Category Archives: Conferences

RC-22 Reminder: Propose papers for next July’s 3rd Forum of Sociology in Vienna!

Dear Colleagues,

I’m writing to remind you to propose papers for next July’s 3rd Forum of Sociology in Vienna.  RC-22 will have at least 15 open sessions, which I’ve listed below.  Please go to  https://www.isa-sociology.org/forum-2016/rc/rc.php?n=RC22 for detailed descriptions and a link to the CONFEX online submission systems.  

The deadline is September 30th — just 6 weeks away.  All submissions have to go through CONFEX, so I suggest that you get yours in early.  The last minute rush for the Yokohama conference created a major traffic jam.  Don’t get caught in that!  Put your proposal in now!

Vienna is a great place.  I was there for a few days this July and enjoyed it tremendously.  Program coordinator Vineeta Sinha, her co-coordinator Olga Breskaya, and I have some special things planned around the conference theme: “Religion, Secularity and Post-Secularity: Crafting Meaningful Futures”​.  We’d love to have you there.

Here are the session topics, with their organizers:

  1. The Categories of Religion and the Secular in the Post-Secular Discourse (Mitsutoshi Horii)
  2. Negotiating Religion and Citizenship in Global Context (Olga Breskaya)
  3. Religion in the Public Sphere (Enzo Pace and Orivaldo Lopes)
  4. Welfare and Civil Society: The Role of Religion (Per Pettersson)
  5. The Politics of Religious Heritage: Memory, Identity and Place (Mar Griera)
  6. From New Age and Spiritualities to Different World Views: Individualized Religious Beliefs, Autonomy Values and Individualized Morality (Tilo Beckers and Pascal Siegers)
  7. Religion, Gender, and the Internet (Anna Halafoff and Emma Tomalin)
  8. Topics and Forms of Religious Mobilization in Europe (Sinisa Zrinscak)
  9. Religious Trends Among Second Generations in Europe​ (Roberta Ricucci)
  10. Religious Radicalization (Inger Furseth)
  11. Religious Engagement and Spiritual Empowerment in Asian Countries: Quest for Human Security and Self-Fulfilment (Yoshihide Sakurai)
  12. Studying the African Diaspora Significance for Struggles Toward a Better World(Jualynne Dodson)
  13. World Religions and Axial Civilizations (Steven Kalberg & Said Arjomand)
  14. Religion, Plus and Minus: Human Rights; Inter-Religious Understanding; Peace and Violence.  (NOTE: this will be three sessions, but the CONFEX computer system forces us to treat them as one session for now.  Please specify the session in which you wish your paper to appear.)
    • ​Religion and Human Rights (no organizer as yet)
    • How to Build Better Understanding among Religions (Miroljub Jevtik)​
    • Religion, Peace, and Violence (Mohammad Ashphaq)
  15. A session co-sponsored with RC54: The Body in the Social Sciences: Rhythms and Rituals (Bianca Maria Pirani)

Please pass the word to others who would like to join us.

Best,

Jim

——————————————————————

James V. Spickard, Ph.D.
Professor of Sociology
University of Redlands
Redlands, California 92373
jim_spickard@redlands.edu

— President of Research Committee 22 (Sociology of Religion) of the International Sociological Association

TASA Conference 2015 Cairns Neoliberalism and Contemporary Challenges for the Asia-Pacific November 23-26, 2015

Dear Colleagues,
With the Australian annual Sociological Association conference in November, now is the best time to combine work and pleasure in Australia.

This year’s TASA Conference promises to be special. With world-class keynote and plenary speakers and a choice of 13 special interest groups, our theme, Neoliberalism and Contemporary Challenges for the Asia Pacific, will give space for world-class thinkers in sociology and related fields to interrogate the impact of neoliberalism on the lives of people around the world. We seek to understand the global effects of neoliberalism, especially how it is experienced in different local contexts. What challenges and opportunities does neoliberalism present, and how does sociology respond to those challenges?

