Conference: Digital religion at the Donner institute

13-15 June 2012 in Åbo / Turku, Finland

Place:
Åbo Akademi University
Asa
Fänriksgatan 3 / Vänrikinkatu 3
Åbo / Turku/
Finland

The theme we have chosen for the Donner Institute 23rd Symposium is Digital Religion.
The conference “Digital Religion” aims to explore the complex relationship between religion and digital technologies of communication. Digital religion encompasses a myriad of connections between religion and digital technologies of communication and the goal of the conference is to approach the subject from multiple perspectives.

Developments in digital technologies are having a noticeably growing impact on the very character and nature of contemporary religious life and practice across the globe. Digital technologies of communication – epitomized in the continuing development and proliferation of the Internet and online modes of communication – are providing religious communities of virtually all strands with new means, environments and arenas within and through which to interact, express, and communicate their message in ways unknown to previous generations.

For many religious communities, this development has undoubtedly brought a whole host of challenges. Many religious communities today find themselves struggling with how to come to terms with a rapidly expanding Internet-based communications environment that challenges traditional understandings of religious mediation and religious authority. Nevertheless, there are also religious communities that have faced the challenges head on and come to thrive thanks to the new technologies or whose very existence is dependent on e.g. the Internet.

From a scholarly perspective, this development is intimately connected to ongoing debates about the impact of accelerating processes of mediatization and digitalization on contemporary religious life and practice. Though religion has colonized many different forms of digital media, it has also doubtlessly been altered by the media. This process is, however, complex and moves in several directions. Though digital technologies no doubt transform religion and the contemporary religious landscape, religion too can be argued to have an impact on the digital world.

Subjects for papers include but are not limited to the following:

- Theoretical, methodological and historical approaches to “digital religion”
- Empirical studies of “religion on line”, “online religion”, and the relation between “online” and “offline” religion
- New media and transnational religious networks
- Challenges and/or opportunities for religions by digital media
- The Internet as an arena for religious/spiritual community
- Authority and legitimacy in digital religion
- Technological development and religious change
- Religion and digital media: appropriations, configurations, impacts
- Digital religion: generational, demographic, and geographical aspects
- Religious communicational strategies and digital technologies

Keynote speakers:
Ass. Prof. Heidi Campbell, Texas A & M University, Texas
Prof. Mia Lövheim, Uppsala University, Sweden
Prof. Jolyon Mitchell, University of Edinburg, UK
Dr. Marcus Moberg, Åbo Akademi University, Finland
Dr. Alexander Ornella, University of Hull, UK
Prof. Michael Pye, Phillips-Universität Marburg, Germany
Dr. Sofia Sjö, Åbo Akademi University, Finland

Finally, we would like to inform you that the lectures will be published, in English, French or German, in volume 25 of the Donner Institute series Scripta Instituti Donneriani Aboensis. The published version of your lecture may be longer than the one you present at the symposium. We will be happy to receive a digital and publishable version of your lecture already at the symposium but no later than October 31 2012.

Registration:

The registration fee is 150 €. (75 € for accompanying person)

The fee should be paid by the end of April 2012.
Account number: Nordea FI 12 20571800020055  NDEAFIHH
Name of the accountholder: Stiftelsen för Åbo Akademi (Foundation of Åbo Akademi University)

The registration fee includes an excursion and a banquet organised in connection with the symposium.

Please indicate in your registration whether you wish to participate in the excursion and the banquet.

Address:

Donner institute
PB 70
FIN-20501 Åbo / Turku
Finland
E-mail: donner.institute@abo.fi
Tel.: +358 20 786 1450

WELCOME

Tore Ahlbäck, Joakim Alander, Björn Dahla,
Ruth Illman and Anna Nyman

Åbo/Turku 08.11.2011

The International Conference

Crossroads of Civilizations: Media, Religion and Culture

July 8-12, 2012

Anadolu University

Eskisehir, TURKEY

(in between Istanbul and Ankara)

The International Conference on Media, Religion, and Culture, organized every two years by the International Society for Media, Religion, and Culture, invites papers for its July 8-12, 2012 conference to be held in Eskisehir, Turkey (outside of Istanbul), at Anadolu University.

