Author Archives: Jim

Call for Proposals: Small Grants for Research in Religion and Politics

Call for Proposals:
Small Grants for Research in Religion and Politics
Due August 15, 2020

The Religion and Politics section of the American Political Science Association is requesting proposals for small grant awards of up to $3,000 for research on religion and politics. Proposals may address any topic of theoretical, empirical, and practical significance for the study of religion and politics.

Effective proposals will make clear what the author(s) intend to do, why that research is important, and how the project will be executed.

Proposals should have the following components:

  1. Cover Page: This should contain project title, author(s), institutional affiliation(s), title(s), email address(es), and a project abstract of 250 words or less.
  2. Narrative: This text should be no more than three pages, single-spaced, in a standard font. The narrative should have (at a minimum) the following sections:
    • Project Overview
    • Background and Literature Review
    • Research Design and Analysis Plans
      • In the current context of COVID-19, please address the feasibility of any travel plans, and discuss possible modifications that you might need to make.
  1. Brief Budget and Narrative Explaining Budget: Authors may request up to $3,000, though smaller budgets may be viewed favorably.
    • Please note that funds may be used for research purposes, such as hiring of research assistants, survey data collection and interviews, purchasing of data, or travel expenses (e.g., travel, lodging, food, ground transportation).
    • Funds may not be used for salary or honoraria for the researcher. University indirect costs (NDCs) will not be allowed.
  2. Bibliography containing only references cited within the proposal.
  3. Biography(ies): Please limit each author’s biography to no more than 200 words.
  4. CV(s) of author(s)
  5. Applicants who have not completed their PhDs should request a letter of support from their advisor. Letters should be emailed to APSA.Religion.Politics@gmail.com.

Award terms and requirements:

  • Please submit proposals to APSA.Religion.Politics@gmail.com by 11:59 PM on August 15, 2020.
  • Awards will be announced by September 30, 2020.
  • Funds may be spent through September 30, 2021.
  • Applicants must be members of the Religion & Politics section (note that section membership is free to graduate students).
  • Preference will be given to graduate students, recent PhDs, and untenured faculty.
  • Questions may be addressed to Amy Erica Smith, aesmith2@iastate.edu.

Call for Proposals: Engaging African Realities: Integrating Social Science within African Theology

Engaging African Realities: Integrating Social Science within African Theology

The Nagel Institute, with generous support from the Templeton Religion Trust, invites project proposals for “Engaging African Realities: Integrating Social Science within African Theology.” Its aim is to support African theologians to engage in fresh social scientific integrated approaches with the goal of producing creative and original projects in grounded theology. We understand grounded theology as an attempt at realizing the potential of theological creativity from the bottom-up, as opposed to a top-down approach. The project seeks to emphasize how grounded theology is compatible with grounded theory in social sciences as a method for seeking hidden patterns and meanings through ethnography, a way to unearth stories and enable answers to questions from African realities. The 12 awards, of not more than $50,000 USD each, will enable grantees to participate in three intensive workshops on social science theory, methods and skills needed for grounded theology, and provide support for research on one of two topical areas:

  • African traditional values and spirituality with reference to religious experience
  • Religious innovation and competition focusing on African resources for innovation

Visit nagelinstitute.org for a comprehensive list of key questions and complete RFP instructions.

Proposals accepted in English, French, or Portuguese.

We encourage you to forward this announcement to any early-career (having received their PhD in the past 10 years) African theologian interested in the use of social science research methods in pursuit of grounded theological research.

Contacts

Nagel Institute, Calvin University
3201 Burton St SE
Grand Rapids, MI 49546 USA

email: nagel@calvin.edu
phone: +1-616-526-7155
Visit our website!

Nagel Institute for the Study of World Christianity at Calvin University | 3201 Burton Street SE, Grand Rapids, MI 49546

Call for Papers on Religion and Digital Media

Dear Colleagues,
Do you work in the field of religion and digital media? With Dr.Marco Túlio de Sousa and Dr. Mihaela Alexandra Tudor we are launching a special issue in the journal “Tropos: Communication, Culture and Society”

Call is in English, Portuguese and Spanish, but we also accept submissions in Italian and French.

Full paper submission until December 2020 and publication in June 2021 after peer review.

You can find more info here: https://periodicos.ufac.br/index.php/tropos/index Or you can ask for information at midiareligiaos@gmail.comCapture

Notes from the Australian Association for the Study of Religion June Newsletter

  Publications

Events:
Centre of Islamic Studies and Civilisation’s Islamic Studies Research Colloquium via Zoom, 26 June 2020 at 3pm-5pm. RSVP by 22 June 2020.

