Category Archives: Publishing Opportunities

Call for Applications: European Islamophobia Report

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Call for Applications: European Islamophobia Report

EIR will be authored by leading experts in the field of Islamophobia Studies and/or NGO-activists committed to the documentation of racism in respective nation states.

The aim of the yearly ‘European Islamophobia Report’ (EIR) is to document and analyze trends in the spread of Islamophobia in various European nation states. Every year at the beginning of February before the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (21 March), reports will be published online and hardcopy and disseminated among leading stakeholders, politicians, NGO’s, and anti-racist organizations.

EIR will be authored by leading experts in the field of Islamophobia Studies and/or NGO-activists committed to the documentation of racism in respective nation states. One person will author one report of his/her country of expertise. These reports will be also published online to be easily accessible. The full report will also be translated into Turkish.  The executive office will disseminate the reports among key policy makers, journalists and NGO activists from the local, national and European level. A recommended structure for a national report is to contain the following chapters:

  1. Executive Summary in native language and in English
  2. Table of Contents
  3. Introduction
  4. Significant incidents and developments in the country during the period under review
  5. Discussion of Islamophobic incidents and discursive events in various fields: a. Employment; have there been any discrimination in the job market  based on (assumed) Muslimness of a person? b. Education; has Islamophobic content become part of any curricula, text books, or any other education material? c. Politics; has Islamophobia played any role in politics (election campaigns, political programs, personal utterings, etc.) on a regional or national level? d. Media; which media events have focused on Islam/Muslims in an Islamophobic way? e. Justice System; have there been any laws and regulations argued with Islamophobic arguments or any laws restricting the rights of Muslims in their religious lifestyle? f. Cyber-Space; which webpages and initiatives have spread Islamophobic stereotypes? g. Central Figures in the Islamophobia Network; which institutions and persons have fostered Islamophobic campaigns, stirred up debates, lobbied for laws, etc.
  6. Observed civil society and political assessment and initiatives undertaken to counter Islamophobia in the idem fields
  7. Conclusion: Policy Recommendations for politics and NGO’s
  8. Chronology
  9. CV

It is recommended to collect information via (critically) analyzing media reports, contacting offices and NGO’s who combat discrimination, doing expert interviews with leading scholars and policy makers in the field.

Language: English.

Dissemination: Reports will be accessible online via an extra web-page for the project. In addition, all reports will be translated into Turkish and published online and in print.

Countries:

Long report (6.000 words): Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland, United Kingdom, Russia, Bosnia Herzogovina, Norway, Sweden, Finland.

Short report (3.000 words): Croatia, Serbia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Albania, Macedonia, Montenegro, Kosovo

Professional fee:
– 1.000 € for a long report
– 500 € for a short report

Deadlines: Call for Applications until: 10 May 2015.

Application should entail:

  • – CV
  • – Expertise in the field of racism studies, including Islamophobia Studies (list of publications)
  • – List of NGO’s in the country, with whom one would cooperate to get information on Islamophobic incidents on the ground

Send email to: islamophobia@setav.org

10 January 2016: Deadline for single reports
10 February 2016: Review of single reports
15 March 2016: Publication

The post Call for Applications: European Islamophobia Report appeared first on ISA Research Committee 22.

New Journal: Waikato Islamic Studies Review

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The first issue of Waikato Islamic Studies Review has just been published.

Waikato Islamic Studies Review is published by The University of Waikato Islamic Studies Group, The University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand.

The following link provides detailed information about this publication and contribution/submission of articles:
http://www.waikato.ac.nz/fass/UWISG/review.shtml

Table of contents:
Waikato Islamic Studies Review (2015), Vol. 1, No. 1

  1. Tale of Two Dialogues: 21st Century Christian-Muslim Initiatives
    Douglas Pratt
  2. Comparative Contextualization of Political Islam in Malaysia & Indonesia
    Simon Gray
  3. Mostly Harmless: A Short History of the First Century of Muslim
    Settlement in New Zealand
    Abdullah Drury
  4. Demography of New Zealand’s Muslims: Patterns and Disparities
    Yaghoob Foroutan

The full version of these articles are available at the following link: http://www.waikato.ac.nz/fass/UWISG/review.shtml

With best regards,
Dr Yaghoob Foroutan

The post New Journal: Waikato Islamic Studies Review appeared first on ISA Research Committee 22.

