Monthly Archives: June 2013

RC22 World Congress 2014

<

p align=”center”>ISA World Congress – Yokohama 2014

<

p align=”center”>Religion and Social Inequality

Program Coordinators
  • James V. SPICKARD, University of Redlands, USA, jim_spickard@redlands.edu
  • Esmeralda SANCHEZ, University of Santo Tomas, Philippines, emysanchez2001@yahoo.com

<

p align=”center”> 

<

p align=”center”>Call for Papers for RC 22 Open Sessions

<

p align=”center”> 

<

p align=”center”>Please find the list of sessions and submit your paper proposal directly to the ISA at:

<

p align=”center”>https://www.isa-sociology.org/congress2014/rc/rc.php?n=RC22

<

p align=”center”>

<

p align=”center”>AND ALSO

<

p align=”center”>send a copy to the session organizer(s)

<

p align=”center”> On-line abstracts submission

Deadline: September 30, 2013 24:00 GMT.

Special issue of Politics and Religion Journal( PRJ) on Contemporary India

https://www.politicsandreligionjournal.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=6&Itemid=3&lang=en

New Issue

Volume VII (No. 1) - Spring 2013.

Table of contents

The word of guest editor

TOPIC OF THIS ISSUE

POLITICS AND RELIGION IN CONTEMPORARY INDIA


C.N. Venugopal
Polity, religion and Secularism in India: A Study of Interrelationships

Anantna Kumar Giri
The Politics of Religion and the Complex Spirituality of Religious Encounters and Co - Realizations: The Multiverse of Hindu Engagement with Christianity in India

Paramjit S. Judge

Community within Community: Politics of Exclusion in the Construction of Sikh Identity

Ashish Saxena and Vijaylaxmi Saxena
Religious Landscape, Low Caste Hindus and the Identity Politics: Configuration of Socio - Religious Space for Weaker Sections in Jammu City, J&K (India)

Ajay I Choudhary
Buddhist Identity: A Case Study of Buddhist Women’s Narratives in Nagpur City

Ramanuj Ganguly
Social Dynamics in a Religious Milieu: The Sevayats of the Jagannath Temple at Puri

Susan Visvanathan
Sacred rivers: Energy Resources and People’s Power


ANALYSES

Jerold Waltman
Church Autonomy, Sexual Orientation, and Employment Policy in Britain: A Legislative History of the Employment Provisions of the Equality Act 2010

Marko Nikolić and Duško Dimitrijević
”Macedonian Orthodox Church (MOC)” in Former Yugoslav State

REVIEWS, CRITICAL VIEWS AND POLEMICS

Sunčica Mitrović
The Problems of Politology of Religion

CALL FOR PAPERS - Inform Anniversary Conference

<

p align=”center”>CALL FOR PAPERS

Inform Anniversary Conference
MINORITY RELIGIONS:
CONTEMPLATING THE PAST AND
ANTICIPATING THE FUTURE

<

p align=”center”>London School of Economics, London, UK

<

p align=”center”>Friday 31st January 2014 – Sunday 2nd February 2014

Inform is celebrating over a quarter of a century of providing up-to-date and unbiased information about minority religions with an Anniversary Conference at the London School of Economics in London, UK. It will commence on the evening of Friday 31st January and continue over the weekend of February 1st and 2nd. 

Submissions for papers (maximum 200 word abstract and 150 word CV) on topics relevant to the title of the conference are now being accepted, please send these to inform@lse.ac.uk. The deadline for papers is 1st October 2013, with decisions by 1st November 2013. Unfortunately no subsidies can be offered to participants, who will be responsible for making their own arrangements for accommodation.

Registration will open on 1st November 2013.

*Ashgate Studies in Pilgrimage*

Series Editors: Simon Coleman, University of Toronto; Dee Dyas, University of York, UK; John Eade, University of Roehampton, UK and University College London, UK; and Jas’ Elsner, University of Oxford, UK and University of Chicago

Once relatively neglected, pilgrimage has become an increasingly prominent topic of study over the last few decades. Its study is inevitably inter-disciplinary, and extends across a growing range of scholarly fields, including religion, anthropology, geography, history, literary studies, art history, archaeology, sociology, heritage and tourism studies. This process shows no sign of abating—indeed, it looks set to continue to expand.

This series seeks to place itself at the forefront of these conversations. Books will cover exciting new work from both established and emerging scholars. They will encompass themes as diverse as pilgrimage within national and post-national frames, pilgrimage-writing, materialities of pilgrimage, digi-pilgrimage and secular pilgrimage.

