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In this issue:
- Website Update
- Journals
- Books
- Call for papers
- Conferences
- Jobs
FUTURE PODCASTS
The following are some of the themes which will be covered in future podcasts
- World Religions Paradigm
- Religious Experience
- Personality Types
- Pilgrimage/Tourism
- Faith development theory
- Religion and the Law
WEBSITE UPDATE
A number of new links have been added to the web resources page: https://www.religiousstudiesproject.com/links/
JOURNALS
Sociology of Religion, advance access, http://socrel.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/recent?papetoc
TC: A Journal of Biblical Textual Criticism http://rosetta.reltech.org/TC/
BOOKS
Little Buddhas: Children and Childhoods in Buddhist Texts and Traditions
Edited by Vanessa R. Sasson
ISBN13: 9780199945610ISBN10: 0199945616
Paperback, 552 pages
Description:
Consideration of children in the academic field of Religious Studies is taking root, but Buddhist Studies has yet to take notice. Little Buddhas brings together a wide range of scholarship and expertise to address the question of what role children have played in Buddhist literature, in particular historical contexts, and what role they continue to play in specific Buddhist contexts today. The volume is divided into two parts, one addressing the representation of children in Buddhist texts, the other children and childhoods in Buddhist cultures around the world. The ground-breaking contributions in this volume challenge the perception of irreconcilable differences between Buddhist idealism and family ties. Little Buddhas will be an indispensable resource for students and scholars of Buddhism and Childhood Studies, and a catalyst for further research on the topic.
http://www.oup.com/us/catalog/general/subject/ReligionTheology/Buddhism/?view=usa&ci=9780199945610
CALLS FOR PAPERS
Contemporary religion in historical perspective: engaging outside academia
Date: 2013-03-15
Description: Contemporary religion in historical perspective: engaging outside academia The Open University, Milton Keynes 15-16 May 2013 What is the relevance of research on historical and contemporary religion for today? How might such research inform current debates on religion, and the practice and self-unde …
Contact: john.maiden [at] open.ac.uk
URL: www.open.ac.uk/Arts/religious-studies/crhp2013.shtml
Announcement ID: 201666
http://www.h-net.org/announce/show.cgi?ID=201666
CFP: American Indian Studies Seminar, AY 2013-14
Location: Illinois
Date: 2013-04-29
Description: The seminar provides a forum for works-in-progress that explore topics in American Indian Studies. We encourage the submission of proposals for seminar papers that examine a wide variety of subjects relating to American Indian and Indigenous history and culture broadly conceived. We welcome proposal …
Contact: mcnickle [at] newberry.org
URL: www.newberry.org/american-indian-studies-seminar-series
Announcement ID: 201652
http://www.h-net.org/announce/show.cgi?ID=201652
CFP: Mythology and Popular Culture
Location: Missouri
Date: 2013-04-30
Description: Call for Papers: MYTHOLOGY and POPULAR CULTURE 2013 Midwest Popular Culture Association Conference St. Louis, MO Friday-Sunday, October 11-13, 2013 St. Louis Union Station Hotel Deadline for Abstracts: April 30, 2012
Submissions.mpcaaca.org The Mythology and Popular Culture area of the Midwest PCA i …
Contact: devega [at] morningside.edu
URL: www.mpcaaca.org/
Announcement ID: 201641
http://www.h-net.org/announce/show.cgi?ID=201641
CFP: Islam and Education
Date: 2013-05-23
Description: Call for Papers Deadline for submission of abstracts: 5pm, 28th February 2013 Collaborative partnerships between universities and Muslim institutions: dismantling the roadblocks 23rd May 2013, Senate House, London 27th June 2013,Birmingham University, Birmingham Funded by Economic and Social Research
Contact: m.wood [at] derby.ac.uk
URL: www.derby.ac.uk/collaborative-partnerships-project
Announcement ID: 201539
http://www.h-net.org/announce/show.cgi?ID=201539
CFP: HARTS & Minds: Bristol Journal of Humanities and Arts
Space and Place in the Humanities and Arts
This call for papers invites submissions for the third edition of HARTS & Minds due to be published online in September 2013. Abstracts should be approximately 300 words in length and articles no longer than 6000 words. Your article may explore but is not limited to the following
subjects:
-Aesthetic responses to gallery and non-gallery spaces; -Significant aspects of space within visual representations; -Use of concert spaces, both historical and contemporary; -Topographies; -Solitude or crowds; -Performance venues and staging; -Psychological and figurative space; -Urban or rural; -Architecture and its role in other discourse; -Archaeological spaces; -Surveillance, panoptical structures; -Space and place as realms of becoming; -Queer places and spaces; -Gendered spaces; -In language and semiotics; -Geographies and archaeologies; -Ethnicity and space; -Disabled spaces and places; -Monstrous or haunted spaces; -War and space, battlefields or memorial gardens, -Set design, the construction of space and the representation of place in film, television; -Cyberspace, virtual realities; -Spaces and places of the future, utopian or dystopian.
