14-15 May 2014
Gülen Chair for Intercultural Studies
KU Leuven University, Belgium
www.gcis-kuleuven.com 

Keynote Speakers:     

• Hui-Muslims in China: Li Zhinong, Yunnan University
• Muslims in Europe: Jorgen Nielsen, Copenhagen University

The aim of this workshop is to gather scholars who work on Hui-Muslims in China and Muslims in Europe to compare the similitudes and differences of identity practices. Hui are predominantly Chinese speaking Muslims in China’s vast territory. With a population of 10 million, they are also the most numerous recognized ethnic group in China. Muslims in Europe are hardly featured in international media, domestic politics, and scholarly discussions. Multiculturalism, radicalisation, immigration, integration, forced marriage are discussed through the Muslim visibility and presence in Europe. Recent debates on integration and secularism are focused on  the ‘Muslim question’. In contrast to the focus on Muslims in Europe, there is a notable lack of interest in Muslims in China with the exception of the Uyghur community. In this workshop, we want to study the impact of ethnic-religious interactions, state integration positions and policies to grasp the
increasing influence of religious-collective-national expression of Muslims in the public sphere. We would like to examine the new patterns of expression and visibility of the Muslims in China and Europe. Tracing Muslim’s interaction with non-Muslims, this workshop investigates how Muslims encounters, accommodates and negotiates into different socio political contexts in China and Europe.

A comparison between China and Europe provides a guide for analysis of different models. The workshop looks at the modes of organization of Muslims, their identity demands, social-cultural and religious dynamics of solidarity.

To examine Muslims’ ethnic-religious identifications in contemporary China and Europe, and trace in which ways Muslims develop a sense of belonging to the wider society, this international workshop will broadly focus (but also restrain the focus) on two topics: (1) the collective memory and identification of Muslims and (2) the interaction of Muslims with the local communities and the State.

• Creating Collective Memory and Identity (through festivals, food, other trivial identity markers): This part looks at the Muslim way of life and their practices within different contexts to understand how a Muslim memory is shaped and constructed. In this regard, we want to analyze the circulation of narratives, translocal practices among Muslims in Europe and in China to seek whether they create new patterns-mixtures of their self-presentation. As Muslims are not homogeneous groups both in Europe and China, ethnic-religious diversity enforces the diversification of Muslim identity and practices within various secular-national contexts. The aim is to observe the daily practices, narratives and strategies to figure out the dynamics through which Muslims formulate their self.
• Relations with other local ethnic-religious communities and with the State (exchange with different faith people, institutions, public authorities, citizenship models etc.) In this part, we want to understand the interaction of Muslims with non-Muslims, local communities and the state to adjust and to maintain their cultural-religious identity. The capacity of adjusting religious-political identity enables to study the citizenship rhetoric, community dynamics, and institutional structures. The different modes of dynamics between Muslims, non-Muslims and the State constitute the possible ways of pluralism and co-existence of differences. We examine the specific strategies and policies developed by Muslims and authorities to negotiate the citizenship and integration models.

Tuition Fees: There is no tuition fee for participants in the workshop programme. However, presenters and participants are expected to pay the costs of their travel and accommodation. The organizers have a reduced prize from ‘La Royale’ hotel in Leuven. The GCIS covers the meals and transportation in Belgium during the workshop.

Outcome:

• A proceedings book of the workshop will be printed and distributed in advance of the workshop itself.
• Within six months à maximum 1 year of the event, an edited book will be produced and published by the GCIS with Leuven University Press, comprising some or all of the papers presented at the Workshop, at the condition that they pass a peer review organized by the publisher. The papers will be arranged and introduced, and to the extent appropriate, edited, by scholar(s) to be appointed by the Editorial Board.
• Copyright of the papers accepted to the Workshop will be vested in the GCIS.

Selection Criteria:
The workshop will accept up to 15 participants, each of whom must meet the following requirements:

• have a professional and/or research background in related topics of the workshop;
• be able to attend the entire programme.

