2024
Postponement of 2025 AASR Conference in Botswana
Dear AASR members,
Having considered the potential conflict that holding next year’s conference might cause with the earlier announced conference of the International Association for the History of Religions (IAHR), which our Association is an affiliate, we come to the painful resolution to postpone the 2025 AASR conference to 2026, still in Botswana.
While we regret the inconveniences this postponement might cause you, we believe it would afford you more opportunity to prepare for a more robust social and intellectual engagement in 2026.
New dates for the 2026 AASR conference will be announced in due course.
We also encourage you to fully participate in the 2025 IAHR conference in Poland.
Thank you.
Benson O. Igboin, PhD.
General Secretary, AASR
2024
10th African Association for the Study of Religions Conference in Africa
Theme – “Spirituality, Gender, and Agency in African Religions”
The African Association for the Study of Religions (AASR) invites proposals for individual papers, panels, roundtables, and poster presentations for its biennial conference to be held at the University of Botswana, Gaborone, Botswana, from 28 to 30 July 2025
CALL FOR PAPERS
Spirituality as a concept allows for an understanding of religion beyond a narrow focus on religious beliefs and institutions. It foregrounds the lived, experiential, embodied, and sensual ways humans relate to the sacred in a quest for meaning, purpose, reverence, and interconnectedness with each other, the earth, and other species, spirits, and god/s. Spirituality as an everyday practice and orientation blurs and transcends the boundaries between religious traditions and neat categories, as it is diffuse, complex, dynamic, and fluid.
In this conference, we propose a focus on spirituality within, across, and beyond Africa’s diverse religions—most notably indigenous religions, Christianity, and Islam, as well as other minority traditions. We are particularly interested in conversations about how spirituality is connected to social, political, and economic agency, especially for marginalized groups, including women and ethnic minorities.
How does spirituality empower people in social life?
How does spirituality intersect with the performance of political power and economic development?
This conference seeks to provide a platform for interrogating how gender and other social dynamics shape spiritual practices and how spirituality influences gender and other social identities in Africa, historically and today.
Sub-Themes
Scholars, researchers, and practitioners are invited to submit abstracts on the following suggested sub-themes and any related topics related to the conference theme:
- Theoretical and methodological issues in spirituality study
- Spirituality, gender and agency in Africa
- African traditional religious conceptualization of spirituality
- African Christianities and spirituality
- African Islams and spirituality
- The role of women in African traditional religions
- Gender dynamics in contemporary African spiritual practices
- Gender roles and relations within modern African spiritual movements
- Globalization and modernization on spirituality and gender dynamics in African
religions - Comparative studies of gender roles across different African religions
- The impact of spirituality on gender identity and expression in African societies
- Spirituality, politics, agency in African religions
- The role of religious rituals and practices in shaping gender expressions
- Women, religious abuse and violence
- Gender, agency and healing through African spiritual practices
- Gender, spiritual sower and agency in African religions
- Intersectionality of gender, spirituality, and socio-political contexts in Africa
- Spirituality and empowerment
- The relationship of spirituality, gender and economic inequalities
Panel/Round Table Proposals
- A panel in honour of Prof. Gerrie ter Haar
- Women Caucus Panel on women/Gender, spirituality, and agency
- AASR Journal Panel
Submission Guidelines
Please submit an abstract using the following link: https://forms.gle/jCbtPbGxtrynsSDR6.
The deadline for the submission of abstracts is Friday, February 7, 2025. Each proposal will
receive a response by Tuesday, April 1, 2025.
Participants in the conference must be registered by Thursday, May 31, 2025.
Important information:
Interested participants should submit an abstract of 250 to 300 words using the following link: https://forms.gle/jCbtPbGxtrynsSDR6.
Each proposal should include a title that reflects the content of the abstract as well as each author’s contact details (name, position, institutional affiliation, email address, phone/WhatsApp contact)
You may submit more than one proposal. We look forward to your contributions and a rich and engaging conference.