But the location of this year’s conference gives this conference the edge. We proudly invite you and your family to visit the vibrant and beautiful Cairns. Our venue, the Shangri-La Hotel offers five star care at off-season rates. Containing the conference and delegate accommodation, the Shangri-La facilities are generous, cool and picturesque and break-out rooms have views on the tropical gardens or famous marina and gateway to the Great Barrier Reef. Family friendly room, restaurants and pools in a tropical setting will satisfy delegates’ accompanying families.

The hotel is on the Cairns Marina where you can take a tour out to the Great Barrier Reef, or hire a car and tour the World Heritage Rainforests. Within a couple of hours is the Daintree Forest. For more intrepid adventurers, Cairns is the gateway to the Cape York Peninsula, and the Gulf of Carpentaria, home to unsurpassed cultural and ecological heritage.

There is so much being planned for this year’s conference, with post-conference tours, Women’s Breakfast, a fun conference dinner that (by demand) promises dancing, and networking opportunities with stimulating company. With the Aussie Dollar continuing to fall, this is the time to to plan your next trip to Australia.

Check the conference website for full information, and note the key dates in your diary – postgraduate papers are due by 31 July; all abstracts are due by 28 August; early bird registration closes 2 October; and all presenters must be registered by 23 October. Our timeline won’t allow for any extensions so get your papers and abstracts in!

Warm regards
Theresa Petray and Anne Stephens
TASA2016 Conveners

www.conference.tasa.org.au

International Conference: Sacred Places, Emerging Spaces in the Caucasus at FSU Jena

International conference ‘Sacred Places, Emerging Spaces: Pilgrims, Saints and Scholars in the Caucasus and Beyond’

October 9-10, 2015

Venue: Friedrich Schiller University of Jena, Rosensäle, Fürstengraben 27, 07743 Jena.

Outline and Program

The Caucasus landscape, like those of Europe, Central Asia, or indeed almost any inhabited region of the globe, is dotted with sites and spaces regarded as ‘sacred’ in some sense. Numerous studies have been devoted to the description of the shrines and sacred sites of the Caucasus, as well as the religious systems, rituals and festivals with which they are associated. The focus of this conference, however, is the role played by sacred sites in the construction and maintenance of social networks, and their function as social nodes, where connections are negotiated, forged, enacted and reinforced; but also contested, ruptured and erased.

The aim of the conference is to explore theoretical and empirical developments in the field of anthropological and historical studies of sacred spaces, pilgrimage, material religion and inter-regional religious networks in the post-Soviet Caucasus and beyond. Voluntary or forced migration as well as rural-urban mobility seems to be an important factor in the formation and transformation of sacred spaces in the Caucasus and its iconography. Key questions are: Which objects follow ‘one-way’ trajectories to the sacred site, intended to remain there permanently, and which items return or circulate further? How do we define ‘shrines’ and ‘sacredness’ as some sites seemed to resemble tourist-oriented venues? Who has the power, who benefits from the changing functions of shrines, and the role of migration in this process?

Taking off from the analysis of traditional and emerging hybridities, shared and non-shared sacred spaces in the Caucasus, we hope to better understand the complexity of the region to stimulate a rethinking of the presuppositions underlying the stereotype of a violent Caucasus and the constitution of the Caucasus as an object of knowledge production.

——————-

October 9th, Friday

Welcome and Introduction (9.15 - 10 am)

Thede Kahl (Slavonic Studies, Jena); Florian Mühlfried, Tsypylma Darieva (Caucasus Studies, Jena)

Panel I: Pilgrimages and Networks (10.30 - 12.30 pm)

Chair: Gayane Shagoyan

Levon Abrahamian The Chain of Seven Pilgrimages in Kotaik, Armenia. Reviving or inventing Tradition?

