Umeå University, Sweden
9–10 November 2017
Historically, the relationship between strong, conservative religion and modern society has been a complex one. Various means of inclusion and exclusion have been employed by mainstream society, and the religious groups themselves have applied both world-fleeing and world-mastering strategies. In contemporary Europe, the liberal multicultural society is being challenged by polarized religious fundamentalism of both Christian and Islamic foundation. This conference wants to highlight the past and present encounters between strong religion and mainstream society in general, but preferably with respect to youth, education, and technology. Special interest will be paid to young people and their ways of relating to both strong religion and the ideologies and attributes of modernity.
The organizers invite papers that address the theme in various ways. Papers can focus on either general aspects of the main theme or any of the subthemes, and develop both internal and external perspectives on religious communities, in history as well as contemporary culture. Possible aspects include approaches to and use of technology at individual and group levels; ideas and mechanisms of upbringing, socialization and educa-tion; sites of separation and integration such as schools, including attempts at interreligious education and reli-gious dialogue, etc. Empirical cases are encouraged, but theoretical contributions are also welcome.
Keynotes
Dr Wolfram Weisse, Professor of Religious Education at University of Hamburg, Germany
Dr Pauline Cheong, Professor of Communication at Arizona State University, USA
Abstracts
Proposals for papers to be presented at the conference must be submitted no later than 15 June 2017. The requested information includes name, title and institutional affiliation of presenter(s), title of paper, and an ab-stract of the proposed paper of maximum 300 words. Please upload your abstract here.
Important Dates
15 June 2017 Deadline for submission of abstracts
1 July 2017 Notification of acceptance
30 September 2017 Deadline for registration and payment of conference fee
Organizers
The conference is an activity of the European Bible Belt project, funded by the Dutch research council NWO and directed by Professor Fred van Lieburg, Free University, Amsterdam. It will be co-hosted by the Department of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies, and Humlab, Umeå University.
More information
Contact persons: Prof. Daniel Lindmark +46 (0)90 786 6250 daniel.lindmark@umu.seAssoc. Prof. Stefan Gelfgren +46 (0)90 786 5087 stefan.gelfgren@umu.se