For Inquiries and Further Information:
Contacts:
- Prof. Benson Igboin, AASR General Secretary, bensonigboin@gmail.com
- Dr. Telesia K. Musili AASR Deputy Secretary, telesia.musili@gmail.com
- Dr Tshenolo J. Madigele, madigeletj@tabalakaabub-ac-bw
GRANTS FOR GRADUATE STUDENTS
Thanks to the generosity of some senior members of our Association, we are able to provide a limited number of conference grants to support the participation of graduate students at the conference. To be eligible, applicants must:
- Be based on the African continent
- Be AASR member (or part of the award will be used to cover the membership fee)
- Be a postgraduate student (MA or PhD)
- Have an accepted Abstract for presentation at the conference
- Commit to submitting their revised conference paper to the AASR Journal
In order to receive consideration for a travel grant, check the box in the registration form that confirms your eligibility. In the space provided, please provide a rough budget, the amount requested, and a brief narrative explaining your financial needs and the academic benefit of attending the conference.
CONFERENCE REGISTRATION
- Regular: $200 ($220 after May 31, 2025)
- AASR members (who have paid their 2024/25 membership fee**): $150 ($170 after May 31, 2025)
- Students/Retired/Underemployed: $100 ($120 after May 31, 2025)
Membership Fees
Scholars from the Global South:
- Fully employed: $50 USD
- Students/Retirees/Underemployed: $25 USD
Scholars from the Global North:
- Fully employed: $60 USD
- Students/Retirees/Underemployed: $30 USD
Membership fees can be paid through the bank, PayPal, or Stripe. To pay membership fees,
please visit www.a-asr.org.
Conference registration includes the following: entrance to the conference, reception dinner,
tea breaks and light refreshments, daily lunches, and conference materials.
**If you have doubts about the membership fee payment, please contact the AASR Treasurer at
treasurer@a-asr.org.
2023
Cfp: Engaging African Realities: Re-assessing African values, spirituality; religious innovationand competition
A two-day conference jointly organized by the Nagel Institute for the Study of World Christianity and the African Association for the Study of Religion (AASR), in Abuja, Nigeria, April 10 – 11, 2024
Religions constitute some of the most dynamic forces in contemporary Africa. This claim is mostly evident in the ever-increasing number of sacred ritual sites on the continent and religion’s mounting and diverse entanglements with all the facets of African realities. Such is the depth and breadth of the dialectical relationship between contemporary African realities and religion, spirituality and African values that it is impossible in the 21 st century to critically discuss one without the other. Like other religions in the continent, Christianity is innovative, diverse and competitive. Diversity and competition are often vehicles, if not drivers, of creative change and innovation.
This two-day international conference marks the culmination of a three-year project by the Nagel Institute on the theme of ‘Engaging African Realities.’ It brings together scholars from various disciplines and faith practitioners to, on the one hand, critically examine the multi-layered ways that religion, spirituality and African values impact how Africans innovatively interpret and engage with their multi-faceted realities, and on the other hand, assess the extent to which contemporary realities in the continent are impacting and creatively remaking religiosity, spirituality and African values.
Presenters are invited to submit proposals that respond to these questions, and others:
To what extent do new religious developments reflect African values, agency, and creativity?
How do the changing realities of African life affect traditional African values and spiritual proclivities?
What can religions in the continent gain from a deeper knowledge of, and engagement with, African values and spiritualities?
In what ways do African spiritualities and values impact how Africans interact with their daily and contemporary realities?
How are women and young people creatively appropriating spiritual resources and African values to negotiate contemporary challenges and opportunities in Africa?
To what extent are religious diversity and competition drivers of creative change in Africa?
What is the relationship between religious innovation and commercial entrepreneurship?
How do new religious forms and patterns relate to broader social and institutional changes in contemporary Africa?
What are the implications of new developments in African religions for the study of contemporary Africa?
What are the implications of contemporary developments on the African religious landscape for how religion and theology are taught in African educational institutions?
