Monthly Archives: August 2015

Job Opening: Assistant Professor - Islam and Modernity, University of Toronto

University of Toronto

Assistant Professor - Islam and Modernity

Job Field: Tenure Stream
Faculty / Division: Faculty of Arts and Science
Department: Department for the Study of Religion
Campus: St. George (downtown Toronto)
Job Posting: Aug 24, 2015
Job Closing: Nov 1, 2015
Description

https://utoronto.taleo.net/careersection/10050/jobdetail.ftl?job=1501073

The University of Toronto invites applications for a tenure stream
position in Islam and Modernity, located jointly in the Department for
the Study of Religion (60%) and the Department of Near and Middle
Eastern Civilizations (40%). The appointment will be at the rank of
Assistant Professor, effective July 1, 2016.

The successful candidate must have a Ph.D. in Religion, Middle Eastern
Studies, or an appropriate disciplinary area, by the time of
appointment, or shortly thereafter, must have a high level of scholarly
achievement in Islamic Studies, must be competent in Arabic and in
classical sources, and must have competence in the academic study of
religion. The successful candidate will have expertise in the primary
sources of Islam, and its history. To complement existing strengths in
Qur’an and Tafsir, Mediaeval Islam, Modern Middle Eastern history, and
the anthropology of Islam, the successful candidate will specialize in
the study of Islam in relation to modernity, globalization, and/or
secularism.

Her or his research will address the practices and politics of Islam as
well as Muslim societies’ interactions with non-Islamic polities and
cultures. Candidates must have a record of excellence in research as
demonstrated through letters of reference and the research dossier, and
they are expected to conduct innovative research at the highest
international level and to establish an outstanding research program in
the area of Islam and Modernity. Evidence of excellence in teaching and
a clear commitment to ongoing teaching development are also required as
demonstrated through the teaching dossier submitted as part of the
application.

Salary will be commensurate with qualifications and experience.

The successful candidate will teach undergraduate and graduate courses
in both departments on the St. George (downtown) campus in his or her
area and will be expected to conduct research in her/his area of
specialization.

To be considered for this position, all application materials must be
submitted online by clicking on the link below.

Applicants should submit • (1) a cover letter and (2) a curriculum
vitae, combined in a file labelled “cover letter and CV.pdf”;

(3). a research dossier containing a statement outlining current and
future research interests and a sample of academic writing (about 25
pages), combined in a file labelled “research.pdf”;

(4). a teaching dossier (including a statement of teaching philosophy
and teaching evaluations) in a file labelled “teaching.pdf”.

Submission guidelines can be found at: https://uoft.me/how-to-apply
Applicants should arrange for three letters of reference to be sent
directly by email (on letterhead, signed and scanned) to Professor James
DiCenso, Acting Chair, Department for the Study of Religion, via e-mail
to religion.undergrad@utoronto.ca by the closing date. The subject line
for reference letters should say Reference Letter- Islam and Modernity.
To receive full consideration, applications and materials must be
received by November 1, 2015. Inquiries can be directed to Professor
James DiCenso, at chair.religion@utoronto.ca.

For information about the Department of Religion please go to
https://religion.utoronto.ca/

For information about the Department of Near and Middle Eastern
Civilizations please go to https://nmc.utoronto.ca/

The University of Toronto is strongly committed to diversity within its
community and especially welcomes applications from visible minority
group members, women, Aboriginal persons, persons with disabilities,
members of sexual minority groups, and others who may contribute to the
further diversification of ideas.

All qualified candidates are encouraged to apply; however, Canadians and
permanent residents will be given priority.

Book Announcement: Everyday Life Practices of Muslims in Europe

Erkan Toğuşlu (KU Leuven), 2015


Muslims in Europe and the preservation of their religious-ethnic particularities
Everyday Life Practices of Muslims in Europe explores how Muslims give meaning to Islam on a day-to-day basis. The contributions look at concrete practices, identities, memories, and normalities in daily Muslim life and provide insights to the complexities of identities. They examine Muslims’ use of and construction of spaces, daily practices, forms of interaction, and modes of thinking in different areas, resulting in a thorough analysis and framework of Muslims’ day-to-day life through topical chapters on food, space, entertainment, marriage, and mosque, covering both extent of hybridity and preservation of religious-ethnic particularities.

