Celebratory Conference: ‘Reimagining Difference: Being, thinking and practicing beyond essentialism’.

Posted on August 26, 2017 by Jim

The Centre for Religion, Conflict and the Public Domain at the University of Groningen is celebrating its five-year anniversary this year.

To mark the occasion, the Centre has organised an interdisciplinary conference 13-15 September 2017 – including journalism, anthropology, sociology, International relations, philosophy, gender studies, religious studies – with scholars, policymakers and practitioners from South Africa, Australia, the US, Zimbabwe, Denmark, Norway, the UK, Belgium and the Netherlands on the theme of ‘Reimagining Difference: Being, thinking and practicing beyond essentialism’.

Speakers include:

Prof Elizabeth Shakman Hurd, Northwestern University
Prof Ezra Chitando, University of Zimbabwe;
Dr Marie Juul Petersen, Danish Institute for Human Rights;
Dr Nadia Fadil, KU Leuven
Dr Luca Mavelli, University of Kent;
Ms Merete Bilde, European External Action Service;
Dr Elena Fiddian-Qasmiyeh, University College London;
Professor Ebenezer Obadare, Kansas University;
Dr Lisa LeRoux, Stellenbosch University;
Mr Klaus De-Rijk, Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Dr John Rees, University of Notre Dame Sydney;
Dr Atalia Omer, University of Notre Dame, South Bend.
Dr Maria de Lourdes Peroni, University of Ghent
Dr Helge Arsheim, University of Oslo
Mr Tim Dixon, Purpose Europe

There are two free public events:

Wednesday 13 September 6-8pm ‘Thinking Differently about Religion, Politics and Power’ – Keynote Address from Prof Elizabeth Shakman Hurd, Northwestern University, with response from Merete Bilde, Policy Advisor at the European External Action Service
Friday 15 September – 11:30am-1:30pm ‘Religion, Secularism and the Politics of Difference’ – Panel Discussion featuring Prof Yolande Jansen (UvA), Elisa di Benedetto, (International Association for Religion Journalists), Gabrielle Bustamante (The Hague University for Applied Sciences) and Joram Tarusarira (University of Groningen)

Registration for the whole conference is 60 euros including lunches, 30 euros for students. Partial registration is also available if you are unable to attend the full three days. You can register via this link: https://www.eventure-online.com/eventure/login.form?Pe2fad366-eab4-404d-b727-bb16eb2c8b5c

Event details are also available at the Centre’s Facebook Page.

Confrence: Religion(s) and Power(s)

Posted on May 13, 2017 by Hannah

Vytautas Magnus University, Kaunas, Lithuania
October 5-6, 2017

The Lithuanian Society for the Study of Religions in cooperation with Latvian Society for the Study of Religions and Estonian Society for the Study of Religions invites proposals for its upcoming international conference “Religion(s) and Power(s)”. To encourage new directions in the critical research of interrelations of religion(s) and power(s) from a broad range of approaches, we are seeking proposals on a wide range of topics including:

• Private and public religions

• Religions and politics

• Non-religion and power

• Religious inequalities and discrimination

• Religions, human rights and justice

• Powers of/within religions

• Religion and nationalism

• Mythology, divine kinship and power

• Religion and colonialism

,• Religions and education.

Other topics related to the conference theme are also encouraged.

Conference paper and session proposals must be sent by June 15, 2017. Please send your 250-300 word abstract and a 200-word personal bio to email: religiousstudieslt@gmail.com

Important conference dates:
June 15, 2017 – submission of conference paper and session proposals;
July 1, 2017 – notification of paper/session proposal acceptance;
July 1, 2017 – opening of registration for the conference;
August 15, 2017 – closing of registration for the conference;
September 1, 2017 – announcement of the conference program.

Conference Registration Fees:
–    Members of national associations of Baltic States associations for the study of religions – 50 EUR
–    Permanent/full-time faculty and non-affiliated participants – 80 EUR;
–    Graduate students and emeritus faculty – 50 EUR;
–    Late bird conference fee – 100 EUR.

Conference: Race, Power, and Moblities

Posted on May 13, 2017 by Hannah

ETMU Days, October 26–27, 2017

University of Jyväskylä, Finland

Race, Power and Mobilities

Welcome!

The 14th ETMU Days of 2017 will take place in Jyväskylä. This year’s theme “Race, Power, and Mobilities” hopes to break taboos around the word “race” with the intention of reclaiming it and drawing attention to processes of racialization, power, and movement as well as their intersections. On the one hand, in the Nordic countries previous studies on (im)migration and ethnicity, have mainly neglected or ignored questions of power. On the other hand, whiteness and critical race scholars have commonly analyzed power and racialization processes without foregrounding issues of mobilities. Therefore, we believe that in the study of migration and mobility there is an urgent need of scholarship that unites critical analyses of power and hierarchical structures with a focus on racialization.

