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In this issue:
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Amazon
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Journals
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Books
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Conferences
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Call for papers
- Jobs
AMAZON
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JOURNALS
Journal of Contemporary Religion, vol 28, issue 3 http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/cjcr20/28/3#.Uk5TTRDg8gI
Sociology of Religion – advance access http://socrel.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/recent?papetoc
International Journal of Tantric Studies (IJTS) vol. 9, n. 1: http://asiatica.org/ijts/vol9-1/
BOOKS
Discount for the History of Western Philosophy of Religion, edited by Graham Oppy and Nick Trakakis, published by Acumen. Acumen are offering members of the BASR a discount of 25% off the full price of the five volume set.
Special Introductory price of £75/$115 on the 5-volume paperback set * if you order before 31 December 2013. Please quote discount code 9EN.
CONFERENCES
International Society for Media, Religion and Culture Conference, Canterbury, August 2014
http://www.kent.ac.uk/secl/thrs/events/event2014-08-06.html
Popular Antiquities: Folklore & Archaeology Conference
UCL Institute of Archaeology & Folklore Society
Saturday, 12 October 2013 at 10:00 – Sunday, 13 October 2013 at 15:30 (BST)
London, United Kingdom
https://popularantiquities.eventbrite.co.uk/
Registration for the event “From Floor to Ceiling: A symposium on South Asian floordrawings and murals” is now open
http://www.westminster.ac.uk/cream/events/from-floor-to-ceiling
The last date for registration is 18 October 2013, but to facilitate our planning for the event, we would appreciate it if you could register as soon as is possible.
Stockholm History of Religions 100th anniversary (1913-2013) – 8th of November 2013
http://www.erg.su.se/stockholm-history-of-religions-100th-anniversary-1913-2013
GENERAL PROGRAM
Hundred Years of History of Religions at Stockholm University (preliminary program)
9.00 Welcome addresses – Astrid Söderbergh Widding, Peter Jackson
9.30 Geraldine Hultkrantz
9.50 Christer Hedin
Coffee Break
11.10
11.30 Per-Arne Berglie
11.50 Ulf Drobin
Lunch Break
One-Day Centennial Workshop – “Horizons of Shamanism: A Triangular Approach”
The study of ecstatic practices and conceptions of the soul in the intersection of historiography and ethnography has distinguished our department’s contribution to the field of History of Religions. On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the History of Religions at Stockholm University, three leading scholars have been invited to dwell upon the the current status of shamanic practices and belief systems, both as ‘etic’ scholarly categories and as foci of spiritual revitalization among the indigenous peoples of post-Soviet Siberia.
14.00 Majorie Mandelstam Balzer, Research Professor of Anthropology at Georgetown Universit: “Shamans Emerging from Repression in Siberia: Lighting Rods of Hope and Fear”
15.00 Carlo Ginzburg, Professor Emeritus of History at the UCLA and Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa: “Travelling in Spirit, from Friuli to Siberia”
Coffee Break
16.00 Jan Bremmer, Professor Emeritus of Religious Studies at the University of Groningen and Visiting Professor at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität in Munich: “Contextualising the study of shamanism in Antiquity”
17.00-18.00 Closing discussion
This schedule is subject to change.
For more information, please contact peter.jackson [at] rel.su.se. To register, please contact lena.euren [at] erg.su.se
CALLS FOR PAPERS
CFP (IAS Lima 2014): Boundaries and Belief: Colonialist Spirituality and Indigenous Alterity in the Visual Culture of the US-Mexico Borderlands, 1800-1925
Date: 2013-10-03
Description: International Association of Inter-American Studies, Biennial Conference, August 6-8, 2014, Lima, Peru CFP: Boundaries and Belief: Colonialist Spirituality and Indigenous Alterity in the Visual Culture of the US-Mexico Borderlands, 1800-1925 Located at a geographical crossroads of Spanish colonialis …
Contact: brobertson [at] wesleyan.edu
Announcement ID: 206823
http://www.h-net.org/announce/show.cgi?ID=206823
CFP: Journal of Alternative Perspectives in the Social Sciences
Date: 2013-10-07
Description: The Journal of Alternative Perspectives in the Social Sciences is calling for papers for its November issue. JAPSS is published both electronically and in print in Florida, USA. The Journal is indexed and catalogued by EBSCOhost and other prestigious indexes. Please visit our website for more inform …
Contact: journalalternative [at] hotmail.com
URL: www.japss.org
Announcement ID: 206840
http://www.h-net.org/announce/show.cgi?ID=206840
CFP: Daniel Boyarin and Other Borderline Jews
Date: 2013-12-01
Description: The University of Toronto Journal of Jewish ThoughtThe Journal of the Centre for Jewish Studies at the University of Toronto CALL FOR PAPERS Vol. V: Daniel Boyarin and Other Borderline Jews Be deliberate in judgment, and raise many disciples, and make a fence to the Torah (Ethics of the Fathers 1:1 …
Contact: utjjt.cjs [at] gmail.com
Announcement ID: 206766
http://www.h-net.org/announce/show.cgi?ID=206766
DO ISLAMIC LEGAL RULES MATTER IN INTERNATIONAL POLICY?
