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.

Date: 2-3 of August, 2019

Venue: Parramatta City Campus, Western Sydney University

169 Macquarie St, Parramatta, NSW, Australia

Abstracts due: 10 of April 2019 (title, 250-word abstract, short bio)

Submit to: Dr Kathleen Openshaw k.openshaw@westernsydney.edu.au

Keynote Speaker: Associate Prof Richard Vokes (University of Western Australia)

Symposium Conveners:

Prof Cristina Rocha, Religion and Society Research Cluster, WSU

Prof Mark Hutchinson, Alphacrucis College

Dr Kathleen Openshaw, Religion and Society Research Cluster, WSU

Mrs Ingrid Ryan, Alphacrucis College

Symposium Theme

Over the past few decades, Pentecostal and Charismatic Christianity (PCC) has exploded in the Global South and grown considerably in the Global North. Much of this grow this fuelled by networks of megachurches, the mobility of community leaders across diasporic networks, migration and media. While traditionally missionaries would travel in a North-to- South direction, more recently megachurches from the Global South have moved horizontally, across to other developing countries, and also made inroads in to the Global North in efforts of reverse missionisation. Such attempts to missionise to locals in the Global North have been largely (though not wholly) unsuccessful and churches have turned their focus to migrants from the Global South. Many studies have shown that migrants, who were not attached to PCCs before migration, join churches in the diaspora as they offer them a home away from home. Meanwhile, diasporic churches also face difficulties keeping these (as well as second generation) migrants, since they may prefer local churches in an effort to integrate. In this symposium we probe these themes and are seeking papers on the following topics:

• Historical developments
• Missionary activities and migration
• Translocal and transnational PCC networks
• Translocal and transnational families and PCC
• Young migrants and PCC
• Second generation migrants and PCC
• Gender, PCC and migration
• City infrastructures and diasporic churches
• Theological themes and migration
• Cultural translation, negotiation, adaptation of migrant churches
• PCC, media, music, information communication Technologies and migration
• Material culture and migrants’ lived experiences in PCC churches
• Aesthetics and embodied practices
• Immobility, borders and PCC

Cristina

Professor Cristina Rocha

Director of Religion and Society Research Cluster

Western Sydney University

President: Australian Association for the Study of Religion

Friday, August 2, 2019

Millersburg, Holmes County, OH

Conference hosted by the Amish & Plain Anabaptist Studies Association

Proposals are due by Friday, April 5; registration will follow.

For more details, see: www.amishstudies.org

The ongoing growth of the plain people—the Amish, Mennonites, Hutterites, German Baptists, Apostolic Christians, and others—means that more and more people are encountering these subcultures in the public sphere. For this reason, those who specifically study or work with the plain people—including health practitioners, public servants, and social researchers—must continue advancing our bodies of knowledge and best practices through critical evaluation of old paradigms and introduction of new concepts. The goal of this conference is to discuss advances in theory—the conceptual understanding of the plain people—and practice—the hands-on experiences of practitioners working with the plain people. We will also explore the connection between the two, how the lessons of one can be used by the other. For the convenience of attendees, the bi-annual Amish Health Conference of the Center for Appalachia Research in Cancer Education (CARE) will be held back-to-back, on Thursday, August 1, with this conference.

Durham University, September 17-19, 2019

This is the annual conference for the network bringing together scholars working on ethnographic approaches to ecclesiology. It is is a wide ranging conference, and part of the joy is discovering a diversity of specialisms and learning, from ecclesiology and systematic theology to sociology, anthropology and human geography.  We welcome papers from scholars across the disciplines. Early career scholars and those in ministry are also welcome. 
To download information about types and lengths of paper, click here.  General information about the conference and St John’s College can be found here.  To propose a paper, click here and fill in the form by May 31st.

Centre for Multidisciplinary Studies on Racism
Uppsala University
6-8 NOVEMBER, 2019

• Submission of abstracts: 30 April (200 words)
• Session proposal: 30 April (400 words)
• Decision on acceptance: 15 May
• Registration opens: 1 September
• Registration closes: 30 September
• Conference fees: Regular 1 500 SEK. PhD Student 1 000 SEK

The histories of racism and religion are entangled. To understand how processes of racism, nationalism, and exclusion come about in different forms we need to view these developments as intertwined with religion and ideas of religion and religiosity.

The rise of islamophobia and antisemitism, discrimination and violent persecution of minorities in the name of religion or secularism, and controversies around the visibility of religious practices in public space, all point to the need for a deeper understanding of in what ways religion historically and in the present plays a central role in producing and upholding racism and colonial practices/structures.

Religion has also played a central role in counter movements such as civil rights, indigenous rights, anti-colonial and, anti-apartheid movements. An additional aspect to explore is religious symbols and representations that have been part of anti-racist art and music and the place of spiritualism in artistic resistance to racism. What role has and does religion play in developing and upholding racist and nationalist structures? In what ways are different entangled forms of racism and religion being manifested? How can we for example understand antisemitism and islamophobia on a global and local scale? What does it mean to be living in a supposedly post-racial, post-secular world? What role does religion and/or spirituality play in antiracist struggles and movements?

The Center for Multidisciplinary Research on Racism (CEMFOR) invites scholars to send in abstracts for paper presentations and/or session proposals.

