2018
Job Post @ U.Virginia: Religious Thought in Africa (TT, OR)
Open Rank Religious Thought in Africa
As part of a cluster hire for the Democracy Initiative of the College of Arts & Sciences, the Department of Religious Studies invites applications for an open-rank position in Religious Thought in Africa. Open to researchers with expertise in any religious tradition in any part of Africa using any methodological approach, we seek candidates with deep knowledge of a particular region – including its languages, cultures, and histories, and the ability to think broadly and collaboratively about relationships between religious thought and democracy. We invite applications from scholars across the humanities and social sciences, including philosophy, political theory, cultural studies, social thought, anthropology, sociology, or history, as well as both normative and descriptive fields of religious studies.
Anticipated start date is August 2019 and will be made as tenure-track Assistant Professor, tenured Associate Professor, or tenured Full Professor. Applications are therefore welcome from candidates of any rank, with stipulation that applicants must hold a Ph.D. at the time of appointment.
To apply, https://jobs.virginia.edu/applicants/jsp/shared/frameset/Frameset.jsp?time=1539774150531 Complete a Candidate Profile online and attach the following: cover letter, CV, 1 article-length piece of scholarly work, and contact information for 3 references.
Review of applications will begin November 15, 2018 and the position will remain open until filled.
For questions regarding the position, please contact Willis Jenkins, the chair of the search committee, willis.jenkins@virginia.edu.
For questions regarding the application process, please contact, Savanna Galambos, Faculty Search Advisor, skh7b@virginia.edu
UVA assists faculty spouses and partners seeking employment in the Charlottesville area. To learn more please visit http://provost.virginia.edu/dual-career.
For more information about UVA and the surrounding area, please visit http://uvacharge.virginia.edu/guide.html.
The University of Virginia is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer. Women, minorities, veterans and persons with disabilities are encouraged to apply.
2018
Job Posting @ Dartmouth: Asst. Prof., Indigenous Religions of the Americas
This just in from colleagues at Dartmouth:
The Dartmouth College Department of Religion is currently undertaking a search for a tenure-track Assistant Professor in “Indigenous Religions of the Americas, the South Pacific, the Caribbean, or Australia, which may include African diasporic traditions in these regions.” Full details of the position may be found here:
https://apply.interfolio.com/51630
Applications received by October 20th will be considered for AAR interviews, or video conference interviews for those not attending the AAR.
I am contacting you in the hopes of reaching out to qualified candidates who may not be aware of our search. If you know of any such candidates, can you please pass this message along?
We are strongly committed to diversity and inclusion, and have a highly diverse department faculty.
Please don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any questions about the position.
Thanks very much,
Reiko Ohnuma
Professor and Chair
Department of Religion
Dartmouth College
2018
Participant Review: AASR Conference, Zambia 2018
Here’s a great review of our 8th African AASR conference (August 2018, Lusaka, Zambia) by first-time participant King’asia Mamati (Kenya). A good reminder of why we need keep encouraging students and early career researchers to participate in conferences, as well as actively working to financially and practically facilitate their participation. Once again, photos of the event can be seen here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/19iZwfPa49a4eQxL1HgpD3ss45WPneAcS
My First International Academic Conference
After finishing my master’s degree in Religious Studies at Moi University, Kenya, I was encouraged by my academic mentors to submit my research work to journals and conferences. Dr. Hassan Ndzovu shared calls for papers by various journals and conferences on social media. One of the posts that was shared was the call for papers for the AASR conference 8th edition, to be hosted in Zambia. The theme of this conference was “Revisiting Religion, Politics, and the State in Africa and the African Diaspora”. I prepared an abstract and submitted it for consideration in January 2018. I was excited when I received an email from the local organizing committee in March 2018 informing me that my abstract had been accepted for the upcoming conference. Preparations for the conference began in earnest. I informed the good news to my academic mentors who were equally excited. I booked my flight to Zambia and arrived a day early, this experience was prodigious as it was my first time travelling outside my native country Kenya. On arrival at the Kenneth Kaunda international airport I was warmly welcomed by somebody who had come to pick us from the airport. I was excited to meet a fellow Kenyan, Dr Dickson Nkonge, with whom I shared the residence and Prof. Tim Jensen, President of the International Association for the History of Religions, at the airport.
On 1st August I was among the first people to present in my panel. I was a little bit nervous, because it was my first experience before an international conference with a large audience. I presented a paper under the title “African Religious Worldview on Natural Environmental Resources.” After the presentation, I was inundated with questions and constructive insights from the audience who showed their keen interest in my work.
I spent the rest of the conference days attending different presentation ranging on diverse topics that were of interest to me, and of help to my area of specialization. During the conference breaks, I had an opportunity to interact with a variety of scholars, from whom I learnt a lot. In the galaxy of scholars I met included the following: Dr. Loreen Maseno of Maseno University, Dr Parsitau from Egerton University, Dr Adriaan Van Klinken from Leeds University, Dr. Corey Williams, Prof. Mika Vahakangas, and Prof. Afe Adogame. Through the assistance of Professor Afe I was able to receive a travel subsidy for an International Interdisciplinary Conference on Global African Indigenous & Derived Religion which is to be held later in the year. This interaction with an array of erudite scholars was a life time inspiration, especially to a young scholar of my calibre. From them I learnt that passion, persistence and relentlessness are the characters of true scholars.
The culmination of the conference was a special session for graduate students and early career scholars. In this session, I learned a lot from the presentation by Prof. Afe Adogame and Dr. Chammah J. Kaunda on how to develop as a good research proposal that meets international standards of modern scholarship. After the conference I had an opportunity to tour and explore Chaminuka Game Park alongside other participants from the conference. The beauty of the natural endowment of Zambia was breath-taking.
