Exploring the Post-Secular Conference (Yale University, Apr. 3-4, 2009)

Dear colleagues,

Please circulate widely.
Many thanks,
David

DAVID KYUMAN KIM [email David]
Senior Advisor & Acting Program Director
Social Science Research Council
Editor-at-Large, The Immanent Frame
One Pierrepont Plaza, 15th Floor
Brooklyn, NY 11201 USA
http://www.ssrc.org/blogs/immanent_frame/
and
Visiting Associate Professor in the Humanities
Cogut Center for the Humanities
Brown University
Box 1983
Providence, RI 02912
401-863-6118

* * * *
Exploring the Post-Secular
April 3-4, 2009
Yale University

There has been a great deal of talk in recent years suggesting that we have entered a “post-secular” age. Much of this is a response to the resurgence of politicized religion on the world scene. But what, if anything, does the term “post-secular” even mean? Have we really entered into a post-secular age? And if so, what implications, if any, does this have for the social sciences? Do these developments imply a new approach to the study of religion? A wholesale reconstruction of social science? A shift towards social philosophy?  Is there such a thing as “post-secular social science”?

This conference brings together a number of analysts of religion and its entanglements with the world in an attempt to assess these questions. We will address the possible meanings of religion and of the various terms with roots in the term “secular”: secularism, secularity, secularization. Without some grappling with the question of what religion is, it is very difficult to say what secularity or secularization might entail. We will explore the extent to which the “return of religion” is a product of an actual upsurge of religiosity around the world as opposed to greater scholarly attention to religion. We will also examine the ways in which the global religious situation may compel us to reconsider how we think about both religion and social science.

Friday, April 3 – Henry R. Luce Hall, 34 Hillhouse Avenue, rooms 202 & 203

8:50 A.M.    Introductory remarks
Philip Gorski, David Kyuman Kim, John Torpey

9:00 A.M.    Richard Madsen, University of California at San Diego
“What is Religion? Categorical Re-configurations in a Global Horizon”
discussant: Deborah Davis, Yale University

10:00 A.M.   Aditya Nigam, Center for the Study of Developing Societies
“What Comes After the Secular?”
discussant: Arvind Rajagopal, New York University

11:15 A.M.  Courtney Bender, Columbia University
“Things in their Entanglements”
discussant: Paul Lichterman, University of Southern California

1:00 P.M.     Philip Gorski, Yale University
“Recovered Goods: The Moral Underpinnings of Durkheimian Sociology”
discussant: Steven Lukes, New York University

2:00 P.M.    Hent de Vries, Johns Hopkins University
“Obama’s Deep Pragmatism”

3:15 P.M.     Bryan S. Turner, Wellesley College
“On Doing Religion: Critical Reflections on Rorty, Derrida and Vattimo with Special Reference to ‘Asian Religions’”
discussant: Fred Dallmayr, University of Notre Dame

4:15 P.M.    James K.A. Smith, Calvin College
“Secular Liturgies and the Prospects for a ‘Post-Secular’ Age”
discussant: Pericles Lewis, Yale University

5:30 P.M.    John Schmalzbauer, Missouri State University
“Religion and Knowledge in the Post-Secular Academy”
discussant: Peter Steinfels, Fordham University

6:30 P.M.    End of panels for the day

Saturday, April 4 – Henry R. Luce Hall Auditorium, 34 Hillhouse Avenue

8:30 A.M.    Penny Edgell, University of Minnesota
“Religion as Cultural Repertoire, or, the Post-Secular as Scholarly Turning Point”
discussant: Tomoko Masuzawa, University of Michigan

9:30 A.M.    Michele Dillon, University of New Hampshire
“Probing the Post-Secular Turn: Bridging Grandiose Claims and Lived Realities”
discussant: David Little, Harvard University

10:45 A.M.  John Torpey, The Graduate Center, City University of New York
“A (Post-)Secular Age? Religion and the Two Exceptionalisms”
discussant: David Morgan, Duke University

11:45 A.M.  Eduardo Mendieta, SUNY at Stony Brook
“Spiritual Politics and Post-secular Authenticity: Foucault and Habermas on Post-Metaphysical Religion”
discussant: Ludger Viefhues-Bailey, Yale University

1:30 P.M.    Roundtable
Craig Calhoun, SSRC & New York University
José Casanova, Georgetown University
David Kyuman Kim, SSRC & Connecticut College

3:00 P.M.    End of conference

Conveners: Philip Gorski, John Torpey, David Kyuman Kim.