PhD/Job Opportunities:

New Book: Religione e popolo, by Carlo Prandi

Carlo Prandi: Religione e popolo: Continuità e fratture

MORCELLIANA, Brescia 2020

La dicotomia religione/popolo è tipica delle religioni del Libro, dove si forma storicamente un ceto di specialisti (sacerdoti, teologi) che detengono i poteri e i saperi e guidano la massa dei “fedeli”. Ma la vita religiosa non è monodirezionale: il “popolo” recepisce i messaggi e li trasforma entro la complessità del vissuto quotidiano, in parte con obbedienza legata alla tradizione, in parte con forme devozionali ed etiche relativamente autonome, in parte rivendicando, per lo più implicitamente, una propria capacità d’iniziativa. In questo libro si seguono, in ambito cristiano, alcuni itinerari di tale complessa fenomenologia a doppio senso, che è costellata di incontri, scontri e forme di reciproco adattamento, ma è anche sottoposta agli inesorabili processi di erosione/metamorfosi cui l’incalzare della modernità sta sottoponendo il proteiforme mondo delle religioni.

Carlo Prandi ha insegnato Sociologia delle religioni e Storia delle religioni nelle università di Arezzo, Padova, Parma e presso la Fondazione “Bruno Kessler” di Trento. Collabora con le riviste «Humanitas», «Studi e Materiali di Storia delle Religioni», «Social Compass». Ha recentemente curato la traduzione italiana del testo di Marcel Mauss, La nozione di persona. Una categoria dello spirito (Morcelliana, 2018). In stampa anche la traduzione del’opera fondante di E. Durckheim.

RELIGIONE E POPOLO. CONTINUITA’ E FRATTURE
Autore: PRANDI CARLO
Editore: MORCELLIANA
Data di pubblicazione: Maggio 2020
Collana: ORSO BLU
Codice: 9788828401643
DISPONIBILE SUBITO
€ 19,50 € 18,53

the ICSOR GRANT 2020 winner

Immagine incorporata 1

Caro collega,
il vincitore dell’ICSOR GRANT 2020 è il professor Robert Woodberry, Baylor University, USA. Il tema di ricerca è “Religione e cambiamento sociale in due secoli: Mappatura delle attività della Chiesa cattolica dai documenti dell’Archivio Apostolico Vaticano & Propaganda Fide”.
La qualità delle domande è stata elevata e la selezione molto difficile.

Cordiali saluti.
Ciao. 
Roberto Cipriani

Dear Colleague,

The ICSOR GRANT 2020 winner is Professor Robert Woodberry, Baylor University, USA. The research topic is ” Religion and Social Change over Two Centuries: Mapping the Activities of the Catholic Church from Documents in the Vatican Apostolic & Propaganda Fide Archives”.  The quality of applications has been high and the selection very difficult.

Best regards.
Ciao.
Roberto Cipriani

Postponement of the IV ISA Forum of Sociology to February 2021

As you have been informed recently, the Executive Committee of the ISA decided to postpone the IV ISA Forum of Sociology in Porto Alegre, Brazil, to February 23-27, 2021

We are aware that this postponement may be problematic for many of you. The size and speed of the Covid-19 outbreak gave us no other solution. We will redouble our energy and motivation to use these seven months delay to make this Forum a major and insightful meeting of the global sociological community in extraordinary times.

All the activities that have been prepared for the Forum will be maintained. This includes the regular session as much as the plenaries and the common sessions. We will however provide some flexibility to the RC that would like to adapt their program and, if they decide so, to allow their participants to update the title and abstracts of their contribution to the Forum. The abstract selected for the Forum in July 2020 remain thus valid for the Forum in February 2021.

Together with a new “early registration deadline”, we have set a new calendar that allows some flexibility to RCs that wish to update and re-open some of their panels to new participants to replace the colleagues who will not be able to join us in February and to take into account the questions and challenges raised by the Covid-19 outbreak, its social impact and the world that will come out of it.

15 September – 15 October 2020

  • The authors of abstracts selected for the ISA Forum will be invited to confirm their participation to the Forum before October 15th, 2020. They may update their abstract and title, in consultation with their session organizers or RC program coordinators.

15 October 2020 Final day to confirm participation by authors of the already accepted abstracts.

  • The abstracts that have not been not confirmed will be automatically removed from the program

16 – 25 October 2020 Publication of the calls for new abstracts proposals by the RC/WG/TG

26 October – 12 November 2020 Submission of new abstracts proposals via online platform

12 November 2020 Deadline for new abstract submissions

24 November 2020 Authors are notified about the acceptance or rejection of their abstracts
15 December2020 Presenters final registration deadline (early registration fees apply).

We are aware that postposing the Forum will require additional work for our RC program coordinators, presidents and boards, for the Local Organizing Committee and in particular for its president Hermilio Santos, and for the ISA Secretariat. We would like to thank each of them and ensure them we will be there to support them. On our side, have no doubt that we will use this delay to make this Forum an insightful space, to reinforce the existing panels and projects and to set up new ones, such as the “Sociological Movies section” for which a call will soon be published.

The CoVid outbreak is shaking our world in a way that no one expected and will have deep consequences on our world and the way we see it. The 2021 ISA Forum of Sociology will be a unique opportunity to learning from colleagues from all continents and sharing analyses of the crisis, its social impacts and the world that will emerge out of it with. We look very much forward to seeing all of you.