Date: 2014-03-01
Description: DO ISLAMIC LEGAL RULES MATTER IN INTERNATIONAL POLICY? Islamic International Law and International Politics After September 11, and beginning War on Global Terrorism, intervention Western Alliance in Iraq, beginning internal conflict in Arab World and biblical war between Israel and Palestinians, in …
Contact: hrcpc [at] yahoo.com
URL: www.unbi.ba
Announcement ID: 206869
http://www.h-net.org/announce/show.cgi?ID=206869
CFP: 6th Global Conference: Evil, Women and the Feminine
Friday 2nd May – Sunday 4th May 2014: Lisbon, Portugal
Call for Presentations:
Despite the attempts of feminists the conjunction between evil and the feminine seems unbroken. Established as secondary, derivative and hence inferior, women have been long suspected of being the source of human (though more often masculine) miseries, always in cahoots with the forces of evil and destruction. Paradoxically, at the same time, some have also been put on the pedestal and lauded as ideals of purity and dedication, yet these paragons only proved the rule that, on average, the feminine/woman equals imperfect and transgressive.Mischievous, beguiling, seductive, lascivious, unruly, carping, vengeful and manipulative – these are only a few of the epithets present in cultures and literatures across the world. In grappling with our understanding of what it is to be and do ‘evil’, the project aims to explore the possible sources of the fear and hatred of women and the feminine as well as their manifestations and pervasiveness across times, cultures and media.
Evil, Women and the Feminine seeks to engage fruitful academic discourse over the core theme of evil and monstrous women, and the variations thereof. Although this type of discourse can lend itself to a feminist theoretical standpoint, the conference does not necessarily align itself as such and welcomes a variety of theoretical and critical approaches, such as –but not limited to – queer studies, post-structural, Marxist, psychoanalytical, anthropological etc.
Among the core themes to be explored at this years conference explored are:
-Murderess’, terrorists, child-killers, kidnappers, abusers, serial killers -Monstrous motherhood in literature and film: monstrous births and infanticide (Beowulf, Alien, Rosemary’s Baby, etc.
-Archetypical fears: feminine blood and castration -Portrayal of Evil Woman in Literature: from Shakespeare’s Lady Macbeth to Kessey’s Sister Ratched.
-Psychoanalytic perspectives: “Vagina Dentata” etc -Historical perspectives of female evil -Women and/in Power: Cleopatra, Messalina, Isabella of Castile, Mary Tudor, Countess Elizabeth Bathory, Lucia Borgia, Eva Peron, etc. Were these women truly evil or did they merely try to survive in a man’s world?
-Holocaust and Nazi witches: Irma Grese or the “Bitch of Belsen, Ilse Koch Born, Witch of Buchenwald and others; -Evil women in the visual arts -Cultural and racial stereotypes -Mythological icons: Medusa, Jezebel, Delilah, Lilith, Harpies, Sirens, Hel, Eris -Female revenge: women who took revenge on their unfaithful husbands or ungrateful children. From mythology to real life: Kriemhield, Medea, Clytemnestra, Katherine Knight, Maria Savez, etc.
-Evil females in children’s books and cartoons. Step-mothers are supposed to be the most evil women in the world of fairy-tales and Disney cartoons but is this really so?; -Ethical studies -Beauty as threatening or evil: from the times of witch-hunts female beauty was considered dangerous. Do we still feel threatened by a female beauty?
-Fantasy: evil women in strips and video games;
-Folklore: female Vampires, witches, witch-hunts, pact with a devil -Evil Women in/and Religion: Dark Goddesses and Counter-Readings
The Steering Group particularly welcomes the submission of pre-formed panel proposals. Papers will also be considered on any related theme.