The conference theme will be explored and illuminated by our invited keynote speakers:

· Kaarina Nikunen, University of Tampere, Finland

· Tobias Hübinette, Karlstad Universitet, Sweden

· Nando Sigona, University of Birmingham, UK

In addition, as another highlight of the 2017 ETMU Days, an invited panel organized in collaboration with the anti-racist RASTER research network will discuss practices and consequences of racialization.

We specifically invite working groups who examine social hierarchies and categories such as ethnicity, gender, sexuality, religion, language, geographical location, or physical dis/ability within the context of race, power, and mobilities.

We further welcome examinations of how descriptions of migration and ethnic relations are produced performatively. This includes, for instance, practices of racialization in media, education, work life, individual experiences, discourses or societal structures that are analyzed through the lenses of difference and power.

We look forward to a multidisciplinary event with much-needed discussions, for example on the status of refugees seeking asylum and undocumented migrants, legislations and policies, artistic mobility and cultural representations, racialized hate speech, and global impacts of migration.

The main languages of the ETMU Days are English, Finnish, Swedish and Finnish Sign Language. All keynotes will be presented in English. We encourage participants to use multilingual and visual resources in their presentations in order to enable multilingual and multidisciplinary discussions.

ETMU Days also organises a pre-conference seminar for doctoral students on October 25, 2017. More information about the pre-conference on our website before summer.

Submission Guidelines for Working Groups

We are inviting prospective working group convenors to submit a 300–400 words abstract for a working group theme to etmu2017@gmail.com. Prospective working group leaders are free to suggest relevant questions and topics to be discussed, not limited to the examples mentioned above. The convenors will be contacted by the June 16, 2017 and call for papers will be published on July 1, 2017.

Important dates and practicalities

· Deadline for working group submissions 31 May, 2017

· Length of working group abstracts: 300–400 words (including references)

· The notification of acceptance of working groups June 16, 2017

· Working group abstracts should be sent toetmu2017@gmail.com

· Call for papers starts July 1, 2017

· Call for papers ends August 31, 2017

· The notification of acceptance of papers, September 15, 2017

· Abstracts for working groups should be sent directly to convener(s) of the working groups

· Registration starts September 15, 2017

· Pre-conference for Ph.D. students October 25, 2017

· ETMU Days October 26–27, 2017

For any enquiries regarding ETMU Days, please contact: etmu2017@gmail.com

For fees, registration, updated news, please check our website: http://etmudays.etmu.fi/

The 2017 website will be launched later in May

We are on Twitter: @ETMU2017, #ETMU2017

We look forward to seeing you at ETMU Days!

Sincerely,

Local organising committee

Sari Pöyhönen & Tuija Saresma (co-chairs), Minna Nerg (secretary), Johanna Ennser-Kananen, Outi Fingerroos, David Hoffman, Karina Horsti, Katarzyna Kärkkäinen, Päivi Pirkkalainen, Miikka Pyykkönen, Maiju Strömmer, Sonya Sahradyan and Sanna-Mari Vierimaa.

ETMU-päivät 26.–27.10.2017

Jyväskylän yliopisto

Rotu, valta ja liikkuvuus

Tervetuloa!

Vuoden 2017 ETMU-päivät pidetään Jyväskylässä teemalla Rotu, valta ja liikkuvuus. Nostamme tabuksikin muuttuneen sanan ETMU-päivien teemaksi, sillä haluamme kiinnittää huomiota rodullistamisen prosesseihin sekä rodullistamisen, vallan ja liikkuvuuden kombinaatioihin. Kun pohjoismaisessa muuttoliiketutkimuksessa on tutkittu esimerkiksi maahanmuuttoa ja etnisyyttä, kysymykset vallasta ovat saattaneet jäädä vähemmälle huomiolle. Valkoisuuden ja kriittisen rotuteorian tutkijat taas ovat analysoineet tarkkanäköisesti vallan ja rodullistamisen prosesseja, mutta liikkuvuuden näkökulma on ollut taka-alalla. Valta, hierarkkiset erot ja rodullistaminen liittyvät kuitenkin kiinteästi liikkuvuuden tutkimukseen. Näihin teemoihin pureutuvat ETMU-päivien kutsutut puhujat

– Kaarina Nikunen, Tampereen yliopisto
– Tobias Hübinette, Karlstad Universitet, Ruotsi
– Nando Sigona, University of Birmingham, Iso-Britannia

Rodullistamisen käytänteitä ja seurauksia käsitellään myös paneelissa, jonka järjestämme yhdessä antirasistisen RASTER-tutkimusverkoston kanssa.