More information: http://cemfor.uu.se/events2/conference/conference-2019/

CALL FOR PAPER PROPOSALS

Rethinking Religion in the Public Sphere in 21st century Global South

RC-22 Mid-Term Conference
University of Ghana, Accra
Dates: November 14-18, 2019
Proposal Abstract Deadline: April 15, 2019
Notification of accepted abstracts: May 31, 2019.

The politics of knowledge that seeks to posit it as a preserve of the West has exacerbated a criticism against the dominance of Euro-American Scholarship in the sociology of religion, particularly in its interpretation of religious reality in Africa, and the global South more generally. In advancing the changing dominant pattern of knowledge production and consumption, which reflects a very stratified global division of intellectual labour, this conference draws on historical and methodological trajectories to explore innovative ways in which the sociology of religion can employ both theoretical and epistemological insights into sociological understanding of religion in the global South and its diaspora. What are the current trends and trajectories within the sociology of religion in the global South? What knowledges are being produced by sociologists of religion in the global South? How and to what extent do they contribute to global sociology of religion scholarship? How is religion located in private and/or public spheres? To what extent is religion engaged in the public sphere? How is religion even defined and negotiated in the global South within wider processes of secularization? Also important is the distinction between secular and sacred domains in public life.

The conference draws on ethnographic data of researchers in the field to demonstrate how religious forms, expressions and experiences in the global South either reinforce or transcend socio-political, ethnic, regional, class, age and gender identities and boundaries. Paper and panel proposals are invited from scholars of religion, sociologists of religion and others engaged in interdisciplinary research that extend debates on these and related questions.

Abstract proposals of not more than 150 words should reach the organizers by April 15, 2019 through the following email address: UG-ISA-RC22-Conference@ug.edu.gh  Notification of accepted abstracts: May 31, 2019.

Sub-themes:

• Religion in private and public spheres
• Public reason, public religion and the public sphere
• South-south transnational networks
• Religion and global South publics
• Global South, secularism and post-secularism
• Religion, migration and the public sphere
• Controversies, religious transformation and innovation
• Religion, environment and sustainable development
• Religion and the political economy
• Religion, governance and politics
• Religion, leadership and public accountability
• Religion, gender, sexuality
• Religion, culture and media
• Religion, conflict and violence
• Sacred places and spaces

Organizers:

Host and local organizing committee:

1. Michael P.K. Okyerefo, School of Arts, University of Ghana & Board Member, Africa Rep.
2. Rose Mary Amenga-Etego, Department of Religions, University of Ghana
3. Genevieve Nrenzah, Institute of African Studies, University of Ghana

With the support of:

• Afe Adogame, Princeton Theological Seminary & RC 22 President
• Anna Halafoff, Deakin University, Australia, RC22 Secretary/Treasurer

We are very pleased to accounce the Call for Papers for the next MBRN conference at Cardiff. Details can be found below and at the following link:
http://www.mbrn.org.uk/call-for-papers-the-future-of-british-muslim-studies/

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Call for Papers: The Future of British Muslim Studies
A one-day Muslims in Britain Research Network conference organised in partnership with the Centre for the Study of Islam in the UK, Cardiff University
Date: 24 April 2019

Since the Muslims in Britain Research Network was established over 25 years ago, British Muslim studies has grown exponentially. Yet despite this, the field faces significant challenges and uncertainty about its future direction. With so much of the focus on British Muslims being driven – both in academia and in wider society – by instrumental concerns about security and terrorism, much needed debates about the field’s core goals and purpose have often been obscured. The near constant use of research reports and polls on British Muslims in service of political agendas has meant that not only do those researching British Muslims often struggle to get their voices heard, but they are also forced to face difficult questions about their positioning and politics.

This one day event will bring together those from within and outside of academia who have an interest in shaping the study of Muslim Britain in order to discuss and debate the challenges facing the field and where it should go from here. What should British Muslim studies do, and who should it be for? Should it be seen as part of a project of improving Muslims’ rights and representation, as with the case of comparable fields like Black studies, or remain at a critical distance from Muslim politics? Is the field itself sufficiently inclusive of the diversity of Muslim and non-Muslim voices, and is sufficient recognition given to those outside the academy producing research into Muslims? When, and how, should academics partner with Muslim and community and activist groups? With researchers in the field scattered across disciplines, and with religion increasingly marginalised in the academy, how can the field cohere and have a positive impact?

Abstracts are invited for papers that address any of the conference themes:
  *   Emerging research agendas in, and challenges for, the field of British Muslim studies
  *   The politics of producing knowledge about Muslims in the West
  *   The relationship between academic scholarship and Muslims’ presence, voice and activism
  *   Partnerships between academic and Muslim community groups in the UK
  *   ‘Insider’ and ‘outsider’ dynamics in the study of British Muslims
  *   Complementarities and tensions between disciplinary approaches to the study of Muslims and Islam
  *   Securing the study of Muslims and Islam within and beyond UK higher education

Participants will be asked to present their research in a short format as part of a panel. To participate please send a 250 word abstract to the email address below by 1st March along with a biographical note of no more than 50 words.

Abstract submissions and any general questions should be sent to the conference organisers at MuslimsinBritainRN@gmail.com<mailto:MuslimsinBritainRN@gmail.com>.