Category Archives: Seminars

“The Diversity of Nonreligion” & NSRN Conference 2016, 7-9 July 2016

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CFP: Approaching Nonreligion: Conceptual, methodical, and empirical approaches in a new research field

For some years now, nonreligious phenomena have not only sparked public, but also scholarly attention. A rising number of scholars have begun to engage with both organized and non-organized forms of nonreligion. We want to use this conference to go beyond the discussion of terms and individual findings to facilitate exchange over different approaches, and engage with the following broader questions:

– What phenomena are approached in research projects on nonreligion and how is nonreligion construed in different studies?

– What are central theoretical references for studies on nonreligion, and in what way do scholars engage with related broader debates on religion and secularity?

– What are methodic and methodological challenges and approaches in concrete empirical research?

– What scientific traditions and sources of inspiration motivate and guide researchers in the field of nonreligion?

– In what ways is research on nonreligion entangled with religious-nonreligious contestations?

The conference brings together empirical research with conceptual and methodological reflection, as well as a self-reflexive perspective on the research field itself.

There will be room for both individual papers as well as prepared panels. We welcome scholarly contributions from different scientific fields. Please apply with either an abstract for an individual paper or a proposal for a thematic session (2-4 individual papers). Please name your institutional affiliation if possible. Please send your proposal (200-300 words) to: alexander.blechschmidt@uzh.ch

Deadline for proposals: January 15th 2016, Notification of acceptance: January 30th 2016

Department of Social Anthropology and Cultural Studies (ISEK), University of Zürich, Switzerland (http://www.isek.uzh.ch/index.html)

The Diversity of Nonreligion: Religious-Nonreligious Dynamics in the Contemporary World (http://www.nonreligion.net)

Nonreligion and Secularity Research Network (www.nsrn.net)

LES MUTATIONS DES SCIENCES SOCIALES DES RELIGIONS ET DES LAÏCITÉS 26-27 novembre 2015, À Paris Site Pouchet CNRS et Sorbonne

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Organisé par le Groupe Sociétés, Religions, Laïcités (UMR 8582 / EPHE-CNRS)

Le Groupe Sociétés, Religions, Laïcités a été créé en 1995, au sein de l’École pratique des hautes études et du Centre national de la recherche scientifique, en s’inscrivant dans la continuité du Groupe de Sociologie des Religions. Ses chercheurs travaillent sur les transformations du religieux et les questions relatives à la laïcité dans le monde contemporain. Son champ de compétences englobe de nombreuses aires culturelles. Le but de cet anniversaire est, en un moment bousculé par l’histoire, de présenter un panorama approfondi de la situation religieuse contemporaine, en accordant, à travers le thème de la laïcité, une place centrale à la question de la régulation de la diversité religieuse en France et ailleurs. En rappelant les acquis scientifiques de notre laboratoire, l’événement entend constituer un moment de référence dans la connaissance des phénomènes religieux et de la laïcité. Il marquera aussi la place que l’« école française » peut avoir dans le renouvellement, sur la scène internationale, des objets et des problématiques des sciences sociales des religions et de la laïcité.

http://gsrl.hypotheses.org/478

Symposium: Religion and the Global City

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A one-day symposium, sponsored by the Leverhulme Trust, the Department
of Religious Studies, and SSPSSR, University of Kent

10 am – 6 pm, Friday 11 September, The Common Room, Cathedral Lodge,
Canterbury

This symposium adopts a non-reductive stance in exploring city dynamics
of religious presence in global contexts. How do religious groups make
space and ‘take place’ in the global city? What kind of spatial models,
morphologies and ‘religeopolitics’ do they produce and adopt? To what
extent does religion contribute to the ‘hyper-diversity’ of
multicultural cityscapes? What kind of religious centralities and
peripheries are produced or reproduced in global cities?