CFP: “Intersections of the Popular and the Sacred in Youth Cultures”

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YOUNG (Nordic Journal of Youth Research) Special Edition Open Call Intersections of the Popular and the Sacred in Youth Cultures

Recent years have seen a growing interest in ”re-scripting the sacred” through popular culture. Although ”youth” as an age-based category has lost its privileged status within such studies of popular culture, young people remain vital (sub)cultural agents. There has also been renewed interest in the ubiquitous contestations and ambiguities around the notion of the ”popular” in light of the increasing commodification and standardisation of culture, the opposition this engenders, and the cultural drift into virtual worlds.

The special edition of YOUNG focusses on the interrelations between popular culture, the youth and the category of the sacred. The aim is to interrogate understandings of popular and youth cultures in relation to the contested phenomena of (post)secularisation, re-enchantment and the emergence of alternative spiritualities. Seeking to analyse the social and cultural changes accompanying these phenomena, the special issue will facilitate interdisciplinary dialogue between youth studies, cultural studies, religious studies and the broader social sciences.

The journal invites submissions that locate themselves at the intersection of the three contested concepts, seeking to re-examine and re-evaluate the dynamics within and between cultural phenomena prefixed with ”popular”, ”sacred” and ”youth”. This general theme may be approached from within any discipline or methodology.

The special edition will contain five articles of 5000-8000 words with a separate 3-5,000 word introduction written by the editors.

Manuscripts should be submitted in electronic form online at: https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/young

Start the procedure by clicking the REGISTER button. We only accept articles (in English) that have not been published elsewhere and that have been anonymised. References in both the text and end notes should follow Harvard style whereby references should be cited in the text as (author, date: page) and an alphabetical references section follows the text.

Deadline for papers The deadline for submissions for this special edition is 31st May 2015.

Guest editors The Guest Editor will be Antti-Ville Kärjä.
Responsible journal editor: Anders Sjöborg.

The post CFP: “Intersections of the Popular and the Sacred in Youth Cultures” appeared first on ISA Research Committee 22.

CFP: Comparative Approaches to Religion and Violence

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COMPARATIVE APPROACHES TO RELIGION AND VIOLENCE BEYOND TEXTS
CALL FOR PAPERS 2015

For the 2015 conference of the American Academy of Religion in Atlanta Nov 21-24, we seek papers that examine the intersections of religion and violence, with attention to the condition in which religion lends itself to the justification and/or promotion of violence. Papers should demonstrate comparative or theoretical approaches. Below are recommended themes within this framework: 
Comparative Ethics of Violence beyond Texts: We seek studies that trace the way that religious authority becomes enacted outside of traditional scriptural mandates, such as by cultural leaders, rituals, pictures, narratives and media.

If you would like to submit a paper proposal, please contact Torkel Brekke at the University of Oslo (torkel.brekke@ikos.uio.no).

We are proud to announce that the Comparative Approaches to Religion and Violence has joined with the Journal of Religion and Violence. Future submissions to the AAR program unit will be considered for publication in the journal.

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CFP: Conference on Challenges and Opportunities: Religious Freedom Development in the Sphere of Law

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Challenges and Opportunities: Religious Freedom Development in the Sphere of Law

Conference, Yerevan, May 14-16, 2015

Call for Papers

This international conference will be dedicated to the challenges and opportunities regarding religious freedom in the experience of Eastern European countries. A quarter of century since the collapse of Soviet Union, there are still many issues in the development of law and legal procedures in the religious sphere as well as their application in practical life in many of the former Soviet Republics.  We anticipate that the academic discussion of these challenges will have practical significance not only for scholars but also for practitioners and lawyers in the development of comprehensive draft laws and other legal tools.

