2014
2014 Consultation of African and African Diasporan Women in Religion and Theology
CALL FOR PAPERS
2014 Consultation of African and African Diasporan Women in Religion and Theology
Theme: Texts of Terror, Texts of Empowerment: Reimagining Sacred Canon
in Africana Womanhood
The Consultation of African and African Diasporan Women in Religion and Theology invites proposals for paper presentations at the 2014 meeting. Proposals engaging any religious tradition and on any of the wide variety of topics related to the consultation’s theme – Texts of Terror, Texts of Empowerment: Reimagining Sacred Canon in Africana Womanhood – are welcome. ALL proposals should clearly and specifically (1) integrate discussion of sacred texts (in oral, written, or embodied forms) and (2) consider the relationship of sacred texts to any forms of violence against continental and diasporan African women and girls. Proposals may not exceed one single-spaced page and should include the proposer’s name and email address, a title, the proposer’s institutional affiliation, and a clear indication of how the proposed presentation considers violence, African-descended women, and sacred texts. Send proposals to ghanaconference2014@gmail.com. The deadline for proposals is March 1, 2014.
The second Consultation of African and African Diasporan Women in Religion and Theology will take place July 6-14, 2014, in Legon, Ghana. The 2014 meeting extends work of the 2012 conference by continuing the focus on overcoming violence against continental and diasporan African women and girls and seeking to build relationships of continental and diasporan African women in religion and theology. Roots of these meetings began during the 1970s and 1980s when Mercy Amba Oduyoye, Brigilia Bam, Musimbi Kanyoro, Katie Geneva Cannon, Jacquelyn Grant and others first encountered each other as the earliest continental and diasporan African women’s voices at transnational Christian denominational and interdenominational meetings.
2014
IAHR 21st World Congress, 23-29 August 2015, Erfurt, Germany: Call for Panel Proposals
Dynamics of Religion: Past and Present
The XXI World Congress of the International Association for the History of Religions (IAHR) will take place August 23 to 29, 2015 in Erfurt, Germany. The Congress will address Dynamics of Religion: Past and Present.
We now invite contributors to submit Panel Proposals addressing the topic in any of the areas outlined below.
Religion is a human, historical, social and cultural phenomenon. As such, religious ideas, practices, discourses, institutions, and social expressions are constantly in processes of change. The Congress will address the processes of change, the dynamics of religions past, present, and future, on several interconnected levels of analysis and theory, namely that of the individual, community and society, practices and discourses, beliefs, and narrations.
These will be addressed within four areas:
- Religious communities in society: Adaptation and transformation
- Practices and discourses: Innovation and tradition
- The individual: Religiosity, spiritualities and individualization
- Methodology: Representations and interpretations
We invite contributions from all disciplines of religious studies and related fields of research to allow for broad, interdisciplinary discussion of the Congress topic to register their panels for the XXI World Congress of the IAHR.
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 (www.iahr2015.org). 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.
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
Call for Papers: Devotion, Intimacy, and Ecstasy in African and Diasporic Religions
The African and Diasporic Religious Studies Association (ADRSA) presents
Devotion, Intimacy, and Ecstasy in African and Diasporic Religions
Harvard University | Friday, April 11, 2014 | 9 am – 6 pm
Submission Deadline – Friday, December 27, 2013
The African and Diasporic Religious Studies Association (ADRSA) presents its second day-long conference on the theme Love Supreme: Devotion, Intimacy, and Ecstasy in African and Diasporic Religions. “Devotion,” “marriage,” and other intimate relational language is often used to characterize the relationships between adherents of African and Diasporic Religions and the universal energies with which they interact during worship. Practitioners of these traditions most frequently refer to themselves as “devotees” – in contrast to the designation “believers” used in other traditions – and through initiations, spiritual weddings, possessions, and other means, they form profound personal bonds with the spirits and with each other. This conference will explore these bonds, with topics including but not limited to:
• Theories and meanings of devotion and service
• Marriage and coupling as tropes in sacred narratives
• Spirit possession and other forms of religious ecstasy
• African and Diasporic religious perspectives on human intimate relationships Initiation, spiritual weddings, and other forms of bonding
Submissions should center on one or more African Indigenous (Ndebele, Yoruba, Kongo, Dagara, Eedyi, Igbo, Shona, etc.) or African Diasporic (Vodou, Lukumi, Umbanda, Shango Baptist, Kumina, Revival Zion, etc.) spiritual/religious traditions. Scholar-practitioner perspectives are welcomed. Panel proposals are encouraged.
For consideration, please submit a 500 word abstract, a 250-500 word bio, and Curriculum Vitae by December 27, 2013. Panel proposals should include a 300-500 word description of the panel and all of the above for each participant.
Submit abstracts at www.ADRSA.com/conference For inquiries contact:
Funlayo E. Wood (Harvard University) Funlayo@ADRSA.org Lisa Osunleti Beckley-Roberts (Florida State University) Osunleti@ADRSA.org
Find out more about the ADRSA and join our mailing list at www.ADRSA.org
2013
‘The Future of Africa’, conference of the African Studies Association in Germany, at Bayreuth University, June 11-14, 2014
The Call for papers for this conference lists 46 panels; cf. http://www.vad-ev.de/bayreuth2014/callforpapers/
I select three that are relevant to scholars of the religions of Africa:
Panel 8: Transformations of Islamic Knowledge in Africa: Media, Agents, and Institutions”. Convenors: Britta Frede & Prof. Dr. Rüdiger Seesemann. For the Call for Papers, visit: http://www.vad-ev.de/bayreuth2014/callforpapers/pdf/panel8.pdf
Panel 16: „The “Gospel of Prosperity” and Social Change in Africa”. Convenor: Prof. Dr. Andreas Heuser. For the Call for paper, visit: http://www.vad-ev.de/bayreuth2014/callforpapers/pdf/panel16.pdf
Panel 32: Religious pathways to better futures. Convenors: Dr. Eva Spies & Dr. Kathrin Langewiesche. For the Call for papers, visit: http://www.vad-ev.de/bayreuth2014/callforpapers/pdf/panel32.pdf.
Papers are welcome until the 17th of November 2013. Please send your abstracts to the panel convenors and to the conference organizers. Email: vad.bayreuth2014@gmail.com
