Call for Manuscripts

ANNUAL REVIEW OF THE SOCIOLOGY OF RELIGION
Volume 12 (Forthcoming 2021)

RELIGIOUS FREEDOM: SOCIAL-SCIENTIFIC APPROACHES
Edited by
Olga Breskaya (University of Padova, Italy), Roger Finke (Pennsylvania
State University, USA) and Giuseppe Giordan (University of Padova,
Italy).

Over the past three decades, issues related to religious freedom have increasingly come to the fore. The European Court of Human Rights ruled the landmark case on religious freedom in 1993, the U.S. passed the International Religious Freedom Act in 1998, and the King of Morocco hosted a major international conference in 2016 on promoting the rights of religious minorities in Muslim majority countries. Religion and state relations, with a focus on religious freedoms, has now become a growing interdisciplinary area of study. The Religion and State project has produced three waves of data and many other international initiatives put religious freedom at the center of their studies. Scholars in political science, international relations, and judicial studies have all contributed theoretical discussions, case studies and extensive empirical analysis. Sociologists have contributed too, but they have far more to offer.
The multidimensionality of religious freedom and its rootedness in historical, socio-legal and socio-political contexts, make it an area where sociology can make significant contributions. The social and religious dynamics related to migration, the societal restrictions placed on religious freedoms, the interaction between religious social movements and religious freedoms, and the increasing visibility of religion in global politics are a few of the areas where sociology’s well-established theoretical discourse and analytical tools can complement and challenge other disciplines. We invite the authors of this volume to contribute theoretical perspectives, sociological concepts and empirical analyses that highlight the development of religious freedom as an area of study in the social sciences. Listed below are a few of the many additional areas authors might address.

1.      Theories of religious freedom in social sciences
2.      Religious freedom and pluralism
3.      Religious freedom, spirituality, and interfaith dialogue
4.      Religious freedom and secularism
5.      Cross-national studies on religious freedom
6.      Sociology of human rights and religious freedom
7.      Religious freedom and social conflicts
8.      Religious freedom and socio-economic development

Please send proposals (400 words) and a brief bio to Olga Breskaya
(olga.breskaya@phd.unipd.it)
Submission of proposals: June 30, 2019
Notification of acceptance: September 30, 2019
Completed manuscripts (7,000 words): April 30, 2020