2014
Happy New Year from AASR President Elias Bongmba
Dear Colleagues,
Happy new year to you.
I write to thank you for your service AASR in 2013 and give you some updates. Because of the nature of the updates, I have taken the liberty to copy colleagues who are not members of the executive or country or regional representatives but involved with the conference planning.
We look forward to 2014 with excitement as we will all gather in Cape Town July31-August3 for the 6th AASR conference. The Co-Chairs, Abdulkader Tayob and Madipoane Masenya are doing an excellent job and I am very pleased to be working with both of them on a daily basis.
As we celebrate the new year permit me by way of summary to pass on information to you on different things that relate to AASR and the conference.
First, I encourage you to renew your membership and also encourage all members in your country and region to renew their membership for 2014. We plan to update our membership rolls by listing those who are current on their membership dues.
Second, if you plan to arrive in Cape Town early, and choose to stay with friends, relatives, or at another hotel, please consider booking the conference hotels for the duration of the conference. This is important for us to keep the special rates that have been arranged for us.
Third, the International Society for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture (ISSRNC) who are co-sponsoring the conference with us will post an announcement on their website that Professor Bron Taylor is the keynote speaker at the conference. We will give the same information to Melissa to post a on our website. We will also pass on to Melissa information about two plenary speakers when we receive biographical information from them.
Fourth, we hope that a senior member of the South African Government will address the conference. We have made initial contacts and will follow up with out invitation after elections are held in the Spring of 2014 in South Africa.
Finally, I had a conversation with Afe and Damaris about progress on the publication of selected papers from the Kenyan Conference, and I am glad to report that Afe is working on it and when all papers are in and decisions have been made, he and the editorial team will submit a book proposal to an editor for consideration. I must apologize to all of you and to Afe that I did not pass on this information earlier. Afe reminded me in a recent correspondence that he gave me that information in Liverpool.
Thank you again for your hard work on behalf of ASSR.
Sincerely,
Elias K. Bongmba
President of ASSR
2013
Research Methods for the Study of Religion
The role of empirical research in the study of religion has become increasingly important in recent years. In the discipline of Religious Studies, more postgraduate students are undertaking field-work based projects, and in other social science disciplines there has been a renewed interest in religion as an area of study. There have been relatively few resources available however to support methodological training in this specific field.
This project, funded by an AHRC Collaborative Research Training award, has been designed to address this gap. With support from the AHRC/ESRC Religion and Society programme, this website was designed by the project co-ordinator, Professor Gordon Lynch, to provide an easily accessible resource to support individual researchers as well as courses in research methods in the study of religion. Training materials and position papers on the site were initially trialled for use through an intensive residential workshop held for PhD students from across the UK and Europe run in Oxford in September 2010. The discussion papers and exercises on the site are intended as introductory resources to give readers an overview of key issues and approaches.
Postgraduate users of the site, particularly at doctoral level, are encouraged to follow up with further reading using additional resources and links suggested for each topic. We hope to be able to add further relevant resources to the site over time, and welcome any feedback or suggestions for development of the site’s content.
http://www.kent.ac.uk/religionmethods/about-the-project.html
2013
Irish Society for the Academic Study of Religions (ISASR): Third annual ISASR conference, in collaboration with Queen’s University, Belfast, Fri-Sat 23rd-24th May 2014
Conference theme: ‘Religion and Remembering’: Cross-Disciplinary Conference
Memory studies has become one of the most popular research areas in the humanities and social sciences producing a vast number of studies examining how nations, communities and cultures remember, re-construct or indeed forget the past. The theme of the conference encourages paper proposals across disciplines, being open to topics including (but not restricted to) remembering in the form of rituals, public commemorations, anniversaries, festivals, bodily practices, physical objects and places or in the form of orality, literacy, narratives and language.
Please send a 150-200 word abstract for papers to Dr Jennifer Butler (j.butler@ucc.ie) by the closing date of Friday 7th March 2014. Notification of abstract acceptance will be given by Friday 28th March, 2014.
Further information on the ISASR Conference 2014 will be posted in due course at: http://isasr.wordpress.com/events/isasr-2014-conference/
2013
IAHR e-Bulletin Supplement November 2013
To the officers and members of the IAHR member societies and affiliates:
Please send the members this link
http://www.iahr.dk/bulletins/2013/november/index.html
and kindly urge them to open it and spend some time browsing the latest issue of the IAHR e-Bulletin Supplement.