Order here: http://upers.kuleuven.be/en/book/9789462700321
Contributors
Rachel Brown (Wilfrid Laurier University), Mohammed El-Bachouti (UPF), Valentina Fedele (Università della Calabria), Diletta Guidi (École Pratique des Hautes Études), Ossame Hegazy (Bauhaus, University, Weimar), Ajmal Hussain (Aston University), Jana Jevtic (Central European University), Elsa Mescoli (University of Liège), Wim Peumans (KU Leuven), Sumeyye Ulu Sametoğlu (EHESS), Leen Sterck (The Netherlands Institute for Social Research),Thijl Sunier (VU University Amsterdam), Erkan Toğuşlu (KU Leuven)

Books available for review in MEMBR

Below is a list of books available for review in the online open access journal Middle East Media & Book Reviews (MEMBR). The site has information on requirements for length and format of submitted reviews.

Please let me know of the title(s) you wish to receive and review for MEMBR along with your preferred postal address. Your review is to be emailed to <digestofmiddleeast@gmail.com>. We are always adding new reviewers to our roster of reviewers, so please feel free to share this message and the attachment with other colleagues who have interest and expertise in the MENA studies. Thank you.

 

Achili, L. (2015). Palestinian Refugees and Identity: Nationalism, Politics and the everyday. London & New York: I.B. Tauris. ISBN: 9781780769110. $99.00

Al-Jawzi, I. and Cooperson, M. (ed) (2015). Virtues of the Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal. Vol. 2. New York and London: New York University Press. ISBN: 9780814738948 $40.00

Al-Rawi, R. (2015). Divine Names: The Healing names of the one love. Northampton, Massachusetts: Olive Branch Press. ISBN: 9781566569873. $ 25.00

Balkan, N., Balkan, E., and Öncü, A. (2015). The Neoliberal Landscape and the rise of Islamist Capital in Turkey. New York and Oxford: Berghahn Books. ISBN: 9781782386384. $95.00

Behr, T and Tiilikainen. (eds) (2015). Northern Europe and the Making of the EU’s Mediterranean and Middle East Policies: Normative Leaders or Passive Bystanders? Burlington and Surrey, VT: Ashgate Publishing Company. ISBN: 9781472430434. $ 119.95

Bennis, P. (2015). Understanding ISIS and the New Global War on Terror: A Primer. Northhampto,MA: Olive Branch Press. ISBN: 9781566560948. $15.00

Chehabi, H. E., Jafari, P. & Jefroudi, M. (2015) Iran in the Middle East: Transnational Encounters and Social History. London & New York: I.B. Tauris. ISBN: 9781784531348. $99.00

Cuno, K. M. (2015). Modernizing Marriage: Family, Ideology, and Law in Nineteenth- and Early Twentienth-Century Egypt. New York: Syracuse Press. ISBN: 9780815633921. $39.95

Daechesel, M. (2015). Islamabad and the Politics of International Development in Pakistan. U.K and USA: Cambridge University Press. ISBN: 9781107057173. $99.00

De Vries, D. Strike Action and Nation Building: Labour Unrest in Palestine/Israel, 1899-1951. New York and Oxford: Berghahn Books. ISBN: 9781782388098. $ 90.00

Erlich, H. (2015, pbk ed.). Saudi Arabia & Ethiopia: Islam, Christianity & Politics Entwined. Boulder & London: Lynne Rienner Publishers. ISBN 978-1-62637-193-4, $25.00

Fábos, A. H and Isotalo, R. (Eds.) (2015). Managing Muslim Mobilities: Between Spiritual Geographies and the Global Security Regime (Religion and Global Migrations). New York: Palgrave Macmillan ISBN: 9781137434869. $95.00

Fair, C. C. and Watson, S. J. (eds). (2015). Pakistan’s Enduring Challenges. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. ISBN: 9780812246902. $69.92

Farzaneh, M. M. (2015). The Iranian Constitutional Revolution and Clerical Leadership of Khurasani (Modern Intellectual and Political History of the Middle East). New York, NY: Syracuse University Press. ISBN: 9780815633884. $49.95

