Category Archives: Seminars
Islam, the Modern Nation State and Transnational Movements
The Special Programme Islam, the Modern Nation State and Transnational Movements has entered its final phase. The next and penultimate deadline for applications is May 24, 2017.
The funding initiative is aimed at researchers who, with an eye to current developments, are examining the emergence of political movements in the Islamic world at the national and/or transnational level. The programme takes a look at the dynamics between Islamic teachings, Islamism, nationalism and transnational orientations and environments. Scientific discussion of the countries and regions of the Islamic world should bring together expertise possessing regional and thematic focus in order to allow the problems associated with areas of conflict to be expounded upon, particularly with regards to global influences and processes of cultural exchange. The research programme addresses scholars of all disciplines in the humanities and social sciences.
The individual research areas are:
1. Historical and present day Islamic systems of society and state
2. The concept of nation, national movements and nationalism in Islamic civilisation
3. Islamic fundamentalism or Islamic emancipation?
4. Transnational civil society movements in the Islamic world
5. Islamic states in the international world system.
Further information on the research areas, the nature and scope of support as well as the application procedure is available online at:
http://www.gerda-henkel-stiftung.de/special_programme_islam
We would be grateful if you could please draw attention to the funding initiative through other suitable means. Please contact us at any time with any queries.
Researching home and migration: questions, methods, prospects
Gender and Muslim Spaces
Gender and Muslim Spaces – One Day Seminar
University of Leeds – Wed 29 March 2017
Register now via: https://gender-and-muslim-spaces.eventbrite.co.uk
The question of gender inclusion among British Muslims is currently a high profile debate. This conference aims to unpack the many facets of this debate from a range of methodological, theoretical and community perspectives. There are three main strands to the theme:
– Academic Research and Gender Inclusion:
What theoretical work needs to be done to highlight gender exclusion or inclusion more concretely? What impact can gender inclusion or exclusion have upon research methodologies, ethical issues, questions of access and questions of academic representation?
– Politics of Gender Inclusion and Exclusion:
What role does the issue of gender inclusion now play in questions of state policies regarding Muslims? How far is it tied to questions of securitisation and extremism? How central an issue is it in terms of discourses of Islamic reform or notions of personal authenticity in terms of new Islamic gender theology and everyday Muslim practices?
– Gender Inclusion in British Muslim Institutions, Networks and Movements:
How extensive is the drive towards gender inclusion? What enhances and retards gender inclusion? What modalities of inclusion are being undertaken? How is gender exclusion being defended or problematised?
Schedule:
10.30-11.00 Arrival and Networking (Michael Sadler SR LG.10)
11.00-11.15 Welcome and Introduction (Michael Sadler SR LG.10)
Dr Seán McLoughlin (University of Leeds) and Dr Carl Morris (MBRN)
11.15-12.15 Plenary Session 1:
Community perspectives: How can Muslim institutions and networks become more gender inclusive? (Michael Sadler SR LG.10)
Chair: Yahya Birt (University of Leeds)
– Bana Gora (Muslim Women’s Council, Bradford)
– Imam Qari Asim (Makkah Mosque, Leeds)
– Dr Siema Iqbal (MEND, Muslim Engagement and Development)
Followed by Q&A
12.15-13.30 Lunch / Prayer / Networking
MBRN AGM (Michael Sadler SR LG.10)
– New Team Announcement/Future Events
13.30-14.30 Plenary Session 2:
Academic perspectives: how can research on British Muslims become more gender sensitive? (Michael Sadler SR LG.10)
Chair: Dr Seán McLoughlin (University of Leeds)
– Poles Apart: Reflections on Fieldwork with Salafi Women and Tablighi Men – Dr Anabel Inge (King’s College London) and Riyaz Timol (University of Cardiff)
Followed by Q&A
14.30 – 16.00 Parallel Panels
Panel 1: Negotiating Gendered Muslim Spaces: Theoretical Approaches (Michael Sadler SR LG.10)
– Muslim Women in Britain c. 1890 to 1948: Historical Grounding for Contemporary Debate – Dr Sariya Cheruvallil-Contractor (University of Coventry)
– Dual-gendered Ethnography in Segregated Spaces – Chris Moses (University of Cambridge) and Alyaa Ebbiary (SOAS)
– Experiences of First and Second Generation Pakistani Women in Areas of High Muslim and Co-Ethnic Density – Asma Khan (University of Cardiff)
– British Muslim Woman, Building British Muslim Lives – Saleema Farah Burney (SOAS)
Panel 2: Gender, Securitization and Representation (Michael Sadler SR LG.16)
– The Transformation of British Islamic Institutions and Its Consequences for Muslim Women’s Representation in Public Life – Dr Stephen H. Jones (Newman University)
– The Securitization of British Muslim Women – Shahnaz Akhtar (University of Warwick)
– The Prevent Duty and the Securitization of the Muslim Girl and the Muslim Boy – Natalie James (University of Leeds)
Panel 3: Negotiating Access in Public and Private Spaces (Michael Sadler SR LG.17)
– Uncertain Futures? Perspectives of Female Muslim Students on Life in Britain – Dr Naomi Thompson (Goldsmiths) and Dr Stephen Pihlaja (Newman University)
– Gender, Inclusivity and UK Mosque Experiences – Dervla Shannahan (Inclusive Mosque Initiative)
– Ethnic’ Space as ‘Religious’ Space in Queens, New York: Questioning the Meaning of Secular Space – Muntasir Sattar (Independent Researcher)
– No More A Shadow: Making Space for Muslim Mothers’ Narratives – Suma Din (Independent Researcher)
16.00 – 16.30 Conclusion (Michael Sadler SR LG.10)
– Summary of day and Q&A
16.30 End of Day Seminar
16.30 – 18.00 (Informal) Networking Time
18.00 – 20.00 Film Showing and Discussion
Blessed are the Strangers (2016) – documentary screening. (University of Leeds, venue TBC)
“Over thirty years, two very different groups of British people become Muslim and come together to form one of Britain’s oldest and most diverse communities of Muslim converts.”
