News from the American Sociological Association’s Section on Religion

  • JOB ANNOUNCEMENTS
  • UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA at CHAPEL HILL
  • REMINDER: 2021 ASA ANNUAL MEETING & RELIGION SECTION DAY
  • GRADUATE STUDENT MENTORING – STAY TUNED
  • NEWSLETTER & @ASA_RELIGION TWITTER ANNOUNCEMENTS

JOB ANNOUNCEMENTS – UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA at CHAPEL HILL

Tenure-Track Assistant Professor – University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill – ASA Job ID 16552

  • The Department of Sociology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is pleased to participate in the following search for a tenure-track assistant professor:
  • Assistant Professor of Sociology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill: https://unc.peopleadmin.com/postings/184289
  • Please pass these links along to potential candidates; thank you! For questions about the search, please email Jennifer Eissing, Department of Sociology, at: eissingj@email.unc.edu
  • Applications will be considered until the position is filled, but our review of applications will begin on November 9, 2020.

Postdoc – University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill – ASA Job ID 16557

  • The Department of Sociology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is pleased to participate in the following search for a postdoctoral research fellow:
  • The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Postdoctoral Program for Faculty Diversity: https://research.unc.edu/carolina-postdocs/applicants/
  • Please pass these links along to potential candidates; thank you! For questions about the search, please email Jennifer Eissing, Department of Sociology, at: eissingj@email.unc.edu
  • Deadline for submission is November 16, 2020.
  • *Note: We welcome more job announcements. Per ASA policy, academic jobs advertised through our listserv include ASA job bank ID.

REMINDER: 2021 ASA ANNUAL MEETING & RELIGION SECTION DAY

Plans for the 116th ASA Annual Meeting in Chicago, August 7-10, 2021 continue. Note that ASA’s online portal will open for submissions on Monday, November 9, 2020. The submission deadline is Wednesday, February 3, 2021 at 11:59 p.m. Eastern.

Sociology of Religion Section Sessions are assigned to Day 4, Tuesday, August 10th. Since this is the last day of the meeting, our section receives an additional session for papers.

The section’s Program Committee consists of colleagues with an array of expertise. In hopes of adequately diversifying the scholarship featured this year, we are issuing an OPEN call for all Religion Section sessions and roundtables, while asking that session organizers for each of our sessions pay particular attention to themes which I believe are of particular significance to the study of religion today as follows:

  • Session: Sociology of Religion OPEN (preference for papers on gender & sexuality) Session
    Organizers: Jonathan Coley and Courtney Irby
  • Session: Sociology of Religion OPEN (preference for papers on cross-national or international dynamics)
    Session Organizers: Gary Adler and Rachel Rinaldo
  • Session: Sociology of Religion OPEN (preference for papers on the State or power dynamics)
    Session Organizer: Meredith Whitnah and Rhys Williams
  • Session: Sociology of Religion OPEN (preference for papers on non-religious dynamics or nones)
    Session Organizers: Joseph Blankholm and Jacqui Frost
  • Refereed Roundtables: Sociology of Religion Roundtables OPEN
    Session Organizers: Orestes Pat Hastings and Laura Krull

Our annual Sociology of Religion Section Business Meeting will convene immediately after the Roundtable Session.

Also, the Religion Section anticipates partnering again with the concurrent meetings of the Association for the Sociology of Religion also in Chicago. For example, we plan to again co-host a joint mentoring session for graduate students as well as a joint evening reception. More details as they are available.

GRADUATE STUDENT MENTORING – STAY TUNED

Our ASA Sociology of Religion Section is making plans to offer opportunities for Graduate Student Mentoring in the coming year. Stay tuned for details as they emerge.

NEWSLETTER & ASA RELIGION TWITTER ANNOUNCEMENTS

If you have newsletter items – Announcements, Awards, Promotions, Publications, Calls for Submissions, Job Listings (with ASA Job Bank ID), and other relevant material, please email Evan Stewart at Evan.Stewart@umb.edu.