Feldman, K. P. (2015). A Shadow over Palestine: The Imperial Life of Race in America. Minneapolis, London: University of Minnesota press. ISBN: 9780816694501. $ 24.95

Fozi, N. (2015). Reclaiming the Faravahar: Zoroastrian survival in contemporary Tehran. Leiden University Press. ISBN: 9789087282141. $59.50-paperback

Geelhoed, F. (2014). Striving for Allah: Purification and Resistance among Fundamentalist Muslims in the Netherlands. The Hague, Netherlands: Eleven International Publishing. ISBN: 9789462364936. $61.00

Gilbert, M. (2015). Night in Gaza. Northampton, Massachusetts: Olive Branch Press. ISBN: 781566560757. $25.00

Gorman, A. and Kasbarian, S. (2015). Diasporas of the Modern Middle East: Contextualising Community. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. ISBN: 9780748686100. $120.00

Harel, Y. (2015). Zionism in Damascus: Ideology and Activity in the Jewish Community at the Beginning of the Twentieth Century. London and New York: I.B. Tauris. ISBN: 9781780766706. $99.00

Hochberg, G. Z. (2015). Visual Occupations: Violence and Visibility in a Conflict Zone. Durham and London: Duke University Press. ISBN: 9780822358879. $23.95

Hopper, M. S. (2015). Slaves of One Master: Globalization and Slavery in Arabia in the Empire Age of Empire. New Haven & London: Yale University Press. ISBN: 9780300192018. $85.00

Jamal, A. A. (2009). Barriers to Democracy: The other side of social capital in Palestine and the Arab world. Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press. ISBN: 9780691140995. $23.95

Jarmakani, A. (2015). An Imperialist Love Story: Desert Romances and the War on Terror. New York and London: New York University Press. ISBN: 9781479820863. $28.00(paperback) $89.00 (hardcover)

Joskowicz, A. and Katz, E. B. (2015). Secularism in Question: Jews and Judaism in Modern Times. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. ISBN: 9780812247275. $65.00

Jouili. J. S (2015). Pious Practice and Secular Constraints: Women in the Islamic Revival in Europe. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. ISBN: 9780804794664. $27.95

Khalifa, S. (2015). Egypt’s Lost Spring: Causes and Consequences. Santa Barbara, California and Denver, Colorado: Praeger. ISBN: 9781440834080. $58.00

Karakoc, J. (Ed) (2015). Authoritarianism in the Middle East: Before and After the Arab Uprisings. Hampshire and New York: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN: 9781137445544. $ 90.00

Kotef, H. (2015). Movement and the Ordering of Freedom. Durham and London: Duke University Press. ISBN: 9780822358558. Hard cover $ 84.95, Paperback $ 23.95

Kozma, L., Schayegh, C and Wishnitzer, A. (eds)(2015). A Global Middle East: Mobility, Materiality and Culture in the Morden Age, 1880-1940. London and New York: I.B. Tauris. ISBN: 9781780769424 $-

Lavie, S. (2014). Wrapped in the Flag of Israel: Mizrahi Single Mothers and Bureautic Torture. New York and Oxford: Berghahn Books. ISBN: 9781782382225. $ 39.95

Malik, A. I. (2015). US Foreign Policy and the Gulf Wars: Decision- making and International Relations. London and New York: I.B. Tauris. ISBN: 9781780768359. $99.00

Mohammadi, M. (2015). Political Islam in Post-Revolutionary Iran: Shi’i Ideologies in Islamist Discourse. London & New York: I.B. Tauris. ISBN: 9781848852761. $99.00

Molavi, S. C. (2014, pbk ed.). Stateless Citizenship: the Palestinian-Arab citizens of Israel. Chicago, IL: Haymarket Books ISBN: 978-1-60846-383-1 $28.00

Motadel, D. (2014). Islam and Nazi Germany’s war. Cambridge, Massachutts London, England: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. ISBN: 978-0-674-72460-0, $35.00

Mottahedeh, N. (2015). #iranelection: Hashtag Solidarity and the Transformation of Online Life. Stanford, Calfonia: Stanford University Press. ISBN: 9780804795876. $12.99

