The World Congress of Faiths (WCF) is a community of individuals from different faiths and beliefs working to promote interfaith relations through spiritual dialogue. It organises conferences and lectures designed to stimulate discussion and disseminate new information on this theme.

WCF is seeking papers to be presented at its forthcoming conference:

Meetings of Minds: Conflict, Reconciliation and Inter Faith Relations
Time and Date: 10am to 4pm, Tuesday 10 September 2019
Venue: St Michael’s House, Coventry Cathedral

Keynote speaker: Dr Kristin Aune: ‘How can religious communities or professionals work for mutual respect and understanding in an educational institution?’

We will consider papers on the following and similar themes:

• What can faith communities learn from studies in reconciliation?
• Can there be mutual benefit between education for reconciliation and spiritual encounter between faiths?
• What might a polarised society expect from inter faith relations?
• Preparing young people for faith diversity
• Navigating prejudice, toleration, and reconciliation in the global context of inter faith relations and thought

You will be asked to present your own paper and take questions and will have a total of 45 minutes allocated, of which 15 minutes will be for questions.  Papers should reflect original work, which may or may not have been published, and we encourage students to participate. Papers will normally be published in the WCF journal Interreligious Insight after the event.

Reasonable travel expenses will be paid to speakers.

Please send a synopsis of your paper in no more than 200 words together with your affiliation and contact details (term time and home) by Friday 21 June 2019 to: Jenny Kartupelis, jenny@worldfaiths.org<mailto:jenny@worldfaiths.org> If you have any queries, use this email or call on 01223 781781.
WCF: ESSAY AWARD 2019

AAIMS Second Conference on the Study of Islam and Muslim Societies.
Hosted by the School of Social Sciences and Psychology at Western Sydney University, in partnership with Alfred Deakin Institute at Deakin University.

30 September and 1 October 2019

Western Sydney University Parramatta South Campus, Female Orphan School

We are pleased to announce confirmation of our international keynote speaker, award winning scholar and activist Deepa Kumar from Rutgers University in the United States. She will be speaking on: Terrorcraft: The Making of the Racialized Terrorist Threat.

CALL FOR PAPERS
The two leading nodes in Australian scholarship of race and ethnic studies are combining to offer the second Australian Association of Islamic and Muslim Studies (AAIMS) Conference. After the successful inaugural conference, the second conference will further represent the depth and breadth of scholarship in Australia and internationally. It will showcase and reflect upon the range of Muslim experiences across many countries from multi-disciplinary perspectives. The conference will bring togetherscholars from such disciplines as law, politics, sociology, religious studies, geography, philosophy and theology.

The conference will feature international and local keynotes who are leading scholars in their fields. In addition to papers, we are calling for convenors and participants for conference panels on cutting edge topics that fit within the broad theme of the conference.

We strongly encourage Higher Degree by Research students to attend and the conference program will include networking, feedback and mentoring sessions. HDR students are eligible for a discounted fee.

Topics for presentation might include (but are not limited to) the following:

• Geopolitics of Islam
• Islam in an era of populism
• Countering Violent Extremism
• Islam and women
• Muslim organisations, politics and volunteering
• Islamophobic ideologies, manifestation, impact and response
• Refugees and Islamophobia
• Youth and Islam
• Islam in the spaces of education
• Law and religion
• Muslim popular cultures and new media
• Islam in Indonesia
• Converts, reverts and apostates

Application Process
Abstracts (100-200 words)
Brief bio (50-100 words)

Participants are expected to organise and financially cover their own travel and accommodation expenses. Advice will be later provided on registration options and suitable accommodation.

Please send abstracts to: Mehrnosh Lajevardi Fatemi (M.lajevardifatemi@westernsydney.edu.au) by Friday 14 June, 2019

Queries can be directed to Professor Linda Briskman (l.briskman@westernsydney.edu.au) or Professor Shahram Akbarzadeh (shahram.akbarzadeh@deakin.edu.au).

RESEARCH COMMITTEE 22: SOCIOLOGY OF RELIGION

Call for Paper Proposals
4th ISA Forum of Sociology
July 14-18, 2020
(Paper proposals are due at GMT midnight on Sept 30, 2019)

“Challenges of the 21st Century for Sociology of Religion“

Program Coordinators:
Eloísa Martín, United Arab Emirates University, UAE
Juan Cruz Esquivel, University of Buenos Aires/ CONICET, Argentina
Roberta Bivar Carneiro, Federal University of Pernambuco, Brazil

The debate on religion, its role, its development, and its future has been intense, extensive and sophisticated during the last few decades. Religion is both a central phenomenon itself and a key variable that can be used to explain economic, social, and political phenomena.  Both facets require continuous in-depth research. In recent years, many sociologists have begun to identify limits to the current approach to religious phenomena, and especially to the definitions of religion developed in the West. A number of authors have extended this critique to the ways sociologists currently explain and interpret “religion” in the 21^st Century. Though still emerging, such accounts have opened new paths by which sociologists of religion can face both the empirical and theoretical challenges of our era.