The local organizing committee is pleased to announce a conference on law and religion which will be held in Yerevan, Armenia at the American University of Armenia, Thursday May 14-Saturday, May 16, titled “Challenges and Opportunities: Religious Freedom Development in the Sphere of Law.”  The conference will predominantly focus on legal and policy issues affecting religious freedom in Eastern Europe. 

All scholars interested in the study of Law and Religion (preference shall be given to scholars from Eastern Europe and former Soviet Republics) are invited to submit proposals of no more than 250 words and short bios by 15 March 2015. These can be submitted electronically to hovhannes.hovhannisyan@gmail.com

The language for presentations is English, Russian, or Armenian. A number of speakers will be commissioned for the program.

Travel support may be available for those whose papers are selected.

Participants will present their papers in panel sessions (20 minutes in English) and will afterwards submit an article to for possible inclusion in a publication. The aim of the organizer is to publish a selection of articles presented at the conference.

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CFP: Conference on “Radicalisation and Islamophobia: Roots, Relationships and Implications in Religiously Diverse Societies”

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SECOND AUSTRALASIAN CONFERENCE ON ISLAM (ACI’2)

“Radicalisation and Islamophobia: Roots, Relationships and Implications in Religiously Diverse Societies”

26–27 November 2015 – Sydney, Australia

Abstract submission date: 30 March 2015

While the themes of radicalisation and Islamophobia have been broadly addressed, to date there has been little or no investigation into the relationship between the two. Is radicalisation a response to Islamophobia? Or is Islamophobia a peripheral issue in light of the serious threat posed by radicalisation? Despite seeming to be independent from one another, there is a counter-intuitive link between radicalisation and Islamophobia as each serves to perpetuate its own radical narrative and generalisations. While radicalisation of Muslims causes fear and anxiety in the broader society, Islamophobia can be a source of excessive legal measures, discrimination of Muslims and vilification of Islam. Such Islamophobia feeding attempts are used by radical ideologues to justify their extreme narrative and recruit power which in turn increases Islamophobia.

This conference aims to explore how radicalisation and Islamophobia feed one another and work hand in hand to pull society towards polar extremes. By tackling these issues from political, sociological, psychological and theological angles, this conference aims to explore the root causes of radicalisation and in particular the significant impact of Islamophobia to that process. The 2nd Australasian Conference on Islam invites abstracts for original and critical research papers addressing the theme Radicalisation and Islamophobia: Roots,Relationships and Implications in Religiously Diverse Societies.

  • Topics of interest for abstract submission include, but are not limited to:
  • Relationship between radicalisation and Islamophobia
  • Impact of radicalisation and Islamophobia on religiously diverse societies
  • Exploring and contesting the legitimacy of the theological roots of radicalisation and Islamophobia
  • Social roots of youth radicalisation in Western societies
  • Roots of Islamophobia and its link to religious radicalisation within other religious communities
  • Impact of social media on extremism, radicalisation and Islamophobia
  • Alternative discourses/initiatives/movements to extremism, radicalisation and Islamophobia
  • Case studies from countries, social groups and faith based movements as alternatives to radicalisation and Islamophobia
  • Effects of Islamophobia on Muslims living in the West
  • The empirical evaluation of counter-terrorism policy, counter-radicalisation and de-radicalisation through theoretical and practical cases
  • Gender dimensions of radicalisation and Islamophobia
  • The cultural construction and consumption of the radical and Islamophobic discourse
  • Strategies and attempts to resist ‘radicalisation’, ‘de-radicalisation’ and ‘counter-radicalisation’ and the surrounding discourses
  • Strategies and attempts to resist Islamophobia and incompatibility theories
  • Rigorous evaluations of the local contexts fuelling radicalisation and Islamophobia

Abstracts of no more than 300 words must be submitted together with the contributor’s short biography (no more than 200 words) by 30 March 2015.