Kutsumme ETMU-päiville työryhmiä, joissa rotua, valtaa ja liikkuvuutta tarkastellaan yhteydessä muihin hierarkkisiin eroihin ja sosiaalisiin kategorioihin, kuten etnisyyteen, sukupuoleen, seksuaalisuuteen, uskontoon, kieleen, maantieteelliseen sijaintiin tai ruumiilliseen kyvykkyyteen. Toivotamme myös tervetulleeksi analysoimaan sitä, miten muuttoliikettä ja etnisiä suhteita koskevia kuvauksia ja tietoa tuotetaan performatiivisesti. Esimerkiksi mediassa, koulutuksessa ja työelämässä yksittäisten kokemusten, diskurssien ja yhteiskunnan rakenteiden tasoilla tapahtuvia rodullistamisen käytäntöjä voi analysoida erojen ja vallan näkökulmasta.

Toivomme ETMU-päivien virittävän monitieteistä keskustelua esimerkiksi turvapaikanhakijoiden ja paperittomien asemasta, lainsäädännöstä, liikkuvuuden taiteellisista ja kulttuurisista representaatioista, rodullistavasta vihapuheesta ja muuttoliikkeen globaaleista vaikutuksista.

ETMU-päivien viralliset kielet ovat englanti, suomi, ruotsi ja suomalainen viittomakieli. Kaikki keynote-esitelmät pidetään englanniksi. Kannustamme esiintyjiä käyttämään monikielisiä ja visuaalisia keinoja, jotta monitieteinen ja monikielinen keskustelu olisi mahdollista.

ETMU-päivät järjestää seminaarin jatko-opiskelijoille 25.10.2017. Lisätietoa seminaarista ETMU-päivien verkkosivuilla ennen kesää.

Kutsu työryhmille

Kutsumme työryhmien vetäjiä tarjoamaan 300–400 sanan abstraktin työryhmästä osoitteeseen etmu2017@gmail.com. Työryhmän vetäjät voivat ehdottaa aiheita, jotka ovat konferenssin teeman kannalta relevantteja tai jotka muutoin liittyvät etnisten suhteiden ja kansainvälisen muuttoliikkeen tutkimukseen. Työryhmän hyväksymisestä ilmoitetaan vetäjille 16.6.2017 mennessä, ja esitelmäkutsu työryhmiin julkaistaan 1.7.2017.

Tärkeät päivämäärät ja ohjeet:

· Työryhmäesitysten viimeinen lähetyspäivä31.5.2017

· Työryhmäesitysten pituus 300–400 sanaa (mukaan lukien viitteet)

· Työryhmäesitykset lähetetään osoitteeseenetmu2017@gmail.com

· Työryhmien vetäjille ilmoitetaan hyväksymisestä 16.6.2017

· Abstraktikutsu työryhmiin julkaistaan 1.7.2017

· Abstraktikutsu työryhmiin päättyy 31.8.2017

· Abstraktien tarjoajille ilmoitetaan hyväksymisestä 15.9.2017

· Abstraktit lähetetään suoraan työryhmän vetäjälle

· Rekisteröityminen alkaa 15.9.2017

· Jatko-opiskelijoiden seminaari 25.9.2017

· ETMU-päivät 26.–27.10.2017

Kaikissa ETMU-päiviä koskevissa kysymyksissä ota yhteyttä: etmu2017@gmail.com

Maksut, rekisteröityminen, uutiset, ETMU-päivien verkkosivut: http://etmudays.etmu.fi/ (avataan myöhemmin toukokuussa)

Olemme myös Twitterissä: @ETMU2017,#ETMU2017

Call for Papers: Islam in America: Civic and Religious Youth Identities

Posted on May 4, 2017 by Hannah

Respect Graduate School

Inaugural Conference

“Islam in America: Civic and Religious Youth Identities”

October 21-22, 2017

Bethlehem, PA 18017

** NOW ACCEPTING PAPERS **

Please join us for an exciting and multi-faceted academic conference on Islam in America. Respect Graduate School’s Inaugural Conference will examine the issues at the intersections of religious and civic identities among Muslim American youth. Hear fascinating and insightful papers spanning theory as well as practice, academic discourse and community involvement. Dr. Ingrid Mattson will deliver the Keynote Address. Dr. Mattson’s work focuses on Qur’anic interpretation, Muslim ethics, environmental responsibility, women and family law, as well as interfaith activism. Join us for stimulating panels, networking opportunities, delicious meals and our local vendors’ bazaar (on-site).