How to submit your proposal:
Send proposals for individual papers, panels or roundtables to: aasr.abuja2024@gmail.com
The proposal should not exceed 300 words for an individual paper and 500 for a panel or roundtable. The deadline to submit a proposal is December 20. Abstracts submitted after this date will not be considered.
Proposal Submission Criteria
Presenter(s) Name(s) & Affiliations.
An email address for correspondence.
The maximum word count for the proposal is 300 words.
The Conference Committee does not encourage more than one submission.
Proposal Review Criteria
The Conference Committee will prioritise original proposals that:
address the above-listed conference themes and closely related ones.
are underpinned with solid evidence of research and scholarship.
demonstrate reflectivity and criticality by its author/s.
have research, practice or pedagogical relevance.
suggest an engaging, creative, and insightful presentation.
Conference Fees:
Standard Fee: USD 80 per participant (AASR member); USD 120 (non-AASR member)
Concession Fee: USD 40 (AASR member); USD 60 (non-AASR member). Concession rate applies to students and retired persons)
The conference registration fee covers entrance to the conference, tea breaks, light refreshments, and daily lunches.
Accommodation:
Participants are required to make their accommodation arrangements. The conference organisers will recommend the conference hotel with a negotiated discounted rate but will also provide a list of reasonably priced accommodations near the conference venue, but each participant will have to book the accommodation.
2023
CfP, Special Themed Issue of Journal for Religion, Society and Politics
Church.Power.Abuse.
Sociological Approaches
Udo Kelle, Andreas Schmitz & André Armbruster
Much is known about abuse in religious institutions: We are aware of the details about the extent, duration, procedure, and settings of sexual abuse of minors by clerics and other function holders in religious organizations. We know how the (overwhelmingly male) perpetrators proceeded or still proceed. The mechanisms were uncovered by which they, with the help of other clergy or clerical power elites, managed to abuse minors unchallenged for years or even decades. While we can monitor primarily the sexual abuse of minors, a variety of other forms take place in religious contexts: e.g., emotional and spiritual abuse. Thereby, not only the Roman Catholic Church is affected, but also numerous other religious organizations, institutions, and settings. Overall, it appears that abusive practices occur on a mass scale and in all areas of religious life.
Knowledge about abuse stems especially from lawsuits, investigative journalism, and commission reports, where disciplines like history, theology, psychology, and jurisprudence are in the lead. Nevertheless, an all-encompassing explanation of the abuse complex in organized religion has yet to be found. There are certainly various attempts to explain the phenomenon by drawing on characteristics, or (psychological) features of the perpetrators or to blame cultural phenomena, historical circumstances (such as “the ‘68 generation”) or wrong moral ideas. However, such explanations and approaches, which externalize the causes of sexual abuse to individual perpetrators or to incorrect cultural concepts, cannot satisfy from a sociological perspective, since they ignore structural conditions. The same holds true for accounts which blame the cultural surroundings of church and societal ethics and expectation with regard to sexuality. With the special issue of the Journal for Religion, Society and Politics, we want to adopt a decidedly sociological perspective as a starting point: because abusive practices occur in huge numbers, in many regions of the world, in almost all forms of institutionalized religion, and show similar dimensions and patterns, abusive practices can be understood as recurring, systematic, if not systemic structural moments of institutional and organized religion. Abuse is not a random accident of religion, but religious structures, church systems and culture(s) are themselves conditions and/or forces that enable abuse and (re-)produce abuse practices.
This in mind, we call for proposals for contributions that, drawing on different theoretical and/or empirical studies, address different practices of abuse in their praxeological, cultural, and institutional, contexts and systematically relate such accounts to the logic of religion. Although research on the abuse complex has yielded some insights, the treatment of the phenomenon under a social science perspective is still in its infancy. We ask for contributions from a broad pluralism of disciplinary viewpoints so that the phenomenon of abuse can be addressed with various aspects and a broad range of questions:
⎯ Sociological and theological aspects on the religious dimension: to what extent do religious ideological concepts (e.g., Christian dogmatics or ethics) contribute to abuse? Do various beliefs and normative concepts prevent the exposure of abuse and thus tend to contribute to its perpetuation? What role do notions of chastity and purity of clerics or laity play as structural conditions? In which ways do conservative and traditional forms of social organization, which still play a crucial role in many religious organizations, encourage various forms of abuse? To what extent does a “clerical culture” hinder an open discussion and treatment of abuse?