If an abstract is accepted for the conference, a full draft paper must be submitted by 25 September 2015.

Submit abstracts should be submitted to Dr Derya Iner diner@csu.edu.au and copied to info@isra.org.au . Abstracts should be in Word format with the following information in this order:
a) author(s) name; b) affiliation; c) email address; d) title of abstract; e) body of abstract; f) author’s biography.

Email subject should be titled: Australasian Conference on Islam. Use plain text (Times New Roman, 12 point, double spaced) and abstain from using footnotes and any special formatting, characters or emphasis (such as bold, italics or underline).

We will acknowledge receipt and respond to all abstracts submitted. If you do not receive a reply within a week, assume we did not receive your abstract. We suggest to then look for an alternative electronic route or resend.

Select papers will be published in peer-reviewed publications.

Organising chairpersons:

Conference Website: http://ausconfislam.net/ (note that it is currently
under construction)

The post CFP: Conference on “Radicalisation and Islamophobia: Roots, Relationships and Implications in Religiously Diverse Societies” appeared first on ISA Research Committee 22.

Call for Papers: “Regulating Religion: Normativity and Change at the Intersection of Law and Religion”

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Call for Papers
Regulating Religion: Normativity and Change at the Intersection of Law and Religion
14 – 15 December 2015
Faculty of Law, National University of Singapore (Bukit Timah Campus)

Submission Deadline: 31 May 2015

In most eras and cultures, law and religion relate dialectically. Every major religious tradition strives to come to terms with law by striking a balance between the worldly and the spiritual, the structural and the mystical, the rational and the sacred. Every major legal tradition struggles to align its formal structures and processes with the beliefs and values of its people. Thus, while law and religion can be conceptualized as distinct spheres of human life, they do not exist independently but are constantly interacting with and influencing each other.

This workshop will engage emerging scholarship on the influence of religion on legal systems, both historically and currently, and vice versa. Regulation is our key focus. In simplest terms, we will consider how law regulates religion, and how religion responds to such regulations. The more complex question we ask is how the normativity becomes diversified and drives the regulatory dialectics between law and religion after the institutional development of the latter two. The workshop seeks to approach this question in three streams:

  1. Socio-political norms regulating religion. What social and political assumptions are we making when we make claims about the legitimate role of religion in public debate? What overarching social and political goals underlie how the law deals with issues of freedom of religion and freedom of religious expression? With the resurgence of religion into issues of public debate, how might religious considerations influence the formulation of contemporary legal norms, if at all?
  2. Constitutional and legal norms regulating religion. What can we learn from the different constitutional legal experiences and contexts of Asia and other parts of the world, given the importance of constitutional structures in framing, defining and governing the interactions of religion and law? What alternative models of arranging state and religion exist vis-à-vis the dominant constitutional model separating state from religion? How has the resurgence of public religion opened up the area of constitutional thinking?
  3. Religious norms regulating religion. What type of legal structures do religions have? How do religious traditions and communities perceive their interaction with religious laws? What demands do such internal rules make upon their religious faith and worship? Are all traditions ‘religio-legal’, i.e., as having claims that take the form of law over their adherents and others? What varying forms do they take? How do believers negotiate these internal rules and how can religious traditions change within this legal framework?

Submission:
Paper proposals should include a title, an abstract (no more than 200 words), an outline of the proposed paper with section titles and brief section descriptions, and a personal biography (no more than 100 words). Submissions should be emailed to regulatingreligion@gmail.com by 31 May 2015.

Successful applicants will be notified by 15 July 2015 and would be required to send in a completed draft paper (7,000 – 10,000 words) by 15 November 2015. Depending on the availability of funds, partial or full funding may be granted to paper presenters. Full funding covers air travel to Singapore by the most economical means and reasonable accommodation for the duration of the workshop.

