Category Archives: Public Lectures

Call for Papers: ISA Research Committee on the Sociology of Religion (RC22)

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XIX ISA World Congress of Sociology

Power, Violence, and Justice: Reflections, Responses, and Responsibilities

Toronto, Canada, July 15-21, 2018

RESEARCH COMMITTEE 22: SOCIOLOGY OF RELIGION

Religion, Power, and Resistance: New Ideas for a Divided World

Program Coordinators:

Anna Halafoff, Deakin University, Australia

Sam Han, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

Caroline Starkey, University of Leeds, UK

Current environmental, economic, social, and political challenges indicate that people are losing faith in existing power structures and mechanisms for coping with crises. This creates increasingly divided societies, riven by ideological battles for the future of the human and the more than human world. Religion has a place in this picture. Not only is it often a source of divisions; it can also be a source for alternative means of addressing them.

These divisions take new and as yet unclear shapes, which sociologists are only now beginning to comprehend. It is not enough to refer to the struggle between ‘tradition’ and ‘modernity’, terms that dominated sociology through the 1970s. Nor do the tropes ‘colonialism vs. anti-colonialism’ and the ‘clash of civilizations’ adequately explain what is going on. Nor, arguably, does ‘populism vs neo-liberalism’ fully capture such things as the recent clashes between cosmopolitan and anticosmopolitan actors in the major Western democracies. Each of these has a piece of the picture; none of them captures it all.

What is religion’s role in this situation: as a creator of divisions, as a locus of power, and as a ground of resistance?  How does religion influence our divided societies? How is religion influenced in turn?

We invite paper abstract submissions for the following RC22 sessions:

 Religion and National Identity

Religion and Secularity

Religion and Non-Violent Social Movements

Religion, Gender and Family Violence

Religion in the East Asian Public Sphere

Religion in the Public Square

Social Theory and Religion

Religion and Migration: Contrasting First and Second Generations

Dynamics of Gender, Religion, and Intersectionality

Prejudice, Exclusion, and Violence in a Transnational World

Media and Religious Radicalization: Gatekeeping and the Construction of Extremism

Gender, Feminism, and Islam and the West

Candlelight Revolution and Religion in South Korea

Religious Texts of Diversity Vs Exclusion

We will also be including the following invited sessions in our RC22 program:

Presidential Address: Whither the Sociology of Religion? (Invited Session)

Session Organizer: James SPICKARD, University of Redlands, USA

Religion and Diversity: An International Study (Invited Session)

Session Organizer: Lori BEAMAN, University of Ottawa, Canada

Diffused Religion. Beyond Secularization – Author Meets Critic Session (Invited Session)

Session Organizer: Roberto CIPRIANI, University Roma Tre, Italy

The Case for an Indeterminate Sociological Theory of Religion (Invited Session)

Session Organizer: Tak-ling WOO, York University, Canada

The ISA CONFEX website site is now accepting paper abstracts between 25 April and 30 September 2017 24:00 GMT.

https://isaconf.confex.com/isaconf/wc2018/webprogrampreliminary/Symposium459.html

Please address any questions to the Program Coordinators:

     Anna Halafoff: anna.halafoff@deakin.edu.au

     Sam Han: HanSam@ntu.edu.sg

     Caroline Starkey: C.Starkey@leeds.ac.uk

Call for Papers: ISA Research Committee on the Sociology of Religion (RC22)

Posted on by

XIX ISA World Congress of Sociology

Power, Violence, and Justice: Reflections, Responses, and Responsibilities

Toronto, Canada, July 15-21, 2018

RESEARCH COMMITTEE 22: SOCIOLOGY OF RELIGION

Religion, Power, and Resistance: New Ideas for a Divided World

Program Coordinators:

Anna Halafoff, Deakin University, Australia

Sam Han, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

Caroline Starkey, University of Leeds, UK

Current environmental, economic, social, and political challenges indicate that people are losing faith in existing power structures and mechanisms for coping with crises. This creates increasingly divided societies, riven by ideological battles for the future of the human and the more than human world. Religion has a place in this picture. Not only is it often a source of divisions; it can also be a source for alternative means of addressing them.