Osoegawa, T. (2015) Syria and Lebanon: International Relations and Diplomacy in the Middle East. London and New York: I.B. Tauris. ISBN: 9781784532338. $25.00

Patrick, A. (2015). America’s Frogptten Middle East Initiative: The King-Crane Commission 1919. London and New York: I.B. Tauris. ISBN: 978178453274. 99.00

Peace, T. (2015). Muslims and Political Participation in Britain. New York and London: Routledge Taylor & Francis Group. ISBN: 9780415725316. $140

Pagès, M. (2014). From Martyr to Murder: Representations of the Assassins in Twelfth- and Thirteenth-Century Europe. New York: Syracuse Press. ISBN: 9780815633709. $39.99

Possamai, A., Richardson, J. T. and Turner, B. S. (eds) (2015). The Sociology of Shari’a: Case Studies from around the world (Boundaries of Religious Freedom: Regulating Religion in Diverse Societis 1). New York, NY: Springer International Publishing. ISBN: 9783319096049. $129.00.

Rotbard, S. (2015). White City Black City: Architecture and War in Tel Aviv and Jaffa. London: Pluto Press. ISBN: 9780745335117. $-.-?

Shari-Yazidi, F. C. (2015). Arab_Iranian Rivalry in the Persian Gulf: Terrirorial Disputes and the Balance of Power in the Middle East. London & New York: I.B. Tauris. ISBN: 9781848858220. $110.00

CFP: The Muhammad Cartoons - Ten Years After

Ten years after – The Muhammad Cartoons: Perspectives, Reflections, and Challenges

Aalborg, September 28-29, 2015

Ten years have gone since the Danish newspaper Morgenavisen Jyllands-Posten decided to
publish 12 Muhammad cartoons of the prophet Muhammad as cartoonists ‘imagined him’. The
cartoons and the stories about them cost the lives of 150 people. Denmark’s reputation abroad
and export to Arab speaking countries were severely impacted. In addition, it has affected the
opportunities of immigrants, who experience they are being stigmatized and not fully allowed
to be Danes. Many Danes have had their ideas of womanhood among Muslims re-enforced,
ideas of incompatible values have been strengthened, and the debate about freedom of speech
reified. For many non-Western Muslims, the cartoon story has become an icon of Western
arrogance and hatred towards Islam. Their anger came from a deep sense that they are not
respected, that they and their most cherished feelings are “fair game.”
New research suggests that increased racial discrimination and enforcement of racial-cultural
logics of belonging facilitates mobilization of minority youth groups to crime, violence, political
activism, carelessness and terrorism. This development exposes a “schismogenetic” process
that merits academic attention analysis and solutions.
Some of the questions for the conference:
- How is the gap between “the academics” and “the politicals” being played out?
- Is there a gap between the understanding of the crisis in Denmark and abroad?
- What are the differences in the debates about Islam in contemporary Denmark and
other non-Muslim countries?
- Ten years after – did the insult, the ridicule, and the mocking lead to a better society?
- How does the cartoon story relate to the moralization of Danish society and the
emergence of online social media?
- How are democratic values and free speech affected ten years after by the spread of
Islamophobia, policies, and confrontational news media coverage and debate?
Key note speakers are Lene Hansen, Mark Allen Peterson, Deepa Kumar, Peter Hervik and
Arun Kundnani. Chairs of workshops are Carsten Stage, Signe Kjær Jørgensen, Anja Kublitz,
and Mikkel Rytter. Read more at the conference website:
https://www.ten-years-after.aau.dk
Please send your title, abstract, affiliation and contact information before 28 August via
https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=mc2015
Please send correspondence to:
Peter Hervik hervik@cgs.aau.dk

CFP: Psychotherapy and Religious Values

CALL FOR PAPERS
for the topical issue of Open Theology journal
PSYCHOTHERAPY AND RELIGIOUS VALUES


Open Theology (http://www.degruyter.com/view/j/opth) invites submissions for the topical issue “Psychotherapy and Religious Values”, under the general editorship of Prof. P. Scott Richards (Brigham Young University).