In order to support and encourage interdisciplinarity engagement, it is our intention to create the possibility of starting dialogues between the parallel events running during this conference. Delegates are welcome to attend up to two sessions in each of the concurrent conferences. We also propose to produce cross-over sessions between two and possibly all three groups – and we welcome proposals which deal with the relationship between evil, women, femininity and/or violence and/or femininities and masculinities.
What to Send:300 word abstracts should be submitted by Friday 6th December 2013 If an abstract is accepted for the conference, a full draft paper should be submitted by Friday 14th March 2014. 300 word abstracts should be submitted simultaneously to both Organising Chairs; abstracts may be in Word or RTF formats with the following information and in thisorder:
a) author(s), b) affiliation as you would like it to appear in programme, c) email address, d) title of abstract, e) body of abstract, f) up to 10 keywords.E-mails should be entitled: EWF6 Abstract Submission.Please use plain text (Times Roman 12) and abstain from using footnotes and any special formatting, characters or emphasis (such as bold, italics or underline). We acknowledge receipt and answer to all paper proposals submitted. If you do not receive a reply from us in a week you should assume we did not receive your proposal; it might be lost in cyberspace! We suggest, then, to look for an alternative electronic route or resend.
Organising Chairs: Natalia Kaloh Vid: nkv [at] inter-disciplinary.net Rob Fisher: ewf6 [at] inter-disciplinary.net
The conference is part of the At the Interface programme of research projects. It aims to bring together people from different areas and interests to share ideas and explore various discussions which are innovative and exciting. All papers accepted for and presented at the conference will be eligible for publication in an ISBN eBook. Selected papers may be developed for publication in a themed hard copy volume(s). All publications from the conference will require editors, to be chosen from interested delegates from the conference.
Inter-Disciplinary.Net believes it is a mark of personal courtesy and professional respect to your colleagues that all delegates should attend for the full duration of the meeting. If you are unable to make this commitment, please do not submit an abstract for presentation.
For further details of the conference, please visit: http://www.inter-disciplinary.net/at-the-interface/evil/evil-women-and-the-feminine/call-for-papers/
Please take note of the approaching deadlines to submit proposals for panels and papers for the next conference of the European Association for the Study of Religion to be held in Groningen, on ‘religion and pluralities of knowledge’.
Keynote speakers: Bruno Latour, Carlo Ginzburg, Birgit Meyer and Jörg Rüpke.
Reminder that the deadlines for proposing papers and panels for the 2014 EASR/IAHR/NGG conference on “Religion and Pluralities of Knowledge,” to be held in Groningen from11-15 May 2014, are 15 October (for panel themes) and 1 December (for papers). Please submit your proposals to easr2014.thrs@rug.nl.
We invite contributions from various disciplines and perspectives to explore the nexus of religion, pluralism, and knowledge. We encourage a conversation among theoretical, historical, and empirical contributions. Papers and panels may address topics such as the following:
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The pluralistic nature of knowledge about religion, including different disciplinary perspectives and new concepts: history as imaginative knowledge, sociology of knowledge, knowledge and space, materiality of knowledge (goods, objects, machines, instruments), aesthetics of knowledge, knowledge as related to gender and race, etc.;
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Various forms of knowledge about religion: rational knowledge, imaginative and poetic knowledge, explicit and implicit knowledge, embodied knowledge, ritual knowledge, etc.;
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Historical developments, changes, and reconfigurations of knowledge systems that relate to the field of religion;
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Procedures and politics in the organization of knowledge about religion: production, reception, circulation, transmission, (de)legitimization, (de)canonization, traditionalization, but also the rejection, marginalization, and exclusion of knowledge.
In addition to these subtopics and approaches, we encourage contributions that address other aspects of the conference theme. Proposals of contributions and panels that are not directly linked to the conference theme will also be considered. There will be panels for the presentation of ongoing doctoral research.
Requirements for proposals
Proposals for individual papers and for pre-arranged sessions need to consist of an abstract of no more than 150 words (to be used in the program book, should the paper and/or session be accepted) and an outline of the proposed paper and/or session with no more than 500 words. We also welcome suggestions for open panels, asking for submission of individual papers to fit with the proposed panel. Proposals will have to provide names of presenter(s)/convenors and their email address(es).
