Category Archives: Seminars

Open seminar on the role of religion in Sweden 1980-2009

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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.

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.
  • **********************

Ulrika Öster

Informatör/Information officer

Centrum för forskning om religion och samhälle/ Uppsala Religion and Society Research Centre

Uppsala universitet

The post Open seminar on the role of religion in Sweden 1980-2009 appeared first on ISA Research Committee 22.

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.

The post Call for Papers ISLAMIC RELIGIOUS PRACTICE IN THE U.S. appeared first on ISA Research Committee 22.

Registration Now Open: INFORM Autumn Seminar: “Minority Religions and Schooling”

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INFORM Autumn Seminar

Minority Religions and Schooling

Date – Saturday, 6 December 2014; 9.30am – 4.45pm
Location – New Academic Building, London School of Economics

‘State multiculturalism has failed’, declared David Cameron in 2011.  Yet there is a continued expansion in state-funded religious schooling in Britain. This expansion has gone hand-in-hand with legal rulings that have placed minority religions on stronger footing next to the more established faiths. After exponential growth of Academies operating outside of local authority control since 2000, and three years after the first Free Schools opened their doors (a programme which has assisted the expansion of a diversity of faith-based schools), it is a good opportunity to take stock and reflect on the nature of minority faith schooling in Britain.

Speakers include:

  • Farid Panjwani (Director of the Centre for Research and Evaluation in Muslim Education at the Institute of Education, University of London) “Muslims and Faith Schools: identity and social aspiration in a minority religion”
  • Ozcan Keles (Chairperson of the Dialogue Society) “Fethullah Gulen-inspired Hizmet Schools from an Alumnus: basics, characteristics and critique”
  • Nitesh Gor (Chief Executive, Avanti Schools Trust) “Inclusivity and Fidelity”
  • Jonny Scaramanga (Doctoral student at the Institute of Education) “The History of Accelerated Christian Education in the United Kingdom”
  • Richy Thompson (Campaigns Officer (Faith Schools and Education), British Humanist Association) “A Humanist Perspective on Minority Religions and Schooling”
  • and others.

Registration is now open and can be done using a credit/debit card through PayPal or by posting a booking form and a cheque payable to ‘Inform’ to Inform, Houghton St., London WC2A 2AE. Tickets (including buffet lunch, coffee and tea) paid by 10 November 2014 are £38 each (£18 students/unwaged).

Tickets booked after 10 November 2014 will cost £48 each (£28 students/unwaged).  A limited number of seats will be made available to A-Level students at £10 before 10 November 2014 (£20 after 10 November). 

Please access the attached hyperlink for an important electronic communications disclaimer: http://lse.ac.uk/emailDisclaimer

The post Registration Now Open: INFORM Autumn Seminar: “Minority Religions and Schooling” appeared first on ISA Research Committee 22.

INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM: BRINGING THE SOCIAL BACK INTO THE SOCIOLOGY OF RELIGION

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Friday 2 May 2014, Queen’s University Belfast (Senate Room)

09.00 – 09.30 Welcome and introduction by symposium organisers

Véronique Altglas, Eric Morier-Genoud and Matthew Wood

09.30 – 10.45 Understanding Faiths and Theologies

Christophe Monnot (University of Lausanne, Switzerland)

Does being a good sociologist of religion mean being a specialist in a specific faith?

Gwendoline Malogne-Fer (Groupe Sociétés, Religions, Laïcités, CNRS, France)

Protestant churches and the ‘marriage for all’: ‘theological’ criteria and the sociological approach

10.45 – 11.15 Break for refreshments

11.15 – 12.30 Understanding Mysticism and Spirituality

Alix Philippon (Institut d’Études Politiques d’Aix-en-Provence, CHERPA, France)

Essentialization, idealization and vilification: a reassessment of axiological neutrality in the sociological study of ‘mystical’ and ‘political’ Islam in Pakistan

Véronique Altglas (Queen’s University Belfast, UK)

Spirituality and discipline: not a contradiction in terms

12.30 – 13.30 Lunch

13.30 – 14.30 Ethnographic film: Laatoo: Dance and Spirituality in Pakistan

Directed by Alix Philippon and Faizaan Peerzada (2003)

14.30 – 15.45 Understanding Emotions and Behaviours

Yannick Fer (Groupe Sociétés, Religions, Laïcités, CNRS, France)

Studying religious emotions as a social fact: from pre-notions to the (re)shaping of a sociological object

Matthew Wood (Queen’s University Belfast, UK)

Congregational studies, worship, and region behaviour

15.45 – 16.15 Break for refreshments

16.15 – 17.30 Understanding Mission and Secularisation

Eric Morier-Genoud (Queen’s University Belfast, UK)

Reverse mission? A critical approach

Christopher Bunn (University of Glasgow, UK)

Foucault’s neglected secularisation: new pastoralism, confession and messianic managerialism

17.30 – 18.45 Ethnographic film: Bread or Coconut: Moorea and the Two Traditions

Directed by Yannick Fer and Gwendoline Malogne-Fer (2010)

18.45 – 19.00 Closing remarks

 

Registration is free (includes lunch) but must be booked before 11 April 2014:

please contact Véronique Altglas (v.altglas@qub.ac.uk)

Research Methods for the Study of Contemporary Religion; a training programme organised by the University of Kent

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RESEARCH METHODS FOR THE STUDY OF CONTEMPORARY RELIGION AN INTENSIVE TRAINING PROGRAMME

Centre for Religion and Contemporary Society, University of Kent
18-22 February 2013

This training programme is available for doctoral students registered at any higher education institution in the UK/EU. It is based on previous training developed by the Centre for Religion and Contemporary Society, funded by the AHRC, which led to the development of the Religion Methods website (www.kent.ac.uk/religionmethods), and aims to provide students with a core training in fieldwork approaches to the study of religion.

Topics covered by the training will include:
· Conceptualising religion for research
· Key elements and processes of research design
· The role of theory in social research
· The politics and ethics of research
· Sampling
· Rigour and validity in research
· Using quantitative data-sets for research on religion
· Ethnographic approaches in theory and practice
· Visual methods
· Developing research interviews
· Using qualitative data analysis software
· Researching objects and spaces
· Producing research proposals

To attend this training programme, students not registered at the University of Kent will be required to pay a £100 registration fee, which would cover attendance at all sessions and the costs of training materials. Delegates would need to make their own arrangements for accommodation, and there is a wide selection of affordable B&B provision in the Canterbury area. For those planning to commute on a daily basis, Canterbury is now less than an hour from London St Pancras on the high speed train link.

Space on the programme is limited and the deadline to register your interest to attend this programme is Thursday 13 December. To register your interest, please email Lois Lee (l.a.lee@kent.ac.uk) with a short statement outlining the university at which you are currently registered, the focus and method of your doctoral project and the stage of the project you are currently at.