Religious Studies Opportunities Digest – 15 March 2013

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In this issue:

  • Journals
  • Call for papers
  • Conferences
  • Jobs
  • Fellowships

FUTURE PODCASTS


The following are some of the themes which will be covered in future podcasts

  • Religion and the Media
  • Pilgrimage/Tourism
  • Religion and the Law

 


JOURNALS


The Journal of Hindu Studies

http://jhs.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/recent?papetoc


CALLS FOR PAPERS


CFP: IC Buddhism & Australia: Call for Paper Submissions

Description: Call for Paper Submissions The main function of the international conferences “Buddhism & Australia ” is to provide a platform for academics and monastic scholars and lay Buddhists to present academic presentations. Traditionally all the presentations of our conferences have been published on the we …

Contact: info [at] buddhismandaustralia.com

URL: www.buddhismandaustralia.com

Announcement ID: 201891

 http://www.h-net.org/announce/show.cgi?ID=201891

CFP: MLA 2014 Jewish American Literature Discussion Group CFPs

Location: Illinois

Deadline: 2013-03-15

Description: Seeking papers for two MLA 2014 session proposals sponsored by the Jewish American Literature Discussion Group: 1) Digital Jews: Literature, Apps, Internet Mediations  Archiving roundtable exploring the impact of digital media on Jewish American writing, writers, and literature collections. Pedagogy    …

Contact: roth [at] susqu.edu

Announcement ID: 201845

http://www.h-net.org/announce/show.cgi?ID=201845


CFP: Revolutionary, Progressive, Unorthodox and Provocative  Ideas and Concepts in the Early Modern and Modern Political, Social, Religious and Philosophical Reflection

Deadline: 2013-03-20

Description: The Institute of History at the Jagiellonian University in Krakw organized a two day conference / seminar devoted to the concepts and ideas put forth in the early modern and modern western thought, which proposed new social, political, but also religious solutions. From the works of Thomas More, Mar …

Contact: basista [at] chello.pl

Announcement ID: 201893

http://www.h-net.org/announce/show.cgi?ID=201893


CFP: PHI Spring Conference: “Women, Religion, and Empowerment:

Location: Massachusetts

Date: 2013-04-12

Description: PHI Spring 2013 Conference: Women, Religion, and Empowerment April 12 and 13 – Regis College, Weston, MA. Religion provides individuals with not only spiritual guidance,

but also serves a source of strength and empowerment. While both men and women embrace religion, their roles are often different;  …

Contact: katina.fontes [at] regiscollege.edu

URL: publicheritage.wordpress.com/

Announcement ID: 201886

http://www.h-net.org/announce/show.cgi?ID=201886


CFP: Durham University’s Medieval and Early Modern Student Association has published their call for papers for their annual postgraduate and early career researcher conference. Please find the details in the attached document. The conference will take place from 8-9 July 2013 and the theme this year is The Mutilated Body. This encompasses many meanings, including medical, allegorical, and symbolic. We are pleased to announce that we will offer an opportunity to visit the Lindisfarne Gospels exhibition as one of our events.

Deadline for abstracts of 200-300 words is 15 April 2013.

http://www.dur.ac.uk/imrs/memsa/


CFP: Panel at the 12th EASR conference

September 3-6, Liverpool Hope

Indic traditions in the West: Seekership, Spirituality and Healing

Organised by Dr Maya Warrier (University of Wales, Trinity Saint David)

A wide variety of Indic traditions (traditions and practices of Indian origin including, most significantly, forms of postural and meditational yoga, tantra, chanting, and ayurvedic healing practices) circulate today within transnational networks of cosmopolitan spiritual seekership. These traditions are promoted by entrepreneurs from diverse socio-cultural backgrounds and nationalities, many of them Anglophone, who range from high-profile gurus heading multi-national organisations, to relatively low-profile individuals running small-scale and localised centres, workshops and classes.

This panel aims to explore the ways in which recognisably Indic ideas and practices are transmitted by these individuals and institutions to audiences of spiritual seekers in the West. It aims, in particular, to explore how the concerns/ preoccupations of ‘spiritual seekers’ in the West shape these traditions. The panel organiser would thus welcome papers which explore the interface between the contemporary Western milieu of religiously unaffiliated ‘spiritual seekership’, and the traditions and practices of Indian origin circulating in the West today. Contributions exploring colonial precedents to the Indic traditions currently circulating in the Western mind-body-spirit milieu are also welcome.

Please send abstracts (approximately 150 words) to Maya Warrier at m.warrier[at] tsd.ac.uk by the 1st of May, 2013.