Single- (or jointly-) authored books as well as edited volumes will be considered. Authors will work closely with the Editorial Board in the preparation and production of texts which should set the intellectual agenda for the future study of pilgrimage.

Submitting a Book Proposal:

Book proposals are invited for student/wider readership paperback texts, research monographs and edited collections, if they fit within the series profile. Please send your initial book proposals to either the Publisher or the Series Editor:

Publisher:

Sarah Lloyd

Ashgate Publishing

Wey Court East, Union Road

Farnham, Surrey

GU9 7PT, UK

slloyd@ashgatepublishing.com

Series Editor:

Simon Coleman

University of Toronto

Department for the Study of Religion

Room 333 Jackman Humanities Building

170 St George Street

Toronto ON M5R 2M8, Canada

simon.coleman@utoronto.ca

New Post: William Temple Foundation - Assistant Director: Communications and Development

<

p align=”center”>The trustees of the

<

p align=”center”>

<

p align=”center”>William Temple Foundation

<

p align=”center”>

<

p align=”center”>wish to appoint an

<

p align=”center”>

<

p align=”center”>Assistant Director: Communications and Development

We are looking for someone who can make a significant contribution to the development of the William Temple Foundation’s influence in the growing debate about the relationship between religion, society, economics and human flourishing. The successful candidate will be either London or North West based, and have skills in communication, media relations and network creation as well as being knowledgeable in the areas of social justice, politics and faith communities.

The post holder will achieve their goals by:

· Engaging with potential new stakeholders in public life, the churches and the academy

· Generating media networks for the dissemination of research findings, including front of camera and audio representative work

· Using social media for tweeting and re-presenting research findings for public and media engagement with the work of the William Temple Foundation.

· Working collaboratively on scoping new research projects and funding bids with our Research Director and Senior Honorary Fellows.

The successful candidate will enjoy enhanced opportunities for networking, research and travel in an exciting and expanding area of public policy and research, engaging with a wide variety of stakeholders including the faith and voluntary sector, media (at all levels), academic departments and think tanks, the public and private sector and government policy makers. For the right person and with the anticipated growth of the William Temple Foundation’s work there could be the possibility to extend the role to include the conducting, writing up and publishing of empirical research projects.

This is an appointment on a three year fixed-term contract. The post is 25 hours a week on an annual salary of approximately £30, 000 (paid pro-rata).

For the application pack see the William Temple Foundation’s website www.wtf.org.uk or contact:

Dr Chris Baker

Director of Research, William Temple Foundation

Tel: 07779000021

E-mail: chris.baker@wtf.org.uk.

Interviews will be held on Tuesday 23rd July 2013 in Manchester

Applications to be made by Friday 12th July 2013

Religion and Societies

A CALL FOR CONTRIBUTIONS TO

A three-volume set on Religion and Societies:

To understand, experience and transform.

The proposed three-volume set on Religion and Societies presents the most-current research and provides a comprehensive understanding of the field in one convenient location for students, researchers, professors, and practitioners across fields. In each volume 12 field-based essays

(7,000-10,000 words) provides the reader with a thorough, detailed overview of the topic. If you are interested in contributing a chapter to one of these volumes, please send a provisional title, brief abstract

(150 words) and biographical sketch (6 lines maximum) to the corresponding editor before 15 July 2013.

Volume 1: Religiosity Confronts Misfortune and Suffering

Editor: Dr. Liam D. Murphy / lmurphy@saclink.csus.edu

This volume will include essays, based on ethnographic fieldwork, dealing with religion and other cosmologies as power-laden symbolic systems that ask questions related to and propose solutions to misfortune, suffering, and “the problem of evil”. Beyond this approach the volume seeks to identify religiosity and cosmological meaning in cultural formations as different as anime (Japanese animated production) and heavy metal music, American football and Alcoholics Anonymous. Doing so, this volume expands the meaning of “religion” as a category of knowledge, practice, belonging, and experience to encompass institutions and perspectives that have not conventionally been understood as “religious,” narrowly construed.

Vol. 2 Religion experienced through rituals and pilgrimage Editor : Dr. Anastasia Panagakos / panagaa@crc.losrios.edu

This volume will focus on rituals and the settings (sacred places and

spaces) in which they are enacted are in a sense the public face of religion, the means whereby humans define themselves as members of faith communities. Essays in this volume will focus on ritual experiences across a variety of religious practices and settings, including pilgrimage sites. Essays will exemplify a range of approaches to rites of passage such as puberty, wedding, or death rituals; the political implications of ritual and place making; the ritual connection between mind and body; individual agency and ritual experience; and the performativity of ritual in so-called secularized societies.