Since the Workshop expects to address a broad range of topics while the number of participants has to be limited, writers submitting abstracts are requested to bear in mind the need to ensure that their language is technical only where it is absolutely necessary and the language should be intelligible to non-specialists and specialists in disciplines other than their own; and present clear, coherent arguments in a rational way and in accordance with the usual standards and format for publishable work.

Timetable

1. Abstracts (300–500 words maximum) and CVs (maximum 1 page) to be received by 1st October 2013.
2. Abstracts to be short-listed by the Editorial Board and papers invited by 7th October 2013.
3. Papers (3,000 words minimum – 5,500 words maximum, excluding bibliography) to be received by 1st March 2014.
4. Papers reviewed by the Editorial Board and classed as: Accepted – No Recommendations; Accepted – See Recommendations; Conditional Acceptance – See Recommendations; Not Accepted, by 20th March 2014.
5. Final papers to be received by 15th April 2014.

Workshop Coordinators: Erkan Toguslu, KU Leuven; Ding Yuan, Yunnan University – KU Leuven

Venue: KU Leuven University
The international workshop is organized by KU Leuven Gülen Chair for Intercultural Studies and Research Center for Studies of Chinese Southwest’s Borderland Ethnic Minorities of Yunnan University. It will be entirely conducted in English and will be hosted by KU Leuven Gülen Chair in Leuven.

Papers and abstract should be sent to Erkan Toguslu: erkan.toguslu@soc.kuleuven.be

For more information please contact:
Erkan Toguslu
KU Leuven Gülen Chair for Intercultural Studies
Parkstraat 45 – box 3615
3000 Leuven

Civilization Between Politics and Economics

The Third International Ibn Khaldun Symposium

28 September 2013 – 29 September 2013 Istanbul, Turkey

Deadline: 24 July 2013

Organization: International Ibn Khaldun Society (IIKS); Alliance of Civilizations Institute (ACI) at Fatih Sultan Mehmet Waqf University; Istanbul Foundation for Research and Education (ISAR)

Siyaset ve İktisat Bağlamında Medeniyet

Üçüncü Uluslararası İbn Haldun Sempozyumu

28 – 29 Eylül 2013, İstanbul

Özetler için son tarih : 24 Temmuz 2013

Organizasyon: Uluslararası İbn Haldun Topluluğu (UİHT); Fatih Sultan Mehmet Vakıf Üniversitesi Medeniyetler İttifakı Enstitüsü (MEDİT); İstanbul Araştırma ve Eğitim Vakfı (İSAR)

الحضارة بين السياسة والاقتصاد

المؤتمر الدولي الثالث حول ابن خلدون

28 ـ 29 أيلول / سبتمبر 2013، إسطنبول

الموعد النهائي لتقديم الملخصات : 10 تموز 2013

(UİHT) جمعية ابن خلدون الدولية

جامعة السلطان محمد الفاتح الوقفية / معهد تحالف الحضارات (MEDIT)

وقف إسطنبول للدراسات والتعليم (İSAR)

===

The purpose of this symposium is to reexamine the role of politics and economics in shaping civilizations and inter-civilizational relations by applying Khaldunian perspective(s) to specific cases. Today, the structure of the world economy is fast changing. So is world politics. These two forces have a strong impact on individuals, societies, civilizations and their relations with each other. For Ibn Khaldun civilization is a fluid phenomenon which constantly changes under the pressure of political and economic forces while the laws of change remain constant. The central question of this symposium is: How can we apply Khaldunian perspective(s), concepts, methods and theories to today’s world with a particular focus on the role of politics and economics on social change?

Bu sempozyumun amacı siyaset ve ekonominin medeniyetleri ve medeniyetler arası ilişkileri şekillendirmedeki rolünü Halduncu bakış açılarından incelemektir. Günümüzde dünya ekonomisinin ve dünya siyasetinin yapısı hızla değişmektedir. Ekonomi ve siyasetin bireyler, toplumlar, medeniyetler ve bunlar arasındaki ilişkiler üzerindeki etkisi inkar edilemez. İbn Haldun için medeniyet, siyasi ve ekonomik güçler tarafından sürekli şekillendirilen, akışkan ve değişken bir olgudur; fakat sosyal değişimin kuralları sabittir. Bu sempozyumun ana sorunsalı da Halduncu bakış açılarını, kavramları ve teorileri günümüz dünyasındaki toplumsal değişimleri incelerken, özellikle siyaset ve ekonominin rolüne odaklanarak nasıl kullanabileceğimizdir.

