Monthly Archives: November 2015

NCSR 2016 – Last Call for Sessions

Last days to submit a session to NCSR2016!

Do you have an intriguing, timely theme to be discussed with Nordic colleagues?
Do you have a research project and want to have a focused session?

Submit a session proposal to NCSR2016!

Deadline for proposals is Monday 30.11.2015.
Submit yours TODAY by using this link OR going to our website OR emailing to kati.niemela@helsinki.fi

For individual papers, the call will be opened in January 2016 with the deadline of March 15th 2016.
The organized sessions are always open for free paper submission and therefore do not need to have speakers ready when the sessions are submitted (only the title and the abstract of the session as a whole are needed in November). The session organizers may also suggest and invite speakers to their session, but please also keep in mind that in addition to that the sessions are always also open for free submission.

The paper proposals (of all the speakers, including those that you already have invited) do not need to be sent until March 15, and after that you are given a short time to review if you accept them to your session.

If you have questions, please do not hesitate to contact us at: kati.niemela@helsinki.fi.

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Warm season’s greetings and best wishes from the NCSR2016 organizing team!
See you in Helsinki!

blogs.helsinki.fi/ncsr-2016

US-UK Comparison

Many commentators and some studies have argued that the US is better at integrating Muslims because of its constitutional ‘wall of separation’ btw church and state. In this new article, Nasar Meer and Tariq Modood question this by comparing the US to ‘established church’ Britain:

Religious pluralism in the United States and Britain: Its implications for Muslims and nationhood

http://scp.sagepub.com/content/early/2015/11/03/0037768615601968.abstract

For those without access to Social Compass journal, a pdf is at:

https://www.academia.edu/18715780/Religious_Pluralism_in_the_US_and_Britain_its_implications_for_Muslims_and_nationhood

Book Announcement - Rebranding Islam: Piety, Prosperity, and a Self-Help Guru

Rebranding Islam

Piety, Prosperity, and a Self-Help Guru

James Hoesterey

“This work is quite simply one of the best written, theoretically well-informed, and downright interesting works in both anthropology and religious studies that I have read in the past four years. It speaks engagingly across a variety of disciplines and debates, including Islamic studies of contemporary Sufism and sociological and political science studies of Islam’s crisis of religious authority. I can think of no other work that achieves this work’s balance of readability and theoretical depth.”—Robert W. Hefner, Director, Institute on Culture, Religion, and World Affairs, Boston University

“Rebranding Islam is a welcome and overdue response to analyses of political Islam that focus on either violence or voting as the only two modes of political expression in the 21st century. By analyzing the vibrant styles of Islamic political communication in Indonesia, the world’s largest majority-Muslim country, Hoesterey powerfully and singularly broadens our questions. This book should challenge assumptions that undergird pernicious claims about the incompatibility of Islamic piety and democratic politics.”—Carla Jones, Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology, University of Colorado, Boulder

Kyai Haji Abdullah Gymnastiar, known affectionately by Indonesians as “Aa Gym” (elder brother Gym), rose to fame via nationally televised sermons, best-selling books, and corporate training seminars. In Rebranding Islam James B. Hoesterey draws on two years’ study of this charismatic leader and his message of Sufi ideas blended with Western pop psychology and management theory to examine new trends in the religious and economic desires of an aspiring middle class, the political predicaments bridging self and state, and the broader themes of religious authority, economic globalization, and the end(s) of political Islam.

At Gymnastiar’s Islamic school, television studios, and MQ Training complex, Hoesterey observed this charismatic preacher developing a training regimen called Manajemen Qolbu into Indonesia’s leading self-help program via nationally televised sermons, best-selling books, and corporate training seminars. Hoesterey’s analysis explains how Gymnastiar articulated and mobilized Islamic idioms of ethics and affect as a way to offer self-help solutions for Indonesia’s moral, economic, and political problems. Hoesterey then shows how, after Aa Gym’s fall, the former celebrity guru was eclipsed by other television preachers in what is the ever-changing mosaic of Islam in Indonesia. Although Rebranding Islam tells the story of one man, it is also an anthropology of Islamic psychology.

