Society for the Scientific Study of Religion 2014 Annual Meeting, October 31-November 2, 2014, Indianapolis, Indiana, USA

Call for Papers

Society for the Scientific Study of Religion 2014 Annual Meeting: Building Bridges
October 31-November 2, 2014, JW Marriott, Indianapolis, Indiana, USA

SSSR’s current web site notes:
The Society for the Scientific Study of Religion was founded in 1949 by scholars in religion and social science. Its purpose is to stimulate and communicate significant scientific research on religious institutions and religious experience. Scholars from all fields of study who are interested in the scientific exploration of religion are invited to join the Society. Membership in the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion gives scholars the opportunity to share their research and ideas with other scholars.

Our theme for the 2014 conference is “Building Bridges” between all those interested in the study of religion. This includes any disciplines that focus on the study of religion as well as scholars from various geographical and cultural areas. Our intent is to build bridges between disciplines and cultures that have become isolated and communicate mainly among themselves. Suggestions for contributions include:
• the study of religion in diverse cultures and regions (Eastern, Central Europe, Asia, South America, etc.)
• the study of religion within diverse faith traditions (Islam, Christianity, Paganism, NRMs, etc.)
• inter-disciplinary studies of religion (religious studies & the social and behavioral sciences, etc.)
• new disciplines that study religion (cognitive science, evolutionary psychology, etc.)
• methodology interaction in the study of religion (quantitative, qualitative, creative, etc.)
• the study of non-belief and atheism

All session and paper proposals must be submitted via the on-line submission system that will be available on the SSSR’s web site, http://www.sssrweb.org. In addition to the session proposer’s full contact information, a session proposal requires a session title and an abstract of not more than 150 words describing the goal of the session and how the proposer expects the session to contribute to scientific knowledge about religion. Individual paper proposals require the name(s) of the author(s), first author’s full contact information, an abstract of not more than 150 words that succinctly describes the question(s) motivating the research, the data and methods used, and what the paper contributes or expects to contribute to the knowledge or understanding of religion. NOTE NEW POLICY ON MANDATORY PREREGISTRATION OUTLINED BELOW.

Submissions Open: February 03, 2014 (see http://www.sssrweb.org)
Submissions Close: March 31, 2014
Decision Notification: April 30, 2014

In 2014, the SSSR/RRA Annual Meeting will require all program participants to preregister for the meeting, and to pay the non-refundable fees, by May 31, 2014. For submitted papers, the presenting author must pre-register, although co-authors not attending the meeting are not required to do so. For submitted sessions, the organizer and all presenters must pre-register and pre-pay. Online registration will open immediately after decision notifications are emailed. Those presenters and organizers who do not preregister will be dropped from the program.

Please direct questions to:
Ralph Hood (UTC), Program Chair (Ralph-Hood@utc.edu)
Co-chair for Asia-Pacific region: Alphia Possamai-Inesedy (Alphia.Possamai@uws.edu.au)
Co-Chair for Western, Central, and Eastern Europe: Elisabeth Arweck (Elisabeth.arweck@warwick.ac.uk)
Special assistant for developing sessions on Islam: Besheer Mohamed (BMohamed@PewResearch.org)
Graduate Student Representative: Christopher F. Silver (Christopher-Silver@utc.edu)