Author Archives: Janaki

Job Opening: Assistant Professor in Social Theory and Religion in Modernity - University of Alabama

The Department of Religious Studies at the University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, invites applications for a tenure-track position at the rank of assistant professor in the area of Social Theory and Religion in Modernity beginning August 2016. At the time of hire, a Ph.D. is required; advanced ABD candidates will also be considered. The committee welcomes applications from candidates with academic training in religious studies, but will also entertain training in such related fields as cultural studies, sociology, anthropology, race studies, comparative literature, and interdisciplinary studies, as long as expertise in studying and teaching social theory as applied to the study of religion and modernity is evident. The position is a full-time appointment in Religious Studies.
The successful applicant’s area of focus/specialty will complement and enhance the research areas of the Department, in terms of both data domain and critical method. The specific topics/regions of research and teaching are open but each will demonstrate the application of social theory to understand religion’s role in modernity (being broadly conceived as a post-18th century development) The successful candidate will see her or his object of study as an example of wider, cross-cultural socio-political forces and issues. Possible sites for this kind of approach might include (but are not limited to): colonialism and postcolonialism, secularism, the Global South, formations of the modern nation-state, identity studies, liberalism, and economic theory.

Applicants should demonstrate an active and ongoing research agenda, teaching experience, and evidence of the ability to contribute to the life of an academic department in the areas of service. All faculty in REL contribute to teaching introductory courses as well as more specialized upper-level undergraduate seminars.

The University of Alabama is an Equal Employment/Equal Educational Opportunity Institution. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, genetic information, disability, or protected veteran status, and will not be discriminated against because of their protected status. Applicants to and employees of this institution are protected under Federal law from discrimination on several bases. Follow the link below to find out more.

“EEO is the Law” http://www1.eeoc.gov/employers/upload/eeoc_self_print_poster.pdf

Review of applications will begin on October 1. Applicants are required to apply online, submitting a cover letter, C.V., writing sample (upload to “other document 1” tab), and names/addresses of three references (upload to “other document 2” tab). Selected applicants will subsequently be asked to provide letters of recommendation.

For information, please contact

Professor Merinda Simmons
Chair, Modern Social Theory Search
Department of Religious Studies
212 Manly Hall
P.O. Box 870264
University of Alabama
Tuscaloosa, AL 35487-0264
merinda.simmons@ua.edu

Call for book proposals on New Religious Movements

De Gruyter Open, part of De Gruyter publishing group, invites book proposals for the new Open Access book series on New Religious Movements.

The series welcomes written or edited monographs and anthologies on New Religious Movements (NRMs) and alternative spiritualities – both empirical and theoretical with interdisciplinary approaches. Of particular interest are those that combine perspectives and methods drawn from all social sciences and humanities on the present, historical and newly emerging NRMs, as well as research methods, issues and problems, and new directions in study of NRMs. More information about the series can be found at http://degruyteropen.com/oatheologynrm/

Our Open Access Books are available through De Gruyter’s publishing platform, libraries, full text repositories and distributors such as Amazon. Each title is also offered as a print version.

Authors interested in submitting their proposals for series are asked to fill in the New Book Proposal Form (which can be found at http://degruyteropen.com/you/book-author/subjects/theology_religious_studies/) and send it to the series editor Dr. Rasa Pranskeviciute at Rasa.Pranskeviciute@degruyteropen.com, together with a sample from the book (introduction, chapter or subchapter). Authors of ready manuscripts are welcome to attach the whole text of the book.

The proposed book should be written in English and must not have been published before in any language.

Authors interested in publishing their books without publication fees are asked to submit the book proposals by September 30, 2015.

Please feel free to forward this invitation to any interested colleagues or associates.