Vol. 3 Religion transforming societies

Editor: Dr. Jean-Guy A. Goulet / jgagoulet@gmail.com

This volume brings together essays that analyze the interplay between religious traditions and political life at both intra-national and international levels, as for instance in the Protestant and Catholic traditions in Northern Ireland, the rise of Falun Gong within China and beyond, or in the revival of indigenous activities within and across nation-states worldwide. In this vein, some essays will focus on the religious identities of migrants within societies that become more and more religiously pluralistic, inviting antagonistic responses from those who fear that their national identity is being undermined and/or bringing into light the tension between religions and secular / modern

Fellowships, Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore

Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to inform you that the Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore is now inviting applications for the various research fellowships:

- Research Fellowships/Senior Research Fellowships

- One-Year Visiting Research Fellowships/Senior Research Fellowships

- Postdoctoral Fellowships

- Three-Month Visiting Senior Research Fellowships

More details about the fellowships and their application procedures can be found on the ARI website at:

https://www.ari.nus.edu.sg/article_view.asp?id=6.

Applications will close on 1 September 2013. For enquiries, please email joinari@nus.edu.sg.

Religion and Migration in the Black Sea Region - Edited Collection of Essays –

Full Name                                        /     Name of Organization

Eleni Sideri and Lydia Roupakia    /   International Hellenic University

Contact email: elasideri@gmail.com   /       lydia.roupakia@univ.oxon.org

The Black Sea region is currently being transformed from a closed sea - due to the legacy of the Cold War - to a bridge facilitating human, economic and cultural flows. The strategic importance of the Sea as a crossroads of civilizations and religions is gradually gaining wide recognition. The various types of migration from and into the region have contributed to new renegotiations of differences between “us” and “them” and have reinforced the need to (re)think, (re)vise and (re)invent definitions of belonging. In the context of these new mobilities, processes of dislocation and resettlement have also resulted in a resignification of religious practice and religious identity.

How is religious difference currently being received, interpreted, revised and represented?  How are the emergence of new religious practices and new appreciations of religiosity shaping people’s perception of boundaries, frontiers, encounters, nations and “otherness” in the Black Sea Region? Religion has functioned as a tool of identity construction and statecraft over time and throughout history. One should bear in mind that the Black Sea region represents Europe’s borders to the East and, as such, it is the space where definitions of European identity have been challenged and redefined throughout history. With this in mind, we invite insights into the sources of modern identity politics and the conditions under which communities interact creatively, or swing violently from cohabitation to conflict.

This collection of essays will address a current scarcity of academic research on the repercussion of political reform, migration and modernization in the areas surrounding the Black Sea and the pivotal role of religion in current cultural contestations taking place in this strategic region. We are also particularly interested in exploring how new mobilities have also led to an increased appreciation of the “hybridity” of culture: information technology and intractable market flows are giving birth to blended artistic forms, styles of life and linguistic registers.

We seek submissions which explore current intersections between migration and religion in the Black Sea area. Among the themes this volume seeks to address (but is not limited to them) are the following:

Ø post-socialist religious identities and European identities

Ø the function/representation/resignification of religious sites, pilgrimages and festivals

Ø old religious traditions and post-socialist religiosities

Ø minority religions

Ø immigrant communities and religious practices

Ø gendered migrations and religion

Ø religion and cosmopolitanism in the Black Sea

Ø religious art and cultural economy in the Black Sea

Ø religious encounters and Black Sea mobilities

Ø conflicts, borders and religious identities

Ø new religions in the Black Sea

Ø cultural tourism and religion

Ø religious conflict and the European Neighborhood Policy

The editors seek chapters of 8,000-10,000 words. We invite contributions from a variety of disciplines and theoretical perspective and welcome case studies that draw on the Black Sea region in the wider sense.

The deadline for submissions is July 25th . Please send abstracts (500 words maximum) and a short cv both to Eleni Sideri (elasideri@gmail.com) and Lydia Roupakia (lydia.roupakia@univ.oxon.org).

RSRC Public Lecture

Dear All,

The Religion and Society Research Centre at the University of Western Sydney invites you to attend a public lecture:

‘Religion in Modern America: a success story of migration and liberalism ?

Speaker: Professor Bryan Turner, University of Western Sydney, Australia

Date:     Wednesday, 17 July 2013

Time:    1:30 pm – 3:30 pm

Venue: Bankstown Campus, Building 3 Room 55

RSVP to e.garcia@uws.edu.au  by 12 July.

