[CfP] Religion and Cultural Change: Summer School in Åbo/Turku 8-10.6 2020

Call for Papers

Welcome to an interdisciplinary summer school and conference to be held in Åbo/Turku 8–10 June, 2020.

Religion and Cultural Change

Conference website: www.abo.fi/rcc

Keynote speakers:

  • Prof. Catharina Raudvere, University of Copenhagen, Denmark
  • Prof. Anders Runesson, University of Oslo, Norway
  • Prof. Rebecca Catto, Kent State University, Ohio, USA

The aim of this summer school and conference is to bring together doctoral candidates and postdoctoral researchers from various academic fields that engage with the study of religion, such as theology, religious studies, history, philosophy, the arts, social and political sciences and other. We invite papers that engage with the theme Religion and Cultural Change from both historical and contemporary perspectives, also looking to the future where possible. We understand cultural change both as dramatic breaking points in history and as slowly evolving transformations and will address past, present and emerging trends and trajectories within culture, society and the scholarly community. The societal relevance and impact of our research is also an important theme.

The summer school will consist of working groups, tutored by the keynote presenters and other academic teachers, where doctoral candidates are given the opportunity to present and discuss their ongoing PhD work in a cross-disciplinary, international setting. Postdoc researchers will present their papers in sessions running parallel to the summer school. Thematic groups and working groups dealing with particular theories or methodologies may also be held. 

To apply, please send an abstract of approximately 150 words to cscc@utu.fi no later than 15 January, 2020. Letters of acceptance will be posted no later than 15 February, 2020. Upon acceptance to the summer school, doctoral candidates will furthermore be asked to submit a 500-word synopsis of their research theme no later than 1 May, 2020.

The summer school is arranged as a joint venture between three different research bodies in Åbo/Turku: the Centre for the Study of Christian Cultures(CSCC) at the University of Turku, the Polin Institute for Theological Research at Åbo Akademi University and the Donner Institute for Research in Religion and Culture (DI).

ICSOR Newsletter Posted

The recent Newsletter of the International Center for the Sociology of Religion has been posted on the organization’s website.  http://www.icsor.it/

Available in both English and Italian, the newsletter contains information about:

  • The ECSOR International Grant Program for 2020
  • An announcement about the School for Advanced Training in the Sociology of Religion (SAFSOR), which will be held later this autumn.
  • Two scholarships available to young researchers at the Summer School on Religions in San Cimignano.
  • Reports on this year’s grant program and last year’s SAFSOR.
  • Much other information.

XXV INTERNATIONAL SUMMER SCHOOL ON RELIGION

Centro Internazionale di studi sul Religioso Contemporaneo/CISRECO in collaborazione con AIS-Associazione Italiana di Sociologia Sezione di Sociologia della Religione e Unione Comunale del Chianti Fiorentino

San Gimignano/Tavarnelle V.P. — 22-25 agosto 2018

La religione oltre le religioni

Online Program at: http://www.asfer.it/convegni-ed-eventi/item/38251-summer-school-on-religions-2018-il-programma

Segreteria Centro Internazionale di Studi sul Religioso Contemporaneo/CISRECO
C.P. 11 – Via San Giovanni, 38 – 53037 San Gimignano (SI)
Tel. 0577 906102
Sito Internet: www.asfer.it
E-mail: gpicone@comune.sangimignano.si.it

International Summer School on the Sacred Places of Almaty, Republic of Kazakhstan

1-8th August 2018

Almaty (Kazakhstan)

Dear Colleagues,

The Social Studies Department, Institute of Basic Education of the Satbayev University is hosting an International Summer School on the Sacred Places of Almaty and area from 1-8th August 2018. The Summer school aims to contribute to the process of dealing with the past of our city and Region in the frame of the State Program “Rukhani Zhangyru”.

Description.

The Summer School will be held in English language, thus a proficient knowledge of English is required. We highly encourage overseas colleagues to join us and present their research and ideas in front of a very friendly, enthusiastic and open-minded international audience. The most successful Summer school students will have the possibility to publish their research paper in the summer school reader after the end of the summer school. Participants who will successfully complete the program will be awarded with the Summer School Certificate.