The day will consist of four sessions:

  • Power, Visibility, and the Politics of Space
  • Centralities, Peripheries, and Religious Reterritorialisation
  • Religious Media, Publics, and Global Cultural Flows
  • Global Migration, Everyday Multiculturalism, and Religious Place-making

Phil Hubbard (University of Kent), John Eade (University of Roehampton),
Jeremy Carrette (University of Kent), and Paul-François Tremlett (Open
University) will be the discussants for the event.

The event is free, but spaces are limited. To register, please email the
event organisers, David Garbin (D.Garbin@kent.ac.uk) and Anna Strhan
(A.H.B.Strhan@kent.ac.uk).

For the full programme, please see the page here:
http://www.kent.ac.uk/secl/thrs/events/?eid=13555&view_by=month&date=20150904&category=&tag=religious

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Women negotiating secularism & multiculturalism through civil society organisations, Coventry University

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Registration open for: Women negotiating secularism and multiculturalism
through civil society organisations

Coventry University, 30th June – 1st July 2015

Sponsored by the International Society for the Sociology of Religion &
organised by Coventry University, Uppsala University, University of
Helsinki & the Centre for Social Studies, Lisbon.

The second of three workshops asking “Is secularism bad for women?
Women, Religion and Multiculturalism in contemporary Europe”, this
workshop will explore how European societies can secure religious
women’s freedom and flourishing. How can societies ensure both gender
equality and religious freedom, without sacrificing either? What
political arrangements offer the most to those who are religious and
female? Is religion an impediment to women’s freedom, or can it be a
force for social justice, and how should societies negotiate these issues?

This workshop approaches these questions by focusing on what women’s and
religious organisations are doing to address faith, gender, secularism
and multiculturalism. How do these differ by geography or faith group?
To what extent do faith-based organisations working for religious
inclusion in civil society press for gender equality? How do women’s
organisations approach religion, and do they consider religion to be an
equality issue alongside ethnicity, gender, sexuality or disability? How
are women’s faith-based organisations’ working across secular/religious
spheres and with other civil society organisations? How do
theological/hermeneutical approaches inform religious organisations’
work on gender and women’s issues?

Programme: Keynote lectures by Dr Line Nyhagen & Dr Niamh Reilly
https://womenreligionandsecularism.wordpress.com/coventry-university-keynote-speakers/.
Featuring 15 speakers (academic and from women’s organisations) from the
UK, Netherlands, USA, Mauritania, Belgium, Germany & Sweden. Topics
include: Muslim women’s organisations, Christian feminism, FGM,
non-religion & gender, Hindu nationalism, legal regulation of women’s
dress and new media and religion. Details via:
https://womenreligionandsecularism.wordpress.com/coventry-university-programme/

Practical information & how to register: Participation fee (includes
lunch & refreshments): £15 (standard), £10 (unwaged, PhD, post-doc or
civil society organizations). Details via:
https://womenreligionandsecularism.wordpress.com/coventry-university-practical-information/

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Oxford Symposium on Religious Studies,

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Invitation to the Oxford Symposium on Religious Studies, 2015, at the Old Library in the Oxford University Church of St Mary

We are pleased to invite you to participate in the Oxford Symposium on Religious Studies. You may register for the Summer Session (3, 4 & 5 August) or the Fall Session (7, 8 & 9 December). The meeting will be held at The Old Library in the Oxford University Church of St Mary.  Constructed in 1320, The Old Library is the first university (as opposed to college) building in Oxford and therefore uniquely important; this is where the nascent University began.

The sessions will be hosted by Canon Brian Mountford, Vicar of St Mary’s. Dr. Mountford is a Fellow and Chaplain of St Hilda’s College in the University of Oxford.

You are invited to present a paper on an aspect of religious studies, or you may wish to attend as an observer.

For more information visit our website Oxford Symposium on Religious Studies

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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.