The AASR conference actualized my desire to disseminate the findings of my research. It also afforded me an opportunity to network and to receive feedback on my research work. This was a golden opportunity that broadened my academic horizon, I am very grateful to have been part of this once-in-a-lifetime experience.
I am deeply indebted to Prof. Eunice Kamaara and my friends: George Alwang’a, Billy Muchesia and Dickens Wanjala for making this academic experience a reality.
2018
Job Posting: U. Pennsylvania, Ass’t Prof in World Christianity (Premodern Focus)
The Department of Religious Studies at the University of Pennsylvania invites applications for a tenure-track assistant professor in the field of Global Christianity in the Premodern World focused on any period between the onset of Islam through the Christianization of the New World. We are especially interested in applicants whose work pursues connections across the Indian or Atlantic Oceans into continents beyond Europe or examines Christianity within a multi-religious environment like the Iberian Peninsula, but the position is open to applications from any sub-field and time period within the parameters described above. The successful candidate for this new faculty position should have a compelling and original research agenda and a commitment to pursue it within the interdisciplinary framework offered by the Department of Religious Studies, the School of Arts and Sciences, and the wider University. In addition, we are seeking an excellent and enthusiastic teacher to participate in the department’s undergraduate and graduate programs. PhD is expected at the time of appointment.
Interested candidates should apply at http://facultysearches.provost.upenn.edu/postings/1440 and submit a letter of application, CV, statement of research, writing sample, and the names of three individuals who will be contacted by the University with instructions for submitting letters of recommendation. The Department will begin reviewing applications on October 16th, 2018. Applications will continue to be considered until the position is filled.
The Department of Religious Studies is strongly committed to Penn’s Action Plan for Faculty Diversity and Excellence and to creating a more diverse faculty (for more information see: http://www.upenn.edu/almanac/volumes/v58/n02/diversityplan.html). The University of Pennsylvania is an EOE. Minorities/Women/Individuals with disabilities/Protected veterans are encouraged to apply.
2018
CfP: Magic, Spirits & Power (Nov 15–16, 2018, University of Copenhagen)
Call for Papers – PhD Course and Research Workshop
Magic, Spirits and Power: Transgressing the Religious / Secular Divide
Centre of African Studies and the PhD school at the Faculty of Theology, University of Copenhagen
Since the early pioneering studies by Evans-Pritchard in the 1930s, the study of witchcraft has been
a prominent theme in anthropological and African studies. The classical legacy has been challenged
and developed by later generations of scholars such as Peter Geschiere, Harry West, Isaak Niehaus,
Adam Ashforth. Others, such as Florence Bernault have discussed witchcraft and the fetish from a
historical perspective, looking particularly into the how witchcraft was part of the colonial lexicon.
From a different context, Nils Bubandt has argued against perceiving witchcraft as a system of
belief that people draw on in order to explain the world. On the contrary, in the context of an
Indonesian island, Bubandt argues that witchcraft is more about doubt and confusions than about
explanation.
In this Ph.D. course / workshop, we will address the question of how to approach and understand
magic and spirits and their relationship to power. It is widely recognised (in anthropology, religious
studies and African studies) that in African societies for instance there is a strong linkage between
the political and the spiritual spheres. Spirits are part of the world people inhabit and they have
agency. This course addresses both methodological and theoretical questions of how to understand
magic and spirits. How do we on the one hand avoid using pejorative and exotisising terms
(implying that we are studying something irrational) and on the other hand move beyond a
particular culturally informed analysis? The analysis of magic and spirits has for long been closely
related to analytical categories of belief and specific religious ideas. In this course, we wish to open
up such debates and examine other ways of analysing and understanding spirits. Moreover, we seek
to question the underlying oppositional categories of the religious and the secular by indicating that
magic and spirits in a broad sense is part of how people perceive and act in the world.
The course will be organized as a one-day course (lunch-to-lunch), with presentations from invited
key notes speakers and workshops with paper presentation from Ph.D. students and other interested
scholars.
The themes of the course include (but are not limited to):
witchcraft and the categories of religion and secularity
witchcraft and rationality
withcraft, belief and doubt
witchcraft, insecurity and uncertainty
witchcraft as practice and discourse
social science on and as witchcraft
Date and time: 15 November (Lunch) – 16 November (Lunch) 2018
Keynote speakers: Florence Bernault, Professor of African history, Sciences Po, Paris.
Nils Bubandt, Professor of Anthropology, University of Aarhus.
ECTS: 2.25 ECTS
Registration: You apply by sending an e-mail to Niels Kastfelt (nk@teol.ku.dk) AND
Karen Lauterbach (kjl@teol.ku.dk). The registration deadline is 20
September 2018. The e-mail should include: Name, position,
institutional affiliation, paper title and a paper abstract of maximum 200
words.
Course preparation: Participants must submit a paper of maximum 6,000 words by 1
November 2018. It is expected that all participants read all papers.
Moreover, there will be required reading as preparation for the course.
Course capacity: Maximum 15 participants
Format:The course will consist of a combination of keynote lectures and
workshops with paper presentations.
Venue: Faculty of Theology, South Campus, University of Copenhagen, Karen
Blixens Plads 16, Room 6B.1.62
Organizers: Associate Professor Niels Kastfelt (Department of Church History,
Faculty of Theology, University of Copenhagen)
Associate Professor Karen Lauterbach (Centre of African Studies,
University of Copenhagen)