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Deadline for submitting themes for open panels and pre-arranged sessions: 15 October 2013
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Announcement of approved panels and sessions: 1 November 2013
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Deadline for submitting proposals for individual papers: 1 December 2013
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Notification of acceptance individual papers: 15 January 2014
Please indicate clearly whether you are applying for an individual paper fitting in with the conference theme, a pre-arranged session, an open panel or the presentation of ongoing doctoral research. All proposals should be sent as an e-mail or as a Word document attached to an e-mail to easr2014.thrs [at] rug.nl.
There will be a double-blind peer-review process. All proposals will be evaluated by an independent committee, consisting of members of the organization committee and the scientific advisory board.
For more information, please visit: http://godsdienstwetenschap.nl/index.php?page=conference-2014
This is a reminder for a call for papers for the following session at the annual meeting of the Association of American Geographers in Tampa, Florida from 8-12 April 2014:
Geographies of Alternative Spiritualities Session sponsored by the Geographies of Religions and Belief Systems Specialty Group
Organisers: Nadia Bartolini (Open University), Sara MacKian (Open University) and Steve Pile (Open University)
Spirituality is commonly understood, in Human Geography, using models of faith and belief based on mainstream Religion, usually in the guise of Christianity or Islam (see, for example, reviews by Yorgason and della Dora 2009, Kong 2010 and Wilford 2010). Though there has been increasing interest in the idea of post-secular society, especially drawing upon the experience of Western cities (see Beaumont and Baker 2011, and Stevenson et al. 2010, Wilford 2010), and the re-emergence (or not) of faith and belief systems as significant in the constitution of social and spatial relationships, questions of spirit and spirituality remain strangely absent from these debates (MacKian 2012). The purpose of this session is to engage with these issues through the lens of spirit and spirituality beyond the traditional institutional, ontological and epistemological confines of Religion. In particular, we are interested in exploring the lived experiences of forms of belief, faith and spirit that fall outside of the conventional practices of Religion. What is ‘alternative’, of course, depends on where you stand, so we would like to think beyond straightforward dualisms between the secular and the religious by using a more dynamic sense of ‘spirit’ and ‘spirituality’. In this session, we are interested in building upon Cloke and Beaumont’s (2013) argument that secularism and post-secularism need to be viewed as fluid and porous, and indeed, in constant mutually transformative dialogue with one another. We therefore seek papers that wish to engage with the experiences and the practices of spiritualities in everyday life — and, especially, how the mundane and the extraordinary are interwoven.
The organisers would particularly welcome papers that would explore:
– The spatialities of spirituality
– Spirituality and spirit
– The paranormal, the occult, the magical and the extraordinary
– Post-secular, post-phenomenological arguments in the context of alternative spiritualities
– The lived experiences and everyday practices of spirit
– Vernacular religion
– Spirit and the production of space (urban, rural, communal, small town, national, etc.)
For those interested in participating in the session, please send abstracts of no more than 300 words to Nadia Bartolini (nadia.bartolini [at] open.ac.uk), Sara MacKian (sara.mackian [at] open.ac.uk) and Steve Pile (steve.pile [at] open.ac.uk) by Friday 4 October 2013.
CRASIS Annual Meeting and Masterclass
University of Groningen, 13-14 February 2014
Cultural Knowledge in the Ancient World Production, Circulation, and Validation
Keynote & Master: Prof. Marietta Horster (Mainz)
We invite PhD and Research Master Students, PostDocs, as well as senior researchers to take part in the third CRASIS Annual Meeting and PhD/MA Masterclass on 13–14 February 2013.
CRASIS is the interdisciplinary research institute for the study of the ancient world at the University of Groningen. We bring together researchers from Classics, Religious Studies, Ancient History, Archaeology, Ancient Philosophy, and Legal History, focusing on Greek and Roman societies as well as on Jewish and Near Eastern civilizations and on the interaction between these.
The CRASIS Annual Meeting and Masterclass is a two-day event, set up as an informal meeting place for students at PhD or Research Master level, postdocs and senior staff to promote discussion and exchange of ideas beyond disciplinary boundaries.
The theme of this year’s Annual Meeting and Masterclass will be:
Cultural Knowledge in the Ancient World
Production, Circulation, and Validation
Showing what you know, who you know, and innovating upon prior knowledge are key strategies to sustain yourself in society today. The internet radically changed the speed at which knowledge is transmitted. We now have unprecedented access to information across the globe, and it is even difficult to control what others know about our private lives. The global crisis contributed to an emphasis on the economic value of certain types of knowledge. Amidst all these changes, there is concern for the loss of traditional forms of knowledge. But what do we know about what the ancients knew, and how they came to know it?