CFP: Panel: Religions, jurisdictions, sovereignties: ethnographies of religious and political contestation

V Congress of the Portuguese Anthropological Association

Vila Real, Portugal, September 9-11, 2013

Abstract: In this panel we propose to discuss the agency and presence of religion in the (historical and contemporary) public space through the political concepts of “jurisdiction” and “sovereignty”, addressing issues of territorialization and visibility. We intend to create a field of reflection that simultaneously serves as empirical mapping and methodological reflection on the anthropological and/or interdisciplinary study of religion as a political phenomenon. We seek contributions that address contexts of resistance, contestation and vindication in the political-religious field – from territorial imaginings and utopian alternatives to the secular nation state, the problem of religious pluralism (discussed mainly through its symbolic aspects) and the configuration of blasphemies – and at the same time reflect on the different heuristic possibilities for its understanding from within the anthropological discipline.

Submissions: http://www.nomadit.co.uk/apa/apa2013/panels.php5?PanelID=2366

Deadline: April 22nd, 2013.

Proposals accepted in English, Portuguese and Spanish

Further info: ruy.blanes [at] gmail.com; emerson.giumbelli [at] yahoo.com.br

General info on the congress: http://www.apantropologia.org/congresso2013/


CFP: Fall narratives: an interdisciplinary perspective

18th-19th June 2014, University of Aberdeen, Scotland

As the 340th  anniversary of John Milton¹s death approaches, we seek to explore the theme of the Fall in a diverse, interdisciplinary context.

The conference, which is organised with the intention of leading to a publication of proceedings, will examine the concept of the Fall across a range of disciplines and languages. The temporal scope extends from antiquity to contemporary times.

We welcome proposals with research interest such as, but not limited to, Literature, Religion, Languages, History, Philosophy, Psychology,

Art, Film and Visual Culture, Cultural Studies and Economics.

Potential topics include (but again, are not limited to) the following:

  • Milton and Paradise Lost

  • Concept of moral and philosophical Falls

  • Fall of angels (and demons)

  • Adam and Eve

  • Religious falls

  • Literary falls

  • Cinematic falls

  • Contemporary falls: in finances, politics, media, sports,

entertainment etc.

  • Fall of empires: historical, economical, cultural.

  • Fall of regimes

  • Fall of ideologies, ideas, world views, political/ religious movements, etc.

  • The linguistics of falling

  • The psychology of falling

Abstracts of approximately 200 words should be sent to:

Dr Zohar Hadromi-Allouche and Dr Áine Larkin z.hadromi-allouche@abdn.ac.uk a.larkin@abdn.ac.uk

Deadline for submission is 31st March 2013. Should you have questions about the conference or the submissions, please contact the organisers at z.hadromi-allouche@abdn.ac.uk, a.larkin@abdn.ac.uk


CFP: Symposium on Religion and the Media at Liverpool Hope University, from 29-30 July

Liverpool Hope University, 29 and 30 July 2013

Keynote Speaker: Professor Debra Mason

The deadline for abstracts has been extended to 22 March 2013. Abstracts of no more than 300 words should be submitted electronically as an MS Word document together with a short C.V. and sent to Dr Salman Al-Azami alazams@hope.ac.uk. Successful applicants will be notified by 12 April 2013.

The symposium is jointly organised by the Archbishop Desmond Tutu Centre for War and Peace Studies and the Centre for the Applied Study of Muslims and Islam in the UK


CFP: Gujarat Studies Association

The 5th Biennial Conference

(Re)Defining Gujarati Identity

19th – 20th February 2014 • Royal Orchid Central Hotel, Ahmedabad, Gujarat

Keynote Speaker: Dr. Eiluned Edwards, Nottingham Trent University

Submissions are encouraged from graduate and post-graduate students.  A limited number of student bursaries are available for master’s level, doctoral and post-doctoral candidates presenting papers at the conference.  For further details, please visit the GSA website: www.gujaratstudies.org

Abstracts for 20-minute papers in English should be 200 – 250 words.  The Abstract Submission form can be found at the GSA website: www.gujaratstudies.org

Important Dates:

2 September 2013           Conference registration opens

9 September 2013            Abstract submission deadline / Bursary application deadline

28 October 2013             Abstract acceptance notification / Bursary status notification


CFP: ‘Kindling the Scarp: A Jack Clemo Conference’ to take place at Wheal Martyn in Cornwall on 31st May and 1st June this year. The deadline for submission of abstracts is 16th April.

Full details of the CFP can be found here:

http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/ias/current/engagement/jackclemo


CFP: Ar.tic.u.late, the New College Postgraduate Conference, to be held on the 3rd of May 2013.