Agnieszka Halemba From Community Cult to Religious Network: a New Pilgrimage Site in Transcarpathian Ukraine and Beyond

Kevin Tuite Landscape, Ritual, Gender and Social Space in Upper Svanetia

Panel II: Locality and Informality (2 - 4 pm)

Chair: SERGEY SHTYRKOV

IGOR KUZNETSOV Shifting Abkhaz Religion: From Local Christian Cult to Nativist Neo-Paganism

HEGE TOJE Accompanying the Dead Souls – Transforming Sacral Time and Encounters

HAMLET MELKUMYAN Murids as New Religious Mediators: Informal Religious Practices and Social Transformations in Yezidi Community

Panel III: Saints and Scholars (4.30 - 6.30 pm)

Chair: MARIA LOUW

TSYPYLMA DARIEVA Between ‚Great‘ and ‚Small‘ Traditions? Situating Shia Saints and Shrines in Contemporary Baku

VLADIMIR BOBROVNIKOV Hybrid vs. Traditional Religious Practices and Narratives: Networks of Muslim Shrines in Post-Soviet Dagestan

STEPHAN DUDECK State Law or the Spirits - Who is Protecting Siberian Sacred Sites?

October 10th, Saturday

Panel IV: Encounters and Representations (10am - 12 pm)

Chair: BRUCE GRANT

FLORIAN MÜHLFRIED Not Sharing the Sacra

NINO AIVAZISHVILI Ingiloys and Sacred Rituals

SILVIA SERRANO Sharing the Not Sacred: Rabati and the Display of Multiculturalism

Final Discussion (2 - 4 pm), Chair: Kevin Tuite

Registration and contact: Michael Stürmer (michael.stuermer@uni-jena.de), Katrin Töpel (katrin.toepel@uni-jena.de)

http://www.kaukasiologie.uni-jena.de/en/Projects/Transformation+of+Sacred+Spaces.html

The admission is free, but registration for lunch/or dinner is requested. Please register by 30 September 2015.

CFP: Zürich conference, June 2016

Please consider submitting proposals for this conference:

Pray without Ceasing: Spiritual Wisdom and the Practice of Theology

Second International Conference and inauguration of the Center for the Academic Study of Christian Spirituality will be held June 20-23, 2016 in Kappel, Switzerland.

Dr. Rebecca A. Giselbrecht
rebecca.giselbrecht@theol.uzh.ch
Director of the Center for the Academic Study of Christian Spirituality
University of Zurich
Theological Faculty
Kirchgasse 9
8001 Zürich

CFP: 4th Annual “Ways of Knowing: The Graduate Conference in Religion at Harvard Divinity School”

We wanted to remind you that proposals are due by Friday, July 17th, for the 4th Annual “Ways of Knowing, The Graduate Conference on Religion at Harvard Divinity School,” October 22-24, 2015, open to all graduate and post-doctoral early career scholars. Our call for papers (attached) is open to all work related to the study of religion, broadly conceived. In addition, we are featuring four special topic modules with targeted calls: 1) Religion and Crisis, 2) The Promise and Peril of Textual Religion, 3) Magic/Science/Religion, and 4) Food Practices Across Religious Traditions.

Our keynote speaker will be Kathryn Lofton, Professor of Religious Studies, American Studies, History and Divinity at Yale University. Her address will be titled “A Problem of Culture: The Goldman Sachs Group in Crisis.”
In addition, we will feature a faculty panel on Religion and the Media, and two professionalization panels with Harvard faculty and alumni: The Academic and Non-Academic Job Markets, and Building a Family and an Academic Career.

Once again, the deadline for submissions is Friday, July 17. Check our website for updated information and for the submission form, http://hds.harvard.edu/gradreligionconference.

Don’t hesitate to email Kirsten Wesselhoeft at gradreligionconference@hds.harvard.edu with any questions.

CFP: Liberal Rights for Illiberal Purposes? Workshop 15-17 Oct 2015

Call for Papers for the Workshop

Liberal Rights for Illiberal Purposes? Comparing Discursive Strategies of Conservative Religious and Right-wing Actors in the Public Spheres

October 15-17 2015

European University Viadrina Frankfurt/Oder (Germany) and Słubice (Poland)

A battle between institutions expanding liberal rights and conservative or right-wing forces has flared in most western societies since the mid-nineties. Whereas the promotion of gender mainstreaming, the recognition of cultural and sexual diversity or of „reproductive rights“ is naturally seen as part of a liberal agenda and as reliable tool for combating discrimination, also conservative coalitions base their claims on liberal argumentation. This is a novum in this debate.