Please submit your abstract and draft article along with an academic CV to editors [at] harts-minds.co.uk by 17th May 2013. Please consider that HARTS & Minds is intended as a truly inter-disciplinary journal and therefore esoteric topics will need to be written about with a general academic readership in mind.
Articles should be previously unpublished works and copyright of published articles will remain with HARTS & Minds. The editors accept no responsibility for copyright infringement of images, graphs, etc used by individuals submitting papers to the journal. You must ensure that you have permission to use any visual or graphic material before submitting your paper. Further information about submission guidelines is available at the journal website, www.harts-minds.co.uk. If you have any pressing questions or concerns please use the aforementioned email address to contact the editorial board.
CFP: The Journal of Dialogue Studies
The Journal of Dialogue Studies (hereafter ‘the Journal’ or ‘JDS’) is a multidisciplinary, peer-reviewed academic journal published twice a year. Its aim is to study the theory and practice of dialogue, understood provisionally as: a meaningful interaction and exchange between individuals and/or people of different groups (social, cultural, political and religious) who come together through various kinds of conversations or activities with a view to increased understanding. Some scholars will want to question that description of dialogue, and others may be sceptical of the effectiveness of dialogue as a mechanism to produce increased understanding. The Editors of course welcome vigorous discussion and debate on these and other fundamental questions.
The Journal will bring together a body of original scholarship on the theory and practice of dialogue that can be critically appraised and debated. It will publish conceptual, research, and/or case-based works on both theory and practice, and papers that discuss wider social, cultural or political issues as these relate to the evaluation of dialogue. In this way, the Journal aims to contribute towards establishing ‘dialogue studies’ as a distinct academic field (or perhaps even emerging discipline). Doing so will be directly useful not only to scholars and students but also to professionals and practitioners working in different contexts at various cultural interfaces.
A concern with the theory or practice of dialogue should be in the foreground of papers that are submitted, but the Editors do not have any preference as regards the general disciplinary background of the work. Indeed contributions will be welcome from a variety of disciplines which may, for example, include sociology, anthropology, cultural studies, linguistics, the study of religion, politics, international relations or law.
The first issue will be published in July 2013 and focus on ‘dialogue studies’ as a concept, with particular emphasis on its boundaries, viability and usefulness as an academic field. The Editors invite papers that explore questions such as the following:
· What arguments might there be for developing ‘dialogue studies’ as a distinct academic field (or perhaps even emerging discipline)?
· What are the implications of doing so?
· What do we mean by dialogue, dialogue theories and dialogue practices?
· How might ‘dialogue studies’ be of use to academics, policy-makers and practitioners?
· Where along the spectrum of fields is this field best placed?
· Is dialogue valuable in itself and/or by virtue of its outcomes?
· How does dialogue function in cultural production?
· Are there new directions in dialogue for conflict resolution?
· What can policy-makers learn from dialogue that would benefit the development or implementation of policy?