Stanford University Press

Studies of the Walter H. Shorenstein Asi

October 2015 296pp 9780804796378 PB £14.99 now only £11.99* when you quote CSL15REIS when you order

UK Postage and Packing FREE, Europe £4.50, RoW £4.99

(PLEASE QUOTE REF NUMBER: CSL15REIS** for discount)

To order a copy please contact Marston on +44(0)1235 465500 or email direct.orders@marston.co.uk

or visit our website:

http://www.combinedacademic.co.uk/Book/53529/Rebranding-Islam

Book Announcement: Fear, Anxiety, and National Identity - Immigration and Belonging in North America and Western Europe

Colleagues may be interested in this free to download e-book, recently published by Russell Sage and edited by Nancy Foner and Patrick Simon:

Fear, Anxiety, and National Identity: Immigration and Belonging in North America and Western Europe

https://www.russellsage.org/publications/fear-anxiety-and-national-identity

Conference: 1st International Congress on Religious-Spiritual Counselling & Care

The Place and Function of Religious-Spiritual Counselling & Care in Human Life

The First International Congress on Religious-Spiritual Counselling and Care will be held in İstanbul by the Centre for Values Education, Ensar Foundation, Presidency of Religious Affairs, İstanbul 29 Mayıs University and Balıkesir University Spiritual Counselling Application and Research Center on April 7-10, 2016.

This congress aims to highlight and examine how religious and spiritual-moral values have played/still play a significant role and function in reforming and rehabilitating inmates in prisons, being a source of hope and morale for patients in hospitals, providing morale and offering spiritual and communal atmosphere for lonely and elderly people and disadvantaged groups in social services (nursing home, orphanage, shelters, asylum centre, family therapy, etc.), and boosting the patriotic values and beliefs for military personnel in the army. The congress will also address and analyse the problems encountered with and policies applied in areas in question.

This international gathering also first time aims to take into account a new area of specialisation in Turkey from an interdisciplinary perspective at international platform. And with an interdisciplinary approach, this congress expects to shed light on a new developing interest/subject areas and forthcoming studies in the field.

For further information regarding with the framework of congress and important dates (abstract submission and deadlines), visit the congress webpage,

Important Dates:

Abstract Submission Deadline: December 21, 2015
Abstract Acceptance: January 4, 2016
The Full Paper Submission Deadline: March 20, 2016
The Date of the Congress: April 7 - 10, 2016

Contact Information:

Center for Values Education
3 Elmaruf Street
Süleymaniye - Fatih / Istanbul
TURKEY

Telephone: +90 212 512 19 88-89-90
Fax: +90 212 512 19 91
E-mail: mdrk@dem.org.tr

CFP: The SACRED, the STATE, and the POOR

The Philippine Association for the Sociology of Religion in partnership with the Faculty of Arts and Letters - University of Santo Tomas invite you to 3rd International Conference dubbed. The SACRED, the STATE and the POOR: Challenges/Gaps, Initiatives, and Cooperations in Engaging the Habitus of Poverty on

February 26 to 28, 2016

Call for Papers and Other Materials:

  1. A. Researches – as referred to here are the scientific papers that sought to discover or bring to light facts regarding the phenomenon of poverty and the interventions, or absence of it, by the Sacred and the State.

 

  1. Reflections – reflections on the other hand are serious consideration of a particular academic interest. In this case, it is the phenomenon of poverty and how the Sacred and the State intervene, or otherwise, to lessen or eradicate it.

 

  1. Documentaries – generally mean factual record of something and in this call for materials, it refers to the interpretation and presentation about the phenomenon of poverty employing the medium of film or the digital camera (film), photography and artwork (fine arts).
  2. Video-Ethnography – this focuses on a particular group, the poor and dynamics of the sacred and the state towards poverty, as the subject employing digital camera as its medium of presentation and interpretation. (20-30 minutes length)
  3. Photo-Ethnography – this also focuses on the sacred, the state and the poor using the still photos as its medium of presentation and interpretation.
  4. Art Works – this portrays and interprets the same focus or subject, the dynamics of the poor, the sacred and the state, or the absence of it, using the media of fine arts.

 

Areas/Disciplines that maybe involved:

  • Sociology, Anthropology, Political Science, Governance and Public Administration
  • Economics, Community Development and Social Work
  • Religion and Theology, History, Philosophy and Education
  • Fine Arts, Multi-Media Arts, Mass Communication and Development Communication
  • Other Disciplines

Important Dates:

Deadline of Submission of Abstract: 15 December 2015

Deadline of Submission of Full Paper: 30 December 2015

 

Registration Fee:

Foreign (Professionals) 400 USD Coverage:

2 lunch, 5 snacks, kit and souvenir, for 3 days

with single-room hotel accommodation.

hotel to airport service.