⎯ Institutional and organizational aspects: to which extent does church organization, hierarchy, doctrine, and culture foster abusive practices and their treatment? How do institutional and structural characteristics support or impede abuse? Which impact has abuse, on institutional settings, hierarchies, and practices? How does the structure religious organizations contribute to the reproduction and repetition of abuse by encouraging cover-up strategies (e.g., by merely dislocating perpetrators)?
⎯ Power aspects: to what extent does sexual abuse (re)produce more general relations of power and dominance, e.g. between perpetrators and victims, between ministers and laity, but also between representatives of different hierarchical levels? How do power differences contribute to the continuity of abuse practices? In which way does the power and prestige of churches and their representatives influence measures taken by authorities?
⎯ Comparative and historical aspects: in which ways does sexual abuse differ from other types of abuse, such as moral abuse, emotional abuse, or spiritual abuse? Can abusive practices be differentiated according to the denomination or type of organizations in which they occur? Can these differences be described in transnational, regional, and local terms? Is there a postcolonial perspective on sexual abuse? Can historical continuities be identified which explain the extent and manifestation of abuse?
⎯ Aspects of gender, sexuality, and violence: which role do (specifically religious) constructions and perceptions of gender and especially masculinity play in abusive practices? How can conceptions of sexuality contribute to the understanding of abusive practices? Are some forms of sexuality more legitimate than others? How can a sociological perspective on violence and the body, which considers the perspective of victims’ suffering of violence, contribute to the understanding of abusive interaction structures and their consequences?
⎯ Methodological aspects: which methodological challenges must be met in accessing the actors ́ (victims ́ and/or perpetrators ́) perspective? How does the fact that access to the field often is regulated (by religious organization themselves), or that research has to rely on archives that are maintained by the perpetrator organization does affect research processes? What are the potentials and limitations of certain methods and their combination?
⎯ Aspects of modern society: in which ways do other realms of society, such as politics and law, have a favorable, enlightening, preventive, etc. effect on abuse in religious organizations? Which effects have scandalization processes which take place in social media play in exposing and classifying sexual abuse? How are different forms of abuse addressed, criticized, scandalized, or even trivialized in church organizations and in public?
The special themed issue “Church.Power.Absuse. Sociological Approaches” will be published in 2025 in the Journal for Religion, Society and Politics (https://www.springer.com/journal/41682). We request abstracts of about one page in length by November 30, 2023 to the following addresses: kelle@hsu-hh.de, andreas.schmitz@ovgu.de, and andre.armbruster@uni-due.de. After reviewing the abstracts, we invite the submission of full manuscripts of 60,000 to 80,000 characters by June 30, 2024. Submissions will go through a double-blind peer review process; all outcomes of the review are possible: from minor to major revisions to rejection of the manuscript. A call for submission of a full paper does not constitute a promise of publication. We look forward to receiving your contributions!
2022
9th AASR Conference, University of Nairobi, Kenya 2-4 August, 2023
The African Association for the Study of Religions (AASR) invites proposals for individual papers, panels, roundtables, and poster presentations for its biennial conference to be held at the University of Nairobi, Nairobi, Kenya from 2-4 August 2023.
Conference theme “Creativity, Innovation, and Imagination in African Religions”.
This conference is co-sponsored by the International Association for the History of Religions (IAHR) and is recognized as an IAHR Regional Conference.
Kindly register here.
Further details below in the Cfp (PDF).
AASR_Conference_Nairobi_2023_CFP.01