يهدف المؤتمر إلى معرفة دور السياسة والاقتصاد في تكوين الحضارات والعلاقات فيما بينها من منظور / أو مناظير خلدونية. ففي يومنا هذا تشهد بنية الاقتصاد العالمي والسياسة العالمية تغيرات سريعة، ومن الملاحظ مدى تأثير الاقتصاد والسياسة على الأفراد والمجتمعات والحضارات والعلاقات فيما بينها بحيث لا يمكن إنكار ذلك. والحضارة في تصور ابن خلدون هي تأثير القوى السياسية والاقتصادية في تشكيل الحضارة على الدوام، والحضارة في حالة تدفق وعرضة للتغيرات، إلا أن قواعد التغيرات الاجتماعية ثابتة. والإشكالية الرئيسة في هذا المؤتمر هي كيفية استخدام وجهات النظر الخلدونية ومفاهيمها ونظرياتها في التغيرات الاجتماعية الحاصلة في عالمنا اليوم وخاصة من خلال التركيز على الدور السياسي والاقتصادي.

===

Submissions of proposals in English, Arabic or Turkish (max. 300 words)

with a short biographical statement (max. 200 words)

should be sent to:

Tebliğ özetleri Türkçe, Arapça, yada İngilizce olarak (max. 300 kelime)

kısa akademik bir biyografik özet ile beraber (max. 200 kelime)

aşağıdaki email adresine gönderilmelidir:

إرسال الملخصات بالتركية أو العربية أو الإنكليزية ( الحد الأعظمي 300 كلمة)

ملخص للسيرة الأكاديمية (200 كلمة كحد أعظمي)

وذلك إلى العنوان البريدي التالي:

info

ibnkhaldunsociety

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Funding & Accommodation / المصارف / Masraflar

Accommodation will be provided for all participants for up to three days. A limited amount of funding, particularly for participants from abroad, is available for travel expenses.

Tüm katılımcılar için üç güne kadar konaklama, sınırlı sayıda katılımcı için ulaşım imkânı sağlanacaktır. Detaylı bilgi için Sempozyum Sekretaryası ile irtibata geçilebilir.

تقدم مصاريف الإقامة لكامل المشاركين، وتقدم مصاريف السفر لعدد محدود من المشاركين. ولمزيد من التفاصيل يمكن مراجعة الأمانة العامة.

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Call for Paper
Everyday Life Practices of Muslims in Europe: Consumption and Aesthetics

Where: KU Leuven, Leuven-Belgium
Date: 28-29 November 2013

Organiser: KU Leuven Gülen Chair for Intercultural Studies (GCIS)
Keynote Speakers:
Emma Tarlo, Goldsmith, University of London
Ali Mangera, MYAA Mangera Yvars Architects (to be confirmed)

Key words: Muslims in Europe, Consumption, Everyday life practices, leisure time, Aesthetics, Muslims Artists, Architecture, Muslim Self, Body, Memory

Muslims have a longer and deeper socio-economic and cultural experience in Europe and this presence requires a deeper understanding of the ways Muslims have become a part of Europe. In this vein, everyday practices (reading, talking, walking, dwelling, cooking, eating, clothing, consuming, shopping) are considered significant because they are not the “obscure background of social activity”, rather, they are the “investigation of ways in which users operate” (de Certeau). The socio-religious practices are obscure and not familiar with a non-Muslim, and the everyday practices are necessary to discover and penetrate this deeper experience of Muslims. The practices concern a mode of operation, a logic of doing, a way of being and a meaning. They do not link only to the question of personal choice and liberties. The content of the practice is to “make explicit the system of operational combination… to bring to light the models of action characteristic of users…” (de Certeau). The everyday practices create free areas through hobbies, games, art, clothes to the users in which one can see an essential formation of the self. We would need to discuss the increased sense that Muslims have of their distinctive-similar spatial locations that serve a free area or refuge to realize him or herself.