Sari Hanafi, President of the International Sociological Association

Geoffrey Pleyers, ISA Vice President for Research and President of the IV ISA Forum of Sociology

Open position : PhD student in sociology of religion, diversity, and ethnicity

The Institute for the Social Sciences of Religions (ISSR) at the University of Lausanne is looking for a PhD student in sociology of religion, diversity, and ethnicity.
The selected person will work in a small motivated team on the creation and administration of the second wave of the National Congregation Study Switzerland (NCS II). This is a projet funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation on the diversity of local religious groups in Switzerland, across all religions, including both autochthonous and immigration groups. Collaborating partners are based at the University of Basel (CH), University of Strasbourg (F) and Duke University (USA).
Deadline for applications: June 30, 2020

Further details and submission of applications:
https://career5.successfactors.eu/career?career%5fns=job%5flisting&company=universitdP&navBarLevel=JOB%5fSEARCH&rcm%5fsite%5flocale=en%5fUS&career_job_req_id=15843&selected_lang=en_US&jobAlertController_jobAlertId=&jobAlertController_jobAlertName=&_s.crb=QWU6YYahmY1ko%2fLzVUCsAC6tEV4%3d

Only applications through the website will be taken into account. Thank you for your understanding

Religion & Evolutionary/Biological Science

If anyone with expertise in connections between sociology of religion and evolutionary/biological sciences is interested in writing an essay for the series described below, please contact me (ldpearce@unc.edu) by noon, Monday, May 18th.

-Lisa

Announcing a new series of short essays on the connection between sociology and the biological and evolutionary sciences. Never has it been more important to re-examine this connection in the light of the current pandemic and its aftermath. The essays will be published in the online magazine This View of Life, which is at the forefront of publishing academically informed content on all aspects of human affairs from an evolutionary perspective. TVOL reaches a diverse audience of academic professionals, public policy experts and the informed general public across the world (typically between 30K-50K pageviews/mo). The essays will be published first individually to be the center of attention and then collected into a special issue for long term visibility (go here for current special issues). We expect that our special issue will provide a foundation for further discussion and exploration of collaborative potential.

The essays should reflect upon the following theme:

A biologically evolved virus finds an environmental niche it can successfully exploit and upends human society.  Whether we celebrate or fear modern technology, whether we applaud or dismiss science, whether we view health as a personal or public concern, an invisible pathogen forces us to recognize our interdependence both with the natural world and with each other.

Of course, sociology begins with the importance of social connection, highlights the social processes that shape human outcomes, and takes account of social groups and the cultures they create when explaining human behavior.  And we now know that these insights take us back to, not away from, our evolved biology:  that the environment influences genetic expression; that culture influences evolutionary change; that the need for group support and social connection are the evolved lodestone of our species and are reflected in the functioning of our brains.

The COVID -19 crisis provides an opportunity for sociologists to reflect upon the history of evolutionary thinking and current understandings in their area, and the potential benefits and costs of a more transdisciplinary vision. These reflections, representing the full diversity of sociological perspectives, will be valuable in their own right in addition to their relevance to the current moment. Hence, explicit connections to the COVID-19 crisis are encouraged but should not overshadow the theme of the past, present, and future of evolutionary thinking in the discipline.

The essays should be approximately 1000 words in length, which is enough for a concise statement and can link to the larger literature. We have flexibility in due dates but would like to receive at least some essays by June 1. Authors will receive guidelines about formatting and other details.

This project is a collaboration between Russell Schutt (current chair of the Evolution, Biology and Society section), Rengin Firat (EBS Council member), David Sloan Wilson (Editor in Chief of TVOL) and Eric Michael Johnson (Managing Editor of TVOL).  David has made foundational contributions to theories of social evolution and Eric’s recently completed PhD thesis is on the early impact of Darwin’s Theory on sociological thinking.  Russ studies social engagement in relation to organizational functioning and health outcomes, with connections to social neuroscience, evolutionary theory, and psychosocial treatments for serious mental illness.  Rengin’s research focuses on inter-group relations and racial disparities of health and well-being with a neurosociological approach.

Lisa D. Pearce
Professor and Interim Associate Chair of Sociology
Faculty Fellow, Carolina Population Center
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

http://lisapearce.web.unc.edu/

Association for the Sociology of Religion 2020 Conference Cancelled

Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2020 ASR Annual Meeting in San Francisco has been cancelled. There remains great uncertainty around whether this global health crisis will be resolved by August. Some experts are predicting social distancing orders will last at least through the summer.  The American Sociological Association has cancelled its SF conference, and we do, too.

This news is very disappointing. Every year, we look forward to intellectually stimulating research and conversation, sharing teaching experiences, and navigating grant opportunities. I want to express my sincere gratitude to our current President, James Cavendish, and our Program Chair, Brian Starks, who have already put a lot of work into creating a conference theme, proposing joint sessions with the ASA, soliciting session proposals and abstract submissions, and fielding questions about the Annual Meeting. I also appreciate the time and effort that ASR’s Council has dedicated to helping us plan this conference.

If you already registered for this conference, we will be happy to refund your money in full. We would also be happy to accept your payment as a generous donation to the ASR. If you would like a refund for your registration fee, please email me.

Please stay safe and healthy, and I look forward to seeing you again soon.  

Sincerely,

Rachel Kraus, PhD, MPA
ASR Executive Officer
Professor of Sociology
Ball State University