more information, see: https://hrc.cass.anu.edu.au/events/religion-and-migration-culture-and-policy-0

“Religion and Peace in East Asia: Reconsideration of Roles of Religion in the Post-Secular Age“

July 23-25, 2020
Jeju National University, Republic of Korea

Religion has always played an important role in promoting hope and vision for peace. Each religion present in both East and West emphasizes a religious importance of spiritual and ethical life based on justice, peace, brotherhood, and mercy. Religious beliefs and practices for the pursuit of a just and peaceful world should be considered more expansively at the political, social and national level as well as at the individual level, and further at the level of the entirety of humanity. The complex roles of religions in war and peace in modern times, especially in East Asian societies, should be examined more carefully and systematically.
With the global spread of political nationalism and economic protectionism, China, Japan, Korea, and other societies all face an internal conflict triggered by extreme oppositions and tensions within the established social order, while increasing the possibility of a clash between nations in the area. In this circumstance, both scholars of religion and peace need to pay more attention to social roles of religion through reflecting on a reconsideration of the revival of religion and, more specifically, the public roles of religion in the ‘Post-secular Age’ which needs a multi-layered dialogue beyond what “interreligious dialogue” has ever pursued.
Finding the spirit of religious tolerance and harmony inherent in East Asian religious traditions as well as religions introduced in modern times, papers based on various perspectives are welcome. In particular, priority will be given to papers that include the following topics and interests without any limitation to the geographical and cultural context and boundaries of East Asia.

• Socio-historical studies on religion as an agent of peace or conflict
• Relationship between religion and peace in the (post-) secular age.
• Comparison of Eastern with Western religions in the quest for peace.
• Case studies of peace building in East Asia.
• Thoughts and practices of peace in traditional religions and/or newly-risen religions in East Asia.
• Case studies of the transformations (or appropriation) of traditional religions.

However, any topic in the social scientific study of religion is welcome. In particular, any proposals of closed sessions organized by three or four papers are welcome, focusing on different perspectives within the same religious tradition. In the case of individual papers we will arrange them into each session in accordance with their topics.
Abstract Submission
Paper abstracts should be submitted from Dec 1, 2019 to Feb 15, 2020 by clicking below:

Submit Paper Abstracts for the 2020 EASSSR Annual Meeting

For more information about any fees of membership, registration, and accommodation, please visit the website http://www.easssr.org/ or send e-mail by easssr2020@gmail.com

Biennial Conference of the ESA RN34- Sociology of Religion
Groningen (Netherlands), 26-28 August 2020

This conference wants to adopt a broad approach to the study of the relation between religion and different “environments”: the urban environment, the natural environment and the virtual environment. This threefold approach allows us to capture three areas of religious transformation and innovation, which are of high academic and societal relevance in contemporary European societies and beyond. By approaching these three topics, we aim to contribute both to the academic advancement of the sociology of religion in relation to its conceptual and methodological tools and to a broader societal reflection on the dynamic between religion and the urban, natural and virtual environments. Some of the questions we seek to address are the following:

• How do religions and cities interact with one another and transform each other? How does the urban environment affect religious practices and, conversely, how do religious practices and groups transform the urban environment? How are religious and secular meanings negotiated in urban spaces? How do tourism, heritage industries and gentrification processes produce and transform urban religious heritage?
• How do religious groups relate to the natural environment? How do religions see and interpret the ecological crisis and which alternatives do they suggest? How do religious groups conceptualise their role in relation to environmental concerns and claims? Which forms does faith-based environmentalism take? How do religions position themselves in relation to other social actors in environmental concerns?
• How do the virtual environment and religion interact with and affect one another? How does the virtual environment influence how we understand the idea of “religious community” and community in general? How are religion and the concept of religion affected and challenged by the increasingly digitalized world? What challenges and inspirations for religion can the developments in artificial intelligence and virtual reality bring about? What conceptual, epistemological, methodological and ethical challenges are faced by scholars exploring “virtual religion”?