In contemporary societies, electronic media such as smart mobile phones, satellite television, radio, and laptop computers have become ubiquitous. Although historians point out that world religions have always been mediated by culture in some way, people have incorporated these electronic media into everyday practices, and industries and state organizations have arisen to profit from those practices, in ways that are unprecedented. Today’s media can connect people and ideas with one another, but they also foster misunderstandings and reinforce societal divisions. They may provide the means for the centralization of religious authority, or the means to undermine it. Scholars of religion, as well as scholars of media and of culture, must consider how these various societal institutions of the media interact with one another and with systems of religion, governance, and cultural practices, as our societies demand better means by which to understand emergent concerns in an increasingly interconnected, globalized context.

The contemporary location of Turkey has long been the meeting place between Eastern and Western culture, religion, trade, and communication. This conference provides a crossroads for scholars, doctoral students, media professionals, and religious leaders from a variety of religious and secular traditions to meet and exchange ideas. Interdisciplinary scholarship is welcome, as is comparative work, theoretical development, and in-depth ethnographic studies that shed light on contemporary phenomena at the intersection of media, religion, and culture.

Papers, panels, workshops, and roundtable proposals could address, but should not be limited to:

* Global and Glocal Media and Religion(s)

* Mediation and Mediatization of Religion

* Media and The Boundaries of the Religious and the Secular

* Media, Power, Religion and Democracy

* Religion and Visual Expression

* Crossroads of Old/New Media and Religion

* Religion, Gender and Media

* Dialogue/Conflict: Media and Religion

* Islam and Media/ Islamic Media

* Social Media, Religion and Cultures

Presentation Formats

This year we will be accepting proposals in four formats: papers, panels, workshops and roundtables.

Panels bring together in discussion four participants or presentations representing a range of ideas and projects. Roundtables may include more individuals who comment on a common theme in briefer formats.

Panels and roundtables are scheduled for 90 minutes and should include a mix of individuals working in areas of research, theory, and practice. We also encourage the use of discussants.

Workshops provide an opportunity for hands-on exploration and/or project development. They can be organized around a core challenge that participants come together to work on or around a tool, platform, or concept. Workshops are scheduled for 90 minutes and should be highly participatory.

International Association for the History of Religions Special Conference 2012

Religions, Science and Technology in Cultural Contexts: Dynamics of Change

Venue: NTNU-The Norwegian University of Science and Technology
1-3 March 2012

The International Academic Forum in conjunction with its global partners is proud to announce the Second Asian Conference on Ethics, Religion and Philosophy, to be held from March 30-April 1 2012, at the Ramada Osaka Hotel, Osaka, Japan.

Hear the latest research, publish before a global audience, present in a supportive environment, network, engage in new relationships, experience Japan, explore Osaka and Kyoto, join a global academic community.

CONFERENCE THEME: “Trust”

Where better than Japan to explore dynamic and exciting cultural collisions of East and West?  As the first and only developed non-Western country, Japan is an amazing juxtaposition of cultures, of ancient and modern, and of religious and secular. As such it is the perfect backdrop to what promises to be an exciting interdisciplinary and intercultural discussion, based around questions of Ethics, Religion and Philosophy.

The aim of this International Conference is to encourage academics, scholars and practitioners representing a exciting diversity of countries, cultures, and religion  to meet and exchange ideas and views in a forum encouraging respectful dialogue. By bringing together a number of university scholars working throughout Japan, Asia, and beyond to share ideas, ACERP 2012 will afford the opportunity for renewing old acquaintances, making new contacts, and networking across higher education and beyond.

As with IAFOR’s other events, and in line with its “Education Without Borders” initiative, academics working in Japan and Asia will be encouraged to forge working relationships with each other, as well as with colleagues from Europe, the US, and beyond, facilitating partnerships across borders.

We hope you can join us in Osaka in 2012!

The Council for Secular Humanists has published a paper by Frank L. Pasquale, titled “The Social Science of Secularity“

Following a failure of irreligious studies to get off the ground in 1971, the purposeful study of the non-religious has again attempted flight and seems to be rocketing, as a subject in its own right, as much NSRN work can attest. This is a fact championed by Pasquale who gives the NSRN a good write up as an “innovative organisation”.

Pasquale gives a useful overview of the breadth of current research and the genesis of organisations such as the NSRN and CAR (Center for Atheist Research). He pays particular attention to key areas needing serious consideration from researchers, including the thorny issue of terminology, accurate description and characterisation. Other key areas include  health, pluralisation of world-views and all “will increasingly need to direct attention to the vast and apparently growing mass of “seculous,” “religular,” or “fuzzy” types in between”.

Following a failure of irreligious studies to get off the ground in 1971, the purposeful study of the non-religious has again attempted flight and seems to be rocketing, as a subject in its own right, as much NSRN work can attest. This is a fact championed by Pasquale who gives the NSRN a good write up as an “innovative organisation”.

