17 August 2012 Issue
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In this issue:
- Books
- Journals
- Calls for Papers
- Conferences
- Jobs
And don’t forget, you can always get involved with the Religious Studies Project by writing one of our features essays or resources pages. Contact the editors for more information.
BOOKS
Ties That Bind: Maternal Imagery and Discourse in Indian Buddhism (Oxford University Press, 2012). More information:
“Reiko Ohnuma offers a wide-ranging exploration of the complex role of maternal imagery and discourse in pre-modern South Asian Buddhism. Motherhood was sometimes extolled as the most appropriate symbol for buddhahood itself, and sometimes denigrated as the most paradigmatic manifestation of attachment and suffering. In Buddhist literature, feelings of love and gratitude for the mother’s nurturance frequently mingle with submerged feelings of hostility and resentment for the unbreakable obligations thus created, and positive images of self-sacrificing mothers are counterbalanced by horrific depictions of mothers who kill and devour. Institutionally, the formal definition of the Buddhist renunciant as one who has severed all familial ties seems to co-exist uneasily with an abundance of historical evidence demonstrating monks’ and nuns’ continuing concern for their mothers, as well as other familial entanglements. Ohnuma’s study provides critical insight into Buddhist depictions of maternal love and grief, the role of the Buddha’s own mothers, Maya and Mahaprajapata, the use of pregnancy and gestation as metaphors for the attainment of enlightenment, the use of breastfeeding as a metaphor for the compassionate deeds of buddhas and bodhisattvas, and the relationship between Buddhism and motherhood as it actually existed in day-to-day life.”
JOURNALS
Theology and Science, Vol 10, no.3 http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/rtas20/10/3
Sociology of Religion – Advance Notice – http://socrel.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/recent?etoc
Review of Religious Research, Vol 54, no. 3 http://www.springerlink.com/content/0034-673X
CALLS FOR PAPERS
International Symposium: Islam in Interwar Europe and
European Cultural History, Leiden University, 13-14 December
2012
Date: 2012-08-20
Description: We would like hereby to invite papers to the
international symposium: Islam in Interwar Europe and European
Cultural History, which will take place at Leiden University,
13-14 December 2012. For a detailed description please contact
Mehdi Sajid: msajid@uni-bonn.de If you are interested to
participat …
Contact: msajid@uni-bonn.de
URL:
Announcement ID: 196093
http://www.h-net.org/announce/show.cgi?ID=196093
CFP: Paranthropology: Journal of Anthropological Approaches to the Paranormal” (Vol. 3 No. 4).
Deadline: 15 Sept
Articles can be on any topic relating to:
- Paranormal/Supernatural/Spiritual/Religious belief/experience
- Magic, Parapsychology, Afterlife Research, etc. Mediumship, Shamanism, Occultism, etc.
- Psychedelic experience
- Extraordinary encounters in the field (particularly focussing on the ethnographic interpretation and presentation of extraordinary experiences)
Articles should be written in an academic, though accessible style, and should utilise the Harvard referencing system (for information visit http://paranthropologyjournal.weebly.com/submit.html). All articles should be submitted no later than September 15th so that they have enough time to go through the peer-review process.
CFP: Digital Methodologies in the Sociology of Religion
Date: 2012-08-28
Description: Digital Methodologies in the Sociology of Religion 16th November 2012, Enterprise Centre, University of Derby Organised by the Centre for Society, Religion & Belief (SRB), University of Derby, Funded by Digital Social Research (DSR)
Contact: s.contractor [at] derby.ac.uk
Announcement ID: 196307
http://www.h-net.org/announce/show.cgi?ID=196307
CFP: Gender in Material Culture Annual Gender and Medieval Studies conference 2013 Date: 2012-09-14
Description: Gender in Material Culture Annual Gender and Medieval Studies conference Bath Spa University 4th-6th January 2013
Keynote Speakers Prof. Catherine Karkov, University of Leeds Dr Simon Yarrow, University of Birmingham From saintly relics to grave goods, and from domestic furnishings to the built environment
…
Contact: gms.bathspa.2013 [at] gmail.com
URL: www.medievalgender.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=22&Itemid=22
Announcement ID: 196298
http://www.h-net.org/announce/show.cgi?ID=196298
CFP: First international conference on Pilgrimage and relics
23 – 26 May 2013 , Dubrovnik, Croatia
Conference organizers:
Mathieu Boisvert, Université du Québec à Montréal, Canada.