If you have anything you would like to share in future announcement emails, please email me – gemarti@davidson.edu.

Gerardo Martí, PhD
L. Richardson King Professor of Sociology, Davidson College
https://www.davidson.edu/people/gerardo-marti

Humour and Religion Network

Dear friends and colleagues,

We are delighted to launch the Humour and Religion Network aiming to bring together and connect both scholars and practitioners who work at the intersections of humour and religion.

This is a niche but growing area of research and practice exploring in different ways the multifaceted links between humour and religion. Here are a few examples:

The Humour and Religion Network aims to foster the exchange of ideas and forge interdisciplinary and international collaborations between humanities researchers and social scientists; interfaith leaders and social action stakeholders; as well as comedians and humourists, who all share a common interest in cross-cutting issues at the intersections of humour, satire and comedy, with religion, faith and belief. Some of the themes that may be of particular interest to the members of this Network include:

  • – Humour about religion in the context of blasphemy/free speech
  • – Humour and religion in popular culture
  • – Laughter and interfaith engagement
  • – Humour traditions in different religions
  • – Practices and lineages of religious humour, past and present
  • – Scriptural humour
  • – Philosophies and theories of religious humour
  • – Social science approaches to humour and religion

As part of this initiative, we are also aiming to eventually build a public archive of works by scholars who have published on humour and religion in the last 15-20 years. Our goal is to create a comprehensive, organised and searchable open archive of the study of humour and religion, which we hope will become a port of call for anyone interested in past and ongoing research projects and practical work at the intersections of humour and religion. It will be an ongoing work-in-progress.

The Network will further serve as a portal for discussion and information exchange about humour and religion, including calls for papers and upcoming conferences publications, public events, comedy work and the like.

To become a member (recommended!) you can simply register with Yahoo Groups and ask to join the Network by going to: https://groups.yahoo.com/humour-religion

In case you only want to receive e-mails from group members, you can send an e-mail from your personal account to: humour-religion-subscribe@yahoogroups.com and confirm the electronic response.

We look forward to hearing from you!

Roald Dijkstra, Ph.D.         

Lina Molokotos-Liederman, Ph.D.           

Bernard Schweizer, PhD

ICSOR NEWSLETTER (2/2018)

image.png

May-August 2018: Study Visits

The ICSOR hosted at its headquarters two scholars: Nanlai Cao of the Renmin University of Beijing and Renée de la Torre of the Centro de Investigación y Estudios Superiores en Antropología Social (Mexico). The two scholars have stayed in Rome for visiting studies, participation in national and international conferences, bibliographic and field research. The ICSOR has always encouraged these activities by providing its headquarters for short and long stays and promoting exchanges and relationships between scholars, academics and researchers. In the coming months the ICSOR will open its doors to Cristián Parker, Vice Rector of the University of Santiago de Chile.

August 2018: International Summer School on Religions

On the occasion of the XXV Edition of the International Summer School on Religions organized by CISRECO and held in San Gimignano and Tavarnelle Val di Pesa (Italy) from 22 to 25 August 2018, the ICSOR has provided 3 scholarships for 3 young researchers: Martina Lippolis, Davide N. Carnevale and Cecilia Galera.

As in previous editions of the Summer School, a space has been dedicated exclusively to young researchers and promoted and maintained by the Section of Sociology of Religion of the Italian Association of Sociology, in collaboration with the EPOS Agency and the ICSOR. The Sociology of Religion Section has offered 2 scholarships and the EPOS Agency 4.

The young scholars presented their research and discussed it with the scholars, teachers, experts and academics.

Renée de la Torre, guest of the ICSOR, also took part in the Summer School of San Gimignano with her paper.