Pasquale gives a useful overview of the breadth of current research and the genesis of organisations such as the NSRN and CAR (Center for Atheist Research). He pays particular attention to key areas needing serious consideration from researchers, including the thorny issue of terminology, accurate description and characterisation. Other key areas include  health, pluralisation of world-views and all “will increasingly need to direct attention to the vast and apparently growing mass of “seculous,” “religular,” or “fuzzy” types in between”.

NEW YORK CONFERENCE ON ASIAN STUDIES

September 28-29, 2012

State University of New York at New Paltz

Asian Religions in the West and Asian American Religions: Contesting Identities and Praxis

Graduate students and scholars working in all areas and disciplines of Asian Studies and Asian American Studies are invited to submit proposals on papers that engage the theme of “Asian religions in the West and Asian American Religions”. Topics may include, but are not limited, to the following:

–Contesting established gender and social roles

–Resistance to established canons and epistemological models

–Contesting identities and the politics of identity

–Performance of identities and ritual constructions of community

–The role and impact of globalization

–The role and impact of new media, social media, cyber-space and cyber-communities

–Invented traditions and their political, social, historical, or cultural repercussions

Proposals should include the name, institutional affiliation, and e-mail address of the presenter, the title of the paper, and an abstract not exceeding 250 words in length. Please submit individual paper proposals to Cuong T. Mai at (cmai@uvm.edu), by March 15, 2012.

More information here

Södertörn University, Stockholm. 23-26 August, 2012

This years theme address moments of ending and beginning in the everyday practices of religious ritual and promises of new beginnings offered by the hereafter or a renewed existence. Scholars of secularism and nonreligion may find the the conferences larger question of whether there can be said to be a beginning or an end of religion in general of interest and hope that this perspective can be offered.

More details can about the conference be found on the EASR 2012 website and for pre-registration

We would like to draw your attention to the call for applications for the 2012 UCSIA summer school on “Religion, Culture and Society”. This summer school is a one-week course taking place from Sunday 26 August until Sunday 2 September (dates of arrival and departure). This year the programme will focus on the topic of Secularism(s) and Religion in Society.

Topic:

It is evident that religion, culture and society are strongly interwoven and are crucial for understanding the contemporary world. With globalization touching all aspects of our lives, religion(s) and culture(s) have to understand their position in this complex globalizing process. It is the aim of the interdisciplinary UCSIA summer school to better understand the dynamic interplay between the macro- and micro-social developments concerning religion that take place in much of the contemporary world.

Guest lecturers are Rajeev Bhargava (Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, Delhi), Peggy Levitt (Wellesley College), Robert W. Hefner (Boston University) and John Hutchinson (London School of Economics).

Practical details:

Participation and stay for young scholars and researchers are free of charge. Participants should pay for their own travel expenses to Antwerp.

You can submit your application via the electronic submission on the summer school website. The completed file as well as all other required application documents must be submitted to the UCSIA Selection Committee not later than Sunday 15 April 2012.

For further information regarding the programme and application procedure, please have a look at their website.

Please help us to distribute this call for application among PhD students and postdoctoral scholars who might be interested in applying for this summer school.

For all further information, do not hesitate to contact UCSIA on the address below.

Sara Mels

Project coordinator

UCSIA vzw

Prinsstraat 14

B-2000 Antwerp

Belgium

Tel. +32 (0)3 265 45 99

Fax +32 (0)3 707 09 31

e-mail: sara.mels@ua.ac.be

The special issue on Gender, Religion and Migration will look at the intersectional dimension of gender, ethnicity and religion where religion in particular plays a central role in providing a sense of belonging for migrants and represents a source of identification during the migratory experience. The special issue will focus on the ways in which gender roles are constructed and reproduced through religion within migrant communities in urban contexts and brings together leading scholars in the field of migration to explore how geographical mobility shapes gendered religious identities. For too long social sciences and migration studies have paid insufficient attention to the importance of religion in the everyday lives of many migrants and Levitt’s (2008) call for more ‘empirical, grounded’ research on migration and religion aims at filling this particular gap in the literature .