Boisvert.mathieu [at] uqam.ca.
Francis Brassard, American College of Management and Technology, Croatia.
frbrassard [at] gmail.com.
Conference description:
This international conference aims at gathering a small number of scholars – carefully selected – who specialise on pilgrimage and relics, belonging to various academic fields and focussing on various religious traditions. The main objective is to articulate the notion of pilgrimage with that of relics, to demonstrate how relics participate to pilgrimage, or vice versa, how pilgrimage itself contributes to enhance relics. Papers must be well established in a social sciences perspective, may it be sociological, historical, anthropological, political or other. The conference is limited to about thirty papers. Those will be selected by
the scientific committtee according to the quality of the proposed paper, of course, but also to ensure breadth in religious and disciplinary approaches of the theme. Amongst the papers selected for presentation, the committe will choose about twelve of them for publication in a book on Pilgrimage and relics, book that will be released in Dubrovnik in June 2014.
For more, please see http://www.iuc.hr/conference-details.php?id=199.
CALL FOR PAPERS: CJCR Colloquium: Christian Anti-Judaism in Baroque Music
Date: 2012-09-23
Description: Call to research students/early career researchers
Identifications of the Jew in music As part of its colloquium on Christian Anti-Judaism in Baroque Music (2324 September 2012 in Cambridge, UK), the CJCR would like to run a forum offering
research students/early career researchers an opportunity to…
Contact: lf309@cam.ac.uk
URL: www.woolf.cam.ac.uk/events
Announcement ID: 196347
http://www.h-net.org/announce/show.cgi?ID=196347
Center for Islamic Studies National Conference
Location: Louisiana
Date: 2012-11-09
Description: The Center for Islamic Studies welcomes abstracts for paper presentations at the national conference in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Topics include, but not limited to, religion, role
of women in society, social issues, the arts, medical practices, believes, education, and more. Participants are also wel …
Contact: naaasconference@earthlink.net
URL: www.naaas.org/nationalconference.html
Announcement ID: 196301
http://www.h-net.org/announce/show.cgi?ID=196301
Title: Call for Papers: Islam, Political Islam, and Islamophobia –
March 29-30, 2013 at Indiana University
Location: Indiana
Date: 2013-03-29
Description: Call for Papers Indiana University, Ottoman and
Modern Turkish Studies Chair Conferences: 5 Islam, Political
Islam, and Islamophobia: An International Conference To be held
on March 29-30, 2013 at Indiana University, Bloomington, USA
Muslims representing all strata of society throughout the world
fa …
Contact: turk@indiana.edu
Announcement ID: 196253
http://www.h-net.org/announce/show.cgi?ID=196253
CONFERENCES
Cultural Transitions and East Asia: Art, Film andLiterature
Date: 2012-09-07
Description: Cultural Translation and East Asia: Art, Film and Literature This interdisciplinary and international conference will be taking place at Bangor University, Wales. 7th-8th Sep 2012 Key notes speakers include: Dr Julian Stringer, University
of Nottingham Dr Ming-Yeh Rawnsley, Leeds University Nicky Ha
…
Contact: k.taylor [AT] bangor.ac.uk
URL: www.cultural-translation.co.uk
Announcement ID: 196266
http://www.h-net.org/announce/show.cgi?ID=196266
Ottoman-Persian Exchanges, 16th 20th Centuries
Location: Pennsylvania
Date: 2012-11-01
Description: Ottoman-Persian Exchanges, 16th 20th Centuries The Middle East Center at the University of Pennsylvania is putting out a call for papers on cultural, social, political, economic, and intellectual exchanges between the Ottoman and Persian empires 16th through 20th centuries for a day-long symposium
…
Contact: iranveturan [at] gmail.com
URL: www.sas.upenn.edu/mec/
Announcement ID: 196211
http://www.h-net.org/announce/show.cgi?ID=196211
Title: CALL FOR PAPERS: CJCR Colloquium: Christian Anti-Judaism in
Baroque Music
Date: 2012-09-23
Description: Call to research students/early career researchers
Identifications of the Jew in music As part of its colloquium
on Christian Anti-Judaism in Baroque Music (2324 September 2012
in Cambridge, UK), the CJCR would like to run a forum offering
research students/early career researchers an opportunity to
…
Contact: lf309@cam.ac.uk
URL: www.woolf.cam.ac.uk/events
Announcement ID: 196347
http://www.h-net.org/announce/show.cgi?ID=196347
For more information see: http://www.york.ac.uk/crems/events/sensingthesacred/
Sensing the Sacred: Religion and the Senses, 1300-1800
The University of York
21-22 June 2013
Confirmed keynote addresses from:
Nicky Hallett (University of Sheffield)
Matthew Milner (McGill University)
& Chris Woolgar (University of Southampton)
Religion has always been characterised as much by embodied experience as by abstract theological dispute. From the sounds of the adhān (the Islamic call to prayer), to the smell of incense in the Hindu Pūjā (a ritual offering to the deities), the visual emblem of the cross in the Christian tradition, and the ascetic practices of Theravada Buddhism, sensation is integral to a range of devotional practices. At the same time, the history of many faiths is characterised by an intense suspicion of the senses and the pleasures they offer.