Convenors:

Dr. Arif A. Jamal Faculty of Law, National University of Singapore

Dr. Jaclyn L. Neo Faculty of Law, National University of Singapore

Associate Professor Daniel P.S. Goh Department of Sociology, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, National University of Singapore

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Call for Papers for an edited volume on: Authority, Agency and Islam

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Introduction
The relationship between Muslims and the world is in crisis-mode, and the effects are felt in many ways and in many different instances. One of the themes that often succumbs to ideological cooptation is the issue of authority in Islam and for Muslims. What role is there for Muslims within a minority context both as agents in charge of their own destiny, or as demanders of social justice, and recognition and representation in time, place, and public space? Is there space for and actions of solidarity transcending boundaries, either geographic or socio-cultural? To what extent can Muslims engage with non-Muslims and state authorities, whether as minorities in non-Muslim territories or in countries with a Muslim majority? Are there limits for Muslims in its ability to practice their faith in a secular state? What texts are to be considered authoritative when approaching these questions? And is there one locus or multiple loci for legitimate interpretive authority?

Although the focus of the public discourse remains on the headlines, this book aims to offer a much deeper insight into examining the relationship between authority and agency for Muslims and Islam today.

Objective of the Book
The overall mission is for this book to be one of the leading  publications within the area of contemporary Islamic and Muslim studies. We envision this book to be a key reference at a number of levels, across a wide variety of fields both within and outside of academia. The main objective is to bring together academic minds from a variety of fields all connected by an interest in understanding the role of authority and the dynamics of agency in contemporary Islam as lived by Muslims today.

Paper proposals to be included may engage the above theme from any perspective appropriate for this cross-disciplinary book. A list of suggested topics is the following:

  • Religious vs. State authority
  • Effects of cosmopolitanism and multiculturalism
  • Institution-building and citizenship
  • Geopolitics, power, and economic interests
  • Race and gender
  • Authority in a historical perspective (particular interest may go out to the effects that can be felt in the post-Ottoman, nationalist and post-colonial setting).
  • Health and behavioural change through social changes felt by Muslims
  • Islam and business (e.g. Islam and financial authority, commodification of Muslims, effects of marketing, branding, human resource training and motivation, sales, crowdsourcing and product
    development)
  • Environmental issues
  • Islam and Muslims in the news and as journalists, authority of public perception and reproducible images
  • Cross-cultural issues
  • Privacy, risk, ethics, and legal issues facing Islam and Muslims domestically or globally

The above list is meant to be illustrative, not exhaustive. Individual papers will be combined to form thematic but multi-layered approach to the relationship between Authority, Agency and Islam and/or Muslims.

Submission Procedure
The editors invite papers from diverse disciplines interested in expanding the body of knowledge in this intriguing area to submit chapters for publication consideration. Individuals interested in
submitting chapters should submit a 300-word abstract in a Microsoft Word or pdf document, with a short bio, to either  laurens.de-rooij@durham.ac.uk or law.ilm@durham.ac.uk by March 22nd, 2015.

Notification of Abstract acceptance will be March 30th, 2015. Following that a letter of interest, including your name, affiliation, and chapter proposal should be sent electronically by April 19th, 2015.

Proposals (2-3 pages) should provide a descriptive outline and clearly explain the purpose and contribution of the chapter. Definitive acceptance notifications will be sent by April 27th, 2015. We also
invite advanced graduate students and recent PhDs to submit proposals that address one or more of the themes above. Upon acceptance, authors will have until August 31st, 2015 to prepare a chapter of approximately 6,000 and 10,000 words, including notes and references. Each chapter will be subject to a peer review process and must not have been published, accepted for publication, or presently under consideration for publication elsewhere. Guidelines for preparing the final chapter will be sent upon acceptance notification.

Note: No late abstracts will be accepted. The final papers are due August 31st, 2015. We look forward to reading your abstracts.

Important Dates

  • Abstract Deadline: March 22nd, 2015
  • Abstract Notification: March 30th, 2015
  • Full Chapter Proposal Due: April 19th, 2015
  • Definitive Acceptance Notifications: April 27th, 2015
  • Full Chapters Due: August 31st, 2015

The post Call for Papers for an edited volume on: Authority, Agency and Islam appeared first on ISA Research Committee 22.

