2014
SSSR Student Travel Awards
This year The Society for the Scientific Study of Religion (http://www.sssrweb.org/) is encouraging international students to participate and to consider submitting applications for travel funding to its annual conference, to be held in Indianapolis, Indiana on October 31 – November 2, 2014.
Travel assistance to help defray the costs of attending the annual meetings is available for graduate students. Formal application using the form supplied is required for consideration (Application). Applicants are asked include an abstract of their paper and to provide their contact information, name of their academic advisor, academic program status (MA, ABD, on the job market, etc.), if they have attended the SSSR meetings before, their SSSR program status (presenting, co-author but not presenting, etc.), and any additional sources of funding such as departmental travel assistance or some similar funding.
Application Form: www.sssrweb.org/pdf/Student_Travel_Award_Application_2012.doc
Applicants should download the form, fill out all the required information and submit electronically by March 31, 2014. This is the same as the deadline for submitting a paper abstract or session proposal. SSSR has instituted a policy of mandatory preregistration and prepayment for 2014 with a deadline of May 31. Therefore, award winners will be notified by April 30 (same day as notification of paper or session acceptance) so they can plan accordingly.
Please send applications to:
Gabriel Acevedo, Chair, Student Travel Awards Committee, Gabriel.Acevedo@usta.edu
Applications received after the deadline will not necessarily receive consideration. Awardees will be notified by email by April 30, and the award checks will be distributed IN PERSON at the SSSR meeting.
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
2014
The Postcolonial Church: Theology, Identity & Mission
2014
57th Annual Meeting of the African Studies Association
CALL FOR PROPOSALS
57th Annual Meeting of the African Studies Association
RETHINKING VIOLENCE, RECONSTRUCTION, AND RECONCILIATION
November 20-23, 2014
JW Marriott Indianapolis Hotel
Indianapolis, IN
DEADLINE FOR PROPOSAL SUBMISSION: March 15, 2014
PROGRAM CHAIRS
Odile Cazenave, Boston University
Clifton Crais, Emory University
ABOUT THE MEETING
We are soliciting proposals for papers, panels, and roundtables. Presentations may focus on the theme of “Rethinking Violence, Reconstruction, and Reconciliation” or on broader social science, humanities, and applied themes relating to Africa. We strongly encourage the submission of formed panels. You can find more information on the theme and the guidelines for proposals at the ASA website.
HOW TO SUBMIT A PROPOSAL
Instructions for submitting proposals can be found online on the ASA website.
PLEASE NOTE: If your proposal is accepted, the conference pre-registration fee must be paid by May 1, 2014 by ALL participants. Payment of the pre-registration fee will result in a final acceptance. Failure to pay the pre-registration fee by May 1, 2014, will result in an automatic rejection.
JOIN THE ASA OR RENEW YOUR MEMBERSHIP
Join the ASA or renew your membership. ASA membership can be purchased through Cambridge University Press. If you have any difficulties registering, please contact Cambridge at usmemberservices@cambridge.org.
ABOUT THE AFRICAN STUDIES ASSOCIATION
Established in 1957, the African Studies Association is the largest organization in the world devoted to enhancing the exchange of information about Africa. Our members include scholars, students, teachers, activists, development professionals, policy makers, donors and many others. We encourage interdisciplinary interactions with Africa. We provide access to pathbreaking research and key debates in African studies. We bring together people with scholarly and other interests in Africa through our annual meeting and seek to broaden professional opportunities in the field of African studies. The organization publishes two leading interdisciplinary journals on Africa, African Studies Review and History in Africa and promotes an informed understanding of Africa to the public and in educational institutions as well as to businesses, media, and other communities that have interests in Africa.
For general questions regarding the meeting and/or registration please contact members@africanstudies.org. For questions regarding the submission process, guidelines, or program theme please contact asameeting2014@gmail.com.
We welcome your participation in this exciting conference and in the ASA!
2014
Africa Studies Association of the UK (ASAUK) Biennial Conference, University of Sussex, Brighton UK, 9-11 September 2014
CfP for the Panel on ‘Islamic Education in Africa’
We welcome participants for a panel titled ‘Islamic Education in Africa: Continuities, Changes and Contestations’ as part of the upcoming Africa Studies Association of the UK (ASAUK) biennial conference www.asauk.net/conferences/asauk14.shtml to be held at the University of Sussex, Brighton UK, from the 9’th -11’th September, 2014.
For any queries about the panel please contact Anneke Newman at a.newman@sussex.ac.uk, but please use the ASAUK online system via this webpage http://www.asauk.net/conferences/asauk14.shtml to submit your 250 word abstract. The deadline for abstracts is the 1st April 2014, submissions will be considered shortly thereafter. Decisions about the exact day on which the panel will be held will not be made by conference organisers until after abstracts are submitted; we apologise for any inconvenience this might cause. 15 minute presentations should be supported by a 3000 word paper, to be circulated to convenors, discussant and other participants by the 15’th August 2015. The language of the conference is English.
Please find the detailed panel description below.
We hope to hear from you soon,
Anneke Newman (University of Sussex) and Hannah Hoechner (University of
Oxford)
Panel 3988 – Islamic Education in Africa: Continuities, Changes and Contestations
Contemporary African societies are characterised by plural educational landscapes, with a variety of actors alongside the state providing schooling services and scholarships. Education has been the site of competing powers where players reflecting different world views have confronted each other. In countries with significant Muslim populations, this dynamic is reflected in a diverse landscape of educational institutions, spanning both formal and informal schools, private as well as public actors, and varying degrees of integration between religious and secular subjects.
For much of the last century this educational context has been characterised by mutual antagonism, with Islamic schools often created in an act of explicit opposition to colonial and postcolonial government education policy, and enjoying popularity among families who perceive inadequacies in the secular state school system. In turn, indigenous Islamic reformers have sought to adapt older models of Quranic schools by introducing Western pedagogies and subjects into religious education.
Furthermore, facing international donor pressure to meet ‘Education For All’ goals, in the last decade some Sahelian countries have begun ambitious state policies of educational reform including unprecedented rapprochement with the Islamic school sector. Similarly, faith-based organisations from the Arab world and Western international development actors have also begun to engage with the Islamic school sector for various ends. Under these circumstances, diverse models of Islamic education have emerged, at times in competition with each another as well as with state schooling.
Yet, despite the importance of Islamic education in people’s everyday lives, and its influence on the social, political and cultural landscape of contemporary Africa, it has suffered relative scholarly neglect. To address this deficit, participants are invited to share original research on this topic. Disciplinary approaches could include, but are by no means limited to: political economy; history; literature, film and media studies; anthropology and sociology; international development and area studies; comparative and international education. Presenters are invited to consider the relevance of their scholarship to wider current academic debates such as engagement with faith in international development; the implications of globalising forces including migration and new media on education; the intersections between axes of social difference like gender, with knowledge and authority; links (genuine or perceived) between Islamic education and Islamist radicalisation; the power struggles which arise when contrasting pedagogies and cosmologies collide; and the methodological challenges of researching such processes.
Convenors:
Anneke Newman (University of Sussex)
Hannah Hoechner (University of Oxford)