Instead of opposing gay-marriage on religious grounds, coalitions against the political implementation of gay rights increasingly formulate their demands on the basis of respect for freedom of expression or religious liberty. In a similar vein, political groups and parties opposing Muslim immigrants, also claim to defend the „western heritage“ of liberalism.

In the light of these observations, we invite scholars from different disciplines such as social science, philosophy or communication studies to an international workshop. The aims of the workshop are:

a) a) To map and compare the public rhetoric or discursive strategies of conservative religious and right-wing actors on liberal norms:

b) b) To investigate the implications the mentioned empirical insights have for liberal thinking - taking into account that liberal theory considers the translation of religious reasons into a secular language before entering the public sphere a desirable condition for „post-secular“ societies (Habermas);

c) c) To analyze the effects such clashing interpretations of or reference to fundamental liberal democratic values (equality and liberal freedom) have for politics, society and research as well.

d) d) To think about publishing and further research on that issue.

Against this background, paper-givers should address one or more of the following questions:

Empirical:

In which ways, under which conditions and for which ends do conservative religious and/or right-wing groups apply a secular language of liberal rights in the public spheres?

Conceptual and Methodological:

How to conceptualize and methodologically approach the public reference to “liberal rights for illiberal purposes”?

Normative:

Which normative implications does the apparently strategic use of liberal rights language have for liberal theory on the one hand and the use of political/liberal concepts on the other?

Analytical:

What are effects or implications of such „liberal“ rhetoric for politics, society and academic research alike? To what extent does it trigger the formation of new patterns of conflict or cleavages? In the case of religious groups: What are the effects for boundaries between religion and politics?

The workshop is organized by the Chair of Comparative Politics at the Faculty of Social and Cultural Science at European University Viadrina. It will take place from October 15-17, 2015 at the European University Viadrina in Frankfurt/Oder and Słubice on the other side of the river Oder. The European University Viadrina is situated approximately 1h (by local train) from Berlin.

Please send your abstract (300 words), and a short bio note, to Anja Hennig (ahennig@europa-uni.de) by August 4 2015. Applicants will be informed about the acceptance of their submission no later than September 1 2015.

Travel costs and accommodation of a few selected participants can be covered.

Symposium: Religion and the Global City

A one-day symposium, sponsored by the Leverhulme Trust, the Department
of Religious Studies, and SSPSSR, University of Kent

10 am – 6 pm, Friday 11 September, The Common Room, Cathedral Lodge,
Canterbury

This symposium adopts a non-reductive stance in exploring city dynamics
of religious presence in global contexts. How do religious groups make
space and ‘take place’ in the global city? What kind of spatial models,
morphologies and ‘religeopolitics’ do they produce and adopt? To what
extent does religion contribute to the ‘hyper-diversity’ of
multicultural cityscapes? What kind of religious centralities and
peripheries are produced or reproduced in global cities?

The day will consist of four sessions:

  • Power, Visibility, and the Politics of Space
  • Centralities, Peripheries, and Religious Reterritorialisation
  • Religious Media, Publics, and Global Cultural Flows
  • Global Migration, Everyday Multiculturalism, and Religious Place-making

Phil Hubbard (University of Kent), John Eade (University of Roehampton),
Jeremy Carrette (University of Kent), and Paul-François Tremlett (Open
University) will be the discussants for the event.

The event is free, but spaces are limited. To register, please email the
event organisers, David Garbin (D.Garbin@kent.ac.uk) and Anna Strhan
(A.H.B.Strhan@kent.ac.uk).

For the full programme, please see the page here:
http://www.kent.ac.uk/secl/thrs/events/?eid=13555&view_by=month&date=20150904&category=&tag=religious