2014
8th GloPent conference on ‘Pentecostalism & Development’, SOAS, London, 5-6 September 2014
Conference Theme
Pentecostal Christianity (including its many variants) has undoubtedly become one of the major religious forces in the so-called “developing world”. This has major implications for numerous parameters crucial to development initiatives, such as politics, social relations, inter-religious affairs, gender roles, and household economics. However, the academic analysis of these implications has been constrained by a number of factors. First, Pentecostalism’s emphasis on individual conversion and its outer-worldly ontology have tended to eclipse the multiple and even contradictory ways the movement has engaged with the practice of development. Second, the academic debate about Pentecostalism’s impact on development has been controversial, with opinions varying between attributing Pentecostals with a new “Protestant Ethic” leading to an “upward social mobility” and seeing them complicit with the development failures of the “gatekeeper state”. Finally, in development studies the role of religions has largely been seen as problematic or simply ignored, which is a lack now gradually being addressed by new publications and development programmes.
Given this current re-appraisal of the role of religions in development studies and the need for a reassessment of Pentecostalism’s influence on development initiatives, the conference addresses a highly relevant theme. Three keynotes will frame the conference debate by addressing the most pressing conceptual questions from the disciplinary vantage points of cultural anthropology, development studies, and religious studies. Issues of practice will be explored in a panel discussion featuring experts actively involved in development initiatives with Pentecostal actors. In addition, the conference will offer workshops in two parallel sessions, addressing specific themes of the conference topic and presenting ongoing research on Pentecostal and Charismatic movements.
Call for Papers
We invite contributions to the parallel session workshops at the conference.
Papers may address the conference theme and/or present current research projects on Pentecostal and Charismatic movements worldwide. The parallel sessions will be grouped according to topical focus and with a special interest in interdisciplinary exchange. Should you wish to organize a full panel, please contact the conference organizer before soliciting and submitting abstracts.
Please send your title and a 150-200 word abstract to joerg.haustein@soas.ac.uk by 30 April. Selections will be confirmed by 31 May at the latest.
2014
IAHR 21st World Congress, Erfurt, Germnany 23-29 August 2015: Call for Panel Proposals
You are invited to propose panels for the 21st IAHR World Congress, Erfurt, Germany, 23-29 August 2015, within the thematic framework of our Congress” “Dynamics of Religions: Past and Present”, which will be addressed in four interrelated fields: “Religious Communities in Society: Adaptation and Transformation”; “Practices and Discourses: Innovation and Tradition”; “The Individual: Religiosity, Spiritualities and Individualization”; and “Methodology: Representations and Interpretations”. Click HERE for a further description of these four areas.
We encourage you to propose panels for our Congress at this point as well as to approach your colleagues and friends who you think would be interested in participating in our Congress and present their ideas and projects there.This Call is for Panels only. If you are looking for presenters to participate in you panel, please make use also of our Facebook page as a discussion forum. Our Call for Papers will follow in the next months.
Each panel lasts two hours. Panel papers should be limited to 20 to 30 minutes, depending on the number of panel participants. Panel conveners are asked to approach possible participants from different nations to reflect the scope and internationality of the IAHR Congress.
To propose a panel, please submit a general proposal of the panel as well as individual proposals of all papers included in the panel. Both panel and papers of a proposed panel will be evaluated by the Academic Program Committee to ensure a high academic standard of the Congress program. We therefore ask panel conveners to submit the proposals of all prospective panel participants of a proposed panel as indicated by the submission form. Proposals of panels and of papers should not exceed 150 words.
The deadline for submission of proposals is Sunday, September 14, 2014. All proposals must be submitted electronically via the IAHR 2015 website. This site will be available for submissions from Sunday, September 1, 2013 through Sunday, September 14, 2014. As part of the submission process, you will be asked to indicate the area in which you would like your proposal considered. Your proposal will then be forwarded to the appropriate member of the Academic Program Committee.
You will receive notice concerning the status of your proposal as soon as possible and certainly before March 1, 2015. If your panel or paper has been accepted by the Academic Program Committee, please note that you will have to register as Congress participant before May 15, 2015 to be included in the Congress program.
Congress Websites: www.iahr2015.org; www.uni-erfurt.de/iahr
Contact: iahr@uni-erfurt.de
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
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
