IAHR 21st World Congress, 23-29 August 2015, Erfurt, Germany: Call for Panel Proposals

 

Dynamics of Religion: Past and Present

Call for Panels

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.

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/

Call for Papers: Devotion, Intimacy, and Ecstasy in African and Diasporic Religions

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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

Download a PDF of the Call for Papers flier

‘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

1st Central European African Studies Conference (CEASC), Pilzen, Czech Republic, 14-16 May 2014

1st Central European African Studies Conference (CEASC) on ‘Shifting Identities, Changing Relations: Ethnicity, Culture and Society in an Emerging Africa’, 14–16 May, 2014
Venue: Sedláčkova 15, SP319, Plzeň, Czech Republic
The Central European African Studies Network (CEASN) is proud to announce the 1st Central European African Studies Conference (CEASC) which is going to take place at the University of West Bohemia in Pilsen, Czech Republic.
Ethnicity, Culture and Society seem to be very much debated issues in contemporary African Studies and have a great impact on politics, international relations, socio-economic issues and internal dynamics of African countries. Since the pre-colonial through colonial times up to nowadays we have seen enormous changes in African societies that have far-reaching impact on all aspects of daily lives of individuals and societies in Africa. Modern and contemporary history of Africa has witnessed dynamic processes of continuous changes that stand in sharp contrast to public image of Africa as static continent lacking any kind of development.
The 1st CEASC welcomes papers from a wide range of disciplines including anthropology, history, political science and international relations, linguistic anthropology, philosophy, ethnography, development studies and sociology.
The Organizers encourage Ph.D. students, scholars and academics from all institutions of higher education and research to send abstracts to: africa.pilsen@gmail.com until February 20th, 2014. On March 1st, 2014, accepted abstracts will be published on conference websites. In December 2014, a collective monograph composed of selected papers will be published. See more at www.africa-pilsen.com or www.ceasn.eu.
Conference fee is 20 EUR (500 CZK) for non-members of CEASN, 10 EUR (250 CZK) for members of CEASN, and 5 EUR (125 CZK) for Ph.D. students and it has to be paid at registration the first day of the conference.
Keynote speakers: Prof. Toyin Falola (University of Austin); Prof. Jon Abbink (African Studies Centre, Leiden)
Organizing committee: Linda Piknerová (Pilsen), Kateřina Rudincová (Pilsen), Judit Bagi (Pécs), Kateřina Werkman (Prague), Joanna Mormul (Krakow), Istvan Tarrosy (Pécs), Maciej Kurcz (Ciesyn), Robert Kłosowicz (Krakow), Monika Baumanová, Jan Záhořík (Pilsen)
Scientific committee: Mamadou Diouf (Columbia University), Marja Tiilikainen (Helsinki), Baz Lecocq (Gent), Itziar Ruiz-Gimenez (Madrid), Geert Castryck (Leipzig), Ahmed Hassen (Addis Ababa)
The 1st CEASC is taking place at the University of West Bohemia in Pilsen under the auspices of doc. PhDr. Pavel Vařeka, Ph.D. (Dean of the Faculty of Philosophy and Arts)

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