Abstract

It has been a common feature of all discussion of America since Alexis de Tocqueville in the 1840s to note the exceptional importance of religion in American public life. While northern Europe is often seen to be significantly secularized, religion has been important in American public life. Sociologists have defined the Moral Majority as a major ‘public religion’ and others such as Robert Bellah have identified an all-embracing American civil religion. 

But does religion divide or unite society? In recognizing the divisions over race in America, there is a common observation that America is most divided at prayer on a Sunday morning. This observation typically referred to divisions in Christianity, but we could also add other examples from the Nation of Islam. By comparison with Europe, the veil and Shari’a have not been or not remained important. However, there are other spectacular divisions around religion and terrorism - 9/11, Ground Zero, the Boston marathon and so forth. More recently various sociologists have argued that the old religious divisions (Catholic and Protestant, Christian and Jew, Christian and Muslim) are breaking down - most notably Putnam and Campbell in American Grace, Jeff Alexander in The Civil Sphere, and Muhacit Billici in Finding Mecca in America. 

In this lecture I argue that the growth of no religion, rising inter-racial and inter-faith marriage, the acceptance of same sex marriage in law, the re-election of Obama, and the acceptance of homosexuality in the military may indicate that religion is becoming less significant in public life and less divisive as a result. The growth of the Hispanic population means that Catholicism cannot be ignored by the Protestant majority and at the same time, despite the war on terror and evidence of Islamophobia, Islam is becoming another American denomination.

Professor Bryan Turner is the Director of the Religion and Society Research Centre at the University of Western Sydney and Presidential Professor of Sociology at The Graduate Center at the City University of New York, USA. He has taught at the University of Aberdeen, Flinders University, University of Utrecht, Deakin University, Cambridge University and the National University of Singapore. He is the founding editor of the journals Body&Society, Citizenship Studies and Journal of Classical Sociology, and an editorial member of numerous journals including: British Journal of Sociology, European Journal of Social Theory, Contemporary Islam, Journal of Human Rights and Journal of Sociology.

European Institutes for Advanced Study Fellowship Programme

Call for applications

https://www.2014-2015.eurias-fp.eu/call-applications

The European Institutes for Advanced Study (EURIAS) Fellowship Programme is an international researcher mobility programme offering 10-month residencies in one of the 16 participating Institutes: Berlin, Bologna, Brussels, Budapest, Cambridge, Delmenhorst, Freiburg, Helsinki, Jerusalem, Lyon, Marseille, Paris, Uppsala, Vienna, Wassenaar, Zürich.

The Institutes for Advanced Study support the focused, self-directed work of outstanding researchers. The fellows benefit from the finest intellectual and research conditions and from the stimulating environment of a multi-disciplinary and international community of first-rate scholars.

EURIAS Fellowships are mainly offered in the fields of the humanities and social sciences but may also be granted to scholars in life and exact sciences, provided that their proposed research project does not require laboratory facilities and that it interfaces with humanities and social sciences. The diversity of the 16 participating IAS offers a wide range of possible research contexts in Europe for worldwide scholars.

Applicants may select up to three IAS outside their country of nationality or residence as possible host institutions.

The Programme welcomes applications worldwide from promising young scholars as well as from leading senior researchers. The EURIAS selection process has proven to be highly competitive. In order to match the Programme standards, applicants have to submit a solid and innovative research proposal, to demonstrate the ability to forge beyond disciplinary specialisation, to show an international commitment as well as quality publications in high-impact venues.

For the 2014-2015 academic year, EURIAS offers 39 fellowships (20 junior and 19 senior positions).

All IAS have agreed on common standards, including the provision of a living allowance (in the range of € 26,000 for a junior fellow and €

38,000 for a senior fellow), accommodation (or a mobility allowance), a research budget, plus coverage of travel expenses.

APPLICATION AND DEADLINE

– Applications are submitted online via www.eurias-fp.eu, where, you will find detailed information regarding the content of the application, eligibility criteria, selection procedure, etc.

– The deadline for application is July 5th, 2013. Late applications will not be considered.

SELECTION PROCEDURE

– Scientific assessment by two international referees – Pre-selection by the EURIAS international Scientific Committee – Final selection by the IAS academic boards – Publication of results (January 2014)

CALENDAR OF ACTIONS

Application deadline → July 5th, 2013

Results of the preselection by EURIAS Scientific Committee → Mid-October, 2013

Publication of IAS final selections → Mid-January, 2014

Arrival of fellows → September/October 2014