SECOND EDITION OF THE SAFSOR, SCHOOL OF HIGHER EDUCATION IN SOCIOLOGY OF RELIGION

After the success of the first edition, the ICSOR has organized, in cooperation with the Section of Sociology of Religion of the AIS and as part of its research and training activities, the SCHOOL OF HIGHER EDUCATION IN SOCIOLOGY OF RELIGION (SAFSOR) to be held at its headquarters, in Viale delle Milizie 108, in Rome, from 19 to 21 December 2018.

The School intends to offer a particularly thorough and updated preparation specifically aimed at scholars of sociological disciplines who want to improve their theoretical, methodological, empirical and applicative knowledge in the field of research on religious phenomena.

The participation to the SAFSOR is foreseen for graduates and professionals with a university degree of at least four years in the disciplines of social sciences, for a maximum of 15 students, which can be increased to 20.

At the end of the activities of SAFSOR the ICSOR will issue a Certificate of Attendance and Participation. Attendance is free of charge, while travel and accommodation expenses will be borne by the participants.

Also for this edition, the SAFSOR will cover the areas of sociological theories, methodology and techniques, qualitative and quantitative empirical research.

The SAFSOR call can be consulted and downloaded at: http://www.icsor.it/blog/bando-safsor-2018/

The detailed programme can be consulted and downloaded at: http://www.icsor.it/blog/programma-safsor-scuola-di-alta-formazione-in-sociologia-della-religione-2018/

Registration is open until September 29.

ICSOR – Application for Membership

You can download the application to join the ICSOR from http://www.icsor.it/blog/icsor-domanda-di-adesione/. The application must be completed, signed and sent to rciprian@uniroma3.it

Please note that the ordinary fee is € 10 to be paid by bank transfer to INTERNATIONAL CENTER FOR THE SOCIOLOGY OF RELIGION – IBAN: IT57R052160322900000000015096

The Junior registration, provided for those who have a maximum age of 39 years, is free. 

ISCOR Newsletter

Number 1, 2017

Editors: Katiuscia Carnà, Nicolamaria Coppola

January 2017

ICSOR, International Center for the Sociology of Religion, was founded in Rome in January 2017. On the 5th January 2017, ICSOR’s Board of Directors – convened via computer – made the following appointments:

  • Secretary and Delegate of the Board of Scientific Advisors: Cecilia Costa
  • Treasurer: Maria Mansi
  • President: Roberto Cipriani

Katiuscia Carnà and Nicolamaria Coppola were co-opted as members of the Board. Professor Franco Ferrarotti is Honorary President of ICSOR. Professor José Casanova chairs the International Board of Advisors.

On the 26th January 2017, beginning at 6 pm, at the ICSOR headquarters in Rome, viale delle Milizie 108, the Institute officially began its activities with a paper by Professor Emanuela C. Del Re, sociologist of religion, Professor of the Sociology of Middle-Eastern Political Phenomena and of the Sociology of Cultural Processes, expert in Geopolitics and National Coordinator of the Italian Association of Sociology, AIS’s National Section the Sociology of Religion. Her paper was entitled: “Yazidi e minoranze religiose in Medio Oriente” [Yazidi and religious minorities in the Middle East]. A documentary made by Professor Del Re in the KRG entitled La festa negata [The feast denied] was screened. This film is available on Youtube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b01BXvxoK28

In October 2013, Professor Emanuela Del Re, President of the EPOS organisation, filmed one of the most important Yazidi festivity, Jazhna Jamaye (Feast of the Assembly), held at the temple in Lalish, in Iraqi Kurdistan. Last year the feast was cancelled and the motivation given was for “reasons of public safety”. In effect, in Erbil, capital of Iraqi Kurdistan, in the month of September there had been an attack that heightened security awareness considerably. The Kurdistan authorities thought it would be better to avoid large-scale crowds like that which the Yazidi festival would have attracted therefore, they forbade its celebration. The temple was placed under imposing security measures with strict controls. Following the screening of the film all those present took part in a debate with Professor Del Re. Some light refreshment was then provided.