Please consider proposing papers for the following Sessions: (click on the link to see session details)

• Beyond Western Centrism of Religion: To Study Africa Inspired Religions in the 21st Century
• Civil Society and Religion
• Culture, Religion, and Gender Inequality
• Early Career Sociologists of Religion Session 
• Overlapping Trajectories: Religion, Migration and Health Paths.
• Religion and Practical Ethics: Bioethics, Environmental Ethics and Legal Ethics
• Religion, Environment, and Social Movements
• Religion, Spirituality and Morality in a Post-Secular Age
• Religions, Social Movements and Politics Circulation, Production and Politics of Knowledge in the “Christianisms of Liberation” and Its Adversaries 
• Religiosity in Transition; Change of Roles Over the Time
• Religious Dynamics in the Public Sphere in Latin America
• Religious, Spiritual and/or Non-Religious Young People 
• Revisiting ‘religion’ from a Gender Perspective
• The Public Role of Religion
• The Reciprocal Influence of Religion and Demography
• Where Is Religion in Popular Religion? New Approaches for an Old Debate
• Wtf? (“What the Faith?”) – Peering Anew into the Conceptual Domains of “Religion”, “God”, “Spirituality”, “Faith” and Related Constructs

The ISA CONFEX website will be open for paper proposals until September 30, 2019 24:00 GMT. Sessions may only be submitted through the CONFEX site.  Programme coordinators cannot include papers sent by email or include papers submitted after the CONFEX system is closed.  Surf to http://bit.ly/2Gj9N0N to enter the CONFEX site.

Please, note that you must be an RC-22 member to submit a paper proposal.

Please address your questions to any of the Program Coordinators:

• Juan Cruz Esquivel jucesquivel@gmail.com
• Roberta Bivar Carneiro robertabivar@gmail.com
• Eloísa Martín eloisamartin@hotmail.com

All submissions are accepted through the Member Portal on the ASR website. Log in to your ASR account to submit a paper abstract. The submission link is in your ASR Member Portal and NOT on the general website or the Annual Meeting page. If you are not currently a member, you will need to become a member in order to log into the ASR website and submit a paper abstract. If you join the ASR or renew your membership, it may take up to a day for me to update your membership. Please email me if you have any trouble submitting your abstract.

If you have any questions about the program content of our meeting, please contact our 2019 Program Chair, Holly Folk, at holly.folk@wwu.edu.

The Conference of the Dutch Association for the Study of Religion (NGG) that will be held in Groningen on 30 October – 1 November 2019 is now open.

The theme of the conference is “Religion and the Production of Difference”.

Julia Martínez Ariño is convening a panel on “Public policies and the production of religious difference”:

Panel title: “Public policies and the production of religious difference” This panel will explore how religious difference is produced, reproduced, challenged and/or ignored by public policies as well as how, inversely, notions of religious difference inform policymaking. The panel welcomes papers examining the production of religious difference, and religious-secular and religious-spiritual distinctions by public policies in fields such as urban planning and public space, education, security, immigrant integration, etc. Attention will also be given to how policy-driven categories of religious difference are received by the stakeholders and impact on individuals and groups. Papers analysing policy definitions of acceptable and non-acceptable religiosity in various social contexts and policy fields and papers interested in the reception and consequences of those definitions are also welcomed. Some of the questions that the panel will address are the following:

• What are the social imaginaries and policy ideas underlying public policies in relation to religion and what are the resulting categories of difference?
• How do different actors, religious or not, receive and react to those categories and processes of differentiation?
• What are the (differential) implications of these processes and categories for different religious and non-religious groups and individuals?

We are interested in covering a wide range of geographical locations, theoretical perspectives and empirical approaches.

Panel convener: Julia Martínez-Ariño, University of Groningen Please, send your abstracts of no more than 250 words and a short biographical note of 100 words max. to: j.martinez.arino@rug.nl . Deadline: 1 June 2019

Scholars based in Dutch universities and abroad are invited to submit their abstracts. Deadline: 1 June 2019.

For more information, please visit the conference website: http://www.godsdienstwetenschap.nl/index.php…

Centre for Religion, Conflict and GlobalizationFaculty of Theology and Religious Studies University of GroningenNGG – Dutch Association for the Study of Religion

Conference Theme: “THE ROLE OF RELIGION IN PEACE AND CONFLICT”

October 14-17, 2019
Struga, Republic of North Macedonia

One of the key questions that contemporary sociology is faced is what exactly is the role of different religions when conflicts emerged between civilizations, ethnic groups and states? How do religious individuals and groups use their power in a development tending toward either peace or conflict? Sociological, philosophical, anthropological, historical, psychological and theological approaches are welcome in this Conference to contribute in an attempt to answer these questions.

