Job Opening: Assistant Professor of Religion – Buddhist Studies, Bard College

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Bard College: Faculty Searches: Religion Program
Assistant Professor of Religion – Buddhist Studies

Location: Annandale-on-Hudson, NY

Closes: Nov 1, 2015at 11:59 PM Eastern Time
(GMT-4 hours)

Bard College invites applications for a full-time, tenure-track position
at the level of Assistant Professor of Religion in the area of Buddhist
Studies, to begin September 2016. The position requires a strong
commitment to teaching and scholarship in a liberal arts setting.
Qualifications

Applicants should possess a strong foundation in the formative or
classical traditions and literatures of Buddhism in Asia, with
appropriate language proficiency, and an understanding of later and
contemporary developments within Buddhist traditions. The geographical
area of specialization is open. The position contributes to both the
Religion and Asian Studies programs. The successful candidate will also
participate in Bard’s First-Year Seminar, the foundation of the
college’s commitment to liberal education. Ph.D. or near completion is
required, and teaching experience is highly desirable.

Application Instructions

Please submit a letter of application, a curriculum vitae, a writing
sample, and three letters of recommendation through Interfolio by
October 30, 2015.

http://apply.interfolio.com/32217

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NCSR2016 – Preliminary Program & Call For Sessions

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Nordic Conference for Sociology of Religion 2016

“Wellbeing, leadership and the lifespan – Current trends in the sociology of religion”

Proudly presents the preliminary program:

Location: University of Helsinki, Main Building

Program and call for papers on our web page:
http://blogs.helsinki.fi/ncsr-2016/

The call for sessions is open until November 31, 2015!

We encourage timely and timeless session topics, where researchers from different countries could share their ideas.

Please submit your session using THIS LINK!

Or email your proposal to Kati Niemelä (kati.niemela@helsinki.fi)

The call for individual papers will be opened in January 2016.

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CFP: Art Approaching Science and Religion, Turku 11-13 May 2016

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CALL FOR PAPERS

Art Approaching Science and Religion
11-13 May 2016 at Åbo Akademi University, Turku, Finland

Symposium website: http://www.amoslab.fi/?page_id=214

The symposium aims at bringing together the fields of art, science and
religion. How can science and religion be explored from the perspective
of the arts? Themes to be discussed will unwind from and be elaborated
on contemporary notions of beauty, ornament, and public art. The public
and aesthetic space offer not only timeless objects of appreciation,
aesthetic value and use, but also habits and rituals. The aim is to
bring out different images of how aesthetics, as a historical and
contemporary tradition, is formed together with strands of artist
research, art criticism, art history as well as the humanities,
philosophy, and religious studies.

Keynote Speakers (12 May 2016):
Kent C. Bloomer, Chief Designer, Professor, Yale School of Architecture, USA
Melissa Raphael, Professor of Jewish Theology, University of
Gloucestershire, UK
Serafim Seppälä, Professor of Systematic Theology and Patristics,
University of Eastern Finland
Mark C. Taylor, Professor of Religion, Columbia University, USA

Call for Papers for the Roundtable seminar on 13 May 2016 is now open:

http://www.abo.fi/forskning/en/News/Item/item/10299

Proposals are welcome on the interconnectedness of art, science and
religion, including (but not restricted to) the following themes:

  • Truth claims in philosophy, art, science, and religion.
  • Art criticism, art history, and artist research.
  • Commerce and communication.
  • Technology and tradition.
  • Artefacts in science and religion.
  • Power and politics of beauty.

*Deadline: 15 November 2015***

Arranged by:
AmosLAB/Amos Anderson Laboratory for Artful Making: www.amoslab.fi
<http://www.amoslab.fi>
The Donner Institute for Research in Religious and Cultural History:
www.abo.fi/donnerinstitute <http://www.abo.fi/donnerinstitute>

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CFP: Religion and Racism – Intercultural Perspectives

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CALL FOR PAPERS
for the topical issue of Open Theology journal
RELIGION AND RACISM – INTERCULTURAL PERSPECTIVES
 
 
Open Theology invites submissions for the topical issue ‘Religion and Racism – Intercultural Perspectives,’ under the general editorship of Dr. Daniel White Hodge (North Park University).