February 2017

On the 21st February 2017, beginning at 6 pm, at the ICSOR headquarters in Rome, viale delle Milizie 108, Nicolamaria Coppola, PhD Candidate in Applied Social Sciences at Rome’s La Sapienza University, Doctor in Multimedia Publishing and New Information Professions, General Secretary of the EPOS non-profit Organisation, presented his book Omosessualità in Medio Oriente. Identità gay tra religione, cultura e politica [Homosexuality in the Middle East. Gay identity amid religion, culture and politics], published by Aracne. The author was present and sociologist, Professor Massimiliano Ruzzeddu, acted as moderator.   . . .

[This interesting newsletter continues for two more pages.  The entire newsletter is attached as a PDF file]

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

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

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.

European Academy of Religion launching event, Bologna, 5 December, 2016

Hon. Valerio Onida and Professor Alberto Melloni on behalf of the Foundation for Religious Studies, together with the Rector of the University of Bologna Francesco Ubertini and the Minister for Education, University and Research Stefania Giannini, are glad to invite you to join the launching event of the European Academy of Religion in Bologna, on December 5th 2016, under thePatronage of the European Parliament.

Scholars, Representatives of Scientific Societies and Academies, Research Centers, Journals,Publishers and Political Authorities are invited to the meeting,which will be honored by the presence and the keynote addresses of Commissioner Carlos Moedas, Special Envoy Ján Figel’, Professor Romano Prodi and Vice President David Sassoli.

The agenda of this meeting is very simple. Several thousands of Scholars coming from Europe and the Mediterranean Countries participate in the Fall to the Annual Convention of the American Academy of Religion. They are independent esteemed scientist, working in the field of law, history, philosophy, archeology, psychology, sociology, etc., concerning the religious experience in its variety and diachronic extension. As specialists, they are a real resource for the Euro-Med Countries, Unions and cultures, and their research can emerge if a research framework is available. The purpose of a Eu/ARE and the Bologna event is to make them visible and offer them a common framework, with an Annual Convention, to be held in the Spring, as a place of research, exchange and public engagement.

Therefore we kindly ask you: – to join us and the Bologna initiative, also giving a short address supporting this gathering of scholars, academic societies, research centers –to encourage in the most proper and persuasive way the participation/endorsement of national societies and academies as well as the greatest research institutions, scientific journals and specialized publisher which must be part of the initiative. To join the meeting please register at http://forms.fscire.it/app/form/ or write to melloni@fscire.it or events@fscire.it

News from the ISSR

We would like to inform you about the following:

  • The registration for the ISSR conference to be held in Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 2-5 July 2015 is now open. Please go to the ISSR web site and follow the link to be found on the home page or under “Conferences’. The deadline for registration is May 15, 2015.
  • The deadline for proposals for the ISSR Best Article Award and the ISSR Student Paper Award has been extended to February 28, 2015. For more details, please go the ISSR web site. The link is on the home page (http://www.sisr-issr.org).
  • We would like to remind you that we are still seeking nominations for Council members to represent various countries / regions. Nominations should be sent to the General Secretary no later than March 15, 2015. Elections will be held in April 2015. For further details about the procedures to follow and the Council positions to be filled, please see Network 48, available on the web-site (“Newsletters”).
  • Please note also that only members in good standing can participate in the conference, be nominated or vote. If you have not yet paid your membership fee for the 2014-2015 period, we encourage you to do so as soon as possible.You may pay your membership through the web site, under “Join”.

Kind regards,

Siniša Zrinščak

ISSR General Secretary

The post News from the ISSR appeared first on ISA Research Committee 22.

Call for Papers: Sociology of Religion Group of the American Academy of Religion

American Academy of Religion Annual Conference
Atlanta, Georgia
November 21-24, 2015

Sociology of Religion Group

Call for Papers:

The Sociology of Religion Group (SOR) aims to bridge the gap between sociology of religion and religious studies. For the most part, these fields have been isolated from each other with scholars from each existing in separate departments, attending different meetings, and publishing in different journals. We believe that this cloistering has hindered the development of both fields and that only a cross-fertilization that transgresses departmental boundaries can foster progress in research. Therefore, we invite scholars from both sociology of religion and religious studies to submit innovative papers pushing the boundaries of both fields.