This conference sets out to understand the everyday practices of Muslims living in Europe. The diverse and various (non)-religious daily life practices indicate the non-defined boundaries of Muslims whose practices can be a part of the stigmatised-open spaces in public discourses. Examining the relationship between Islam and liberal democratic values, it is important to note what kind of practices and daily life experiences are exercised in private-public areas, which also determine the views and public perception of Muslims. The identification of Muslims with one or another practice is not a simply neutral matter; this entails also an attachment to liberal, communitarian and civil meanings. Regardless of the daily life activities, these perceptions of Muslims face the challenge that Muslims are not a fixed group, but they share the same practices that others have and do. Food and eating practices, consumer way of life, marriage, salutations; these banal practices of everyday life are central to discover the subjectivity of Muslims, or in other terms, a sense of the self, a way of embodiment. These daily practices are inextricably linked to the problematic of subjectivity. The meaning, discourses, argumentations and reasoning behind the daily life practices are detailed experiences of the self. This workshop seeks to explain the daily life choices and preferences in the context of subjectivity and self, looking at the questions concerning the religious-cultural-ethnic constructions of practices in which different perceptions are mediated on Muslims. The daily life practices and habits are not simply a matter of realising the self, taking enjoyment. They are in articulation with manifold cultural-religious-social meanings and discourses which serve to mark boundaries, to share some common values, to distinguish rituals, to strengthen social ties, and to symbolize a distinctive group awareness. Each of these functions and constructions concretise a kind of belief in everyday life, support a choice, and contribute to the construction of a self. However, the daily life practices and rituals have received little serious scholarly attention because of their “normal” nature and their link with ordinary subjects rather than with polemical and controversial issues such as integration, citizenship, security and sharia. Devoting attention to daily life practices needs to disrupt and disturb these debates about Muslims in Europe.

A particular focus will be on the impact of daily life on two areas and aspects: consumption and artistic performances.

Muslim consumerism and leisure time
Many such debates dealt with the integration and the compatibility of Muslims with western values indicating how Muslims should be. At the level of consumerism, there is little attention through the lens of religious rituals and everyday practices in Europe. Muslims’ relation with eating, leisure times, clothing, fashion, shopping etc. are interesting topics to look closely the transformative processes in public and private life. At these micro levels of analyses, the consumption practices offer a valuable route to understand relations between memory, body, space, culture, ethnicity, and gender among Muslims living in Europe. The on-going processes of transnationalism put in forward these daily practices as means of change and assume the creation of new religious combinations, hyphenated performances as seen in Muslim fashion. The daily life practices reveal the conceptualization of individuality, modernity and indicate how these (in)differences are produced between Muslims and non-Muslims. The complex socio-economic, religious and cultural elements that are involved in the construction of Muslim self through consumerism surface the question of modesty, secularism, and bodily prescriptions, public-private borders. Do the daily consumerist practices unsettle some of the established normativity in social codes in Europe or continuity with the local-existing culture? Around this question, this part of conference will look at a possible way of convergences between Muslims and non-Muslims to point the social-cultural mobility.

Artistic performances
Arts and religion are nowadays in controversial turns. Often debates about how art approaches a religious matter illustrate some social phenomena and crises linked with sacred-profane relations. Controversies between religion and art become a sort of parameter to re-think what contemporary Muslims in Europe do, know and believe. Examining artistic performances of Islamic patterns and visual expression of faith provides new elements on how Muslim cultures are translated and concretized in European public life. Certain kind of artistic creativities, including popular culture, traditional art, painting, cinema, theatre, hip-hop, new sufi groups, architecture; this theme of the conference would like to align the circulation of daily life practices with the artistic expressions of Muslims in Europe according to the title of this conference. How can an artistic expression of Islam be analysed in terms of everyday practices? In which way artistic productions transcend the existing boundaries creating new forms of practices and introducing these new daily practices in public spaces? What are the new socio-cultural and political contexts of artistic practices? How these contexts influence on Muslim aesthetics? Is there a kind of Muslim aesthetics? This theme of conference will not be only an analysis of the production of ‘Islamic art’, including the architectural side. The aim is to cover the performative and architectural expressions of Islam, the emerging of new styles, and of compositions from Muslims in Europe. The circulation of these new styles, expressions between performers and the public encompass new theoretical debates on boundaries, space, and body, transculturality.