We plan to invite 20-30 participants to the International Summer School on the Sacred Places of Almaty and area, including scholars, lecturers, BA, MA and PhD students, who are interested in history and religion, as well current situation in Kazakhstan.

We would like to invite for participation outstanding people from Kazakhstan and other countries. The project will benefit 20-30 professionals with different backgrounds. It will be a gender and age balanced group. The Summer school will consist of 8 days of lectures, workshops and discussions with academic professors and experts, as well as field trips and participation in cultural activities and events. It will be unique opportunity to get deep knowledge about history and timely questions of the Sacred places of Almaty city and area.

How to apply

Applicants are invited to apply with a motivation letter (max. 500 words) and their CV. Selected applicants will receive the Registration form and further instructions.

IMPORTANT DATES:

Registration starts: June 15, 2018

Deadline for the registration: July 22, 2018

Days of the Summer School: 1-8th August, 2018

Costs

All expenses (international and local airfare (transportation), visa costs, medical insurance, accommodation and meal and extra expenses) are the own responsibilities of participants. You can also apply for travel grant by sending your personal statement. Only selected candidates will be informed on the approval.

See you in Almaty!

Address: 050013, Republic of Kazakhstan,
Almaty city,
Satpayev Street, 22a
Email: socialstud.dep@gmail.com

Prof. Dr. Gulnara Mendikulova
Professor, Kazakh National Research Technical University

Summer School “Islam in Russia”.

During 20-26 of Ausgust the European University at Saint Petersburg organize the 4th Summer School “Islam in Russia”.

Working languages are Russian and English.

Please send your CV, Motivation letter and writing sample to ababushkina@eu.spb.ru  before 30 of May, 2018 г.

Here is the call in Russian:
Исследовательская лаборатория
«Ислам в России IV: городская культура и конвенции памяти»
Пенза, 20-26 августа 2018 г.

Организаторы:
Европейский университет в Санкт-Петербурге
Культурно-просветительский центр им. Х.Д. Тенишевой
Цель мероприятия – формирование исследовательских навыков у молодых
ученых, изучающих исламскую культуру в России и в ближнем зарубежье.
Наша исследовательская лаборатория ориентирована на начинающих
исследователей, делающих первые шаги в науке. Мы поможем с написанием
научных текстов, обсудим тонкости работы в «поле», будь то городская
среда или сельская местность. Все занятия в лаборатории интерактивны.
Каждый участник будет иметь возможность обсудить свой текст,
исследовательские планы, протестировать гипотезы и поработать с
коллегами над общим проектом. В рамках мероприятия запланированы квесты,
экскурсии, открытые лекции и мастер-классы в татарской слободе г. Пензы,
на городище Наровчат, а также в с. Средняя Елюзань.
Участниками школы могут стать:
студенты всех курсов гуманитарных направлений (бакалавры и магистры,
аспиранты первых курсов);
приветствуется знание английского и/или одного восточного языка.
За несколько недель до мероприятия участникам будут разосланы учебные
материалы.


Заявка на участие должна включать: CV, мотивационное письмо и письменную
работу (статья, эссе, дипломная работа и т.п.).
Принимающая сторона оплачивает проживание и питание участников.
Просьба присылать заявки на адрес ababushkina@eu.spb.ru до 30 мая 2018
г.
https://eu.spb.ru/announcements/18903-islam-v-rossii-iv

Oxford Symposium on Religious Studies Summer Session

WE ARE PLEASED TO INVITE YOU AND YOUR INSTITUTION TO  THE OXFORD SYMPOSIUM ON RELIGIOUS STUDIES TO BE HELD AUGUST 1–3.
You may present a paper, or you may wish to attend as an observer/panel member. The symposium is interdisciplinary and has a broad-based theme but will include the special topic session “Do You Need God to Be Good?”  We welcome submissions on religion and ethics.
The Summer Session will be held at the Ioannou Centre for Classical and Byzantine Studies,  located on St Giles’ near the Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology.
The session will be hosted by Canon Brian Mountford MBE, former Vicar of St Mary’s. Dr Mountford is a Fellow of St Hilda’s College in the University of Oxford.
The abstract submission deadline for the August session is 10 July.
Consult the Oxford Symposium on Religious Studies website for registration deadlines and other information.
Note that abstract submissions for the December 5–7 Session is also open.

