2015
Christianity in Diaspora: CfP EASR 2016 Conference, Helsinki, Finland, 28 June-1 July
There is an the opportunity to present ethnographic research on Christianity in diaspora at the European Association for the Study of Religions (EASR) 2016 Conference ‘Relocating Religion’, 28 June – 1 July 2016, Helsinki, Finland, in the Open Session on:
CHRISTIANITY IN DIASPORA: ETHNOGRAPHIC CASE STUDIES OF RELIGIOUS PRACTICE AND IDENTITY CONSTRUCTION
The session will use the concept of diaspora – broadly defined both in relation to the transnational and in-country movement of groups of people – in order to explore the practice and experience of Christianity in different socio-cultural settings as communities of people relocate to areas outside their ‘homelands’. The session invites ethnographic papers discussing, but not exclusively, questions such as: What role does Christianity and its institutions play in community-building, community empowerment and community welfare in diaspora settings? How are churches constituted and organised in diaspora? How do churches mediate relations and negotiate cultural differences with (non-Christian) host populations? To what extent are Christian churches involved in facilitating integration with/separation from host societies? What relations do diasporic Christians maintain with their ‘homelands’? How does Christianity shape diasporic identities? How is Christian practice/theology (re)shaped by the diasporic experience? By exploring diasporic forms of Christianity across the world, the session will open up understanding of the diversity of Christian identities, practices, theologies and ways of engaging with and explaining the world among diasporic communities, and the theoretical potentiality inherent in this.
In order to submit an abstract for this open session, please follow the link https://elomake.helsinki.fi/lomakkeet/65198/lomake.html and the submission instructions.
Submission deadline: 31 December 2015
Session conveners:
Iliyana Angelova (University of Oxford; iliyana.angelova@anthro.ox.ac.uk)
Ksenia Medvedeva (National Research University Higher School of Economics, Russia)
2015
CfP: African Lived Christianity: Faith Ritual and Power, Lund, Sweden, 16-18 March 2016
The thematic focus of this conference at Lund University, 16-18 Martch 2016, is on the lived experiences of African Christianity, on how religion and religious experience are part of the understanding and explanation of social reality in Africa. By taking this thematic focus, we wish to overcome the dividing lines in the study of African Christianity between theology and the social sciences. We seek to engage with an emerging literature that combines the analysis of religious experience and faith with an analysis of how African Christianity feeds into constellations of power hierarchies and social relationships of dependency, reciprocity and mutuality. One of the aims is to build interpretative bridges between African enchanted worldviews and Western academic interpretations and to add to an emerging dialogue between anthropology and theology.
We welcome paper proposals within the following themes, but are not limited to these:
* Enchantment as resistance
* Writing and orality as religious experience
* Wealth, reciprocity and well-being in African Christianity
* Gender and healing
* Ritual and the search of good life
* Christianity in Africa or African Christianity?
* Theology, African cosmologies and church life
* Popular culture and rituals of performance
* Transnationalism, migration and mission in African Christianities
* Faith in African public life
Paper abstracts (of maximum 250 words) should be uploaded on the conference webpage by the 15th February 2016 at the latest. By 25 February 2016 information on paper acceptance will be send out. Full written papers (of maximum 8,000 words) are expected to be circulated at the conference.
The conference is free of charge but the participants must cover for their travel, accommodation and meals.
2015
International Conference: Religious Transformation in Asian History
The conference ‘Religious Transformation in Asian History’ will take place from 7-9 April 2016 at the Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, Australia.
Abstract Deadline: 9 February 2016
For more information, see the following Call for Papers.
2015
CfP, 3rd British Association for Islamic Studies Conference
Third Annual Conference of the British Association for Islamic Studies (BRAIS), London, 11–12 April 2016, Senate House, University of London: Call for panels and papers
2015
Two Visiting Research Fellowship 2016-17 at Cambridge, UK
The Centre of African Studies at Cambridge University invites applications for two Visiting Research Fellowships.
Closing data: 15 January 2016