Conference sponsors: The MacMillan Center Initiative on Religion, Politics, and Society; The Center for Comparative Research at Yale University; Social Science Research Council; co-sponsored by The Graduate Center, City University ofNew York.

The conference is free and open to the public. No registration is required. For further information, please contact the conference coordinator, Ateş Altınordu [Email Ates].

Call for Papers: Religion and Globalization in Asia International Conference (San Francisco)

Call for Papers

“Religion and Globalization in Asia: Prospects, Patterns, and Problems for the Coming Decade”
International Conference
University of San Francisco
San Francisco, CA (USA)
13-14 March 2009

Few scholars or policy makers twenty years ago could have imagined that the first decades of the 21st century would be a time of explosive and wide-spread religiosity. As modernity progressed and societies became more secular and democratic, religion was supposed to loosen its hold on the ways men and women envisioned their place in the world. On the contrary, the dynamics of globalization—such as communication technologies, immigration and migration, capital flows, transnationalism, and identity politics—have contributed to social conditions in which religious belief and practice not only survive but prosper and proliferate.

A growing body of scholarship and reportage has documented this phenomenon in the western hemisphere, but are these patterns applicable to Asia as well? With an estimated 300 million religious adherents in China (home also to the world’s fastest growing Christian population), the world’s largest and most diverse concentration of Muslims in Indonesia, and the rise of a more assertive and nationalistic Hinduism among India’s 1.3 billion people, the role of religion in globalizing processes in Asia requires sustained analysis and elucidation rather than a mention in passing.

The objective of this conference is to muster the intellectual resources and research of experts in a variety of fields to better understand the prospects, patterns, and problems of religion and globalization in Asian societies in the near future. As noted in the recent edited volume Religions/Globalizations, how can we better understand the dialectical tension of codependence and codeterminism between religion and globalization? With a focus on the populations of South and East Asia–densely concentrated, increasingly well-informed and technologically-sophisticated–the conference participants and its keynote speakers will reference and address the following questions and themes:

Prospects
– How can religious pluralism and tolerance be promoted and practiced?
– What social, economic, and political scenarios contribute to peaceful religious proliferation in Asia? – Can global trends and dynamics increase the range of choices for individuals to determine their own religious and cultural identities?

Patterns
– Are there identifiable characteristics for situations where religion is (or could become) a strategic political resource in Asian nations?
– How can we better understanding the codependent and codeterminative dynamics and patterns of religion and globalization?
– Does religious conservatism always compromise the more positive characteristics of globalization that are egalitarian, diverse, hybrid, and cosmopolitan?

Problems
– Are there substantial differences in how we regard religious fundamentalism in Asia and in western nations, especially concerning the belligerent kind that resorts to violence?
– Does the globalizing character of religion impede human rights in Asia?
– Are there regional conflicts that, aided by globalizing forces and religious ideologies, might grow into large-scale wars?

Conference Structure
Friday, the conference will start with a keynote lecture, then break for paper sessions. After lunch, a second paper session will follow, with a concluding lecture preceding a general reception.
Saturday will start with paper sessions, then conclude with a final lecture before lunch and adjournment.

Outcomes
The end result of the conference will be a strategically edited volume that will appeal to courses in history, religious studies, political science, sociology, anthropology, and cultural studies. We will also develop a website that summarizes the conference proceedings, details the key contributors and their work, and provides links to organizations and institutions that promote the study of globalization.

Keynote speakers
Mark Juergensmeyer (UC Santa Barbara)
Sassia Sasken (Columbia)
Nayan Chanda (Yale)

If you wish to present a paper, please submit a 200 word abstract and brief CV to John Nelson no later than August 30, 2008.

Each presenter will be awarded an honorarium of $350 to help defray travel and conference expenses.

Open registration for the conference will begin August 15 and end November 30, 2008. The total number of conference participants is limited to 120.