This Annual Meeting focuses on cultural knowledge: the packages of knowledge (skills, competences, and information) that are needed to operate competently within in a particular community (group, cult, school, city, ethnos, empire …). We adopt a broad understanding of ancient cultural knowledge that includes social, legal, technical, religious, and philosophical forms of knowing. Ancient historians examine the transmission of knowledge across networks; archaeologists study the development and tradition of technical skills in material production, and technological transfer; religious knowledge is analysed from cognitive perspectives, while there is also a new emphasis on the role of the body and the senses in experiencing and generating knowledge. We aim to bring these angles and approaches together and develop new ones that help us understand the production, circulation, and validation of cultural knowledge in the ancient world.
Possible topics include:
- Who: Priests, diplomats, literary authors, traders, officials etc. operated as agents of knowledge production, mediation, and authorisation. How was access to knowledge gained, controlled, contested, and concealed?
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Where: What was the role of workshops, gymnasia, sanctuaries, assemblies, funerary areas, festivals, courts etc. as settings of production, circulation, and validation of cultural knowledge?
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How: How did particular media and artefacts (coins, inscriptions, statues, laws, oracles, letters, landscapes) contribute to and change the production, circulation, and validation of cultural knowledge?
KEYNOTE AND MASTER
This year’s Keynote Speaker and Master is Professor Marietta Horster. She holds the Chair of Ancient History at the Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz. Her broad-based expertise is evident from publications on imperial building inscriptions in the Roman West, land possession, civic priests and cult personnel at Greek sanctuaries, and the transmission of cultural knowledge through poetry.
DEADLINES:
We invite senior researchers to submit a title and short abstract for a twenty-minute presentation on the first day of the Annual Meeting
PhD and Research Master Students are invited to submit a topic proposal (500 words) for the Masterclass on the second day explaining their research in relation to this year’s theme
Proposals for both days should be submitted no later than 1 November 2013 with Birgit van der Lans: b.e.a.l.van.der.lans@rug.nl.
PhD/ReMa Students
Once your proposal has been accepted, ReMa students should submit 3000-4000 words essays and PhD students 5000-6000 words essays before 13 January 2014 so that the papers can circulate among the participants. At the Masterclass ReMa students have ten minutes to briefly introduce their paper and PhD students have twenty minutes. After each presentation discussion follows under the expert guidance of Professor Horster.
We will soon start a local reading and study group in preparation for the Annual Meeting and Masterclass. If you are interested, please get in touch with Birgit van der Lans
For more information, see: http://www.rug.nl/crasis
JOBS
Texas A&M University – College Station – Assistant, Associate, or Full Professor of Africana and Religious Studies Programs <http://www.h-net.org/jobs/job_display.php?id=47506>
American University – Beirut – Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowships in the Arts and Humanities <http://www.h-net.org/jobs/job_display.php?id=47531>
University of Pennsylvania – Assistant Professor in Arabic Literature <http://www.h-net.org/jobs/job_display.php?id=47561>
University of Maryland, College Park – Assistant Professor of Chinese Regional Cultures and Sinophone Studies <http://www.h-net.org/jobs/job_display.php?id=47519>
Indiana University – South Bend – Assistant Professor, East Asia <http://www.h-net.org/jobs/job_display.php?id=47505>
Merrimack College – Assistant Professor, World Histroy <http://www.h-net.org/jobs/job_display.php?id=47567>
Pennsylvania State University – Assistant Professor of Modern Japanese History <http://www.h-net.org/jobs/job_display.php?id=47513>
University of British Columbia – Assistant Professor in Japanese or Korean Art History or Architectural History <http://www.h-net.org/jobs/job_display.php?id=47498>
University of Maryland, College Park – Assistant Professor of Chinese Regional Cultures and Sinophone Studies <http://www.h-net.org/jobs/job_display.php?id=47519>
University of Sydney – LECTURER IN CHINESE AND EAST ASIAN THOUGHT <http://www.h-net.org/jobs/job_display.php?id=47482>
Utah State University – Assistant Professor in Asian History <http://www.h-net.org/jobs/job_display.php?id=47494>
Georgetown University – Professor of Islamic Studies and History of Islam <http://www.h-net.org/jobs/job_display.php?id=47544>
Sam Houston State University – Assistant or Associate Professor, Islamic World <http://www.h-net.org/jobs/job_display.php?id=47572>
West Chester University – Islamic World History <http://www.h-net.org/jobs/job_display.php?id=47568>