14 September 2012 Issue
We are not responsible for any content contained herein, but have simply copied and pasted from a variety of sources. If you have any content for future digests, please contact us via the various options on our ‘contact’ page.
In this issue:
- Book Series
- Journals
- Calls for Papers
- Jobs
- Documentary
- Workshop
- Scholarship
- Conference
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.
BOOK SERIES
The Secular Studies series
GENERAL EDITOR:
Phil Zuckerman, PROFESSOR OF SOCIOLOGY, PITZER COLLEGE
There are more secular people in the world than ever before. And various forms and manifestations of secularity—atheism, agnosticism, humanism, skepticism, and anti-religious movements—are enjoying increased attention and scrutiny. The scholarly examination of secular identity, secular groups, secular culture(s), and political/constitutional secularisms—and how these all relate to each other, as well as to the broader social world—is thus more timely than ever. Moreover, studying secularism also teaches us about religiosity; as secularism is almost always in reaction to or in dialogue with the religious, by studying those who are secular we can learn much, from a new angle, about the religion they are rejecting.
The Secular Studies series is meant to provide a home for works in the emerging field of secular studies. Rooted in a social science perspective, it will explore and illuminate various aspects of secular life, ranging from how secular people live their lives and how they construct their identities to the activities of secular social movements, from the demographics of secularism to the ways in which secularity intersects with other social processes, identities, patterns, and issues.
SUBMISSION GUIDELINES:
Submissions should take the form of a 4-6 page proposal outlining the intent, scope, and argument of the project, its merits in comparison to existing texts, and the audience it is designed to reach. Please include a detailed annotated Table of Contents, ideally 2-4 sample chapters if available, and a current copy of your curriculum vitae.
PLEASE DIRECT QUERIES AND SUBMISSIONS TO:
Dr. Phil Zuckerman
Professor of Sociology, Pitzer College
1050 North Mills Avenue
Claremont, CA 91711
phil_zuckerman@pitzer.edu
Jennifer Hammer
Senior Editor
New York University Press
838 Broadway, Floor 3
New York, NY 10003-4812
jennifer.hammer@nyu.edu
For more information or details on submission guidelines, please visit: www.nyupress.org
JOURNALS
Sociology of religion, http://socrel.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/recent?etoc
Journal of Hindu Studies, http://jhs.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/recent?etoc
CALLS FOR PAPERS
“Occultism, Magic and the History of Art” (Graduate
Conference, University of Cambridge, 3-4 December 2012)
Date: 2012-09-30
Description: Graduate Conference 2012/13: “Charming Intentions:
Occultism, Magic and the History of Art”,(University of
Cambridge, 3-4 December 2012) This two-day graduate conference
will investigate the intersections between visual culture and
the occult tradition, ranging from the material culture of
primitive …
Contact: dcjz2@cam.ac.uk
URL:
Announcement ID: 196882
http://www.h-net.org/announce/show.cgi?ID=196882
“Making Sacrifices”: Visions of Sacrifice in American and
European Cultures
Location: Massachusetts
Date: 2012-10-01
Description: CFP: “Making Sacrifices”: Visions of Sacrifice in
American and European Cultures November 3, 2012; Salzburg
Institute of Gordon College Symposium, Gordon College, Wenham,
MA As Italian premier Mario Monti recently did, politicians are
increasingly calling on citizens to make sacrifices for the
futur …
Contact: salzburg.symposium@gordon.edu
URL: www.gordon.edu/SalzburgInstitute
Announcement ID: 196785
http://www.h-net.org/announce/show.cgi?ID=196785
SST Postgraduate Conference 2012
University of Cambridge, DECEMBER 3 AND 4
How Shall the Next Generation Live? Theology as Responsibility
Dietrich Bonhoeffer stated: “The ultimate question for a responsible person to ask is … how the coming generation is to live.”His concern broached the need to take responsibility for others and part of that responsibility was in leaving a legacy of sound doctrine. Taking Bonhoeffer’s concern as our framework, the second SST Postgraduate Conference invites postgraduates from all traditions and none to discuss how current theology can/should serve future generations.