Please do not hesitate to write in case you have any questions regarding the IAHR.
Sincerely
Tim Jensen
IAHR General Secretary
2013
IAHR African Trust Fund: Research & Publication Grant Applications for 2014
IAHR African Trust Fund
Research & Publication Grant Applications for 2014
Purpose
The IAHR African Trust Fund seeks to facilitate and promote the advancement of research and the development of scholarship on religion in the African continent (and nearby islands) by encouraging scholarly and contextual research initiatives and practices, as well as publications.
The IAHR African Trust Fund aims to encourage and acknowledge the generation of scholars whose research is deemed to hold significant future promise to increase knowledge and contribute to the historical, social and comparative study of religion in the African continent (and nearby islands).
Thus, the IAHR African Trust Fund herewith invites young scholars in particular of any ethnic/national origin, working and/or studying in any higher academic or research institution on the African continent (and nearby islands), whose research project needs financial support or whose publication in an African publishing house (scientific journal) requires a subsidy.
Grant Amount
The total grant allocation for 2014 is US$4000. The grant application is divided into two categories and successful applicants will be awarded the respective amounts within the specific category:
Category 1: Research and/or Publication
2 X Award of US$1000
Category 2:Research and/or Publication
4 X Award of US$500
Eligibility Criteria
Applicants have to be scholars resident in Africa and associated with any higher academic or research institution within this context. We encourage applications from members to the IAHR member associations, namely the African Association for the Study of Religion (AASR), the Association for the Study of Religion in Southern Africa (ASRSA), and the East African Association for the Study of Religion (EAASR). Members of the Nigerian Association for the Study of Religion (NASR), no longer a member to the IAHR, may apply if they are also individual members to the AASR.
Evaluation Mechanism & Criteria
Applications will be evaluated by the Board of Trustees of the IAHR African Trust Fund, and the board will consult specialists in the relevant fields when needed. Applications will be evaluated according to the following criteria:
1. The originality, quality, importance and impact of the proposed study as it relates to the historical, social and comparative study of religion in the African continent (and nearby islands).
2. Adherence to the best practices of research methodology and theory employed.
3. The relevance of the study to the African continent (and nearby islands).
Submission Timeframe
Applications are open till 30th January 2014. Grant-winning applicants will be announced on 20th February 2014. Note that all grants will be awarded to the successful applicants at the end of February 2014.
Conditions of Grants
Applicants who receive the grant should submit a copy of the publication or a research report (of no less than 5 pages) that summarises the project’s findings to the IAHR African Trust Fund. The publication or completed research project should acknowledge the support received in the form of an IAHR African Trust Fund Grant. The IAHR African Trust Fund will be allowed to reproduce or report the summary and parts of the report on the IAHR website, annual reports, and any other document or medium for the purpose of informing its stakeholders on the study findings. In all these publications, the authorship of the research will be clearly attributed to the applicant.
Application Form
Send a brief covering letter addressed to the IAHR African Trust Fund stating that your submission is for consideration for the IAHR African Trust Fund Grant and include the following required materials:
1. Name of Applicant
2. Email, Telephone Number and Mailing Address of the Applicant
3. Name of University, Department, Research Centre or Institute
4. Name(s) of IAHR African Member Association(s)
5. Title of Research/Publication Proposal
6. A research proposal of not more than four single-spaced pages detailing the aims/objectives, specific research questions, methodology and theoretical issues, the rationale and plan of research ( time frame), and a detailed, one-page budget should be attached, indicating the amount being applied for and the exact purposes for which it will be used. If application is for only publication purposes, also indicate to what specific journal or book and evidence of what sum is required for such publication.
7. Brief curriculum vitae and a statement of qualifications that specifically addresses the research project.
8. Include two letters of reference from senior scholars, one of whom MUST be a member, preferably an executive member of the IAHR member associations.
Completed applications forms are to be submitted as an electronic copy file in PDF or MS Word format in an attachment via email to the Secretary of the African Trust Fund Board of Trustees, Dr. Afe Adogame [A.Adogame@ed.ac.uk]. Please include in the electronic copy file the applicant’s last name e.g. Eliza.pdf / Eliza.doc. The subject line in the email should read “IAHR African Trust Fund Application 2014” – Note, no hard copies will be accepted.
For more information on the IAHR African Trust Fund Applications, please contact the Secretary of the African Trust Fund Board of Trustees at A.Adogame@ed.ac.uk.