Links for Conference Webpage:

Call for papers
Conference Schedule (coming soon, by August)
Online Registration
- Online Registration – $15 if you register by August 15, 2017, $18 after August 15
- On-site Registration – $20
HOTELS – Conference rate available at nearby Homewood Suites. Click here to make a reservation.

VIth Open Conference of the Section on Sociology of Religion, German Sociological Association, 7th – 9th December 2017

Posted on May 3, 2017 by Colin

Conference Venue: St. Bernhard in Rastatt (near Karlsruhe) / GERMANY

Sociological research on religion is empirically and thematically diverse.
Since the classical authors, religion has been identified as a mirror and
as a place of social change. With its integrative and contentious
potentials, as well as its continuities and discontinuities, religion is
also currently a central object of sociological interest; it allows an
exemplary reflection on social processes of transformation and
stabilisation. This leads to multifaceted research on religious realities,
both in European societies and in other world regions. In order to
highlight the relations between religion and society, the Section on
Sociology of Religion in the German Sociological Association (DGS)
invites scholars to its VIth Open Conference, to present diverse,
empirically and theoretically oriented contributions from a sociology of
religion perspective.

Research themes may concern institutional conditions and organisational
forms of religious practice, religious knowledge and beliefs, the
configuration of power relations in the religious field, religious gender
relations, processes of professionalisation or the diversification of
religiosity towards popular religion and spiritualisation, religious
movements, emotions and ritual forms or religious biographies, the
negotiation of religious practices and identities in migration contexts or
the representation of religiosity in the public sphere. Contributions to
varying topics and areas are very welcome. A special focus of the
conference is on methodological questions; several panels will be reserved
for the discussion of this issue. The conference offers the opportunity to
present and discuss different theoretical perspectives and empirical
approaches (quantitative and qualitative) – and to network.The conference
welcomes the presentation of current research projects and the discussion
of topics that do not fit into the thematically focused events of the
section. Junior scholars are particularly invited to submit abstracts. The
primary language of the conference is German, however English papers are
very welcome.

Deadline: Please submit abstracts of 250 words (in .doc or .pdf format)
by May, 31st 2017 to the three organisers listed below:

Marc Breuer, Katholische Hochschule NRW, Paderborn, m.breuer@katho-nrw.de

Uta Karstein, Universität Leipzig, karstein@uni-leipzig.de

Kornelia Sammet, Universität Leipzig, sammet@uni-leipzig.de

Call for Applications: “Religion, Culture, and Society: Entanglement and Confrontation”

Posted on April 26, 2017 by Hannah

The 2017 UCSIA summer school is a one-week course taking place from Sunday 27^th of August until Saturday 2^nd of September 2017. This year the program will focus on the topic ‘Between Market, State and Religion: Economic Realities, Social Justice & Faith Traditions’

Topic:

This year, the central aim of the UCSIA summer school is to reflect upon the evolutions of economic markets interacting with specific political and socio-religious contexts through time and space. The focus is put upon the ways in which socio-economic evolutions such as globalization, the historical rise of capitalist economies and the idea of the self-regulating market interact with and affect socio-religious and cultural normative frameworks on both the level of governmental policy, economic stakeholders and the individual household. The present call invites paper proposals in which the broad topic of economic realities interacting with social contexts and faith traditions will be discussed from a diverse line of approach, clustered around following subthemes:

§ Globalization, economic imperialism, and social justice

§ Religious communities and economic values and production

§ Capitalism under construction: appropriation of capitalist producing and consuming

Guest lecturers are Prof. Dr. Jennifer Olmsted(Department of Economics and Middle East Studies at Drew University), Prof. Dr. Mayfair Yang (Department of Religious Studies and Department of East Asian Languages & Cultural Studies, University of California, Santa Barbara), Dr. David Henig (School of Anthropology & Conservation, University of Kent, UK) and Prof. Dr. Paul Oslington (Alphacrusis College, Sydney, Australia)

Practical details:

Participation and stay for young scholars and researchers are free of charge. Participants should pay for their own travel expenses to Antwerp.

You can submit your application via the electronic submission form on the summer school website.The completed file, as well as all other required application documents, must be submitted to the UCSIA Selection Committee not later thanSunday 14^th of May 2017.

For further information regarding the program and application procedure, please have a look at our website: www.ucsia.org/summerschool.