We are open to both panel and paper proposals across a wide range of topics of interest to both the sociology of religion and religious studies and are particularly interested in papers, which speak to both thereby encouraging increased dialogue between them.

Theory, Method, and their Application

Sociology of Religion as part of a larger discipline is marked by a canonization of its theory and its division by paradigms and methodologies–whether these be the classics (Weber and Durkheim), the old paradigm (functionalism and social constructionism), or the new paradigm (rational choice) on the one hand or quantitative, qualitative, or historical-comparative sociology on the other. As it intersects with sociology of religion, the study of religion has drawn from theories and methodologies in conversation with sociology, anthropology, critical theory, psychology, history, and other related disciplines. We are interested both in papers that utilize the theories of religious studies and bring them into the sociological canon as well as those that help religious studies gain a better grasp of the sociological theory of religion. We encourage papers that exploit both the theory and methodology of sociology of religion and religious studies and use them as frames for analysis of concrete cases. In particular, we request papers that touch upon social divisions examining race, class, gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, region, age, etc.

Internationalism and Diversity

Critics of sociology of religion have pointed out that the field is dominated by North Americans scholars primarily interested in Protestantism. The discipline of religious studies provides a clear antidote to these perceived limitations. Therefore, we encourage contributions from academics not only studying Protestantism in North America but those who study the various religious traditions around the world. In particularly, we would like submissions from scholars from all academic ranks across the lines of nationality, region, race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, etc.

Topics:

Below is a list of potential topics in which we are interested. These are merely suggestions, and we are open to a broad range of topics as discussed above. Suggested topics are alphabetized to indicate no particular preference. We encourage submissions on any topic deemed relevant.

  • Critical Religion
  • Critical Sociology of Religion
  • Critical Theory and Religion
  • Feminism and Religion
  • Marxism and Religion
  • Postcolonialism and Religion
  • Queer Studies and Religion
  • Religion and Class
  • Religion and Conflict
  • Religion and Environmental Sociology
  • Religion and Gender
  • Religion and Ideology
  • Religion and Inequality
  • Religion and Political Power
  • Religion and Social Stratification
  • Religious Movements and Social Movements
  • Religion and Race
  • Secularization Theory
  • Sociology of Islam

Co-Sponsored Session

“No Method to the Madness? Sociological Approaches to the Study of Black Expressive Cultures”

We request paper submissions for a possible co-sponsored session with the Critical Approaches to Hip Hop and Religion Group. Topics should explore theory and method in the academic study of religion, in particular, sociological approaches to religion, with attention to race and class in urban contexts, in the domains of hip hop and black expressive cultures. We encourage proposals that consider/make use of varying cultural practices/data, cartographies and formats. The interpretation of cultural products and the analyses that come to bear on them have a tendency to rely on “meaning” (and religion) as/in self-evident ways. As such, this session proposes to wrestle with the challenges faced, overcome and unearthed through the scholarly handling of such materials through sociological/social scientific means.

Publication

The Sociology of Religion Group of AAR regularly co-sponsors panels with the peer-reviewed print and online journal Critical Research on Religion (CRR) (http://crr.sagepub.com). Published by SAGE Publications, over 2500 libraries worldwide have subscriptions to the journal. Presenters of promising papers in SOR panels will be invited to turn their papers into articles and submit them for peer review to CRR.

Submission

Please submit paper and panel proposal through on-line system at: http://papers.aarweb.org

Proposal Deadline: March 2, 2015

For further information, please contact SOR co-chairs:

The post Call for Papers: Sociology of Religion Group of the American Academy of Religion appeared first on ISA Research Committee 22.