 

In 1980, Allen E. Bergin, published a landmark article “Psychotherapy and religious values” in the Journal of Clinical and Consulting Psychology. The article, which became a citation classic, produced intense interest, enthusiasm, and controversy in the psychology profession. Ultimately, it helped energize an international movement to bring religious perspectives into mainstream psychology and psychotherapy. Great progress has been made during the past 35 years in this effort, but more work remains to be done. The focus of this special issue of Open Theology is to commemorate the publication of Bergin’s 1980 article by affirming the progress that has been made and exploring directions for the future in the movement to bring religious values and spiritual perspectives into mainstream psychotherapy. Manuscripts with a theoretical, historical, theological, empirical, and/or clinical focus will all be considered for the special issue. For empirical studies, a variety of research methodologies are encouraged, including experimental, practice-based evidence, process, case reports, single-N, and qualitative designs.


HOW TO SUBMIT

 

Submissions are due by December 31, 2015. To submit an article for the special issue of Open Theology, please use the on-line submission system http://www.editorialmanager.com/openth/ choosing as article type: ‘Special Issue Article: Psychotherapy and Religious Values’.

All contributions will undergo a critical review before being accepted for publication.
Further questions about the thematic issue can be sent to P. Scott Richards at scott_richards@byu.edu. In case of technical questions or problems please contact Managing Editor of the journal Dr. Katarzyna Tempczyk at katarzyna.tempczyk@degruyteropen.com.

 

Book Announcement: Routledge Handbook of Contemporary India

Routledge Handbook of Contemporary India
Edited by Knut A. Jacobsen
Routledge 2015
India is the second largest country in the world with regard to population, the world’s largest democracy and by far the largest country in South Asia, and one of the most diverse and pluralistic nations in the world in terms of official languages, cultures, religions and social identities. Indians have for centuries exchanged ideas with other cultures globally and some traditions have been transformed in those transnational and transcultural encounters and become successful innovations with an extraordinary global popularity. India is an emerging global power in terms of economy, but in spite of India’s impressive economic growth over the last decades, some of the most serious problems of Indian society such as poverty, repression of women, inequality both in terms of living conditions and of opportunities such as access to education, employment, and the economic resources of the state persist and do not seem to go away.

This Handbook contains chapters by the field’s foremost scholars dealing with fundamental issues in India’s current cultural and social transformation and concentrates on India as it emerged after the economic reforms and the new economic policy of the 1980s and 1990s and as it develops in the twenty-first century.

Following an introduction by the editor, the book is divided into five parts:

Part I: Foundation

Part II: India and the world

Part III: Society, class, caste and gender

Part IV: Religion and diversity

Part V: Cultural change and innovations

Exploring the cultural changes and innovations relating a number of contexts in contemporary India, this Handbook is essential reading for students and scholars interested in Indian and South Asian culture, politics and society.

Workshop: Religious diversity in Asia

Workshop: 7.-8. December 2015. Organised by the Centre for Contemporary Religion, Aarhus University, funded by the Danish Research Council.

Applications are invited for a limited number of people to participate in the two days’ workshop in Aarhus, Denmark. Expenses for travel, food, and accommodation will be covered.

The study of religious diversity has in recent years been rising on the agenda. Focus has almost exclusively been on North America, Europe and Australia and issues concerned with maintaining cohesion in these societies. It is however obvious that religious diversity is not a phenomenon confined to the west. Especially in Asia religious diversity at both individual and institutional level has a long history with many examples of both syncretic traditions and religious divisions of labour. Yet the concepts associated with research on religious diversity are clearly drafted in a Western context. This means that they are constructed upon concepts of membership and adherence, with a strong Christian and Western bias not necessarily fitting Eastern models of multiple and contextual affiliations.

Previously, the Critical Analyses of Religious Diversity (CARD) have met for two workshops in Denmark (https://cardnetwork.au.dk/). This network explores ways in which research could proceed in order to craft concepts and models of understanding religious diversity which will allow fitting representations of religious diversity in Asia, and in a broader sense create new perspectives for understanding religious diversity globally.

A workshop on the topic was held in Delhi in May 2015, and the network will have two more workshops in Kyoto and Nagoya in October before this final one in Aarhus in December, where a limited number of Asian scholars are invited to continue the scholarly discussions and make strategic plans for future cooperation and publication of an anthology on religious diversity.

The network is be led by Jørn Borup, Lene Kühle, and Marianne Qvortrup Fibiger, Aarhus University.