The conference will take place in the University of Cambridge’s Faculty of Divinity, between the hours of 12 – 5 PM on Monday 3 December, and 9 – 6 PM on Tuesday 4 December. Delegates will be welcomed by Professor Judith Lieu (Cambridge), and plenary sessions will be given by Professor Graham Ward, Professor George Newlands, Dr. Susannah Ticciati, Revd Dr. Stephen Plant and Revd Dr. Gregory Seach.
The conference is sponsored by the SST and the Cambridge Faculty of Divinity, and is free of charge. We regret that we cannot provide delegates with accommodation or an evening meal. To register, please send your name, contact information and details of your university/institution to registersstpostgrad2012@ymail.com by 31 OCTOBER.
CALL FOR PAPERS
Paper abstracts are to be 250 WORDS and related to the conference theme. We particularly welcome papers which make reference to doctrine. THE SUBMISSION DEADLINE IS 15TH OCTOBER, AND APPLICATIONS SHOULD BE SENT TO sstpostgrad2012@ymail.com. Applicants will be contacted by the end of the month. Papers will be allotted 20 minutes for delivery with 5-10 minutes for questions.
Possible topics include (but are not restricted to):
- How academic theology should serve the next generation
-
The contribution theology can or should make to society
-
Theology and its interaction with politics/economics/culture
-
The role of theology in contemporary ethical discourse
-
The place of scripture in twenty-first century theology
-
The function of Christian doctrine in twenty-first century theology
-
Spiritual practice informing twenty-first century theology
-
‘Prayer and righteous action’
-
Theological reflection and praxis
Some bursaries towards travel expenditure are available, however we warmly encourage postgraduates to apply to their institutions for financial support where this is available. Those wishing to apply for a bursary should indicate this when submitting an abstract, giving details of their expenditure and need. Decisions on bursaries will be made by the end of October.
Please note that this conference is intended for postgraduate students and postdoctoral researchers. Established academics are warmly welcome to participate in the Society’s main annual conference, which will be publicised in December.
Please forward this message to postgraduates in your institution. To download a poster to display on your notice board, visit www.theologysociety.org.uk. If you are a postgraduate, we invite you to visit our ‘SST Postgraduate Conference’ Facebook page for news and accommodation information, and hope to see you in December.
Nicki Wilkes and Ruth Jackson
Conference Organisers
Title: Journal of Men, Masculinities and Spirituality
Description: Journal of Men, Masculinities and Spirituality (JMMS)
is a peer-reviewed, interdisciplinary journal. JMMS seeks to be
as inclusive as possible in its area of inquiry. Papers address
the full spectrum of masculinities and sexualities,
particularly those which are seldom heard. Similarly, JMMS
address …
Contact: joseph@gelfer.net
URL: www.jmmsweb.org
Announcement ID: 196563
http://www.h-net.org/announce/show.cgi?ID=196563
Title: Reminder: Call for papers: Medieval and Renaissance
Pilgrimage
Location: Michigan
Date: 2012-09-07
Description: Striding toward Salvation: Medieval and Renaissance
Pilgrimage in Europe and the Mediterranean. During the Middle
Ages and Renaissance, pilgrimage provided an important path to
spiritual salvation; as such, a whole range of individualsfrom
peasants to kings, serfs to sultansundertook these sacred jo
…
Contact: edkelley@svsu.edu
Announcement ID: 196697
http://www.h-net.org/announce/show.cgi?ID=196697
Title: Last call for submissions for Edited Collection,
Supernatural: Fan Phenomena
Date: 2012-09-15
Description: Last call for abstracts for consideration for the new
Supernatural (Fan Phenomena) title from Intellect Press. This
will be part of the series of Fan Phenomena books, which aim to
explore and decode the fascination we have with what
constitutes an iconic or cultish phenomenon and how a
particular pe …
Contact: lzubernis@wcupa.edu
Announcement ID: 196713
http://www.h-net.org/announce/show.cgi?ID=196713
Title: RELIGIOUS DIVERSITY IN AFRICA AND ASIA: Discourses and
Realities
Date: 2012-10-30
Description: Following the 55 BANDUNG 55 Seminars of the 55th
Anniversary of 1955 Bandung Asian-African Conference held in
Indonesia in October/November 2010, a series of books under the
label of Bandung Spirit Book Series is in the course of
publication. The coming book is dealing with “RELIGIOUS
DIVERSITY IN A …
Contact: darwis.khudori@univ-lehavre.fr
Announcement ID: 196724
http://www.h-net.org/announce/show.cgi?ID=196724
2013 International Society for the Sociology of Religion Conference
Turku, Finland: 27-30 June.