Papers addressing these and other questions and topics relevant to the sociology of religion are welcome. Besides individual papers, it is possible to propose a panel with a maximum of four papers per panel.

Additionally, MA and PhD students will have the opportunity to combine their participation in the conference with a summer school. See more information here

Confirmed Keynote Speakers

• Dr. Giulia Evolvi, Erasmus University Rotterdam
• Prof. Dr. Jens Koehrsen, University of Basel
• Dr. Pooyan Tamimi Arab, Utrecht University

All interested should submit an abstract of 200 to 250 words, including a reference to the theoretical framework, research question, methodology and main findings. Panel proposals should include the title and a short description of the panel (200 to 250 words), the name and affiliation of the convener(s), and the title, author’s name and abstract (200 to 250 words) for each of the proposed papers. Proposals should be submitted to esarn34-groningen2020@rug.nl

Deadline: 31 January 2020 

Visit the conference website for more information: https://www.rug.nl/education/summer-winter-schools/religion-urban-natural-virtual-environments/

A three-day international conference funded and organised by the Department of Theology and Religion, University of Birmingham, in partnership with the Muslims in Britain Research Network

Dates: 20-22 April 2020

Across Europe there are numerous examples of recent linkages between universities and Islamic seminaries. In Germany the experiment, now over ten years old, of establishing departments of Islamic theology in five universities has now recruited close on 2000 students, many of whom will end up teaching confessional Islam RE in schools. At Vienna, in VU Amsterdam, and in UC Louvain there are programmes for Islamic leaders, teachers, and imams. In the UK, partnerships have been developed at under- and postgraduate level between e.g. Warwick, Birmingham and Middlesex universities and Islamic seminaries representing a range of Islamic traditions. Movement between confessional and non-confessional Islamic educational contexts by students and staff, both as a result of such formal links or informally, is now common.

The conference will explore the opportunities and challenges created by the emergence of bridges and permeable membranes between confessional and non-confessional Islamic educational contexts. It will bring together scholars from across Europe working in different policy and educational settings to look at how Islamic education operates, and the implications of this for the transmission and representation of the Islamic tradition, as well as the teaching of Islam in universities. The conference’s remit will be any arena where Islam is included as a part of higher-level study, from the confessional teaching of Islam, to theology and religious studies, history, politics and the social sciences. We have invited six main speakers to help us move the discussions along:

• Prof. Bekim Agai, Dept. of Islamic Studies, University of Frankfurt
• Prof. Ednan Aslan, Depts. of Teacher Education and Islamic Theology, University of Vienna
• Prof. Sophie Gilliat-Ray, Professor in Religious and Theological Studies, Director for the Centre for the Study of Islam in the UK, Cardiff University
• Prof. Birgitte Schepelern Johansen, Dept. of Cross-Cultural and Regional Studies, University of Copenhagen
• Dr Walaa Quisay, Teaching Fellow, University of Birmingham
• Prof. Alison Scott-Baumann, Professor of Society & Belief, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London

Abstracts are now invited for papers that address any of the conference themes:

• How students and staff navigate between confessional and non-confessional Islamic educational contexts
• How policy contexts affect the development of linkages between seminaries and mainstream higher education institutions;
• Teaching about Islam beyond Islamic and religious studies (for example, in history, politics and the social sciences);
• ‘Insider’ and ‘outsider’ dynamics in the teaching of Islam in European contexts
• Complementarities and tensions between confessional and non-confessional approaches to the study of Muslims and Islam
• Securing the study of Islam within and beyond higher education institutions

The organisers will cover the costs of accommodation and scheduled meals for accepted paper authors, but they will need to cover their own travel costs.
If you are interested in presenting at this conference,  please send a 250 word abstract to the email address below by 17 January along with a biographical note of no more than 50 words. We intend to invite selected speakers to develop their contribution into an article for publication in a thematic volume.

Abstract submissions and any general questions should be sent to the conference organisers at MuslimsinBritainRN@gmail.com.