Authors are invited to send abstracts (maximum 500 words) of their papers on themes of their own choice, which include at least one of these two aspects that the conference wants to treat.

ProgrammeA detailed schedule will follow in due course.
Tuition Fees and Scholarships
There is no tuition fee for participants in the conference programme. However, presenters and participants are expected to pay the costs of their travel and accommodation. The organizers have a reduced prize from ‘Irish College’ hotel in Leuven. The GCIS covers the meals and transportation in Belgium during the conference.

Outcome
Within six months of the event, a book will be produced and published by the GCIS with Leuven University Press, comprising some or all of the papers presented at the Workshop. The papers will be arranged and introduced, and to the extent appropriate, edited, by scholar(s) to be appointed by the Editorial Board. Copyright of the papers accepted to the Workshop will be vested in the GCIS, and printed in the conference proceedings book.

Selection Criteria
The workshop will accept up to 20 participants, each of whom must meet the following requirements:
– have a professional and/or research background in related topics of the conference;
– be able to attend the entire programme.
Since the Workshop expects to address a broad range of topics while the number of participants has to be limited, writers submitting abstracts are requested to bear in mind the need to ensure that their language is technical only where it is absolutely necessary and the language should be intelligible to non-specialists and specialists in disciplines other than their own; and present clear, coherent arguments in a rational way and in accordance with the usual standards and format for publishable work.

Timetable

1. Abstracts (300–500 words maximum) and CVs (maximum 1 page) to be received by 1stJune 2013.
2. Abstracts to be short-listed by the Editorial Board and papers invited by 7th June 2013.
3. Papers (3,000 words minimum – 5,500 words maximum, excluding bibliography) to be received by 1st September 2013.
4. Papers reviewed by the Editorial Board and classed as: Accepted – No Recommendations; Accepted – See Recommendations; Conditional Acceptance – See Recommendations; Not Accepted, by 30th September 2013.
5. Final papers to be received by 1st November 2013.

Conference Editorial Board
Johan Leman, KU Leuven
Erkan Toguslu, KU Leuven
Saliha Özdemir, KU Leuven
Conference Co-ordinator ErkanToguslu
VenueKU Leuven University

The international workshop will be entirely conducted in English and will be hosted by KU Leuven.
Papers and abstract should be sent to SalihaÖzdemir saliha.ozdemir@soc.kuleuven.be
For more information plz contact:Erkan Toguslu and Saliha Özdemir KU Leuven Gülen Chair for Intercultural Studies

The standing group on ‘Politics and Religion’ of the Italian Political Science Society (SISP) organizes four panels in English at the next annual conference of the association that will be held in Florence (Italy) on 12-14 September 2013.
Conference website: http://www.sisp.it/conference
Deadline: 15 May 2013

To propose a paper, send an abstract of about 200 words to the chairs (see addresses below, for each panel).
LIST OF PANELS:
1) Religious organizations in the local political sphereChairs: Xabier Itçaina (x.itcaina@sciencespobordeaux.fr) and Alberta Giorgi (albertagiorgi@ces.uc.pt)
Abstract: The relationships between religion and politics are a topic usually dealt with from a national or international perspective. Nevertheless, the changes in the contemporary political systems, in Europe and abroad, reshaped the hierarchies between the local and the national spheres on a number of policies. Specifically, the processes of devolution and subsidiarization of policies, as well as the cooperation between private and public organizations (especially in the field of social services) under the horizontal governance perspective, increased the importance of local politics. For instance, the local scale is particularly relevant as constituting the arena where public authorities, private actors, religious and secular “third sector” organizations manage – or not – to constitute efficient
networks of governance in the welfare field. These local arrangements constitute an implicit form of regulation of public life by religious actors that, in some cases, might not coincide exactly with the sociopolitical preferences of the religious central authorities. In addition, politicized controversies on symbolic issues often take place at the local level –the debates over the localization of mosques in Italy, for example, and, more broadly, the issues dealing with religion in public life. Moreover, grassroots religious organizations and associations have an important and increasing political role – in Italy (movements for public water and against discrimination, renewed engagement of religious associations in politics,…), and abroad (Indignados, Arab Spring…). This panel aims at exploring the political involvement of religious associations and organizations at the local level. Papers’ topics include (but are not limited to): religious associations and political movements, third-sector religious organizations and local policies, interactions between religious and political identities. Papers dealing with empirical cases are more than welcome.