Papers should be submitted by email attachment to: journal@dialoguesociety.org and must be received by 20th April 2013 in order to allow sufficient time for peer review. Manuscripts should be presented in a form that, as far as practicable, meets the requirements set out in JDS Guidelines for Contributors (coming soon). The running order for issue 1.1, listing the papers to be published in that issue, will be announced by the beginning of June 2013.
Further information: http://www.dialoguesociety.org/publications/academia/829-journal-of-dialogue-studies.html
CFP: Contemporary religion in historical perspective: engaging outside academia
The Open University, Milton Keynes – 15-16 May 2013
What is the relevance of research on historical and contemporary religion for today? How
might such research inform current debates on religion, and the practice and self understanding of religious groups and practitioners? What might historical perspective bring
to research on contemporary religion? This conference will address such issues under the
broad theme of ‘contemporary religion and historical perspective’. There will be two parallel
streams. The first is ‘engaging with the past to inform the present’ and the relevance of
religious history for the contemporary context. The second is ‘the public value of research on
contemporary religion’.
The backdrop for this conference is the growing acknowledgement that Religious Studies and
other disciplines must engage with the wider society. Public ‘engagement’ takes many forms –
from extensive projects to ad hoc engagement and involving diverse activities such as media
work, lectures, workshops and online engagement. This conference will include practitioner
perspectives on different themes, and reflect also on the ways in which academic research on
religion might engage with communities of interest and place and private; interact with public
and third sector institutions and organisations; and influence public discourse and the social,
cultural and environmental well-being of society.
We invite paper and panel proposals for either stream. Papers could include case studies of
previous or ongoing outreach, knowledge exchange or public engagement. Topics discussed
might include (but are not limited to):
o the relevance of historical research on religion for contemporary debates on religion;
and for present-day religious groups, organisations and institutions;
o intersections between research on contemporary religion and present-day
contemporary understanding and practice of religion;
o the idea of ‘applied’ or ‘public’ Religious Studies;
o methodological, theoretical and ethical issues relating to Religious Studies and
knowledge exchange.
Confirmed speakers include: Marion Bowman; George Chryssides; Dan Cohn-Sherbok;
Matthew Cragoe; John Eade; Dawoud El-Alami; Rob Gleave; Ronald Hutton; Frances
Knight; Kim Knott; Edward Royle; Steven Sutcliffe; David Voas; John Wolffe.
Due to demand for places this conference has now moved to a larger venue and we are
able to open more panel slots. Please send a short (200-300 word) proposal for a 20 minute
paper to Dr John Maiden (j.maiden@open.ac.uk) by 15 March 2013. To book, please contact
Taj Bilkhu (t.bilkhu@open.ac.uk) by 23 March.
Cost: £20 per day + £20 for conference dinner on the evening of 15 May. Lunch and
refreshments (except conference dinner) are included in the day cost; but we ask attendees to book/fund their own accommodation (advice on local hotels and B&Bs available on request).
Please note: only a limited number of subsidised places now remain, available on a ‘first
come, first served’ basis. Additional places may increase in cost
CFP: Censuses and surveys: issues in religious self-identification
Panel at the 12th EASR conference at Liverpool Hope Organised by Dr Abby Day, Chair of SOCREL (Sociology of Religion study group, British Sociological Association) and Dr Bettina Schmidt, Honorary Secretary of the BASR (British Association for Study of Religions)
Self-identification on instruments such as surveys and censuses presents unique challenges and opportunities. The 2011 census for the UK revealed some interesting developments concerning the religious self-identification within the UK, particularly with the continuing increase of people who declare to have no religion. How does the utility of a census compare with, for example, larger surveys, from British Social Attitudes to the World Values Survey and how accurately can such data from any of those instruments represent changing religious landscapes? How does a faith in surveys and censuses manifest itself by discipline, and what impact does this have on our understanding of research methodology and outcomes? We invite to this panel papers discussing this and other issues concerning national census and survey design and data from the UK or any other country.
Please send abstracts (app. 150 words) to Dr Abby Day a.f.day [at] kent.ac.uk and Dr Bettina Schmidt b.schmidt [at] tsd.ac.uk by 1 May 2013.