These divisions take new and as yet unclear shapes, which sociologists are only now beginning to comprehend. It is not enough to refer to the struggle between ‘tradition’ and ‘modernity’, terms that dominated sociology through the 1970s. Nor do the tropes ‘colonialism vs. anti-colonialism’ and the ‘clash of civilizations’ adequately explain what is going on. Nor, arguably, does ‘populism vs neo-liberalism’ fully capture such things as the recent clashes between cosmopolitan and anticosmopolitan actors in the major Western democracies. Each of these has a piece of the picture; none of them captures it all.

What is religion’s role in this situation: as a creator of divisions, as a locus of power, and as a ground of resistance?  How does religion influence our divided societies? How is religion influenced in turn?

We invite paper abstract submissions for the following RC22 sessions:

 Religion and National Identity

Religion and Secularity

Religion and Non-Violent Social Movements

Religion, Gender and Family Violence

Religion in the East Asian Public Sphere

Religion in the Public Square

Social Theory and Religion

Religion and Migration: Contrasting First and Second Generations

Dynamics of Gender, Religion, and Intersectionality

Prejudice, Exclusion, and Violence in a Transnational World

Media and Religious Radicalization: Gatekeeping and the Construction of Extremism

Gender, Feminism, and Islam and the West

Candlelight Revolution and Religion in South Korea

Religious Texts of Diversity Vs Exclusion

We will also be including the following invited sessions in our RC22 program:

Presidential Address: Whither the Sociology of Religion? (Invited Session)

Session Organizer: James SPICKARD, University of Redlands, USA

Religion and Diversity: An International Study (Invited Session)

Session Organizer: Lori BEAMAN, University of Ottawa, Canada

Diffused Religion. Beyond Secularization – Author Meets Critic Session (Invited Session)

Session Organizer: Roberto CIPRIANI, University Roma Tre, Italy

The Case for an Indeterminate Sociological Theory of Religion (Invited Session)

Session Organizer: Tak-ling WOO, York University, Canada

The ISA CONFEX website site is now accepting paper abstracts between 25 April and 30 September 2017 24:00 GMT.

https://isaconf.confex.com/isaconf/wc2018/webprogrampreliminary/Symposium459.html

Please address any questions to the Program Coordinators:

     Anna Halafoff: anna.halafoff@deakin.edu.au

     Sam Han: HanSam@ntu.edu.sg

     Caroline Starkey: C.Starkey@leeds.ac.uk

Presentation: Les transgenres de l’Inde : une communauté définie par la religion

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Le Centre de recherche Société, Droit et Religions de l’Université de Sherbrooke (SoDRUS), en collaboration avec la chaire de recherche droit, religion et laïcité vous invite à une conférence publique qui aura lieu le mercredi 8 février 2017.

Les transgenres de l’Inde : une communauté définie par la religion


Date : Le mercredi 8 février 2017

Heure : De 12 h 00 à 13 h 30

Lieu : Campus principal de Sherbrooke, Faculté des lettres et sciences humaines, local A4-166

Cette conférence sera présentée par Mathieu Boivert, professeur au Centre d’études et de recherche sur l’Inde, l’Asie du Sud et sa diaspora de l’Université du Québec à Montréal. 

Public Discussion: Religious Aspects & Consequences of the U.S. Election (University of Sherbrooke, en français)

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Evénement : La culture politique américaine à la lumière des élections présidentielles 2016 : Le religieux menace-t-il la licité et la neutralité de l’État ?

Date : Le mercredi 16 novembre 2016

Heure : De 14 h  à 17 h

Lieu : Campus principal de Sherbrooke, Balcon du Foyer du Mont-Orford – Centre culturel

Les présidentielles américaines du 8 novembre constituent l’un des événements politiques majeurs de l’année 2016. Une semaine après les résultats, le Centre de recherche Société, droit et religion de l’Université de Sherbrooke (SoDRUS) tiendra une table ronde qui offrira des clés essentielles pour la compréhension des différentes formes et expressions du religieux dans les discours, les actes et les débats durant la course présidentielle à la Maison-Blanche. À cette table ronde seront présentées et analysées les imbrications du religieux, du politique et du socio-culturel des élections américaines entre les démocrates et les républicains.