This international, interdisciplinary conference, to be held at the University of York from 21 to 22 June 2013, will bring together scholars working on the role played by the senses in the experience and expression of religion and faith in the pre-modern world. The burgeoning field of sensory history offers a fertile ground for reconsideration of religious studies across disciplinary boundaries. We welcome papers from anthropologists, archaeologists, art historians, historians, literary scholars, musicologists, philosophers, theologians, and any other interested parties. Possible topics might include, but are by no means limited to:
- Synaesthesia: how do religious rituals blur sensory boundaries, and challenge sensory hierarchies?
-
Iconography and iconoclasm: how might we conceive the ‘rites of violence’ in sensory terms? How does iconography engage the non-visual senses?
-
The senses and conversion: how are the senses used to elicit conversion?
-
Material cultures of religion: what role do the senses play in mediating between bodies and sacred objects?
-
The senses and gender: are sensing practices gender specific?
-
The inner (spiritual) senses: how do they relate to the external (bodily) senses?
-
Sensory environments: to what extent do environments shape devotional practices and beliefs, and vice versa? How do we use our senses to orient ourselves in space?
-
Affect: what role do the senses play in the inculcation of religious affect?
Proposals (max. 300 words) for papers of 20 minutes are welcomed both from established scholars, and from postgraduate students. Applications from panels of three speakers are encouraged, as well as individual proposals. They should be sent to conference organisers Robin Macdonald, Emilie Murphy, and Elizabeth Swann at sensingthesacred@york.ac.uk<
mailto:sensingthesacred@york.ac.uk> by 6pm on 5 November 2012.
JOBS
YALE UNIVERSITY DEPARTMENT OF RELIGIOUS STUDIES intends to make a tenure-track appointment in the field of Religious Studies beginning July 1, 2013, at the rank of Assistant Professor. Applications are invited and welcome from scholars with research specialties in the anthropology, sociology or social scientific study of religions who also possess demonstrated teaching proficiency in methods and theory in the study of religion. Yale University is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer. Yale values diversity among its students, staff, and faculty and strongly welcomes applications from women and underrepresented minorities. A letter of application describing your research, a c.v., a two-page dissertation abstract, a chapter-length writing sample, a syllabus for an introductory undergraduate course “Introduction to Religion,” and three letters of reference should be submitted on-line at https://academicjobsonline.org/ajo/Yale/RLST. The review of applications will begin October 1, 2012 and continue until the position is filled. Preliminary interviews will be held at the AAR annual meeting in Chicago, Nov 17-20, 2012.
University of California – Davis – Assistant Professor, Early Islam
<http://www.h-net.org/jobs/job_display.php?id=44874>
University of California – Santa Barbara – Assistant Professor North
American Religions
<http://www.h-net.org/jobs/job_display.php?id=44944>
University of California – Davis – Assistant Professor, Early Islam
<http://www.h-net.org/jobs/job_display.php?id=44874>
University of California – Santa Barbara – Assistant Professor North American Religions
<http://www.h-net.org/jobs/job_display.php?id=44944>
Angelo State University – Assistant Professor, Modern Asia
<http://www.h-net.org/jobs/job_display.php?id=44954>
Nanyang Technological University – Assistant Professor in Modern
Chinese History / Chinese overseas
<http://www.h-net.org/jobs/job_display.php?id=44929>
University of South Carolina – Assistant Professor, Islamic World
<http://www.h-net.org/jobs/job_display.php?id=44979>
Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitat Munchen and Universitat Regensburg – 4
full-time postdoctoral positions