Kit and souvenirs

 

Local (Professional) – 4,000.00

Coverage:

2 lunch, 5 snacks, kit and souvenir, for 3 days

(without accommodation)

Local (Students) – [TBA]

 

 

Contact Person: Prof. Precious ‘Chot’ Velasquez, M.A.

(email: chotvelasquez@yahoo.com, mobile: 09298208047)

 

Job Opening: W3-Professorship in Oriental Studies (Arabic and Islamic Studies)

http://ec.europa.eu/euraxess/index.cfm/jobs/jobDetails/34044376

W3-Professorship in Oriental Studies (Arabic and Islamic Studies)

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The Oriental and Islamic Studies Institute at the Ruhr-University Bochum, Germany, announces a vacancy for a W3 Professorship of Oriental Studies (Arabic and Islamic Studies). The appointment begins April 1, 2016.

Description

The successful candidate will be expected to have research and teaching expertise in the discipline of Oriental Studies, especially the fields of Arabic and Islamic Studies and mainly for the early modern and modern periods. The expected focus of research and teaching activities is the early modern and modern developments of the culture, history, and religion of the Arab and Islamic worlds, combined with experience in working with sociological and anthropological approaches to these fields. Several years of study and research experience in Arab countries and/or other countries of the Islamic world, as well as a second regional field of specialization, are equally desirable. Candidates should be familiar with German to the extent that they are be able to teach in that language within a year’s time.

Nr of positions available : 1

Research Fields

Cultural studies - Oriental studies

Career Stage

More Experienced researcher or >10 yrs (Senior)

Research Profiles

Leading Researcher (R4)

Comment/web site for additional job details

Positively assessed junior professorships, post-doc lecturing and research qualifications (in the form of a Habilitation) or equivalent academic achievements and evidence of special aptitude are just as much required as the candidate’s willingness to take part in the university’s academic self-administration.

Additional requirements include:
- a high level of commitment in teaching
- readiness to participate in interdisciplinary academic work
- willingness and ability to attract third-party funding

Ruhr-Universität Bochum is an equal opportunity employer.
Complete applications with CV, list of publications, of courses taught and of projects funded should be sent to the Dekan der Fakultät für Philologie der Ruhr-Universität Bochum, D-44780 Bochum, no later than 2. January 2016.

Requirements

Required Research Experiences

Main Research Field

Cultural studies

Sub Research Field

Oriental studies

Years of Research Experience

10

Required Languages

Language

GERMAN

Language Level

Excellent

Resource: The World Religions and Spirituality Project (WRSP) — Japanese New Religions and Minority Traditions

We would like to draw the attention of those interested in the study and teaching of religion in Japan to the following resource and project. The World Religions and Spirituality Project (WRSP) http://www.wrs.vcu.edu/index.html

It is an academic open-access free source of information about various religious movements around the world. It has recently developed a number of themes within it, including a section on Japanese New Religions and Minority Traditions, which is being overseen and directed by Erica Baffelli, Ian Reader and Birgit Staemmler:

http://www.wrs.vcu.edu/SPECIAL%20PROJECTS/JAPANESE%20NEW%20RELIGIONS/JapaneseNewReligions.htm

This site includes an extensive overview of new religions, downloadable as a pdf, along with, currently, profiles of six movements (Hikari no Wa, Aum Shinrikyo, Soka Gakkai, GLA, Seicho no Ie, covert Shin Buddhists) by scholars who have worked on these movements. Besides the project editors, contributors thus far have been Levi McLaughlin, Crystal Whelan and Clark Chilson. A number of other profiles are in the pipeline.

We would encourage anyone who teaches in relevant areas to make use of this resource. In addition, we would encourage anyone who is working in relevant areas and who would be interested in contributing a profile of a particular movement, to contact us. Normally contributions should be around 5-6000 words long and follow the general format set out in the profiles.

Erica Baffelli erica.baffelli@manchester.ac.uk

Ian Reader ian.reader@manchester.ac.uk

Birgit Staemmler birgit.staemmler@japanologie.uni-tuebingen.de

Journal Announcement: Sociology of Islam, Volume 3 (2015) Issue 1-2 (Brill)