 

The area of religion and racism presents a dearth of scholarship which critically examines the role of racism, even more so, institutional racism, within religion. Religiously speaking, God talk and rhetoric plays an uncanny role on both sides of justice-seeking and continued violence. For example, Darren Wilson—the police officer accused of the murder of Michael Brown in Ferguson, MO — claimed it was “God’s will”, while protesters and activists on the ground claim God as being “on their side.” Is God “another White cop waiting to beat my ass,” as the rapper and Hip Hop prophet Tupac Shakur poignantly suggested? Does religion, more generally, have a role in spreading racism? And, what role has God-rhetoric played in racial injustice in cities such as Ferguson in the U.S., and around the world?

 

Therefore, we invite submission addressing one or more of these questions or issues. Although we welcome papers speaking to other topics related to religion and racism, some possible featured issues are as follows:

 

·         The problem of religion and racism in history (e.g. missionary movements; colonialism; how missionaries saw ethnic minorities)

 

·         Racism in official statements of faith communities

 

·         The effect of White Western evangelistic movements on various countries (e.g. China, Kenya, Nigeria)

 

·         Emerging religions that openly criticize the hegenomic religious establishments

 

·         Sacred texts and the interpretation of them in evil-doing (e.g. slavery)

 

Some potential – but certainly not to limit – questions to consider are:

 

·         Does the color of God’s skin matter?

 

·         What is the significance of racial rhetoric within religious discourse?

 

·         How ought religion and race be theorized and discussed? What role do they play? In which lives do they matter? What role does the sacred/profane binary play as a rhetorical strategy and political designator?

 

·         How has media shaped religious and racial perceptions in the public sphere in Ferguson, Baltimore and beyond? How has Black rage been projected in these spaces? What does religion have to do with this?

 

We welcome essays critically exploring such questions and issues from multiple perspectives, approaches and methods of analyses.
 
HOW TO SUBMIT

 

Submissions are due January 31, 2016. To submit an article for the special issue of Open Theology, authors are asked to access the on-line submission system at: http://www.editorialmanager.com/openth/ 

 

Please choose as article type: “Special Issue Article: Religion and Racism”.

 

All contributions will undergo critical review before being accepted for publication.

 

 

 

Authors publishing their articles in the special issue will benefit from:

 

·         transparent, comprehensive and fast peer review  

 

·         efficient route to fast-track publication and full advantage of De Gruyter Open’s e-technology,

 

·         no publication fees,

 

·         free language assistance for authors from non-English speaking regions.

 

 Further questions about this thematic issue can be addressed to Dr. Daniel White Hodge at dwhodge@northpark.edu. In case of technical questions, please contact journal Managing Editor Dr. Katarzyna Tempczyk at katarzyna.tempczyk@degruyteropen.com.

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Paper out – Taha Abderrahmane’s Trusteeship Paradigm: Spiritual Modernity and the Islamic Contribution to the Formation of a Renewed Universal Civilization of Ethos

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An introductory paper of some part of the philosophical project of Taha Abderrahmane, b. 1944.

Mohammed Hashas, “Taha Abderrahmane’s Trusteeship Paradigm: Spiritual Modernity and the Islamic Contribution to the Formation of a Renewed Universal Civilization of Ethos,” Oriente Moderno, Vol. 97, Issue 1-2, 2015, pp. 67-105.

 
Abstract:
This paper synthetically introduces “trusteeship paradigm” of Taha Abderrahmane (b. 1944), a leading philosopher of language, logic, ethics and metaphysics in the Arab-Islamic world. The core of his argument is that the four entities of revelation, reason, ethics and doing (or practice) are neither separable nor antagonistic to each other in the Islamic philosophy he aims at re-grounding; their centripetal force is essentially ethical. Islamic philosophy is primarily ethical. It is only this ethical force that can regenerate the politico-philosophical awakening of the Arab-Islamic world in particular, and can contribute to the formation of a pluralist civilization of ethos in general. Otherwise put, Abderrahmane envisions an ontological-epistemological revisionary revolution in the Arab-Islamic tradition to overcome what may be referred to as “classical dichotomous thought” that dominates some classical and contemporary Islamic thinking as well as much of the Greek heritage and Western modern thought. This ethical revolution is summarized in what he has developed as trusteeship paradigm (al-iʾtimāniyyah) or trusteeship critique (al-naqd al-iʾtimānī), a paradigm the heart of which is a theory of ethics that overcomes dichotomies like religion vs. politics, divine vs. secular, physical vs. metaphysical.
 