This conference is YOUR opportunity to professionally present original academic material in front of a supportive and interested audience in a conference environment. Use it to share an essay, focus a chapter, roadtest an idea.

The deadline for abstracts is 17:00 on Monday the 15th of April.

Abstracts should be 200-250 words and are welcome from all parts of New College. The Conference is on Friday 3rd of May in the Martin Hall and papers should be 20-30 minutes long or around 2,500-3,000 words.

Send abstracts to Richard – r.saville-smith[at] sms.ed.ac.uk


CONFERENCES/ EVENTS


Variation within and across Jewish Languages

Date: 2013-06-26

Description: The conference aims to bring together scholars who work on linguistic aspects of Jewish languages with the focus  on domains such as linguistic structure, language variation, language change (dialectology and diachrony), bilingualism and comparison of written and spoken uses. The conference will also

Contact: ijs [at] ua.ac.be

URL: www.ua.ac.be/main.aspx?c=*IJSENG&n=109740

Announcement ID: 202069

http://www.h-net.org/announce/show.cgi?ID=202069


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: www.quran-institute.org.uk

Announcement ID: 201705

 http://www.h-net.org/announce/show.cgi?ID=201705


Full details of the University of Wales Trinity Saint David/Sophia Centre conference on Celestial Magic in Bath on 21-23 June 2013 are on line at http://www.historyofastrology.org.uk/conferences/CelestialMagic/index.html

Keynote speakers:

Joscelyn Godwin, Professor of Music at Colgate University, New York State,

‘Astral Ascent in the Occult Revival’


We are pleased to announce the first CPASE conference “Theorizing Experience < > Experiencing Theory” to be held at University of West Bohemia, Pilsen, Czech Republic Friday 15th – Sunday 17th November 2013

CPASE:

Contemporary Paganisms and Spiritualities in Europe CPASE stands for “Contemporary Paganisms And Spiritualities in Europe”, an international and interdisciplinary network of scholars. Although our network covers the whole of Europe, we aim to emphasize frequently overlooked areas such as southern and eastern Europe.

Theme of the conference:Theorizing Experience < > Experiencing Theory Which types of theoretical and methodological approaches can best inform our analysis or the experiential aspects of contemporary spiritualities, paganisms, and magical practices? Interdisciplinary approaches may draw on theory from a range of fields such as anthropology, religious studies, psychology, sociology, philosophy etc. As an interdisciplinary venture, the study of religion has become a common ground for both reflexive relativist approaches and scientifically inclined ‘positivist’ approaches. Where the scholars of the former position conduct fieldwork and aim for self-consciousness as scholars operating within their fields of enquiry, the latter favor a more distanced approach, often seeking to advance theory through experimentation or rigorous data quantification. Where the former may sometimes struggle to move beyond mere description, the latter sometimes struggle to move beyond a superficial understanding of the phenomenon in its own terms. Aiming for validity and reliability of their findings, respectively, both approaches perhaps need some encouragement to explore the potentials of the other, and seek a common ground to come to a richer and more thorough understanding of the phenomenon of religion.

In appreciating both the persistence of religion in many places and the transformation of traditional religiosity into new forms in others— herein lie the seeds of a fruitful dialogue

In accordance with the new epistemological questions emerging within many social sciences in the late 20th century, the researcher today may be aware of and actively reflect on his/her position in the research, both in the field and when writing his or her scholarly texts. In some cases, the researcher no longer need be understood as a distanced, neutral and objective observer and the resulting text may not be intended to be a portrayal of a reality that seems isolated from other realities, clearly structured and fixed in time as if set in front of the researcher’s eyes. For the researcher who is engaged in social relations with his or her subjects, the fieldwork is situational, dynamic and contains controversies. Thus issues of reflexivity and other accompanying questions from the postmodern paradigm are raised and call for deeper investigation into theory and methodology.

Nevertheless, the resulting text should be distinguished from other genres such as authobiography or travelogue. Therefore, the experience in the field should be theorized; the particular theory being selected according to the researcher’s area of study and the needs of the particular research. This suggests the need for some degree of objectivity regardless of whether the resulting account (be it ethnographic, cognitive/psychological, sociological, anthropological, interdisciplinary etc.) reflects the multivocality and dialogical nature of the fieldwork and includes the voice of the participant-observer. It further suggests the need for a broader interdisciplinary approach to building methodologies and theories specifically applicable to the study of contemporary paganisms, magical practices and spiritualities. In appreciating both the persistence of religion in many places and the transformation of traditional religiosity into new forms in others— herein lie the seeds of a fruitful dialogue between the two academic positions.

www.konference.kaj.zcu.cz


Conference on Apostle Peter

As the deadline approaches for the end of the “early bird” registration fee, I post this reminder of the conference on the Apostle Peter in Earliest Christianity, sponsored by our Centre for the Study of Christian Origins at the University of Edinburgh, 4-6th July 2013. Main speakers include: Peter Lampe, Markus Bockmuehl, Timothy Barnes, Sean Freyne, Larry Hurtado, Tobias Nicklas, and Margaret Williams. Topics include: The historical Peter, Peter in Galilean and Roman archaeology, and Peter’s literary afterlife in the first three centuries.