Book Announcement: Claire Chambers, Britain Through Muslim Eyes

The Muslim as a cultural category has come under increasing, most often hostile, scrutiny in Euro−America over the last four decades or so. As a result, the field of Muslim literary studies has emerged to shine a spotlight on the exciting body of literature by authors of Muslim heritage writing back to Islamophobic stereotypes. However, this academic oeuvre too often assumes that this literature is a contemporary, broadly post-9/11 phenomenon. In this important book, Claire Chambers takes a long view of depictions of Britain by writers from Muslim backgrounds. The book’s first half focuses on travel and life writing from the eighteenth to the mid twentieth centuries by authors such as Mirza Sheikh I’tesamuddin, Najaf Koolee Meerza, and Atiya Fyzee. In the second half, she trains her critical gaze on the long tradition of fictional representations, from Ahmad Fāris al-Shidyāq’s Leg Over Leg (1855) to Ahdaf Soueif’s Aisha (1983) and Abdulrazak Gurnah’s Pilgrims Way (1988). Chambers argues that the Rushdie affair has been more of a turning point on perceptions of and by Muslims in Britain than 9/11. Her next book in this two-part series, Muslim Representations of Britain, 1988−Present, will therefore start with discussion of Salman Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses (1988) and move to examination of the long shadow this text has cast on subsequent Muslim literary representations.
Out now!

Britain Through Muslim Eyes: Literary Representations, 1780−1988. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan (2015)

Job Opening: Career Development Fellowship - Sociology of Islam in Australia, School of Social Sciences and Psychology, Western Sydney University

Please find below the link to a new position: Career Development Fellowship - Sociology of Islam in Australia, School of Social Sciences and Psychology, Western Sydney University.

Ref 1369/15 Career Development Fellowship - Sociology of Islam in Australia, School of Social Sciences and Psychology

Closing Date: 5 October 2015

Islamic Studies in Scotland: Retrospect and Prospect

To celebrate the 50th anniversary of the inaugural lecture of Montgomery Watt as the first Chair of Arabic and Islamic Studies in Scotland, the Department of Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies in the University of Edinburgh, supported by the Alwaleed Centre, has arranged an evening celebrating and assessing Prof Watt’s work (talks by Professor Carole Hillenbrand of the University of Edinburgh and Prof Fred Donner of the University of Chicago), and a day symposium on ‘Representations of Muhammad’, with talks by Professor Wilferd Madelung (Institute of Ismalili Studies), Dr Nicolai Sinai (University of Oxford), Dr Andreas Goerke (University of Edinburgh), Dr Christiane Gruber (University of Michigan), Dr Nacim Pak-Shiraz (University of Edinburgh), and Dr John Tolan (University of Nantes).

 

The full programme is available at http://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/islamic-studies-in-scotland-retrospect-and-prospect-tickets-18324770883

CFP: Political and public approaches to gender, secularism and multiculturalism

Political and public approaches to gender, secularism and multiculturalism

CIUL (Centro de informação urbana de Lisboa) – Lisbon, 11-13 November 2015.

DEADLINE EXTENDED – 25th September 2015

This workshop is the third of a series of international workshops on the theme “Is secularism bad for women? Women, Religion and Multiculturalism in contemporary Europe” focusing on the relation between the role of religion in women’s lives and gender equality (https://womenreligionandsecularism.wordpress.com/). This is an important question to debate, given the increased visibility of religion in the globalized world of the 21st century. While some scholars and political actors argue that a form of political secularism is the best way to ensure gender equality, others consider secularism a bad political arrangement for religious people, because it excludes them from the political and public sphere. Taking forward discussions initiated by Susan Moller Okin’s controversial 1997 essay ‘Is multiculturalism bad for women?’ and continued recently in works of scholars including Saba Mahmood, Joan Scott, Nilüfer Göle, Nadje Al-Ali, Linell Cady and Tracy Fessenden, these workshops address the following questions: how can European societies secure religious women’s freedom and flourishing? What political arrangements offer the most to those who are religious and female? Is religion – at least some forms of it – an impossible impediment, something that must be destroyed in order for women to be free? Or can religion be a positive force in women’s lives, something that enhances their wellbeing and aids social justice?