Contact:

John Nelson, Conference Chair
Department of Theology and Religious Studies
University of San Francisco
2130 Fulton St.
San Francisco, CA 94117
Phone: +1 (415) 422-5093
Fax: +1 (415) 422-5356
Email: nelsonj@usfca.edu
Web: http://www.pacificrim.usfca.edu/religionandglobalization.html

Call for papers: The Voice of Southeast Asian Diaspora (Boston, February 26-March 1, 2009)

NeMLA 2009 Convention: The Voice of Southeast Asian Diaspora (2/26-3/1,  2009, Boston, MA)

This panel invites papers discussing the literature written by and about  Southeast Asian diaspora, including Vietnamese, Cambodians, Laotians,  Hmongs, Thais, and Burmese. We will be discussing how these diasporic  groups inscribe their North American experiences and sociopolitical  issues. Any disciplines and approaches are welcome: literary studies,  cultural studies, anthropology, history, sociology, psychology, and the  like.

Please send an abstract of 500 words and a brief bio in doc. or pdf.  format to Brian Guan-rong Chen at grc0930@yahoo.com.

Deadline: September 10, 2008

Please include with your abstract: Name and Affiliation, Email address,  Postal address, Telephone number, A/V requirements (if any; $10 handling  fee)

The complete Call for Papers for the 2009 Convention will be posted in  June: http://www.nemla.org. Interested participants may submit abstracts to more  than one NeMLA panel; however panelists can only present one paper.  Convention participants may present a paper at a panel or seminar and also  present at a creative session or participate in a roundtable.

Brian Guan-rong Chen
University of Texas at Arlington
English Department
503 W. Third St., Carlisle Hall #203
Arlington, TX 76019
TEL: 817-272-0966
Email: grc0930@yahoo.com

Call for Papers: 2008 East of California Conference (Connecticut)

2008 East of California Conference:  A Movement to Look Back To
October 31, 2008 – November 1, 2008
The University of Connecticut, Storrs, Connecticut

ABSTRACTS DUE: Monday, June 30, 2008

Possible topics include, but are not limited to, the following:

•    Transnationalism & Cosmopolitanism
•    Demographic Shifts
•    Border studies
•    Cross-ethnic/racial collaborations and coalitions
•    Multi-disciplinary/inter-disciplinary collaborations and coalitions
•    Scholar-activist work, within and outside the academy
•    Civil Liberties and Civil Rights, before and after 9/11
•    Teaching in the 21st century
•    The state of “Asian America”
•    Asian American methodologies and epistemologies
•    Asian American visual cultures
•    The Asian American archive: what is it and where is it?

Requirements for Submission:

•    Roundtable: 1 page curriculum vitae; 1 page outline for 5-7 minute remarks
•    Panel:  1 page curriculum vitae per participant; 1 page panel abstract (500 words)
•    Individual paper:  1 page curriculum vitae; 1 page panel abstract (250 words)

Please send electronic copies of all materials to both Cathy Schlund-Vials (schlundvials@gmail.com) and Jennifer Ho (hojennifer@earthlink.net) by June 30, 2008.

* * *

In 1993, the East of California Conference was hosted by the recently formed Asian American Studies Institute at the University of Connecticut. Fifteen years later, the EOC conference returns to UConn. As the Asian American Studies Institute celebrates its fifteenth anniversary, the field of Asian American Studies also celebrates a significant moment in 2008. The title for this year’s conference, “A Movement to Look Back To,” signals the fortieth anniversary of the San Francisco State strike, which facilitated the emergence of Ethnic Studies and Asian American Studies on the higher education landscape. The nature and tenor of Asian American Studies has altered dramatically, and the field is increasingly marked by multidisciplinary methodologies and interdisciplinary collaborations between Ethnic Studies programs and departments.
Mindful that Asian American Studies emerged out of an atmosphere of social justice and founded on both theory and practice, the conference organizers encourage individual papers, panel submissions and roundtable proposals that acknowledge the extent to which the field continues to grow and expand, both within and outside the institution of the academy and particularly East of California. Concomitantly, given the variegated nature of Asian American Studies, the conference organizers welcome proposals that actively engage contemporary considerations of Asian American cultural production, identity formation, aesthetics, and politics. The conference will be hosted by the Asian American Studies Institute at the University of Connecticut, Storrs, and will take place October 31 – November 1, 2008.