2) Religion in Secular International Contexts: Religious Norm Entrepreneurs and International Institutions
Chair: Gregorio Bettiza (Gregorio.Bettiza@EUI.eu)
Abstract: Over the past decades an exponential growth in religious advocacy and lobbying has occurred towards international institutions that are deeply embedded and anchored to the secular structures of the ‘international liberal order’ (Ikenberry). These institutions range from the United Nations, the European Union, and the International Financial Institutions. This panel theoretically interrogates and empirically investigates the discourses, strategies and mechanisms adopted by transnational religious norm entrepreneurs to advance their concerns within secular international institutions. The panel seeks to address, among others, the some of the following questions. When, under what circumstances, and which religious norm entrepreneurs succeed in their advocacy efforts? Which type of religious norms have, and have had, the greatest chances of being diffused and why? In which ways and how have international institutions changed, if al all, to accommodate religious norm entrepreneurs? What distinguishes international institutions that are more accommodating to the claims of religious actors from those who are less?

3) Religion and democracy in Italy’s ‘second republic’
Chairs: Luca Ozzano (luca.ozzano@unito.it) and Marco Marzano (marco.marzano@unibg.it)
Abstract: Italy is a very interesting case in terms of relation between religion and democracy, both because of the presence in Rome of the Vatican (which has always implied peculiar relations between the Catholic Church and the Italian state) and for the decades-long rule of the Christian Democracy (DC) party. In the latest decades, however, the role of religion in the Italian political system has experienced changes that have been only partially acknowledged by the literature: both as a consequence of wider socio-economic processes, such as secularization and migration flows (which have turned the country from predominantly Catholic to increasingly pluralistic); and as a consequence of the demise, at the beginning of the 1990s, of the old party system (including DC) because of a wide bribery scandal. With the collapse of the party, and the fragmentation of Catholics in left-wing and right-wing factions and parties, a new era seemed to start. To begin with, the Catholic Church started to play a direct role in politics through the so-called ‘cultural project’ of the CEI, the organization of the Italian bishops. On the other hand, new political actors, both from the left and from the right wing of the political spectrum, started to exploit religious and moral issues (albeit with different frames) in order to garner the votes of the Catholic constituency. Several moral issues, from the presence of the crucifix in public offices, to gay unions, have thus become points of contention in the Italian public debate. The panel will take into account these subjects, in order to cast a new light on the role of religion and religious issues in Italian democracy after the beginning of the
so-called ‘second republic’. Qualitative as well as quantitative empirical studies are welcome, as well as comparative ones, both written in English and in Italian.

4) Islamism in the Arab world: between elections, street politics and armed struggle
Chairs: Francesco Cavatorta
(Francesco.cavatorta@dcu.ie)
Abstract: The Arab Spring has once again led analysts and policy-makers to focus their attention of Islamist movements and parties, which have become the main beneficiaries of the changes of the last two years in the region. However, different groups have responded differently to the new opportunity structures that the Arab Spring opened up. The purpose of this panel is to examine the theoretical and comparative perspectives on the ways in which Islamist groups acted in the wake of the Arab Spring and what explains their specific strategy and choices. How have some movements come to the decision to participate in elections? Conversely how have other movements in a similar setting decide to continue with street protests, refusing to engage with the new institutions being built? What explains the choice of military struggle as in Syria? Was it the inevitable response to regime’s repression or did other factors come into play?