Invitees are expected to pesent a paper and be prepared to engage in a critical discussion of their work. In addition, we want our participants to think critically about the assumptions that have been made about religious diversity in their research methods/context.

Some of the topics that we hope to have included in the workshop are:

- Terminology; do you (your colleagues) use “religious diversity”, “religious pluralism” and/or other concepts?

- Methods; Are you using quantitative data, qualitative data, census data, or micro, macro?

- Empirical data; Is your research focused on specific geographical areas, or do you engage in comparative work? Are there specific points about religious diversity in Asia compared to the West?

- Specific topics; do you investigate religious diversity in relation to demography, ethnicity, nationality, gender, human rights, diaspora, media, law, politics?

If interested in joining the workshop, please send a 250 word abstract by Oct 1st 2015 to Jørn Borup, JB@cas.au.dk

Job Opening: Assistant Professor specializing in Islam (tenure-track) - Vassar College

The Department of Religion at Vassar College seeks applications for a tenure-track Assistant Professor (to begin Fall 2016) specializing in Islam. Vassar College is an affirmative action, equal opportunity employer, and applications from members of historically underrepresented groups are especially encouraged to apply. Vassar is strongly committed to fostering a community that reflects the values of a liberal arts education and to promoting an environment of equality, inclusion and respect for difference. The area of specialization within Islam is open, and we would especially welcome a candidate whose research or teaching addresses issues of gender and/or sexuality. We also seek a candidate whose theoretical and methodological approaches complement those of other faculty in the department. The candidate will be expected to offer courses in Islamic traditions as well as develop other courses in his or her areas of specialization. The candidate should be prepared to teach at regular intervals an introductory course on Jews, Christians, and Muslims and contribute to a required course on method and theory in the study of religion. In addition, the department encourages partnerships with the variety of multi/interdisciplinary programs on campus. Appropriate scholarly language skills, teaching experience, and a Ph.D. in hand at the time of employment are required. Teaching load in the first year is four courses; after that it is five courses per year. Preliminary interviews of selected applicants will be conducted at the annual American Academy of Religion conference from November 22- 24, 2015 in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. For full consideration applications should be received by October 9, 2015. Candidates are asked to submit a letter of application, a current C.V., an article-length writing sample, a sample syllabi, graduate school transcript (unofficial copies accepted for initial application), and three letters of recommendation. To apply, please visit https://employment.vassar.edu/applicants/Central?quickFind=51888 Please direct any questions about the position to Jonathon Kahn, Chair, Department of Religion, jokahn@vassar.edu.

CFP: Imagining an Alternative ‘Post-Secular’ State: Historicizing and Comparing National Struggles over Resecularization

A RC43 Religion and Politics Panel, 24th IPSA World Congress of Political Science, July 23-28, 2016, Istanbul, Turkey.

In this era of public religions, religious revivalists of various traditions have become powerful forces not just socially but politically in many parts of the globe. In the more successful among such cases, they have either captured the whole (as in Iran) or penetrated some crucial parts (as in Turkey and India) of the modern state, thereby garnering institutional (including discursive) leverages through which to enforce their versions of rather totalizing ‘post-secularities’ over their variously-oriented and thus multidirectional societies.

Following the footsteps of the recent scholarships built on the notions of multiple and diverse secularities, this panel proposes to historicize and compare various local efforts at resecularization, or societal (often national) struggles over reformulating and reinstitutionalizing state-religion relationships after experiencing significant periods of religious resurgence or dominance. As in secularization processes, such resecularization processes are analytically better approached as phenomena that are inherently multi-level and dimensional, contentious and mutually constituting, and nationally varying.

This panel aims to focus on cases in which resecularization involves imagining and institutionalizing alternative ‘post-secular’ state-religion relationships in their national contexts, and comparatively examine and discuss various locally-rooted cultural articulations of, and struggles for, such alternative ‘post-secular’ states.

Convenor & Chair: Yasuyuki Matsunaga (Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, Japan)
Co-Chair: Umut Azak (Okan University, Turkey)
Discussant: Naser Ghobadzadeh (Australian Catholic University, Australia)

Deadline to submit Paper proposals: October 7, 2015