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Open Seminar on the Role of Religion in Sweden, 1980-2009

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Welcome to an open seminar on the role of religion in Sweden 1980-2009, hosted by the research programmes Impact of Religion and The role of religion in the public sphere: A comparative study of the five Nordic countries (NOREL).

The research project NOREL presents the results from Sweden, April 15th, 14-17, followed by an informal reception 17-18, Uppsala Religion and Society Research Centre (CRS), room 4-2007.

Please register to info@crs.uu.se, no later than April 10th.

More information and program.

Välkommen på ett öppet och kostnadsfritt seminarium om religionens roll i Sverige, 1980-2009. Seminariet arrangeras av forskningsprogrammen Impact of Religion och NOREL, The role of religion in the public sphere: A comparative study of the five Nordic countries.

Vid seminariet presenteras och diskuteras  de svenska resultaten av NOREL-studien.

Tid: den 15 april, kl 14-17, följt av mingel 17-18 med dryck och lättare förtäring.

Plats: Centrum för forskning om religion och samhälle, sal 4-2007.

Anmälan senast den 10 april till info@crs.uu.se.

Mer information och program.

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Seminar: Islamic Modernities: Time and Space

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University of Louisville
Louisville, KY
April 16-17, 2015

Presented by:
Midwest Association for Middle East and Islamic Studies (MAMEIS)
Middle East and Islamic Studies program, University of Louisville

Keynote Speaker: Asma Afsaruddin, Chair and Professor, NELC, Indiana University

Full Conference Schedule: http://www.indstate.edu/mameis/conference.htm

The Midwest Association for Middle East and Islamic Studies and University of Louisville’s Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies program are pleased to present this joint conference on Islamic Modernities: Time and Space at the University of Louisville, April 16-17, 2015.

Modernity serves as a dynamic lens for viewing a wide range of transformations in Middle Eastern and Islamic societies, even as no generally accepted definition of modernity has yet emerged. The scholarly discussion on modernity has broadened to view this as not only a global, structural transformation centered on Europe, but a process that has created “many modernities,” each with its own local vernacular form. Moreover, modernity has been recognized as not only a temporal period, but also a process manifested in spatial relationships that shape, and are shaped by, historical agents. This conference will highlight current research related to theorizing and applying the concept of “modernity” to Middle East and Islamic studies in a broad, interdisciplinary manner.

For more information, contact:

James.Gustafson@indstate.edu, or Julie.Peteet@louisville.edu
MAMEIS: http://www.mameis.org
Middle East and Islamic Studies – University of Louisville:
http://www.louisville.edu/meis

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Seminar on religious transnationalism

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Date: Thursday 16 and Friday 17 April 2015

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

            De Boelelaan 1081, Amsterdam

Time: 9.00 a.m. till 5.00 p.m.

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, the 16th

“Seeing Transnationally: Religion and the Emergence of New Regimes of Visibility and Discipline”

Four panels ( Click here for the full program in PDF)

Transnational religious activism

Pilgrimage

Secular intolerance

Cosmopolitanism and religion

Admission is free. Please register with Heleen van der Linden: h.l.e.vander.linden@vu.nl

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Oxford Symposium on Religious Studies

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Invitation to the Oxford Symposium on Religious Studies, 2015, at the Old Library in the Oxford University Church Of St Mary

We are pleased to invite you to participate in the Oxford Symposium on Religious Studies. You may register for the Summer Session (3, 4 & 5 August) or the Fall Session ( 7, 8 & 9 December). The meeting will be held at The Old Library in the Oxford University Church Of St Mary.  Constructed in 1320, The Old Library is the first university (as opposed to college) building in Oxford and therefore uniquely important; this is where the nascent University began.

The sessions will be hosted by Canon Brian Mountford, Vicar of St Mary’s. Dr. Mountford is a Fellow and Chaplain of St Hilda’s College in the University of Oxford.

You are invited to present a paper on an aspect of religious studies, or you may wish to attend as an observer.

For more information visit our website Oxford Symposium on Religious Studies

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