Le débat sera enrichi par les contributions de différents experts de la politique américaine, notamment, la diplomate Anne Leahy (Université McGill), les professeurs Gilles Vandal(Université de Sherbrooke), Donald Cuccioletta (Université du Québec à Montréal), le chargé de cours Mohammed Ourya (Université de Sherbrooke), sous la modération du professeur Sami Aoun (Université de Sherbrooke).

Tous concernés par les présidentielles américaines, ces experts aborderont,  tour à tour, entre autres, l’importance du catholicisme dans la politique publique et la politique étrangère américaine, les dimensions éthiques et religieuses des décisions de Barak Obama et celles que Mme Clinton priorisera, des conséquences du résultat des élections sur le Canada, l’islam étasunien et l’islam aux États-Unis entre les considérations de la démocratie libérale et les alliances géopolitiques.

Public Lecture and Film Showing, Sept 7th: University of Western Sydney

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Dear Colleagues,

You are welcomed to join our next Religion and Society Research Public Lecture and Film Showing on “T.G.H. Strehlow and Movements to Repatriate Knowledge in Central Australia.” The event will focus on the process of repatriation of sacred knowledge to indigenous societies in Alice Springs. It will put forward the theory that religious knowledge is best defined as a ‘chain of memory’.

Guest Speaker: James L. Cox is Emeritus Professor of Religious Studies in the University of Edinburgh and Adjunct Professor in the Religion and Society Research Cluster, Western Sydney University.

The event will also include a showing of the film “Mr Strehlow’s Films” by Hart Cohen, who is Associate Professor in Media Arts in the School of Humanities and Communication Arts at Western Sydney University.

Event Details,

Date: Wednesday, 7th September 2016

Time: 12.00 – 14.00pm

Room: Building 3, Room G.55

Campus: Bankstown

Rsvp: By Friday 2nd September, 2016 to:  email: Ssap-research@westernsydney.edu.au

PS: please see attached flyer for more information.

Cristina

Associate Professor Cristina Rocha

ARC Future Fellow

Director of Religion and Society Research Cluster

Western Sydney University

Call for Presentations: “Music and Islam”

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IV UskoMus symposium: ”Music and Islam”
Cultural Centre Stoa, Helsinki 10 November 2016

Call for Presentations

UskoMus* Research Network (uskomus.com) will organise its next one-day symposium with the theme ”Music and Islam”, with islamologist Jonas Otterbeck (Lund University) as a guest speaker. The symposium will be followed by a public discussion and a concert celebrating the 25-year career of the Turkish-Finnish band Nefes (nefes.fi <http://nefes.fi/>), supported by Senegalese Pape Sarr, Rane Diallo, Ismaila Sane and Ousseynou Mbaye, and with an emphasis on Sufi musical practices.
UskoMus hereby invites proposals for symposium presentations, whether in the form of conventional academic papers or more experimental delivery. All topics associated with the general theme are welcome, but please note that the number of presentations is limited. The 200–300-word abstracts should be sent to uskomus.network@gmail.com no later than 30 September 2016; notifications of acceptance will be sent by 14 October.

There will be no conference fee but no free lunches either.

The language of the symposium will be English. The symposium is organised in collaboration with City of Helsinki Cultural Centre Stoa (stoa.fi <http://stoa.fi/>), Etnosoi! Festival (etnosoi.fi<http://etnosoi.fi/>) and Global Music Centre (globalmusic.fi <http://globalmusic.fi/>), Music Archive JAPA (musiikkiarkisto.fi <http://musiikkiarkisto.fi/>) and the Finnish Society for Ethnomusicology (etnomusikologia.fi <http://etnomusikologia.fi/>). For further information, please consult UskoMus website (uskomus.com <http://uskomus.com/>) oruskomus.network@gmail.com <mailto:uskomus-network@gmail.com>.

Welcome to the symposium!