RETHINKING COMMUNITY
Religious continuities and mutations in late modernity
SESSIONS ARE NOW POSTED!!
- A list of session titles and organizers is on our newsletter page. Click HERE to see it.
- Full details are in the latest newsletter, Network 43: Click HERE to read it.
Once the local committee has begun its work, we will post a link here so you can visit the conference website. That website will contain information about housing, transportation, and other particulars.
Call for Papers
Christian Congregational Music: Local and Global Perspectives Conference
Ripon College Cuddesdon, Oxford, United Kingdom
1-3 August 2013
Congregational music-making has long been a vital and vibrant practice within Christian communities worldwide. Congregational music reflects, informs, and articulates local convictions and concerns as well as global flows of ideas and products. Congregational song can unify communities of faith across geographical and cultural boundaries, while simultaneously serving as a contested practice used to inscribe, challenge, and negotiate identities. Many twenty-first century congregational song repertories are transnational genres that cross boundaries of region, nation, and denomination. The various meanings, uses, and influence of these congregational song repertoires cannot be understood without an exploration of these musics’ local roots and global routes.
This conference seeks to explore the multifaceted interaction between local and global dimensions of Christian congregational music by drawing from perspectives across academic disciplines, including anthropology, sociology, history, music studies, and theology. In particular, the conference welcomes papers addressing or engaging with one or more of the following six themes:
- The Politics of Congregational Singing
The choices congregations make to include (or exclude) certain kinds of music in their worship often have significant political ramifications. Papers on this topic may consider: what roles does music play in local congregational politics? How do congregations use musical performance, on the one hand, to build and maintain boundaries, or, on the other, to promote reconciliation between members of differing ethnicities, denominations, regions, or religions?
- Popular Music in/as Christian Worship
Christian worship has long incorporated musical styles, sounds, or songs considered ‘popular’ or ‘vernacular.’ To what extent does congregational music-making maintain, conflate, or challenge the boundaries between ‘sacred’ and ‘profane’? How do commercial music industries influence the production, distribution, and reception of congregational music, and, conversely, how do the concerns of congregational singing shape praxis within the realm of commercial music?
- From Mission Hymns to Indigenous Hymnodies
This theme invites critical exploration of how congregational music has shaped—and been shaped by—Christian missionary endeavours of the past, present, and future. How have colonialism and postcolonialism influenced congregational musical ideologies and practices? Who defines an ‘indigenous hymnody,’ and how has this category informed music-making in the postmissionary church? What does the future of music in Christian missions hold?
- Congregational Music in the University Classroom
What preconceived notions of Christian beliefs, Christian music-making, or the Christian community do instructors face in the 21st century? What should the study of congregational music involve in the training of clergy and lay ministers? How do the experiences and perspectives of university students challenge the way congregational music is practiced and taught?
- Towards a More Musical Theology
Though it has been over twenty-five years since Jon Michael Spencer called for the cross-pollination of musicological and theological studies in ‘theomusicology,’ the theological mainstream still rarely pays attention to music. How might acknowledging the diversity of human musical traditions influence theological reflection on ecclesiology, eschatology, or ethics? What might insights from musicology and ethnomusicology bring to bear on contemporary debates within Christian theology?