Followed by discussion and Q&A – Yahya Birt speaks with Ahmed Peerbux, Abdalhaqq Bewley.
Watch the trailer here: http://www.thestrangers.co.uk/
20.00 Depart
Register now via: https://gender-and-muslim-spaces.eventbrite.co.uk
<https://gender-and-muslim-spaces.eventbrite.co.uk/>
Call for Papers: Unregistered Muslim Marriages – Regulations and Contestation
Organizers:
Dr Rajnaara Akhtar, De Montfort University, Leicester
Prof. Annelies Moors, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam Institute for
Social Science Research
Venue and date: De Montfort University, Leicester, 24-25 April 2017
Theme: Non-state registered Muslim marriages
Non-state registered Muslim marriages or ‘unregistered marriages’ have increasingly become the focus of public policy debates both in Muslim-majority countries and in settings where Muslims are a minority. While the regulation and registration of marriages have a long history tied up with the emergence of the modern nation-state, during the last decades both state institutions and religious authorities have shown a renewed interest in debates about registration, the validity of non state-registered marriages and the effects of non-registration. An often-simultaneous discourse has also emerged pertaining to the private informal space occupied by couples who choose to circumvent registration, and the manner and form of intervention within this private space by other interested parties, including by parents, kin, community and/or religious bodies.
This two-day multidisciplinary symposium will bring together researchers who have engaged in concrete empirical research on unregistered marriages.
For more information, see: http://wp.me/p4uVdC-i2
Best regards,
Martijn de Koning
International Panel on Social Progress (IPSP)
Dear SISR Colleagues
We would like to take this opportunity to introduce the International Panel on Social Progress (IPSP). You can find more about the IPSP and its ways of working here: https://www.ipsp.org/. You will see that it exists to ‘harness the competence of hundreds of experts about social issues’ and to ‘deliver a report addressed to all social actors, movements, organizations, politicians and decision-makers, in order to provide them with the best expertise on questions that bear on social change’.
We Grace Davie (University of Exeter, UK) and Nancy Ammerman (Boston University, US), are the Coordinating Lead Authors (CLAs) for the chapter on religion, entitled ‘Religions and social progress: Critical assessments and creative partnerships’. Altogether we are a team of twelve. Here is our Abstract:
This chapter starts from the premise that some 80 percent of the world’s population affirms some kind of religious identification, a proportion that is growing rather than declining. Emphasizing the significance of belief and practice in everyday lives and local contexts, we analyze the impact of religion and its relevance to social progress in a wide variety of fields. These include the family, gender and sexuality; differences and diversity; democratic governance; violence and peace-making; health and economic well-being; and care for the earth.
We argue that researchers and policy makers pursuing social progress will benefit from careful attention to the power of religious ideas to motivate, of religious practices to shape ways of life, of religious communities to mobilize and extend the reach of social change, and of religious leaders and symbols to legitimate calls to action. All of that, however, can be put to either good or ill, for which reason assessment of particular religions in specific contexts is essential.
Running through the chapter are five interconnected themes: the persistence of religion in the twenty-first century; the importance of context in discerning outcomes; the need for cultural competence relative to religion; the significance of religion in initiating change; and the benefits of well-judged partnerships. The continuing need for critical but appreciative assessment and the demonstrable benefits of creative partnerships are our standout findings.
The IPSP process – see https://www.ipsp.org/process – mirrors that of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and includes a period of public comment in the autumn of 2016. The ‘Commenting Platform’ is now open – see comment.ipsp.org. It would be hugely helpful if members of SISR could take part in this. The IPSP website will indicate how you access our chapter and how you make your comments. Or if you prefer you can simply send us (g.r.c.davie@exeter.ac.uk; nta@bu.edu) an e-mail.