Sociology of Islam: Volume 3 (2015) Issue 1-2
EDITORS: Tugrul Keskin and Gary Wood
Sectarian Affiliation and Gender Traditionalism: A Study of Sunni and Shi’a Muslims in Four Predominantly Muslim Countries
Authors: Gabriel A. Acevedo and Sarah Shah
ABSTRACT:
This paper will add to the expanding scholarship in the sociology of Islam and explore the influence of Sunni-Shi’a affiliation on views of gender traditionalism. Using a subset of the World Values Survey, we contrast views towards women’s roles in society held by Sunni and Shi’a respondents in Iran, Iraq, Lebanon and Pakistan (n = 10,799). Our findings suggest that views of gender traditionalism are not solely a function of sectarian affiliation but that educational attainment, income, demographic factors and national culture are stronger and more consistent predictors of gender traditionalism than sectarian affiliation alone. We draw from theories of religious incongruence and discuss the theoretical implications of our findings. These findings suggest the need for additional research that links sociological theories of religion to the empirical study of Islam, as well as a greater emphasis on the role that social context plays in shaping Muslim public opinion.
Affiliations: 1: Associate Professor of Sociology, University of Texas at San Antonio, gabriel.acevedo@utsa.edu ; 2: Doctoral Student, University of Toronto, ssarah.shah@mail.utoronto.ca
Al-Qaida in Iraq Beyond Rhetoric: Visualizing an ‘Islamic State of Iraq’
Author: Christoph Guenther
ABSTRACT:
In any contest for power, the multiple actors involved employ various strategies to convey their messages to national and international audiences. The contest for control over the state between the Iraqi government forces and Jihadist groups after 2003 has seen the latter deploy both rhetoric and particular forms of visualization to persuade their audience of the need to establish an ‘Islamic State’ in Iraq and beyond. This article evaluates the extent to which al-Qāʿida in Iraq ( aqi) and its successor the ‘Islamic State of Iraq’ ( isi) have tried to appeal to supporters by employing specific rhetorical and visual signs. It analyzes the group’s utopian prospects – a vision that is reinforced through rhetoric and images that play on emotions and inspire the adherents of the ‘Islamic State’.
Affiliations: 1: University of Leipzig Leipzig, GermanyRitterstr. 12, 04109 Leipzig (Germany) christoph.guenther@uni-leipzig.de
The 1961 Constitutional Referendum in Turkey
Authors: Yunus Emre and Burak Cop
ABSTRACT:
The 1961 referendum on the new constitution was the first referendum held in the history of the Turkish republic. However, no deeper analysis of this phenomenon has been conducted in the English-language academic literature. This paper undertakes that objective. The new constitution was drafted and adopted under anti-democratic conditions. The post-coup era was a missed opportunity for instituting a stronger democracy. The referendum was the last nationwide vote in which traditional actors played significant roles in determining voting behavior. The notables and major landowners of the under-developed provinces led the masses to vote in favor of the new constitution. Starting in 1965, politics in Turkey became ideology-centered and class-oriented, thus causing the influence of traditional actors to diminish. Although the campaign for votes to support the referendum dominated the political scene in 1961, the electorate showed its distance from the coup anyway.
Affiliations: 1: Assistant Professor, Department of International Relations, Istanbul Kültür University, y.emre@iku.edu.tr; 2: Assistant Professor, Department of International Relations, Istanbul Kültür University, burakcop@yahoo.co.uk
Globalization, Political Islam, and Moderation: The Case of Muslim Democratic Parties
Author: A. Kadir Yildirim
ABSTRACT:
In this article, I examine the rising significance of a moderate kind of Islamist party emerging in the Middle East in recent years—Muslim democratic parties—and, the factors underlying their electoral success. In this, the manuscript takes a closer look at an important constituency of Islamist parties, the small and medium business owners ( smes). Briefly, I argue that smes’ support underlies the success of moderate Muslim democratic parties as opposed to more conservative Islamist parties, and what determines smes’ support for a moderate party is the change in their political preferences. The change in smepreferences, I show, is due to the form that economic liberalization takes, whether economic liberalization is more inclusive (what I call competitive liberalization) or exclusive/selective (what I call crony liberalization). Empirically, I rely on original field interviews I conducted with party officials and business owners in Egypt, Morocco, and Turkey. I also integrate primary sources such as party publications into the analysis.
Affiliations: 1: Baker Institute for Public Policy, Rice University, ay18@rice.edu

 

Two conferences in Africa in July 2016

From 4th to 8th July 2016, the Centre for Christian-Muslim Relations in Eastleigh, St. Paul’s University, Kenya, will host a conference on Faiths and (In)security in Africa.

The AASR Conference will take place at the University of Ghana, Legon, Accra, from 26th to 29th July 2016. The theme is ‘Religion, Sexuality, and Identity in Africaand the African Diaspora’.