- A Futurology of Congregational Music
Papers on this subtheme will offer creative, considered reflection on the future of congregational music. What new emerging shapes and forms will—or should—congregational worship music take? Will congregational song traditions become more localized, or will they be further determined by global commercial industries? What must scholars do to provide more nuanced, relevant, or critical perspectives on Christian congregational music?
We are now accepting proposals (maximum 250 words) for individual papers and organised panels of three papers. A link to the online proposal form can be found on the conference website at http://www.rcc.ac.uk/index.cfm?fuseaction=prospective.content&cmid=182.
Proposals must be received by 14 December 2012.
Notifications of acceptance will be sent by 28 January 2013, and conference registration will begin on 2 February 2013. Further instructions and information will be made available on the conference website.
Title: TRANSCULTURAL UNDEADNESS: HISTORIES AND INCARNATIONS OF
MULTIETHNIC HAUNTINGS AND HORROR
Location: Pennsylvania
Date: 2012-10-20
Description: MELUS 2013 March 14-17, 2013 Downtown Pittsburgh
Deadline: October 20, 2012 One point of departure for this
session is our conference location, Pittsburgh, the home base
of veteran horror filmmaker George A. Romero. Starting with his
now-classic 1968 movie Night of the Living Dead, Romero has
built …
Announcement ID: 196770
http://www.h-net.org/announce/show.cgi?ID=196770
Call for Papers: Engaging Sociology of Religion
BSA Sociology of Religion conference stream, Annual Conference of the
British Sociological Association
Grand Connaught Rooms, London, 3-5 April 2013
How does sociology of religion engage with topical issues affecting contemporary society?
How can field-specific theories and models help in understanding religion’s role in recent
global and local social movements (the Occupy movement, transitions in the Arab world,
London riots in 2011), the economic crisis and austerity, social mobility, the ‘Big Society’,
cultural pluralisation, climate change, and so on? How have – and how should – sociologists
of religion engage broader public arenas? What could be the specific contribution of
sociology of religion to public discussion? We invite papers that address topical issues such
as the above, but also papers on core issues in the sociology of religion, including – but not
limited to – the following:
* ‘Public’ Sociology of Religion
* Religion, Social Movements and Protest
* Religion and Welfare (including Faith-Based Organisations)
* Religion and inequalities (gender, ethnicity, class)
* Religion and media
* Religion and State in the 21st Century
* Social Theory and Religion
* Secularism and secularisation
Abstract submission to be completed at: www.britsoc.co.uk/events/Conference
Deadline for abstract submission: 5 October 2012.
E-mail: bsaconference@britsoc.org.uk for conference enquiries; t.hjelm@ucl.ac.uk or
j.m.mckenzie@durham.ac.uk for stream enquiries. Please DO NOT send abstracts to these
addresses.
JOBS
University of Kansas – Assistant or Associate Professor of Religious
Studies with a concentration in Judaism
<http://www.h-net.org/jobs/job_display.php?id=45212>
Brigham Young University – History Faculty, Open Field/Rank
<http://www.h-net.org/jobs/job_display.php?id=45197>
University of Tennessee – Knoxville – Assistant Professor, Early and
medieval Islam (622-1600CE)
<http://www.h-net.org/jobs/job_display.php?id=45173>
Cornell University – Thomas and Diann Mann Professorship in Modern
Jewish Studies
<http://www.h-net.org/jobs/job_display.php?id=45208>
University of Colorado – Boulder – Jewish History, Assistant
Professor, tenure-track
<http://www.h-net.org/jobs/job_display.php?id=45184>
Join the ECF convenor team: Want to have a say in how the BSA Early Career Forum (ECF) is run? Do you have great ideas for events for the ECF and want to get involved? The BSA ECF is looking for a new convener to join the existing team. Your responsibilities will include attendance at BSA council meetings (once a year), organizing the ECF workshops at the annual conference, organizing other ECF workshops and events throughout the year, maintaining regular contact with ECF members via JISCmail and social media and representing ECF views to the BSA Council and Executive Management Team. If you are interested in joining the team, please send your CV and a short blurb indicating why you want the position and what skills you would bring to it to lkillick@pacific.edu by Sept 24th 2012. We look forward to hearing from you!