Call for Papers for the journal Sociology of Religion

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Call for Papers from Sociology of Religion for Advanced Graduate Students

The editors of Sociology of Religion: A Quarterly Review are now soliciting essays (25 page maximum or 7,000 words, all inclusive) from advanced graduate students built on dissertations in process. The essay should speak specifically to your scholarship, yet generally to sociologists interested in religion by presenting a central idea of relevance to our readership. In addition, the essay should also reflect on the process of developing as a sociologist whose scholarship includes a clear focus on religion, which may include observations on how “sociology of religion” as a sub-field is currently being shaped, where it is heading, why that matters, etc. While the essay may address one’s own experiences and in the first person, all aspects of the essay should remain of relevance and interest to rigorous scholarship, which therefore can include things like aspects of our training, professional development, conceptual breakthroughs, and empirical surprises. Be sure to cite sources and develop ideas and arguments adequate to the high standards of our journal. 

All manuscripts should follow standard author guidelines for the journal (e.g., 12 pt Times Roman, double space throughout), and be submitted through Manuscript Centralhttps://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/socrel. 

The deadline for submissions is May 31, 2015. Any questions should be addressed to the Editor in Chief, Gerardo Marti, sorjournal@davidson.edu.

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Call for Papers ISLAMIC RELIGIOUS PRACTICE IN THE U.S.

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Writer’s Seminar and Volume on: ISLAMIC RELIGIOUS PRACTICE IN THE U.S.

How do Muslims in the United States practice their religion? Where, when, how and why do they pray, fast during Ramadan, and make pilgrimage to Mecca? What rituals accompany the birth of a child, a wedding, and the death of a loved one? How do they celebrate holidays and mark days of commemoration such as the martyrdom of Husayn? How do U.S. Muslims recite the Qur’an, celebrate the birthday of the Prophet Muhammad, and praise God?

The growing scholarly corpus on Islam in America includes significant coverage of Muslim American organizations and associations, anti-Muslim prejudice and the politics of Islam, Sufism, the interpretation of Islamic law and ethics, gender and women’s issues, the sociology of mosque attendance, the assimilation of Muslim immigrants, Muslim American public opinion, and the ways that Muslim Americans construct their ethnic and racial identities. But there is a dearth of scholarship on Islamic ritual practice. Scholars, journalists, students, and members of the general public often resort to introductory textbooks to describe the ritual practices and performances of Muslim Americans rather than consulting a body of peer-reviewed scholarship.

This project, which includes a writer’s seminar and a resulting edited volume, will explore in concrete detail how Muslim Americans practice their religion through ritual performance. Drafts of volume chapters will be due on June 1, 2016. Contributors will then gather in early July, 2016, on the campus of IUPUI in downtown Indianapolis, Indiana, to comment on each other’s papers. Final drafts, approximately 30 pages long, will be due on November 1, 2016.

Scholars are welcome to use a variety of theoretical approaches, but all chapters should give readers a concrete sense of what it feels like, looks like, sounds like, and smells like (as relevant) to perform the ritual under consideration. So, each chapter should be descriptive as well as analytical. All writing should be accessible to a broad audience (so scholarly jargon, whenever used, must be defined and explained).

Generally speaking, chapters will cover topics such as the pillars of practice, life cycle rites, holidays, food rituals, dhikr, and Qur’an recitation but other thematic approaches to ritual practice and
performance are also welcome.

Contributors to the project so far include: Kambiz GhaneaBassiri on Hajj; Amir Hussain on funerals and burials; Michael Muhammad Knight on Ramadan; Marcia Hermansen on mawlid/milad; and Laury Silvers on congregational prayer.

If interested, please send a brief expression of interest to Edward Curtis, ecurtis4@iupui.edu . Participants will then be invited to submit a brief proposal by May 1, 2015.

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