Call for Papers
THE WORD AND THE WORLD: PUBLIC THEOLOGY IN AN AGE OF GLOBAL MEDIA
Global Network for Public Theology

Riverside Innovation Centre, University of Chester
Sept 2nd – 6th, 2013
Plenary Keynotes:
Prof. Jolyon Mitchell (Edinburgh)
Prof. Linda Woodhead (Lancaster)
Dr Heidi Campbell (Texas A&M)

GNPT’s 2013 triennial meeting considers the relationship between the media and global public theology. In particular, the conference will explore the extent to which media, information and communication technologies have become a new, largely autonomous, ‘public’ sphere with global reach and an increasingly influential (and not necessarily benign) role to play in mediating religious and spiritual concerns and representing religion to a wider public. The consultation will explore the ways in which electronic media function as powerful means by which religious organizations mediate their presence and message into wider society; and some of the ethical and theological dimensions of the production and consumption of media and popular culture.

Topics for the Consultation will include:
* How established and emerging forms of media and mass communication shape the ways in  which religious organizations and movements communicate with the wider public sphere;
* How electronic media shape public perceptions of religious belief, practice and representation;
* How mainstream media – news and entertainment – report and represent religious belief, practice and affiliation in pluralist, secularising and multi-cultural societies;
* The role of media in impeding or facilitating wider ‘religious literacy’ within societies;
* How media technologies are working to reconfigure the very relationship between ‘private’ and ‘public’, and reshaping our concepts of selfhood, privacy, community;
*How new media assist in developing what Birgit Meyer and Annelies Moors term the ‘alternative politics of belonging’ – within or alongside conventional structures of democratic participation
*The re-emergence of the idea of ‘the sacred’ as applied to public discourse, especially within fields of popular culture, media and popular spiritualities;
* Issues of media ethics: sex and violence, ownership and control, freedom and censorship, representation of minorities, commercialism and the use and abuse of information and communications technologies;
* How patterns of globalisation affect the theory and practice of communication; how new forms of broadcast, network and social media affect practices of faith amongst global diasporas.

Short papers will be grouped into the following themes:
1. Media, Public Life and Public Theology
2. Globalization and Public Theology
3. Learning, Teaching and Researching in Public Theology: methods, innovations and case studies
4. Theological Sources and Resources for Global Public Theology

Proposals for short papers are invited on any aspects or themes related to the above. Papers should be 30 minutes in length with an additional 15-20 minutes discussion.
Applications to submit a paper should include:
* Proposer’s name, institutional affiliation and contact details (preferably email);
* Title of the paper;
* 200-word abstract;
* Details of any audio-visual equipment you will need to deliver your paper.
Applications to be sent to: trs@chester.ac.uk
Deadline for abstract submission: 30 April 2013.

CALL FOR PAPERS
“Nationalism, religion and tradition in the Muslim world”

The 31ST Annual Conference of the American Council for the Study of Islamic Societies

GEORGIA REGENTS UNIVERSITY
Augusta, GA
April 4-5, 2014

Suggestions for proposals include all of the following:
– The role of religion in the foundation of states (Israel, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia).
– The role of religion in legitimating governance in Muslim majority countries.
-The relationship between religious and national identities in specific Muslim communities (majority and minority).
– Notions of citizenship in Islam.
– Political, economic and social relations within and between the Muslim world and other communities.
– Political, economic, social and philosophical movements within the Muslim world.
– The impact of globalization on the Muslim world.
– The interplay of the religion of Islam with commerce, finance, technology and education.
– Religious minorities in the Muslim world and Muslims as minority groups.
– The press, social networks and communication within the Muslim world.
– Other topics not specifically mentioned.

Please note that Muslim world includes any place where Muslims reside. Scholars from all disciplines of the humanities and social sciences are encouraged to submit proposals. Please include full name, title, and institutional affiliation with your proposal.

Please email your proposal (max. 250 words) to Robert Hazan at hazanr@msudenver.edu (Professor of Political Science and Chair, Metro State University of Denver)
* Deadline for submission of proposal: January 15, 2014.
* Notification of acceptance of papers: February 10, 2014.
* Participants must submit e-copies of their paper to mbishku@gru.edu by March 15, 2014.
Michael B. Bishku (Professor of History, Georgia Regents University)
* Participants must register for the conference at www.acsis.us by March 15, 2014.