The First European Conference on Religious Dialogue and Cooperation will provide scientific analysis of this global challenge.  It will pay particular attention to their interconnections and to possible solutions.

We encourage authors to submit paper proposals based on the results of their scientific studies, as well as the methodological and theoretical aspects of the study of religion in Europe. The official language of the conference is English. All papers that successfully pass the reviewing process will be published in a journal with an international editorial board.

Please submit a 200-300 words abstract of your presentation by e-mail to: Ivana Dragovic, M.Sc., President of the Conference Organizing Committee email : ivana@fzf.ukim.edu.mk by June 15, 2019.

Key dates:

• Submission of paper proposals: June 15, 2019.
• Notification of acceptance and opening of the registration: July 1, 2019.
• The final date of the registration for the conference: September 15, 2019.
• Final program: October 1, 2019.
• Submission of full papers: March 1, 2020

Registration Fee: 150 Eur The costs of travel and accommodation have to be covered by the conference participants. We offer organized transport from the Skopje Airport to Hotel Drim in Struga.

For participants of the conference, Hotel Drim (www.drim.com.mk) offers reduced prices for accommodation with included meals.

All necessary information can be obtained from the official website of the Conference http://icrd.mk/ 

We are looking forward to receiving your papers!

PROFESSOR ZORAN MATEVSKI, Ph.D. Director of the Center for Intercultural Studies and Research At the Faculty of Philosophy in Skopje

AUSTRALIAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE STUDY OF RELIGION

The 2019 AASR conference will be held from December 5-6 at the city campus of the University of Newcastle, co-hosted by the AASR, the Centre for the Study of Violence and the School of Humanities and Social Sciences. 

Conference Theme: Religion and Violence

We invite scholarly reflections on the complex and diverse relations between religion and violence, incorporating counter discourses of peace and social justice.

The relationship between religion and violence continues to be contentious and marked by significant changes in global and domestic politics including humanitarian crises, displaced peoples particularly asylum seekers, the rise and fall of extremist religious movements, the status of hate speech, the role of social media and the ongoing threat of religious terrorism. 

These major upheavals, particularly the claims to religious authority and legitimacy through violent means, have led to a growth in collective anxiety threatening global and local security.  Religious violence can be direct and institutional; aimed against individuals or groups; administered by the state or by non-state actors; material and symbolic.

A counterpoint is provided by religiously-motivated peace and social justice movements, including those for welcoming religiously-diverse refugees and migrants, interfaith initiatives and movements for gender and sexuality equality and animal rights. For example, values of religious diversity, social solidarity and pluralism have been notable in responding to recent expressions of violence including the events in Christchurch in March 2019 and provide notable moments of hope in moving towards religious diversity as a global value.

The conference invites papers engaging these issues from relevant disciplines including religious studies, politics, history, philosophy, law, theology, sociology and anthropology, social work, criminology, gender and women’s studies and education. Of particular interest are contributions examining:

• ·         the relationship between religious identity and violent extremism
• ·         state management of religious violence including the regulation of social media and hate speech
• ·         state perpetration of religious violence
• ·         perceptions and constructions of religious violence
• ·         theoretical approaches to the meaning of religious violence including examples of scapegoating and symbolic forms of violence
• ·         the relationship between gender, sexuality, religion and violence with particular attention to current issues of clergy abuse and domestic violence
• ·         representations of religious violence in popular culture
• ·         race, ethnicity, otherness and religious violence
• ·         religion and animal rights
• ·         religious movements for peace and social cohesion

How to Submit

Send proposals to the conference convenor Kathleen McPhillips: Kathleen.mcphillips@newcastle.edu.au

Please include Title, Author, Abstract (maximum 150 words) and university affiliation by 1st August 2019.

We are particularly interested in panel proposals on the conference theme, which must include no more than 4 panel members with a theme, paper titles, abstracts and authors.

Confirmations of acceptance will be sent by 1st September 2019. Late papers will not be considered.

Membership

Please note: submissions will only be considered if authors are members of the Australian Association for the Study of Religion.

For membership please visit the AASR website https://www.aasr.org.au/join-us. Members of NZASR do not need to also have AASR membership.

Conference Venue

The University of Newcastle is Australia’s leading regional university and has a record of global excellence in enquiry and engagement. The School of Humanities and Social Sciences supports the interdisciplinary study of religion including via the Centre for the History of Violence, where researchers work on projects across a breadth of themes including religion. The University’s city campus– Newspace – is located in the centre of the business district close to transport, accommodation, the harbour, beaches and the entertainment area. See https://www.newcastle.edu.au/about-uon/our-environments/new-space

Newcastle is located 2 hours north of Sydney and is easily accessible by road, air and train.  Transport to and from Newcastle airport provides easy access into the city and hosts international flights, including direct flights from Auckland and most major Australian cities.