Registration is now open and costs a very reasonable £40 before April 15th (£50 after) and £35 for students. Offers of short papers should be send to Dr Helen Bond at divinity-csco [at] ed.ac.uk by Friday March 15th.

Further information, including the link to online registration and fee-payment, go to the following URL:   http://christianorigins.co.uk/events/


JOBS


Assistant (doctorate),

Buddhist Studies and Middle Indian Languages

https://www.h-net.org/jobs/job_display.php?id=46484

Antioch University – Director of Japan and Its Buddhist Traditions Program, Kyoto Japan

<http://www.h-net.org/jobs/job_display.php?id=46477>

Harvard University – Preceptor in Hindi-Urdu

<http://www.h-net.org/jobs/job_display.php?id=46453>

Cambridge University – University Lectureship in Modern East Asian History

<http://www.h-net.org/jobs/job_display.php?id=46448>

Haifa University – Assistant or Associate Professor, Modern Asia

<http://www.h-net.org/jobs/job_display.php?id=46473>

University of Memphis – Instructor in African, Asian or European history

<http://www.h-net.org/jobs/job_display.php?id=46464>

Antioch University – Director of Japan and Its Buddhist Traditions Program, Kyoto Japan

<http://www.h-net.org/jobs/job_display.php?id=46477>

American University – Beirut – The Jabre-Khwarizmi Endowed Chair in Arabic and Islamic Science & The Director of the Farouk K. Jabre Center for Arabic and Islamic Science and Philosophy

<http://www.h-net.org/jobs/job_display.php?id=46457>

College of Charleston – Project Archivist and Processing Archivist – grant funded positions

<http://www.h-net.org/jobs/job_display.php?id=46454>

Leiden University – Assistant Professor, Modern Middle-Eastern Studies

<http://www.h-net.org/jobs/job_display.php?id=46456>1

University of Goettingen-Transregional Research Network

Two Postdoctoral Fellows-Secularity and New Religiosities

The University of Goettingen is launching a transregional research network (CETREN) under the broad thematic rubric The Politics of the New, funded by the German Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF). For its pilot project, Secularism and New Religiosities, CETREN seeks to fill two Postdoctoral Research Positions.

The two positions, to begin in October 2013, will be offered as two-year fixed-term contracts on a full-time basis (currently 39,8 hours per week) and will be remunerated at the TV-L E13 level (in accordance with the German public sector pay scale).

The pilot project Secularism and New Religiosities examines new forms of religiosity that emerge under various regional or national regimes of secularism, and how these are shaped in transnational arenas of cultural, political and legal interaction (see project description at http://www.uni-goettingen.de/en/422555.html). Within this wider context, we invite post-doctoral research proposals that theoretically and empirically analyze new religiosities in comparative perspective; cross-religious as well as cross-regional comparisons are welcome. While the overall projects main focus is on South Asia, East Asia, and Europe, proposals may broaden the comparative scope by including other regions.

Successful applicants must have a PhD in a relevant field, such as history, anthropology, sociology, political science, religious studies, or area studies. Researchers will be based at the University of Goettingen, but will be permitted to conduct fully-funded field research for part of the two-year period, upon consultation with the principal investigators.

Applicants from all countries are encouraged to apply. Fluency in English is expected. A complete application will consist of a cover letter, a CV, a writing sample, a 1000-word proposal for a postdoctoral research project, and two confidential letters of reference sent separately by the referees. Any queries regarding the positions may be addressed to Prof. Rupa Viswanath at rviswan@uni-goettingen.de. Materials should be sent, preferably by email, to holk.stobbe@cemis.uni-goettingen.de no later than April 1, 2013.

Alternatively you can send your application by post to:

Georg-August-University Gottingen

Centre for Modern Indian Studies (CeMIS)

Prof. Rupa Viswanath

Waldweg 26

D-37073 Goettingen

Germany

The University of Gngen is an equal opportunity employer and places particular emphasis on fostering career opportunities for women. Qualified women are therefore strongly encouraged to apply. Disabled persons with equivalent aptitude will be favored.

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