2014
AAR African Religions Group
Statement of Purpose
This Group provides a forum for the discussion of research on the multiple religious traditions of Africa, methodological issues in the study of the religions of Africa, and African religious responses to ethical and social issues affecting the continent. The Group encourages the participation of African and non-African scholars in the leadership of the Group and in participation in its programs.
Leadership
Chair: Joseph Hellweg, jhellweg@fsu.edu; Mary Nyangweso, wangilam@ecu.edu
Steering Committee
Adriaan van Klinken, a.vanklinken@leeds.ac.uk; Afe Adogame, a.adogame@ed.ac.uk; Albert K. Wuaku, wuakua@fiu.edu; Danoye Oguntola-Laguda, danoyeoguntola@yahoo.com
Dianna Bell, bell.dianna@gmail.com
Call for Papers for the AAR Annual Meeting at San Diego, CA., USA, November 22-25, 2014
This Group encourages critical inquiry about religions originating in Africa as well as all those practiced there. Proposals should go beyond description; they should analyze the conceptual tools and methods employed. We invite individual papers, paper sessions, and roundtable proposals on the following five themes relevant to any region of the African continent (North, West, East, Central, Southern, and the Horn):
• Religious dimensions of violence, displacement, and politics in Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo 20 years after the Rwandan genocide
• Religious responses to and reflections on the ecological and environmental impact of international development and climate change
• LGBTIQ women in Africa
• Mental health and religion in Africa
• African religions and agriculture
The deadline for proposal submission is Monday, March 3, 5:00 PM EST
For questions or support, email support@aarweb.org.
2014
EASA Network for the Anthropology of Gender and Sexuality (NAGS)
Inaugural panel of the Network for the Anthropology of Gender and Sexuality during the upcoming 13th EASA conference at Department of Social and Cultural Anthropology, Estonian Institute of Humanities, Tallinn University, Estonia , 31st July – 3rd August, 2014.
Call for papers
We wish to explore the breadth of the ethnographic research that is being done on this topic and to situate current analyses within the history of anthropological scholarship on gender and sexuality. Many developments within Europe and the wider world make it necessary to bring together scholarship on gender and sexuality to facilitate intellectual exchange and comparative work. These developments include long-lasting processes such as the multitude of institutionalized forms of male domination, as well as daily practices of hegemonic masculinity and the use of stereotyped concepts of masculinity, femininity and heteronormativity to legitimize sexist and homophobic practices. There are also more recent phenomena such as the perceived threat to liberal values concerning gender and sexuality from migrant groups in Europe, the broad discussions on gay marriage in many countries, but also the ways in which feminist agendas are (ab)used to legitimize neo-colonial and military interventions, and the rise of ‘sexual nationalism’ in Africa and Europe. We therefore invite ethnographically grounded papers that develop the anthropology of gender and sexuality as it has evolved over the past decades or explore new ways of addressing gender and sexuality. We particularly welcome papers that situate themselves explicitly within the history of the anthropological study of gender and sexuality. We look forward to a stimulating first session that will be the foundation for many more sessions to come, to develop and expand an international sharing of research on gender and sexuality.
To submit a paper you have to visit the conference website and follow the system’s guidelines for paper proposals
2014
RC22-ISA Newsletter 9/10 (2013)
The electronic 2013 RC22-ISA Newsletter – of the Research Committee 22 on Sociology of Religion of the International Sociological Association (ISA), edited bty Afe Adogame – has appreared. It contains items and announcements that are of interest to AASR Members also.
2014
SSSR Student Travel Awards
This year The Society for the Scientific Study of Religion (http://www.sssrweb.org/) is encouraging international students to participate and to consider submitting applications for travel funding to its annual conference, to be held in Indianapolis, Indiana on October 31 – November 2, 2014.
Travel assistance to help defray the costs of attending the annual meetings is available for graduate students. Formal application using the form supplied is required for consideration (Application). Applicants are asked include an abstract of their paper and to provide their contact information, name of their academic advisor, academic program status (MA, ABD, on the job market, etc.), if they have attended the SSSR meetings before, their SSSR program status (presenting, co-author but not presenting, etc.), and any additional sources of funding such as departmental travel assistance or some similar funding.
Application Form: www.sssrweb.org/pdf/Student_Travel_Award_Application_2012.doc
Applicants should download the form, fill out all the required information and submit electronically by March 31, 2014. This is the same as the deadline for submitting a paper abstract or session proposal. SSSR has instituted a policy of mandatory preregistration and prepayment for 2014 with a deadline of May 31. Therefore, award winners will be notified by April 30 (same day as notification of paper or session acceptance) so they can plan accordingly.
Please send applications to:
Gabriel Acevedo, Chair, Student Travel Awards Committee, Gabriel.Acevedo@usta.edu
Applications received after the deadline will not necessarily receive consideration. Awardees will be notified by email by April 30, and the award checks will be distributed IN PERSON at the SSSR meeting.
2014
BASR annual conference, 3-5 September 2014
The 2014 conference of the British Association for the Study of Religions (BASR, http://www.basr.ac.uk/index.htm) will be hosted at The Open University, Walton Hall, Milton Keynes, MK7 6AA, UK, Tel: +44 (0) 1908 274066, website: www.open.ac.uk
The BASR 2014 annual conference has two themes: “religion, art and performance” and “the cutting edge”. Both can be interpreted broadly. Panels and papers are invited.
Religion, art and performance
Religion is at least represented in artistic and dramatic ways. It has been argued that theatre began in religious rituals, that visual arts began as demonstrations of religious knowledges, and that literature arose from religious myth-telling. Perhaps pre-modern arts of all kinds were fundamentally religious. Contemporary religion has interesting relationships with art and performance: from the use of ritual-like acts on stage to the staging of religious rites to impact a wide public; from the portrayal of religious themes in art to the emerging emphasis on “religion as act” or “religioning” in recent scholarly theorising. Perhaps religion is a performative art. Is it still valid to distinguish ritual from drama on the grounds that the former involves only participants while the latter invites audiences? What difference does the display of religious acts or things in museums, galleries, theatres, heritage and tourist venues make? Ideas and questions like these (and there are many more) seem likely to enhance the value of the study of religions to interdisciplinary scholarship. Perhaps the study of religion could be improved by dialogue with scholars of art or performance, and/or vice versa. The BASR 2014 conference provides an opportunity to explore these and other questions and debates. Therefore, we invite panels and papers about religion, art and performance (all defined broadly).
The cutting edge
Many BASR members also belong to scholarly associations for the study of specific religions or for the advancement of specific approaches to religion(s) (e.g. anthropology, philosophy, sociology and more). We invite panels on the cutting edge of debates that focus on specific religions or apply specific approaches. In doing so we hope various forms of cross-fertilisation will enrich the field of studies of religion.
All correspondence about the conference (other than the bursaries) should be directed to arts-basr@open.ac.uk