Please help us to distribute this call for applications among Ph.D. students and postdoctoral scholars who might be interested in applying for this summer school.

For all further information, do not hesitate to contact us at the address below.

Contact:

Ellen Decraene

Project Manager UCSIA

Prinsstraat 14

2000 Antwerp – Belgium

Tel: +32/3/265.45.99

Fax: +32/3/707.09.31

Call for Applications: “Religion, Culture, and Society: Entanglement and Confrontation”

Posted on April 26, 2017 by Hannah

Topic:

§ Globalization, economic imperialism, and social justice

§ Religious communities and economic values and production

§ Capitalism under construction: appropriation of capitalist producing and consuming

Practical details:

Participation and stay for young scholars and researchers are free of charge. Participants should pay for their own travel expenses to Antwerp.

For further information regarding the program and application procedure, please have a look at our website: www.ucsia.org/summerschool.

Please help us to distribute this call for applications among Ph.D. students and postdoctoral scholars who might be interested in applying for this summer school.

For all further information, do not hesitate to contact us at the address below.

Contact:

Ellen Decraene

Project Manager UCSIA

Prinsstraat 14

2000 Antwerp – Belgium

Tel: +32/3/265.45.99

Fax: +32/3/707.09.31

Call for Papers: ISA Research Committee on the Sociology of Religion (RC22)

Posted on April 26, 2017 by Hannah

XIX ISA World Congress of Sociology

Power, Violence, and Justice: Reflections, Responses, and Responsibilities

Toronto, Canada, July 15-21, 2018

RESEARCH COMMITTEE 22: SOCIOLOGY OF RELIGION

Religion, Power, and Resistance: New Ideas for a Divided World

Program Coordinators:

Anna Halafoff, Deakin University, Australia

Sam Han, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

Caroline Starkey, University of Leeds, UK

Current environmental, economic, social, and political challenges indicate that people are losing faith in existing power structures and mechanisms for coping with crises. This creates increasingly divided societies, riven by ideological battles for the future of the human and the more than human world. Religion has a place in this picture. Not only is it often a source of divisions; it can also be a source for alternative means of addressing them.

These divisions take new and as yet unclear shapes, which sociologists are only now beginning to comprehend. It is not enough to refer to the struggle between ‘tradition’ and ‘modernity’, terms that dominated sociology through the 1970s. Nor do the tropes ‘colonialism vs. anti-colonialism’ and the ‘clash of civilizations’ adequately explain what is going on. Nor, arguably, does ‘populism vs neo-liberalism’ fully capture such things as the recent clashes between cosmopolitan and anticosmopolitan actors in the major Western democracies. Each of these has a piece of the picture; none of them captures it all.

What is religion’s role in this situation: as a creator of divisions, as a locus of power, and as a ground of resistance? How does religion influence our divided societies? How is religion influenced in turn?

We invite paper abstract submissions for the following RC22 sessions:

Religion and National Identity

Religion and Secularity

Religion and Non-Violent Social Movements

Religion, Gender and Family Violence

Religion in the East Asian Public Sphere

Religion in the Public Square

Social Theory and Religion

Religion and Migration: Contrasting First and Second Generations

Dynamics of Gender, Religion, and Intersectionality

Prejudice, Exclusion, and Violence in a Transnational World

Media and Religious Radicalization: Gatekeeping and the Construction of Extremism

Gender, Feminism, and Islam and the West

Candlelight Revolution and Religion in South Korea

Religious Texts of Diversity Vs Exclusion

We will also be including the following invited sessions in our RC22 program:

Presidential Address: Whither the Sociology of Religion? (Invited Session)

Session Organizer: James SPICKARD, University of Redlands, USA

Religion and Diversity: An International Study (Invited Session)

Session Organizer: Lori BEAMAN, University of Ottawa, Canada

Diffused Religion. Beyond Secularization – Author Meets Critic Session (Invited Session)

Session Organizer: Roberto CIPRIANI, University Roma Tre, Italy

The Case for an Indeterminate Sociological Theory of Religion (Invited Session)

Session Organizer: Tak-ling WOO, York University, Canada

The ISA CONFEX website site is now accepting paper abstracts between 25 April and 30 September 2017 24:00 GMT.

https://isaconf.confex.com/isaconf/wc2018/webprogrampreliminary/Symposium459.html

Please address any questions to the Program Coordinators:

Anna Halafoff: anna.halafoff@deakin.edu.au

Sam Han: HanSam@ntu.edu.sg

Caroline Starkey: C.Starkey@leeds.ac.uk