7th GESIS Summer School in Survey Methodology

Dear colleagues,

The 7th GESIS Summer School in Survey Methodology takes place 02-24 August at GESIS in Cologne, Germany. The program is online, and registration is open at www.gesis.org/summerschool
15 scholarships by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) via CDSS as well as the European Survey Research Association (ESRA) are available. For more information on scholarships please visit www.gesis.org/summerschool.
15 courses are scheduled, among them 5 short courses and 10 one-week courses. Below is a list of all courses – including three new courses [NEW] and two courses that are back [BACK] to our program.

  • _Short courses (02 – 03 August)
    Pretesting Survey Questions (Meitinger/Lenzner) | NEW
    Introduction to Data Analysis Using Mplus (Blümke/Lechner/Danner)
    Research Designs and Causal Inference (Eifler/Leitgöb)
    Introduction to Data Analysis Using Stata (Schunck/Pforr)
  • _Week 1 (06 – 10 August)
    Introduction to Survey Design (Lugtig/Struminskaya)
    Introduction to Structural Equation Modeling (Reinecke/Kessler)
    Introduction to Data Analysis Using R (Kolb/Murray-Waters)
    Applied Multiple Imputation (Geißler/Heisig) | NEW
  • _Week 2 (13 – 17 August)
    Questionnaire Design (Fuchs/Metzler)
    Mixed-Mode and Mixed-Device Surveys (Toepoel/de Leeuw/Klausch) | BACK
    Web Survey Design (Couper/Schaurer) | BACK
  • _Week 3 (20 – 24 August)
    Meta-Analysis in Social Research and Survey Methodology (Weiß/Daikeler)
    Sampling, Weighting, and Estimation (Eckman)
    Designing, Implementing, and Analyzing of Longitudinal Surveys (Al Baghal/Cernat)
  • [20-21 Aug] Open Science and Open Data (Netscher/Perry/Schwickerath) | NEW

Thanks to our cooperation with the Center for Doctoral Studies in Social and Behavioral Sciences (CDSS) at the University of Mannheim, participants can obtain up to 4 ECTS credit points per one-week course.
Participants are invited to attend several plenary and social events including evening talks by experts in Survey Methodology, weekly welcome receptions as well as cultural and social excursions.

There is no registration deadline, but to secure a place in the course(s) of your choice and to book affordable accommodation, we strongly recommend that you register as soon as possible.

We would be very happy if you could forward this announcement to other potentially interested parties.

Thank you and best wishes,
Your GESIS Summer School team

GESIS – Leibniz-Institute for the Social Sciences
GESIS Summer School in Survey Methodology
email: summerschool@gesis.org
web: www.gesis.org/summerschool
fb: www.facebook.com/GESISTraining

Summer School: “Religion in Cities: Contested Presences, Contested Regulations”, University of Groningen (Netherlands) on August 20-24 2018.

This is a reminder of the invitation to apply for the summer school “Religion in Cities: Contested Presences, Contested Regulations” that I am organising, with the support of CRCG and ISOR-UAB, at the University of Groningen (Netherlands) on August 20-24 2018.

The summer school addresses a topic that generates heated political debates and that is increasingly discussed in the social sciences. It will provide undergraduate students in their last year of studies, as well as Master and PhD students in different disciplines with the means to reflect upon religious issues in cities from the perspective of sociology, geography, urban studies and religious studies.

The topic will be addressed from three different stand-points: a) theoretical perspectives to understand the presence, visibility and regulation of religious diversity in cities; b) methodological insights into how to research these topics and conduct fieldwork in concrete urban settings; and c) discussions about the political relevance and policy responses offered at the level of cities.

The deadline for applications is June 1, 2018.