APARRI 2008: (Re)Defining Religious Studies: The Next Decade of APARRI

Registration for APARRI 2008 has begun!

2008.August.7-9
Pacific School of Religion, Berkeley, CA

2008 celebrates the tenth anniversary of the founding of the Asian Pacific American Religions Research Initiative. Our annual conference this year is an opportunity to look back over the achievements in Asian Pacific American religious studies during the past decade and to look forward to the new opportunities and challenges of the next ten years.

Fumitaka Matsuoka, Ph.D., Executive Director of the Institute for Leadership Development and Study of Pacific and Asian North American Religion (PANA Institute) will give the keynote address at Plenary I on Thursday evening Aug/7. The title of his presentation is “Crossing Boundaries: A Dim Sum Approach to the Question of Peoplehood.” (The Thursday evening events are free and open to the public, but registration is required.)

Plenary II on Friday afternoon Aug/8 will address the state of the field of APA religious studies from various disciplinary angles. And Plenary III on Saturday afternoon Aug/9, offered jointly with the Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies in Religion and Ministry at Pacific School of Religion, will address the voices and visibility of queer communities in APA religious studies. Concurrent sessions will showcase research-in-progress, and structured mentoring will be available for students and junior faculty members.

Call for Papers!

Concurrent sessions at APARRI are designed to offer participants occasions for sharing research and works-in-progress in interdisciplinary settings.

Conference attendees are encouraged to propose individual papers and organized panels on their current research. Concurrent Session Block A on Friday Aug/8 is pre-organized and will echo the main conference theme, while Concurrent Session Blocks B and C on Saturday August/9 are “open call,” and attendees are encouraged to propose presentations on any aspect of Asian Pacific American religion. More information and directions for submitting proposals are available at the main conference Web page at http://pana.psr.edu/aparri-2008

cfp: 2008 East of California Asian American Studies Conference (Storrs, CT)

The Call for Papers for the 2008 East of California Conference has been extended to Monday, June 30, 2008. Please do consider sending in an abstract–if you have any questions, feel free to contact one of the EOC co-chairs (contact information listed below in the CFP).

========================

2008 East of California Conference: A Movement to Look Back To
October 31, 2008 – November 1, 2008
The University of Connecticut, Storrs, Connecticut

ABSTRACTS DUE: Monday, June 30, 2008

Possible topics include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Transnationalism & Cosmopolitanism
• Demographic Shifts
• Border studies
• Cross-ethnic/racial collaborations and coalitions
• Multi-disciplinary/inter-disciplinary collaborations and coalitions
• Scholar-activist work, within and outside the academy
• Civil Liberties and Civil Rights, before and after 9/11
• Teaching in the 21st century
• The state of “Asian America”
• Asian American methodologies and epistemologies
• Asian American visual cultures
• The Asian American archive: what is it and where is it?

Requirements for Submission:

• Roundtable: 1 page curriculum vitae; 1 page outline for 5-7 minute remarks
• Panel: 1 page curriculum vitae per participant; 1 page panel abstract (500 words)
• Individual paper: 1 page curriculum vitae; 1 page panel abstract (250 words)

Please send electronic copies of all materials to both Cathy Schlund-Vials (schlundvials@gmail.com) and Jennifer Ho (hojennifer@earthlink.net) by June 30, 2008.

Registration for APARRI 2008 has begun!

The Asian Pacific American Religions Research Initiative is pleased to announce the beginning of registration for:

APARRI 2008
(Re)Defining Religious Studies:  The Next Decade of APARRI
2008.August.7-9
Pacific School of Religion, Berkeley, CA
More information and registration at:  www.pana.psr.edu

2008 celebrates the tenth anniversary of the founding of the Asian Pacific American Religions Research Initiative. Our annual conference this year is an opportunity to look back over the achievements in Asian Pacific American religious studies during the past decade and to look forward to the new opportunities and challenges of the next ten years.

Fumitaka Matsuoka, Ph.D., Executive Director of the Institute for Leadership Development and Study of Pacific and Asian North American Religion (PANA Institute) will give the keynote address at Plenary I on Thursday evening Aug/7. The title of his presentation is “Crossing Boundaries: A Dim Sum Approach to the Question of Peoplehood.” (The Thursday evening events are free and open to the public, but registration is required.)