Call for Proposals (Submission Deadline: March 25, 2013)
The Departments of Religious Studies and Philosophy at the University of California, Santa Barbara invite submissions for a graduate student conference Personhood, Place, and Possession: Embodiment and Emplacement in Special Contexts
with Keynote Speakers Thomas Csordas, David Hershenov, and Tanya Luhrmann May 28 and 29, 2013
This conference will explore the social, cognitive, philosophical, and religious conceptions and dynamics of personhood. We are especially interested in alterations of subjectivity, altered states of embodiment and emplacement, and cross-disciplinary methods and theories for imagining transient selves. We welcome proposals for full panels and individual papers from graduate students of any discipline on topics that touch upon the ways in which people understand personhood and the possibilities of its creation, transformation, and loss. We seek to include creative and interdisciplinary approaches to these questions, and to explore them in relation to religion as variously conceived in a variety of contexts. Suggested topics include but are not limited to the
following:
● What can altered states of embodiment (spirit possession, charismatic practices, healing, prophecy, etc.) and emplacement (living in diaspora, traversing heavenly or hellish realms, visitations, borderlands, etc.) tell us about notions of subjectivity?
● Where is one’s proper place? How does one being take another’s place? Where can one find or lose the self, and how? How does one change/stay the same over time?
● How might a being exist in multiple places or multiple beings occupy the same space? What does the destruction or loss of a place mean for the possibility of articulating a self or recognizing oneself? How might places have personalities or powers? What makes a person at one time numerically identical to a person at another time?
● What do the cognitive sciences have to say about how the body is internally represented and how this representation can be altered? How might a particular sense of personhood or place relate to cognitive dissonance and/or creative tension?
● How is spirit possession represented in ethnography, literature, films, and so on? What kinds of subjects can be possessed? How might one manipulate spirit possession? Where does the possessed subject go? Where does the possessing spirit come from?
Keynote speakers: Thomas Csordas is professor of anthropology at the University of California, San Diego and is the author of Body/Meaning/Healing. He is currently researching contemporary exorcisms. David Hershenov is chair of the philosophy department at the University at Buffalo and works on metaphysics, bioethics, and religion, especially as related to identity. Tanya Luhrmann is professor of anthropology at Stanford University and is the author of When God Talks Back. She is conducting ongoing research into theory of mind and unusual sensory experiences.
Please email proposals, including name and institutional affiliation, of no more than 300 words, to PPPUCSB2013 [at] gmail.com by March 25, 2013. Notifications will be made by April 1.
Planning committee: Michael Kinsella, Chris Morales, Keith Hess, Jennifer Hahn, Nathan Fredrickson, Garrett Baer, and Philip DeSlippe. This conference is generously supported by Catholic Studies and the Interdisciplinary Humanities Center at UCSB.
CONFERENCES/ EVENTS
Man and myth. The human being and the quest for knowledge.
The mythic and the non-mythic dimensions.
Date: 2013-05-16
Description: The conference will take place between 15 and 18 of May 2013 at Stefan cel Mare university of Suceava, Romania The conference will consist of four sessions: Myth and language; Myth and literature; Myth and cultural anthropology; Eminescu and myth. 400 word electronic abstracts in English, French or
Contact: oanas [at] usv.ro
URL: www.usv.ro
Announcement ID: 201754
http://www.h-net.org/announce/show.cgi?ID=201754
The 2013 Olympia Summer Academy actively seeks to recruit promising graduate students from around the world who can benefit from its intensive seminar on Religion & Politics, taught by professors at the cutting edge of academic research, such as Gilles Kepel, Professor and Chair of Middle East Studies at the Institut d’Études Politiques in Paris.
For all information in regards to the Academy, and its other programs of study, please visit:
Situated at the birthplace of the Olympic Games in Ancient Olympia, the Academy has been fostering, since the summer of 2002, a world-class network of knowledge that today spreads from Japan in the east to the Americas in the west and includes some of the most respected universities globally. Interested Ph.D. and other graduate students are strongly encouraged to apply.