Confirmed guest lecturers are:

  • Dr. Avi Astor (Autonomous University of Barcelona)
  • Dr. Marian Burchardt (University of Leipzig)
  • Dr. Mar Griera (Autonomous University of Barcelona)
  • Dr. Alexander-Kenneth Nagel (University of Göttingen)
  • Dr. Joram Tarusarira (University of Groningen)
  • Dr. Stefania Travagnin (University of Groningen).

You can find further information about the preliminary program and lectures on our homepage: https://www.summerschoolsineurope.eu/course/9624/religion-in-cities—contested-presences-contested-regulations

Please, feel free to share this information with your colleagues and students.

Kind regards,

Julia Martínez

Dr. Julia Martínez-Ariño
Assistant Professor of Sociology of Religion
Department of the Comparative Study of Religion
Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies
University of Groningen

Summer School in Ethnography, 10-14 September – University of Trento

Dear Colleagues,

The Department of Sociology and Social Research at the University of Trento is organising a Summer School in Ethnography, 10th – 14th September 2018.

It is addressed primarily to Master, PhD and Post-Doctoral students and will be devoted to the interrelated topics of Diaspora, Emotions and Families in Urban Contexts.  

Our keynote speakers will be Henrike Donner (Goldsmith, University of London), Ghassan Hage (University of Melbourne), Michele Lancione (University of Sheffield), Maruska Svasek (Queen’s University Belfast).

Please find more information in the attachment.

Deadline for application: 30th April.

Thank you for circulating the call among those who might be interested!

Best wishes,

Ester

Ester Gallo, PhD

Lecturer in Anthropology
Department of Sociology and Social Research
Via Verdi 26
38122 Trento, Italy
2017 The Fall of Gods. Memory, Kinship and Middle Classes in South India. Oxford University Press
2016 (with F.Scrinzi) Migration, Masculinities and Reproductive Labour. Men of the Home. Palgrave MacMillan

CAPEGOATS, VIOLENCE, AND MIMETIC THEORY − 21st International Summer School in Cultural Studies (Jyväskylä, Finland, June 4−6, 2018)

Extended deadline for applications: March 15

Please distribute freely!

SCAPEGOATS, VIOLENCE, AND MIMETIC THEORY
21st INTERNATIONAL SUMMER SCHOOL IN CULTURAL STUDIES
University of Jyväskylä, Finland, June 4−6, 2018
Society for Cultural Studies in Finland and the Research Centre for Contemporary Culture
 
In the present times, the media landscape is loaded with representations of violence in which a group attacks another group or an individual. Also, venomous and inculpatory ways of speaking are common especially in social media such as Twitter. Understanding violence in a broad sense, the increase of hate speech and the strong presence of violence in the media as well as popular culture challenge interpretations of the decrease of violence in the present times. Rather, it could be proposed that the ways of violence have multiplied as it nowadays entails also various forms of verbal, indirect or latent as well as mediated forms of violence. Occasionally violence also seeps into practices that at first glance seem to be fighting against it.
Although the phenomena described above vary from direct violence to aggressive ways of commenting on it, a common factor can be pointed, i.e. scapegoat mechanism. Scapegoat mechanism occurs when a community or a group of people seeks release of its violent tensions by projecting them into a victim chosen from the margins of the community that the group believes to be the origin of its anguish. However, being innocent of the actual cause of the group’s hostile feelings, the victim is a surrogate victim i.e. a scapegoat. René Girard’s mimetic theory serves as a frame for studying scapegoat mechanism. According to Girard, violence touches everybody as it is the side effect of universally operating mimetic desire which leads to mimetic rivalry and violent tensions that seek their release through scapegoat mechanism, as well as sacrificial rituals, its mimetic siblings. As a tool for the regulation of violence, scapegoat mechanism is of course paradoxical as it operates through violence thus producing violence at the same time as it aims at preventing its escalation.
In the 21st summer school of cultural studies the approach to the topic is multidisciplinary. The research may focus for example on a media text, online discussion, television series, or a literary work. Methodologically, various analytic tools may be applied such as discourse analysis, ethnography, narratology, and semiotics. Especially pivotal in Girard’s theory in this context are the questions connected to scapegoats and violence but perspectives focusing more generally on mimetic desire, violence, crisis, sacrifice, or religion are welcome as well. The topics to be explored include: scapegoats and media, scapegoats and politics, religion and scapegoats, mimesis of violence, mimetic desire and violence, gender and scapegoat mechanisms, and scapegoats and literature/art. Also, the core questions can be approached from other theoretical perspectives such as in the contexts of the work of Marcel Mauss, Maurice Halbwach, or Georges Bataille. Like Girard’s, their thinking can be traced back to the legacy of Émile Durkheim.
The summer school addresses the questions of scapegoats, violence, and mimetic theory through lectures and seminar presentations based on the latest research. Acknowledged experts serve as teachers, and they will deliver open lectures on the topic, and provide commentary on and feedback to the student papers presented. The Summer School is a three-day intensive period of supervising doctoral candidates and discussing research projects in a multidisciplinary group, within the joint framework of cultural studies in a broad sense of the term.
All papers will be commented upon and discussed by the distinguished summer school teachers:

Tiina Arppe
is adjunct professor in Sociology specialized in French social theory. In her scientific publications, she has studied problematics related to the sacred, community, and affect in the work of Rousseau, Durkheim, Bataille, Baudrillard, and Girard. Her major works include Pyhän jäännökset (Tutkijaliitto 1992), Affectivity and the Social Bond (Ashgate 2014), and Uskonto ja väkivalta. Durkheimin perilliset (2016). Currently, in a project funded by Kone Foundation, Arppe looks into the connections of economy and death in French social theory. Arppe has also translated French theory classics as well as for example Thorsten Veblen’s The Leisure Class into Finnish.

Hanna Mäkelä
is University Lecturer of Comparative Literature (fixed term) at the University of Helsinki where she took her PhD, which was co-supervised at the Justus Liebig University Giessen, in 2014. Her doctoral thesis, Narrated Selves and Others: A Study of Mimetic Desire in Five Contemporary British and American Novels, combines René Girard’s philosophical anthropology with the field of narratology in order to demonstrate how Girard’s mimetic theory can be employed as a narrative poetics of its own in the context of more mainstream literary studies.
Mäkelä is currently working on a postdoctoral monograph on the subject of inner change in narrative film. She has published the following peer-reviewed articles: “Horizontal Rivalry, Vertical Transcendence: Identity and Idolatry in Muriel Spark’s The Prime of Miss Jean Brodieand Donna Tartt’s The Secret History” (The Poetics of Transcendence, Rodopi / Brill, 2015), “Player in the Dark: Mourning the Loss of the Moral Foundation of Art in Woody Allen’s Match Point” (Turning Points. Concepts and Narratives of Change in Literature and Other Media, de Gruyter, 2012) and “Imitators and Observers: Mimetic and Elegiac Character Relationships in Donna Tartt’s The Secret History and Siri Hustvedt’s What I Loved” (Genre and Interpretation, 2010, the University of Helsinki Department of Finnish, Finno-Ugrian and Scandinavian Studies / The Finnish Graduate School of Literary Studies).
HOW TO APPLY
Please send your application by Thursday, March 15, 2018 to
minna.m.nerg[at]jyu.fi
Or by post to
Kulttuurintutkimuksen seura
PL 35
40014 Jyväskylän yliopisto
Society for Cultural Studies in Finland
P.O. Box 35
FI-40014 University of Jyväskylä
Finland
Your application should include
  1. An abstract of 500 words, based on the paper you will be presenting.
  2. A short presentation of yourself and your research topic with its theoretical orientation, methods, and materials.
The applicants will be notified of the decision shortly after March 15.
Deadline for papers is Monday, May 21. Length of the papers is 10–15 pages. More information on them will be sent out later.
There is a participation fee of 100 euros per person. Fee covers coffee/tea and snacks during the seminar.
For more information e-mail minna.m.nerg[at]jyu.fi (or eeva.rohas[a]jyu.fi), phone +358 (0)50 599 8842, or visit http://kultut.fi