On behalf of UskoMus,
Antti-Ville Kärjä
*) “uskomus” = a belief, a shibboleth; “usko” = faith, confidence; “mus(iikki)” = mus(ic)

Governing religion: Interfaith dialogue and organized cultural encounters

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You are invited to the research seminar and joint PhD-course ‘Governing religion: Interfaith dialogue and organized cultural encounters’ held at University of Agder (UiA) in Kristiansand, Norway, on March 30 2016.

The seminar critically engages with the ways in which interfaith dialogue constitutes a means to govern religion and the religious, and it explores which forms of religion that are produced from these organized cultural encounters and raises questions as to which roles local government, migration and media play.

Two keynote lectures by international experts on interfaith dialogue, Mar Griera from Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona and Lise Paulsen Galal from Roskilde University, will take place during the morning session. The rest of the seminar will take the form of a workshop and provide an opportunity for Ph.D.-students to present on-going Ph.D.-projects (app. 30-45 min. each) and receive comments from the lectures, commentators and fellow Ph.D.-students.

The seminar is free of charge. Lunch, coffee and tea will be provided as well as mandatory reading for the seminar (app. 3 texts). The seminar is open for all, but preregistration is necessary.

Deadline for registration: March 7 2016 to Louise Lund Liebmann (louise.l.liebmann@uia.no).

For those PhD-students who want to present a paper: please add an abstract of 200 words.

Notification of paper acceptance will be given shortly after the deadline.

 

The seminar is organized by the research project ‘Conflicts in Mediatized Religious Environments’ (CoMRel) and University of Agder.

 

Public Lecture: “Public space as the arena of assertion vs. repression of Muslim identity”

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The Religion and Society Research Centre at the University of Western Sydney invites you to attend a public lecture.

Public space as the arena of assertion vs. repression of Muslim identity

Speaker: Amir Sheikhzadegan, University of Fribourg

Date: Thursday 14 May 2015

Time: 10:30am-12:00pm

Venue: Bankstown Campus, Building 03.G.55

RSVP: SSAP-Research@uws.edu.au by Monday 11 May 2015

This is an open and free event.

Abstract

A gradual emergence of diasporic communities out of migrant groups with an Islamic background (Schiffauer 2007) also implies a transition of their status from the “invisible migrant-worker” to that of “visible Muslim citizenship” (Göle 2011).

Geared with a strengthening of the populist right in Switzerland, the increasing visibility of Islam has given rise to conflicting claims to the appropriation of urban spaces – a tug of war that culminated in 2009 in a minaret ban, on the one hand, and the emergence of the radical organization Islamic Central Council Switzerland (ICCS) on the other.

Drawing on Lefebvre’s (1991) concept of “representational space” the study argues that public visibility has become the main contested issue between the populist right and the ICCS. Whereas the former strives for containing “the Islamic threat” by pushing Islam out of the public spaces, the latter uses urban spaces to maximize the public visibility of Islam in Switzerland. Arguing that ICCS’s public presence stands in a dialectical relationship to its identity politics, the study then highlights the following identity formation practices of this organization:

Firstly, ICCS struggles for a formal recognition of Islam in Switzerland.

Secondly, it seeks for an inversion of the stigma “Islam” (Wieviorka 2001; Cesari 2004) by persuading Muslims to publicly celebrate their muslimness.

Thirdly and finally, it strives for a strong public presence by running book stands in the crowded urban areas, distributing pamphlets and flyers in migrants’ gatherings, upholding public conferences in renowned city halls, and organizing demonstrations in city centers.

The study is part of a larger research project funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation investigating the narrative identities of Muslims who are actively engaged in voluntary associations. As for methodology, it draws both on reconstruction of narrative identity (Lucius-Hoene & Deppermann 2004) and ethnographic investigation.

Amir Sheikhzadegan is a senior post-doc lecturer and researcher at the Department of Social Sciences (Section of Sociology, Social Policy and Social Work) of the University of Fribourg (Switzerland). He is the author of “Der Griff des politischen Islam zur Macht: Iran und Algerien im Vergleich” (2003) as well as the co-editor of “Gesellschaften zwischen Multi- und Transkulturalität” (forthcoming). Sheikhzadegan has been a visiting fellow at the Zentrum Moderner Orient (ZMO) in Berlin as well as a lecturer at the universities of Zurich, Lucerne, and Basel. His fields of interest include societal change in Iran, Islam and modernity, civil society, and narrative identity.