Plenary II on Friday afternoon Aug/8 will address the state of the field of APA religious studies from various disciplinary angles. And Plenary III on Saturday afternoon Aug/9, offered jointly with the Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies in Religion and Ministry at Pacific School of Religion, will address the voices and visibility of queer communities in APA religious studies. Concurrent sessions will showcase research-in-progress, and structured mentoring will be available for students and junior faculty members.

Call for Papers

Concurrent sessions at APARRI are designed to offer participants occasions for sharing research and works-in-progress in interdisciplinary settings.  Conference attendees are encouraged to propose individual papers and organized panels on their current research.  Concurrent Session Block A on Friday Aug/8 is pre-organized and will echo the main conference theme, while Concurrent Session Blocks B and C on Saturday August/9 are “open call,” and attendees are encouraged to propose presentations on any aspect of Asian Pacific American religion. More information and directions for submitting proposals are available at the main conference Web page at www.pana.psr.edu .

Christopher Chua
Program Director
PANA Institute, Pacific School of Religion
1798 Scenic Avenue
Berkeley, CA  94709
cchua@psr.edu
510/849-8210

cfp: Christians on Diversity in the Academy (deadline Jan. 31st, 2008)

Christians on Diversity in the Academy (CDA)
1st Annual National Conference

April 23-25, 2008 at Sheraton Suites Fairplex, Pomona, CA

***SPECIAL GROUP DISCOUNT AVAILABLE***

Due to the growing national response of faculty and administrators interested in bringing delegations to the conference we are offering a special discount to those who bring groups.

What?
Groups of five or more attending the conference from the same institution can now receive $50.00 off per registrant (discount taken from standard registration rate).

How?
Step One: Contact the conference offices and let them know the number in your group, names of those in your group, and the name of your institution.

Step Two: Have group members visit conference website and register individually.

Step Three: When paying by check, include an amount that reflects a $50.00 discount from the standard registration cost.

Step Four: When paying by credit card, contact conference office to process credit card and alert them to your group discount.

When?
The group rate is available immediately to all attendees.

CONFERENCE OVERVIEW
The CDA conference is a groundbreaking interdisciplinary forum where scholars and practitioners can dialogue and learn about diversity in higher education and how we as Christians respond to the issues. The conference committees invite proposals relating to themes of diversity within all areas of higher education in the United States.

REGISTRATION & COST
Online registration is currently available. Visit conference website at www.apu.edu/chistiansondiversity  for more information.

Standard—350.00 (Deadline: April 22, 2008)
Late/On site—425.00

CALL FOR PAPERS
Proposals are currently being accepted in the areas of:
·          Diversity in Pedagogy
·          Diversity and Campus Climate
·          Politics of Diversity

Proposals must be submitted online at www.apu.edu/christiansondiversity. Proposals may be submitted as paper presentation, symposium, panel discussion, workshop, or poster session. All proposal submissions must be no longer than 120 words. Presenters must be registered for conference at the time of presentation but do not have to be registered to submit a presentation proposal.

For questions about the conference contact conference office at (626) 815-2029 or cdaconference@apu.edu.

Proposal submission deadline: Midnight PST, January 31, 2008.

Presented by Azusa Pacific University’s Office of Diversity Planning & Assessment and Faculty of Color Network.

cfp: American Studies Association 2008 Annual Meeting

The Religion and American Culture Caucus of the American Studies Association offers the following Calls for Papers for the 2008 Annual Meeting in Alburquerque, New Mexico, October 16-19, 2008. According to ASA guidelines, the Caucus may officially sponsor only one session per year but may assist in the organization of other sessions. Sponsorship does not guarantee a place on the final program. For more information on the Caucus, please see our site at http://www.theasa.net/caucus_religion/

All proposals should follow the ASA’s submission guidelines for session descriptions, paper abstracts, and CVs, which are described on the ASA website. (http://www.theasa.net/annual_meeting/page/submitting_a_proposal/)

Submissions will be reviewed by a panel of Caucus members; notification of sponsorship will be made before January 25.  Please send proposals to Matt Hedstrom by January 11, 2008.