Mobilizing religion may serve a range of diverse purposes during the migratory experience and, indeed, migration may in turn shape the different ways in which religion is reproduced on an every day basis if compared with the country of origin of the worshippers. Religion can also provide a trans-national source of identification; for example, it may play a significant role in enabling migrants to imagine themselves within collectivities that span beyond the nation-state. In other words, religious worship may fulfil many functions for migrants, not only spiritual, but also material and social such as civic participation and commitment towards the parish for church goers (Levitt 2008). Hence, for migrants in particular, religion can potentially provide a means for both maintaining and expressing continuity of faith and practice while negotiating integration within a new environment (Stanczak, 2006).

The special issue On Gender, Religion and Migration will build on the symposium at Middlesex University, held in 2011, to explore comparisons and contrasts across different religious communities which could include for example, Muslim, Christian, Jewish and Hindi, etc.

This collection of articles aims to bring together empirical research from different academic disciplines, including sociology, geography and anthropology and using a range of methods to engage with and research different religious communities. We welcome papers that present a comparative approach to studying religion in migration.

In particular, we are looking for papers that tackle the following:

• Comparisons across religious groups

• Intersectional dimensions of gender, ethnicity and religion

• Construction of gender through religion in urban contexts

• Religion as a trans-national source of identification and the role of gender in negotiating local integration through religion

• Religion as a source of civic engagement differently negotiated in migrant women and men

• Role of religious organizations in providing integration opportunities while ensuring continuity of social practices with the country of origins for migrant women and man

• Role of religion in the intergenerational negotiation of belonging in the host country and outcomes in challenging traditional gender roles

If you are interested please send a 200 word abstract, along with a short biographical note, to Dr. Ryan and Dr Vacchelli at the addresses below by Monday 27 February

Please note that if your abstract is accepted, full papers will be needed by June 2012.

Dr. Louise Ryan and Dr. Elena Vacchelli, Middlesex University,

Contact: l.ryan@mdx.ac.uk and e.vacchelli@mdx.ac.uk

Call for Papers for special issue on ‘Gender, Religion and Migration’ in new e-journal Religion and Gender http://www.religionandgender.org

The special issue on Gender, Religion and Migration will look at the intersectional dimension of gender, ethnicity and religion where religion in particular plays a central role in providing a sense of belonging for migrants and represents a source of identification during the migratory experience. The special issue will focus on the ways in which gender roles are constructed and reproduced through religion within migrant communities in urban contexts and brings together leading scholars in the field of migration to explore how geographical mobility shapes gendered religious identities. For too long social sciences and migration studies have paid insufficient attention to the importance of religion in the everyday lives of many migrants and Levitt’s (2008) call for more ‘empirical, grounded’ research on migration and religion aims at filling this particular gap in the literature .
Mobilizing religion may serve a range of diverse purposes during the migratory experience and, indeed, migration may in turn shape the different ways in which religion is reproduced on an every day basis if compared with the country of origin of the worshippers.  Religion can also provide a trans-national source of identification; for example, it may play a significant role in enabling migrants to imagine themselves within collectivities that span beyond the nation-state.  In other words, religious worship may fulfil many functions for migrants, not only spiritual, but also material and social such as civic participation and commitment towards the parish for church goers (Levitt 2008). Hence, for migrants in particular, religion can potentially provide a means for both maintaining and expressing continuity of faith and practice while negotiating integration within a new environment (Stanczak, 2006).
The special issue On Gender, Religion and Migration will build on the symposium at Middlesex University, held in 2011, to explore comparisons and contrasts across different religious communities which could include for example, Muslim, Christian, Jewish and Hindi, etc.
This collection of articles aims to bring together empirical research from different academic disciplines, including sociology, geography and anthropology and using a range of methods to engage with and research different religious communities. We welcome papers that present a comparative approach to studying religion in migration.

In particular, we are looking for papers that tackle the following: 

•	Comparisons across religious groups
•	Intersectional dimensions of gender, ethnicity and religion
•	Construction of gender through religion in urban contexts
•	Religion as a trans-national source of identification and the role of gender in negotiating local integration through religion
•	Religion as a source of civic engagement differently negotiated in migrant women and men
•	Role of religious organizations in providing integration opportunities while ensuring continuity of social practices with the country of origins for migrant women and man
•	Role of religion in the intergenerational negotiation of belonging in the host country  and outcomes in challenging traditional gender roles

If you are interested please send a 200 word abstract, along with a short biographical note, to Dr. Ryan and Dr Vacchelli at the addresses below by Monday 27 February:

Please note that if your abstract is accepted, full papers will be needed by June 2012.
Dr. Louise Ryan and Dr. Elena Vacchelli, Middlesex University,
Contact: l.ryan@mdx.ac.uk and e.vacchelli@mdx.ac.uk