Call for Presentations: “Music and Islam”
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)
Una spiritualità post-secolare
Una spiritualità post-secolare
Padova, 6 giugno 2016
Incontro di studio con il sociologo Luigi Berzano e il teologo Giovanni Trabucco,
promosso dalle specializzazioni in teologia spirituale di Fttr e Ftis.
Si svolgerà quest’anno nella sede padovana l’appuntamento che unisce le specializzazioni in teologia spirituale di Padova e Milano nell’approfondimento di alcuni temi cruciali per il nostro tempo. Una spiritualità post-secolare è il titolo dell’incontro di studio proposto lunedì 6 giugno (Padova, Istituto teologico Sant’Antonio dottore, via San Massimo 25, ore 9.30-13) dal biennio di specializzazione in teologia spirituale della Facoltà teologica del Triveneto e dal Centro studi di spiritualità della Facoltà teologica dell’Italia settentrionale.
Sul tema interverranno Luigi Berzano (sociologo, Università di Torino), con una relazione dal titolo Una spiritualità post-secolare. Provocazioni per il credente, e Giovanni Trabucco (teologo, Facoltà teologica dell’Italia settentrionale-Milano) su Pensiero a-teologico e fede in Dio.
Per le scienze delle religioni la spiritualità è oggi, ancor più che religione, una categoria interpretativa delle profonde trasformazioni che la secolarizzazione continua a produrre sia nella scena pubblica che nella sfera personale degli individui. Nelle società contemporanee si moltiplicano nuove forme di spiritualità al di fuori delle grandi tradizioni religiose, con un distacco tra religioni organizzate e spiritualità individuali e con la sperimentazione di altri alfabeti del religioso.
In particolare, il sociologo Luigi Berzano, nel suo ultimo volume Spiritualità senza Dio? apre il nuovo campo di ricerca sulle spiritualità sia di individui che dichiarano di non appartenere a nessuna religione sia di individui che, pur appartenendo a una religione, hanno uno stile di vita che non discende dalla propria tradizione religiosa e vivono parte della loro vita come se Dio non ci fosse, nell’imitazione, spesso, di tendenze, mode, soggetti significativi, mass media. Questa prospettiva entrerà in dialogo con quella della teologia fondamentale, espressa da Giovanni Trabucco, nell’articolazione del nesso tra fede nel vangelo e verità dell’umano, che interroga l’esistenza nella sua ricerca di Dio, nella “perdita” della fede, nello stile di vita cristiano.
Per informazioni sul seminario, rivolto particolarmente ai docenti di spiritualità: tel. 049-8200711, email segreteria.spiritualita@fttr.it – www.itsad.it
Symposium: Art Approaching Science and Religion, 12 May 2016, Turku
We warmly welcome you to the symposium Art Approaching Science and
Religion, organized by the Donner Institute and the knowledge
laboratory AmosLAB. The symposium aims at bringing together the fields
of art, science and religion. The lectures are free of charge.
How can science and religion be explored from the perspective of the arts?
Thursday, 12 May 2016 at the Sibelius Museum
Biskopsgatan 17, Åbo/Turku, Finland
08.45 Opening of the Symposium
09.00 Kent Bloomer: “[The Greeks] called it KOSMOS which means ornament”
Response: Pauline von Bonsdorff
11.00 Melissa Raphael: The Creation of Beauty by its Destruction:
Idoloclasm in Modern and Contemporary Jewish Art
Response: Ruth Illman
12.30 Lunch (at own cost)
14.00 Serafim Seppälä: The Temple of Non-Being
Response: Catharina Raudvere
16.00 Mark C. Taylor: The Aesthetic Turn
Response: Esa Saarinen
17.30 Concluding remarks
Welcome!
Organizers: The Donner Institute, AmosLAB, The Hjelt Foundations
Symposium website: http://www.amoslab.fi/?page_id=214
The event on facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/1119482044782732
RSRC event – Islamophobia in Australia
Western Sydney University
School of Social Sciences and Psychology
Religion and Society Research Cluster
Islamophobia in Australia
The Religion and Society Research Cluster of the School of Social Sciences and Psychology present a symposium on Islamophobia in the Australian context.
Speakers: Emeritus Professor Riaz Hassan (University of SA), Professor Scott Poynting (University of Auckland), and Dr Jennifer Cheng and Dr Oishee Alam (Western Sydney University).
Discussant: Associate Prof Alana Lentin (Western Sydney University).
Date: Wednesday 11 May, 2016
Location: Bankstown Campus, BA: 3.G.55
Time: 10:00am – 17:00pm
Lunch and refreshments will be provided; please RSVP to a.nixon@westernsydney.edu.au with any dietary requirements.