 

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CFP: A special journal issue in Migration Letters

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The guest editors of a forthcoming special journal issue to be published in Migration Letters invite interested researchers to submit manuscripts for an issue  titled  ‘Transnational Migrant Families: Navigating Social Fields, Family Practices, and Generational Experiences’

This special issue focuses on ‘transnational migrant family life.’ We examine different aspects of these lives such as marriage practices, polygamy in transnational context, the role of religiosity in transnational family life, transnational childcare and socialization, the ties and experiences of second generation migrants vis-à-vis their countries of origin, and the construction and management of transnational family life in legal discourses (including religious laws) and institutions. Rather than taking transnational migrant families as a given, we will examine how these families are constituted through actively produced transnational relations and practices as well as through legal and political regimes. We will examine the central theme from three dimensions. First, we will critically examine the different social fields in which transnational family life and relations are constituted and contested. Secondly, we will shed light on the heterogeneity of experiences and aspirations of family members constituting transnational kinship-based networks, particularly along the axes of gender and generation. Third, this issue will shed light on the range and diversity of transnational family practices and their multidimensional purposes and outcomes.

We are interested in soliciting article manuscripts, maximum 4000 words (excluding abstract and references), which tackle the broad theme of transnational migrant families, and which supplement or add other dimensions to the aspects of the transnational family life that we are covering. We are particularly interested in manuscripts based on empirical research on transnational migrant families based in Europe and/or North America with family backgrounds in Africa, South Asia, and/or the Middle East.

Kindly send an abstract to the guest editors by October 26, 2015. Deadline for submission of manuscripts is December 31, 2015.

Guest editors: Mulki Al-Sharmani: Mulki.al-sharmani@helsinki.fi

                       Marja Tiilikainen: Marja.tiilikainen@helsinki.fi

                       Sanna Mustasaari: sanna.mustasaari@helsinki.fi

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CFP: Religion and Revolution

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Fifth Annual Conference of the
Irish Society for the Academic Study of Religions (ISASR)
In association with the Department of Study of Religions
University College Cork

Religion and Revolution

Thurs 16th – Fri 17th June 2016

We are pleased to invite scholars to take part in the fifth annual
conference of the Irish Society for the Academic Study of Religions
(ISASR), themed ‘Religion and Revolution’. 2016 is the centenary of the
iconic Irish revolution, also known as the Easter Rising, which is
arguably the most celebrated occurrence of revolution in Ireland. The
Rising represents a historic disjunction with British colonial rule and
occurred within a context of social and political upheaval. Across the
world, political upheaval is often accompanied by religious change which
in turn can bring about dramatic social and political tranformation.
Conceptualising revolution in its broadest sense, the conference will
discuss, reflect upon and explore these themes. The Society invites
papers and contributions on the varied theme of religion and revolution
including areas such as:

· political change and religion
· religions and social movements
· radical religious change
· media representations of religion and revolution
· the impact of revolution on religious practices
· theorising concepts: revolutions, reformations and cycles
within religious traditions
· transformations in cosmologies and crises of faith
· changing paradigms in the academic study of religions

Scholars working in Ireland are free to submit paper proposal on any
aspect of religion both at home and globally.

Call for papers: Please submit your proposal in the form of a title and
an abstract (max. 250 words).

Call for slam contributions: We invite ‘slam’ contributions for a
maximum duration of 6 minutes on in-progress research, new projects and
publications, research networks and new programmes. Please submit a
title and brief description of your slam (max. 150 words).

Both paper and slam proposals are to be submitted via email to
isasr2016@gmail.com by the deadline of 21 January 2016. Notification of
abstract/slam acceptance will be given by 05 February 2016.

Please bear in mind that papers should contribute to the aims of ISASR
as set out in the Society’s constitution, specifically that ‘The main
object [is] to advance education through the academic study of religions
by providing a forum for scholarly activity (…). The Society is a forum
for the critical, analytical and cross-cultural study of religions, past
and present. It is not a forum for confessional, apologetical,
interfaith or other similar concerns’.