50th Inform Seminar
NEW RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS AND COUNSELLING
Wolfson Theatre, New Academic Building,
London School of Economics, Saturday 18 May 2013
http://www.lse.ac.uk/resources/mapsAndDirections/howToGetToLSE.htm
To register: WE ARE NOW TAKING PAYPAL BOOKINGS: www.inform.ac/seminar-payment
Or post a booking form (attached) and a cheque payable to ‘Inform’ to Inform, Houghton St., London WC2A 2AE. (Inform@lse.ac.uk; 020 7955 7677).
Tickets (including buffet lunch, coffee and tea) paid by 29 April 2013 cost £38 each (£18 students/unwaged).
NB. Tickets booked after 29 April 2013 will cost £48 each (£28 students/unwaged).
A limited number of seats will be made available to A-Level students at £10 before 29 April 2013 (£20 after 12 November). A party of 5 or more A-Level students from one school can include one member of staff at the same price.
Social relations and Human Security Conference
Friday 22nd – Saturday 23rd March
Centre for Social Relations, Coventry University
We live in an interconnected world that transports social issues across and between people, sectors, communities and societies. Tackling some of the drivers and misconceptions that underpin the most pressing problems for societies today –ethnicity, the environment, or socio-economics – requires continued multi-disciplinary dialogue between, governments, practitioners and publics.
The context of contemporary people-to-people relationships and the consequences of differences are both an opportunity and challenge for human security agendas. The question of how we interact, whether at work or at home, with people who we perceive as different to us is central to our sense of stability and security, not just for ourselves, but also for our families and communities. How do we challenge polarising narratives and negative representations through new models of engagement or dialogue? How can we develop communities where people interact in a meaningful way and experience true equality of opportunity? How can we help to equip people in the UK and globally to live engaged and peaceful lives in pluralistic societies?
In learning to understand how our social relations play out in communities both locally and globally, we can begin to address how to live together in peaceful relationships in a world of difference.
Our conference will explore the importance of multi-disciplinary work across the social sciences and humanities under the broad banner of social relations in policymaking, international inter-cultural dialogue/cross-community dialogue and academic research.
Keynote speakers are:
Professor Dr. Din Syamsuddin, President of Muhammadiyah, Chairman of the Centre for Dialogue and Co-operation among Civilisations (CDCC) Indonesia
Professor Linda Woodhead, Professor in the Sociology of Religion in the Department of Politics, Philosophy & Religion at Lancaster University
Prof. Salman Hameed, Director Centre for the study of Science in Muslim Societies, Hampshire College, US.
Early bird registration fee available before 28tH February:
Registration (including conference Dinner on Friday 22nd) = £56
Reduced rate registration for PhD/Early career scholars not in full time employment/retired scholars (inc. conference Dinner on Friday 22nd) = £32
Accommodation at IBIS hotel Friday 22nd = £35 per night
Extra nights’ accommodation (Thursday 21st or Saturday 23rd) = £55 per night
Registration rates after 28th February:
Registration (including conference Dinner on Friday 22nd) = £70
Reduced rate registration for PhD/Early career scholars not in full time employment/retired scholars (inc conference Dinner on Friday 22nd) = £40
Further details and current programme can be found here:
http://www.cohesioninstitute.org.uk/NewsEvents/SocialRelationsAndHumanSecurity
Plantations Amidst Savagery
Date: 2013-06-09
Description: In 1113 David youngest son of St Margaret of Scotland founded a colony from St Bernard of Abbevilles abbey of Thiron-Gardais at Selkirk in the Scottish Borders. This community was the first of any of the reformed Benedictine or Augustinian monastic orders to be founded in the British Isles.
Contact: plantationsamidstsavagery [at] yahoo.com
URL: plantationsamidstsavagery.wordpress.com/
Announcement ID: 201736
http://www.h-net.org/announce/show.cgi?ID=201736
What does it mean to be a Marxist in the 21st century?