Calls for Papers

1.  The Religious Left in Modern America

This panel seeks a reassessment of the religious Left in American culture and politics from the heyday of the Social Gospel in the late nineteenth century to the present.  The current efforts of the Democratic Party to speak more effectively in a religious idiom, and the widely reported fracturing of the Religious Right, bring a renewed urgency to studying the role of religion in the development and continued makeup of the Left in American politics and public life.

Topics may include (but are certainly not limited to):  the Social Gospel; religion and the counterculture of the 1960s and 1970s; religious voices in the African-American, Latino/a, gay and lesbian, and women’s liberation movements; religion and the labor movement; pacifism and anti-imperialism; the Democratic Party; church, state, and pluralism; political philosophy; the New Deal; the Great Society.

2.  Religion and Violence in Popular Culture

Both the violence of religion and the religion of violence are all too evident in our contemporary politics and culture. This panel aims to assess the complex interplay between religion and violence in American life through a study of its myriad manifestations in popular culture, both historically and in the present.

3.  Other complete sessions

We are eager to consider for sponsorship other complete panel sessions exploring historical, theoretical, and/or methodological issues in religion and American culture, including matters of secularism as a category of experience and analysis.  Panel proposals should address the 2008 meeting theme, “Back Down to the Crossroads: Integrative American Studies in Theory and Practice.” The notion of the crossroads speaks to current theoretical work in religious studies and offers the opportunity for commentary on a wide-variety of religious and cultural phenomena in the American West and Southwest, nationally, and transnationally.

Though we can only consider complete panel proposals for sponsorship, we are pleased to offer assistance to those working to assemble panels for 2008.  Please feel free to be in touch!

—
Matthew S. Hedstrom, PhD
Postdoctoral Research Associate
Center for the Study of Religion
Princeton University
609-258-6957

cfp: Association for the Sociology of Religion 2008 Annual Meeting

From Fenggang Yang:

Call for Papers
ASSOCIATION FOR THE SOCIOLOGY OF RELIGION
2008 Annual Meeting
Boston • 31 July to 2 August

RELIGION CROSSING BOUNDARIES

Religion solidifies groups, but it also transcends them.  It situates people in communities of meaning and memory, but also leads them beyond their everyday lives.  Indeed, it transforms those lives both inwardly (such as through prayer and conversion) and outwardly (through ecumenism, social activism, and the like).  Not only must scholars think about religious differences; they must also understand people who encounter each other across religious divides.  They must learn what it means for people to cross religious boundaries as well as what it means to stay inside them.  And they must, themselves, often cross disciplinary boundaries to accomplish any of these tasks.  This year‚s ASR Annual Meeting encourages scholars to reflect on such issues, both as they affect religions and as they affect their own scholarly work.

Papers and discussions are invited on a broad range of issues in the sociological study of religion relating to the meeting theme, including but not limited to the following:

– Religious boundaries of all types, including (but not limited to) theological, organizational, political, racial/ethnic, sexual, cultural, and geographic
– Shifting boundaries between Œreligion‚ and Œspirituality‚
– Shifting boundaries between religion/spirituality and non-religion
– Internal religious life, its boundaries, shapes, and transcendences
– Boundaries within and between religious organizations
– Religions‚ changing relationships with external agencies, authorities, structures
– Religious bricolage, personal, organizational, and societal
– Religious groups‚ efforts to reshape, reinforce, or erase boundaries of all kinds
– Religions‚ relationships with the social boundaries surrounding race, class, gender, and sexuality
– Religious alternatives and alternatives to religion at various points in history
– Scholarly boundaries in the study of religion and their shifts over time

And, as always, we seek an inclusive mix of substantive, theoretical, and methodological approaches.  Therefore, proposals for sessions and papers that fall outside the formal theme are also welcomed.

DEADLINES:

– Session Proposals are due by 31 January 2008
– Paper Abstracts are due by 29 February 2008

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES: (1) Submit your proposal by email as a Word attachment. Include the names, affiliations, and email addresses of all authors on the same sheet as your abstract/proposal. (2) Limit paper abstracts to a maximum of 150 words. (3) Membership in ASR is required for program consideration (one author, for multi-authored papers).  See the ASR website (www.sociologyofreligion.com) for information.

PROGRAM CHAIR: Jim Spickard, Professor of Sociology, University of Redlands. Jim is on on sabbatical and away from Redlands this year, so please use his ASR e-mail address:
ASR2008@coolsociology.net