The final programme will be posted on the ISASR website:
http://isasr.wordpress.com/

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Conference on Intersecting Discourses on Migration in the UK, Germany and Russia

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International Conference

Intersecting Discourses on Migration in the UK, Germany and Russia

Thursday, 5th November 2015 (09:00-18:00)

University of Birmingham, United Kingdom

G39 Education Building

(R19 on the Edgbaston Campus map)

This ESRC-funded conference explores immigration and migrant integration discourses and their influences on policy-making. The focus will be on three countries: the UK, Germany and Russia. All three countries are important destination countries attracting large numbers of migrants and refugees. At the same time there are distinct differences in migration trajectories and responses across them. The conference thereby intends to bring the different contexts of these three countries together, and to gain new insights into a topic of great relevance to society, particularly in the context of the current refugee and migration crisis. The conference is organised by PhD students Szymon Parzniewski and Anja Benedikt and supported by the Institute for Research into Superdiversity (IRiS) and the Institute for German Studies (IGS) at the University of Birmingham.

Keynote speakers:

Professor Christian Joppke (University of Bern) “‘Citizenship Lite’ Revisited”

Professor Ruth Wodak (Lancaster University) “The discursive construction of ‘strangers’”

Plenary speakers:

  • Dr. John Round (University of Birmingham)
  • Professor Sergey Ryazantsev (Russian Academy of Science)
  • Prof. Dr. Sybille Münch (Leuphana University Lüneburg)
  • Dr. Riem Spielhaus (University of Nürnberg-Erlangen)
  • Dr. Bastian Vollmer  (University of Oxford)
  • Dr. Galina Yemelianova (University of Birmingham)

The conference includes three panel sessions: Labour Migration and Linguistic Integration Discourse in Russia; Discourses on Border Security and Diversity; Immigration and Discourses surrounding Muslims.

For more information, please visit our webpage.

The conference is free but there are limited places. To register please complete the online form: http://www.eventbrite.com/e/conference-intersecting-migration-discourses-in-the-uk-germany-and-russia-tickets-18849697954

For further information you can also contact the organisers Szymon sxp459@bham.ac.uk and Anja acb127@bham.ac.uk 

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AHRC / British Academy digital resources on the Hajj and British Muslims

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While sadly the Hajj of 2015 will be remembered for recent tragic
events, list members may be interested to know that during the
pilgrimage this year the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC)
has been featuring a gallery of 15 images drawn from my research on the
Hajj and British Muslims.

The gallery, which will be of interest to university teachers and
researchers across Islamic, Religious and Diaspora Studies, was one of
those selected to mark the AHRC’s tenth anniversary. It offers a ‘thick’
visual description of British Muslims’ connections to sacred place in
the context of transnational circulations of pilgrims, capital, objects
and ideas. While currently one of the banners on the AHRC’s front page,
the gallery can be permanently viewed at:
http://www.ahrc.ac.uk/research/readwatchlisten/imagegallery/hajjethnographybritish/

The Hajj, Ethnography and British Muslims – Arts and Humanities Research
Council

Up to 25,000 British Muslims travel annually to Makkah to perform Hajj.
The great pilgrimage returns Muslims to the birthplace of their faith
and is a religious duty once in their lifetime.

Read more:
http://www.ahrc.ac.uk/research/readwatchlisten/imagegallery/hajjethnographybritish/

Such images are elaborated on further in a British Academy funded web
resource and online exhibition at http://arts.leeds.ac.uk/hajj/. This
includes 30 x 2-3 minute, themed digital audio-clips drawn from in-depth
interviews collected among pilgrims, tour operators, community
organisations and others. My work began as part of AHRC-funded research
for the British Museum’s exhibition, Hajj: journey to the heart of Islam
http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/themes/hajj/narratives/modern.aspx.

Finally, as well as an online exhibition, the website includes research
papers on the Cultural and Political Economy of Hajj-Going and
Pilgrimage and Performativity, as well as an industry-facing report and
radio interviews including commentary on last week’s events. See, for
example, BBC Radio 5 Live Drive, 24/09/2015: http://goo.gl/x6zyfj. To
find out more you can also follow me on Twitter @LeedsUniHajjRes

Thanks and best wishes,

Dr Seán McLoughlin

Senior Lecturer in Contemporary Muslim Cultures, Politics & Societies

School of Philosophy, Religion and the History of Science
University of Leeds, LS2 9JT

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