Location: Georgia
Date: 2013-06-20
Description: Taking a cue from Shakespeares Hamlet, this panel focuses on a critical examination of the act or state of calling ones self a Marxist, that is to say, it asks the question, What does it mean to be a Marxist in the 21st century? For instance, what are the challenges that arise when reflecting on ind …
Contact: acooke2 [at] emory.edu
Announcement ID: 201639
http://www.h-net.org/announce/show.cgi?ID=201639
African Diaspora Religions Group
Location: Maryland
Date: 2013-11-23
Description: The African Diaspora Religions Group at the American Academy of Religion is proposing 2 themes for its call for papers for the 2013 Annual meeting at Baltimore, November 23-26, 2013: Theme 1 Technology, Identity, and Authenticity in African diaspora Religions. We seek to address how is the rapid expan …
Contact: mmarouan [at] bama.ua.edu
URL: rsnonline.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1183&Itemid=1333
Announcement ID: 201605
http://www.h-net.org/announce/show.cgi?ID=201605
The Fourth International Conference on the Quranic Studies
Date: 2013-07-13
Description: The Fourth International Conference on the Quranic Studies Oxford, England 13 July 2013 Scriptural studies are central to the understanding of religions that have scriptures at their heart. This is certainly true about the Holy Quran. The conference propounds topics of universal interest with an eye …
Contact: register [at] quran-institute.org.uk
URL: quran-institute.org.uk/
Announcement ID: 201620
http://www.h-net.org/announce/show.cgi?ID=201620
JOBS
Teacher of Religion and Philosophy, for September 2013
Loughborough Grammar School
JOB GUIDE NO: https://www.h-net.org/jobs/job_display.php?id=46418
St. Mary’s College – Maryland, History
Visiting Assistant Professor, Asian History
Institution Type: College / University
Location: Maryland, United States
Position: Visiting Assistant Professor
St. Mary’s College of Maryland at Historic St. Mary’s City invites applications for a one-year sabbatical replacement position as Visiting Assistant Professor in Asian History beginning in August 2013. The successful candidate will be responsible for teaching a three course load per semester in a range of lower and upper-level classes including World History, Asian Civilization and upper-level Asian History. PhD or ABD (or MA with significant teaching experience) in Asian history is required.
Non-sectarian since its founding, St. Mary’s College of Maryland, a public Carnegie Baccalaureate, Arts and Sciences institution located in Historic St. Mary’s City, 70 miles southeast of Washington, D.C., has been designated as Marylands public honors college. With highly selective admissions policies, academically talented students, and a rigorous curriculum, we offer a small college experience similar to that found at exceptional private colleges. The quality of life is enhanced by the recreational opportunities of the Chesapeake region and by our proximity to Washington, D.C. and Baltimore.
To apply, please submit a letter of application, curriculum vitae, and three letters of reference to Christine Adams, Acting Chair, Department of History, St. Mary’s College of Maryland, 18952 E. Fisher Rd., St. Mary’s City, MD 20686-3001.
Review of applications will begin immediately and continue until the position is filled. St. Mary’s College of Maryland is an affirmative action/equal opportunity employer.
Visit our website: http://www.smcm.edu/hr
Sociology of Culture and Religion
KU Leuven invites applications for a full-time academic position in the domain of the
Sociology of Culture and Religion, at the Faculty of Social Sciences. The successful
candidate will be a member of the Centre for Sociological Research.
For more information please contact Prof. dr. Katlijn Malfliet, tel.: +3216323143, mail:
katlijn.malfliet@soc.kuleuven.be.
For problems with online applying, please contact Mrs. Valerie Vander Borght, tel.: +32 16
3 28325, mail: valerie.vanderborght [at] kuleuven.be
You can apply for this job no later than March 14, 2013 via online form https://webwsp.aps.kuleuven.be/sap%28bD1lbiZjPTIwMCZkPW1pbg==%29/public/bsp/sap/z_sollicitat/main.htm?vacnr=52408585&taal=E&type=ZAP