Pilgrimage and Sacred Places in Central and Eastern Europe: Place, Politics and Religious Tourism

Pilgrimage and Sacred Places in Central and Eastern Europe: Place, Politics and Religious Tourism
University of Zadar, Croatia
27-30 September 2012

John Eade (University College London and University of Roehampton), Mario Katic (University of Zadar, Department of Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology), Božena Krce Miocic (University of Zadar, Department of Tourism and Communication Sciences) and Tomislav Klarin (University of Zadar, Department of Tourism and Communication Sciences)

Call for Papers

With the global expansion of travel and tourism more and more people are engaged in what can be broadly described as religious tourism. According to the UNWTO, for example, in 2008 300 million tourists claimed that their trips were motivated in one way or another by religion. Pilgrimage plays a key role in such religious tourism and it is now attracting the attention of a wide variety of experts, e.g. religious leaders, those involved in the travel and tourism industry and academic researchers.

Theoretical debates are moving beyond earlier communitas and contestation models and a more global reach is emerging as researchers explore beyond W. Europe and the Americas, examine the increasing religious diversity caused by global migration and investigate the intimate, historic links between pilgrimage, sacred places, politics and tourism. In this conference we want to contribute to this widening focus by bringing together academics from different disciplines and travel and tourism professionals to explore pilgrimage across Eastern Europe broadly conceived as extending beyond W. Europe. In this way we seek to look at different religious traditions, e.g. Orthodox, Catholic and Muslim, and territorial ties (local, national, transnational, global).

We invite papers which will explore:

• Construction and deconstruction of sacred places
• Embodied spaces and body as a mediator
• Pilgrimage as a form of religious tourism
• Relationship between travel and tourism industry
• Pilgrimage and territorial boundaries
• Politics and Pilgrimage in the past and today
• Pilgrimage in memories and narratives
• Tourist ab/use of pilgrimage and sacred places
• Tourist perspectives on the pilgrimage journey
• Secular pilgrimage and tourism
• The realm of pilgrimage / tourism experience

Keynote speakers:

Josef Langer, University of Klagenfurt
Glenn Bowman, University of Kent
John Eade, University College London/University of Roehampton

Program committee:

Josef Langer (University of Klagenfurt), Glenn Bowman (University of Kent), John Eade (University College London/University of Roehampton), Jurica Pavicic (Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Zagreb), Nikša Alfirevic (Faculty of Economics, University of Split), Marijana Belaj (Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb), Božena Krce Miocic (Department of Tourism and Communication Sciences, University of Zadar), Mario Katic (Department of Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology, University of Zadar).

Submission details:

Abstracts (up to 350-words in Word doc.), with contact details and affiliation, should be sent to the conference E-mail address (pilgrimageandsacred@gmail.com), or to Božena Krce Miocic (krceb@unizd.hr) or Mario Katic (makatic@unizd.hr) by 1th May 2012.
You will be informed about acceptance or non-acceptance of your proposal by 15th May 2012.

Conference participation fees
Participation fee is € 50
The participation fee includes all symposium proceedings, daytime refreshments, excursions to the Croatian royal city and a pilgrimage place of Nin, and tourist guidance through Zadar.

Accommodation and website

Accommodation is not included in the conference fee. Further information about travel, accommodation and conference program will be available on the conference website: www.pilgrimageandsacred.info