This workshop will approach these issues by focusing on the public and political spheres, as well as on the theoretical debate. The first workshop at Uppsala University (May 2015) examined the individual or everyday level, while the second one at Coventry University (June 2015) addressed the organisational or group level. In the Lisbon workshop we will investigate the political and public approaches to gender, secularism and multiculturalism. We will focus on how the issues of gender equality, secularism and multiculturalism are treated in three forms of public spheres (1) the mass media sphere, (2) the political sphere, and (3) the theoretical discourse on public religion. How do gender equality, secularism and multiculturalism become public matters? What kind of issues are they intertwined with? What values and controversies do they involve? How are these different spheres intertwined with one another? What kind of understandings of the public do they involve? How are these issues politicized? What kind of challenges do they pose to the theoretical debate? What they may tell us about the contemporary conceptions of religious/female agency and citizenship? What do they tell us about democracy?

Keynote speakers: Dr. Paola Bacchetta (University of California, Berkley); Dr. Teresa Toldy (University Fernando Pessoa, Porto and Centre for Social Studies, Coimbra).

We invite papers that discuss these questions, at the theoretical and empirical level. Abstracts should be sent by 25th September. Abstracts should be written in English and not exceed 300 words. Notification of acceptance will be given by September 30th. Please send abstracts to: wrsworkshops2015@gmail.com

Practical information: The workshop will run from 2 pm on 11 November to 5 pm on 13 November in CIUL (Lisbon, http://www.cm-lisboa.pt/viver/urbanismo/ciul). Papers will be presented in thematic, parallel sessions. Participation fee is 50 euros per participant or 20 euros for PhD, post-doc or civil society organizations, which includes refreshments. The workshop is funded by the International Society for the Sociology of Religion and organized by Dr Kristin Aune (Coventry University), Prof Mia Lӧvheim (Uppsala University), Dr Terhi Utriainen (University of Helsinki), Dr Alberta Giorgi (Centre of Social Studies, University of Coimbra; GRASSROOTSMOBILISE, Eliamep) & Dr Teresa Toldy (Fernando Pessoa University, Porto; Centre of Social Studies, University of Coimbra). A book publication featuring some of the papers is planned.

Conference: Race, religion and migration - spaces, practices, representations

Race, religion and migration: spaces, practices, representations

Newcastle University, January 13-15th 2016

Confirmed keynote speakers include:

Claire Alexander (University of Manchester),
Catarina Kinnvall (Lund University),
Greg Noble (University of Western Sydney),
Ann Phoenix (University of London), and
Gurchathen Sanghera (University of St Andrews)

The Race, religion and migration: spaces, practices, representations conference brings together scholars, activists and practitioners who research matters of ethnicity, faith and mobility. It engages with an international community of scholars (including established, mid-career and emerging), policy-makers, practitioners and activists who share an interest in these topics, and who are working on issues of space, practice and/or representation (or at the intersections between two or all of these). The conference includes contributions which explore and demonstrate the social and political significance of issues of race, religion and migration, and engages with the multiple spaces in which these are constructed, contested and represented.

We welcome a range of empirical, conceptual and policy-focused papers from different disciplines across the social sciences. We welcome papers that connect with the conference title and particularly encourage submissions on the following themes:

• Everyday multiculturalism
• Intersections of race, religion and migration with gender, sexuality, class and age
• Childhood, youth and ethnic/religious diversity and difference
• Embodied experiences of, and negotiations of, racialised and religious difference
• Representing race, religion and/or migration in different contexts
• Islamophobia and racism
• Local, regional, urban and national patterns and processes
• Critical reviews of policies about race, religion and migration

We also welcome suggestions for alternative forms of presentations/sessions.

To register, follow the link at the bottom of this page: https://research.ncl.ac.uk/youngpeople/finalconference/