The post Public Lecture: “Public space as the arena of assertion vs. repression of Muslim identity” appeared first on ISA Research Committee 22.

Public Lecture: Christianity and the Shaping of Vanuatu’s Social and Political Development

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The Religion and Society Research Centre and the Peace and Development Studies Group at the University of Western Sydney invite you to attend a public lecture.

Christianity and the Shaping of Vanuatu’s Social and Political Development

Speaker: Professor Matthew Clark – Deakin University

Date: 24th April, 2015

Time:  1.30pm – 3.00pm

Venue: UWS Bankstown Campus, Building 23, Room G.40

RSVP: SSAP-Research@uws.edu.au by 17th April, 2015

The Pacific island state of Vanuatu has been considerably shaped by its Christian heritage. Indeed, the role of the various Christian Churches has been pivotal in the development and sustenance of Vanuatu prior to and since its Independence. These Churches include Anglican, Catholic, Pentecostal and evangelical denominations. Missionaries and later local Church leaders were involved directly in Independence movements and shaped the legal and social infrastructure of this nation. This involvement and influence has continued to the present. This paper will consider the role the Church has played in the development of Vanuatu. Firstly, this paper will present case study analysis of both the historical and contemporary role the Church has played in the development of Vanuatu. This review will consider the impact of both key individual Church leaders who played central roles Vanuatu’s Independence. Secondly, the paper will consider the contemporary role Christian Churches play in the provision of social service – including education and health – across Vanuatu. This paper will conclude that Christianity has therefore played and continues to play a central role in the political and social development of Vanuatu.

Professor Matthew Clarke is Head of the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at Deakin University (Australia). Matthew has worked in the international development sector for more than 20 years. His research interests include aid effectiveness, the Millennium Development Goals, HIV and AIDS and disability-inclusive development. Much of this work has focussed on the Pacific region. More recently Matthew has focussed on the intersection between religion and development. His books in this area include  Development and Religion: Theology and Practice, Islam and Development: Exploring the Invisible Aid Economy, and Handbook of Research on Religion and Development.

This Public Lecture is an open and free event

The post Public Lecture: Christianity and the Shaping of Vanuatu’s Social and Political Development appeared first on ISA Research Committee 22.

Seminar on Religious Transnationalism, April 16-17, 2015

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Dear colleagues,

We would like to invite you to join our 2-day seminar on religious transnationalism on Thursday 16 and Friday 17 April 2015 at VU University Amsterdam.  

Venue: VU University (Metropolitan building, room Z009 and Z007)

Time: 9.30 a.m. till 5.00 p.m. (the programme is attached)

Conveners:

Prof. Dr. Thijl Sunier, department of Social and Cultural Anthropology, VU University

Prof. Dr. Nina Glick Schiller, University of Manchester

General theme

The seminar deals with the contemporary dynamics of transnational religious fields across the world by addressing the shifting configurations between new modes of transnational religious practices on the one hand and evolving forms of nation-building and national domestication of religious communities in a time of growing nationalism en exclusion. Transnational activity of religious communities and social actors is certainly not new, nor is the paradox between people living religious lives, locally and transnationally and states domesticating religions (Glick Schiller et al. 1994). However, emerging new forms of regulatory regimes both at a national and a local level have engendered new forms of transnational activity. The ever changing character of the ‘cosmologistical problem’ (Vasquez et al. 2003) informs and shapes new modes of transnational religious activity.

Keynote address: Prof. Dr. Manuel Vasquez (University of Florida, USA), Thursday morning, 16 April, entitled “Seeng Transnationally:  Religion and the Emergence of New Regimes of Visibility and Discipline.”

Four panels

Transnational religious activism

Pilgrimage

Secular intolerance

Cosmopolitanism and religion

Entrance: free, and open to everyone! Registration: h.l.e.vander.linden@vu.nl

Please find the programme attached. We would appreciate it if you could distribute this invitation among your network and/or students.

We hope to welcome you on 16 and 17 April!

Best regards, on behalf of the conveners,

Heleen van der Linden

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