PhD Position in Buddhist Studies
Vacancy number: 12-213
The Leiden University Institute for Area Studies (LIAS) invites applications for two fulltime PhD positions in the field of Buddhist Studies, specialization open, to begin 1 January 2013, or thereafter.
Review of applications will commence by 15 October 2012 and continue until the position is filled or this call is closed. (http://www.hum.leiden.edu/lias/)
DOCUMENTARY
http://www.kidnappedforchrist.com/#!about
Kidnapped for Christ is a feature-length documentary film, which follows the stories of several American teenagers who were sent to an Evangelical Christian reform school located in The Dominican Republic called “Escuela Caribe.” The school is run by Americans and is advertised as a “therapeutic Christian boarding school” whose mission is to “help struggling youth transform into healthy Christian adults.” While many have praised the school for saving the lives of hundreds of troubled teens, in the past several years many former students have begun to speak out against the school, claiming that they suffered both psychological and physical abuse during their time there. The film’s director, Kate Logan, set out to document the experiences of the students at this remote boarding school and was given unprecedented access to film for seven weeks on campus in the summer of 2006. Through candid interviews with distressed students and footage of staff imposing extreme discipline and punishments she was able to reveal the shocking truth of what was actually going on at Escuela Caribe.
The film centers on the story of David, a straight-A student from Colorado who was sent to Escuela Caribe in May of 2006 after coming out to his parents as gay. Like many others, David was taken in the night without warning by a “transport service” and was never told where he was going or when he would be brought back home. David was not the only student whose life was impacted by the school’s severe approach to discipline. The filmmakers followed many other students who also experienced degrading punishments and who struggled to understand what was happening to them. The film also features interviews with former students, including Julia Scheeres, whose 2005 New York Times Best Selling memoir Jesusland tells the story of the disturbing physical and physiological abuse she witnessed and suffered at Escuela Caribe during the 1980s.
The growth of the troubled teen industry, especially therapeutic boarding schools located in the United States and abroad, has given rise to many other allegations of the inhumane treatment of youth and the exploitation of families who are desperately seeking help for their teenagers. The goal of Kidnapped for Christ is to tell the stories of the students who were sent to Escuela Caribe and to give them a voice so that they may make people aware of the broader industry of schools like Escuela Caribe and the potential danger they constitute for our youth. We hope that the film will be entertaining, shocking, thought provoking and will ultimately inspire change in the way these types of schools are run and regulated.
WORKSHOP
Title: Fall 2012 Auschwitz Jewish Center Program for Students
Abroad (AJC PSA)
Description: In its fifth semester, the AJC PSA is a long-weekend
(Thursday PM through Monday AM) program in Krakw for North
American students studying overseas. The program, which
includes a scholarly visit to Owicim/Auschwitz, provides an
academic environment through which participants engage
intensively with …
Contact: DBramson@mjhnyc.org
URL: www.mjhnyc.org/a_affiliates_ajc.html
Announcement ID: 196435
http://www.h-net.org/announce/show.cgi?ID=196435
Scholarships
A full PhD scholarship is being offered at Aarhus University in the new Interacting Minds Centre. Please circulate this call:
http://talent.au.dk/phd/arts/open-calls/phd-call-103/
CONFERENCE
conference on Race/religion as motive for prohibited conduct (Middlesex University, 12 November); the conference flyer is attached.
I have also been asked by Dr Jenny Taylor of Lapido Media to publicise a new book TABLIGHI JAMAAT by Dr Zacharias Pieri of the University of Exeter, which will launch their series of Handy Books for Journalists on Religion in World Affairs; 27 September at Frontline Club: http://www.frontlineclub.com/crm/civicrm/event/info?reset=1&id=785. The event is free, but booking is essential. The book, which provides the latest research on this group in Britain with exclusive pictures, costs £10 and can now be ordered from info@lapidomedia.com