Religion on the Borders: New Challenges in the Academic Study of Religion
Religious Studies Conference at Södertörn University College (Stockholm, Sweden), April 19-22, 2007.
The crossing of borders is a recurrent theme in our time. In the wake of globalization, a seemingly boundless world is taking shape. Formerly fixed borders between ethnic groups, classes and sexes are dissolving. At the same time, new borders are drawn up. New political agendas with universal claims are outlined while the gap between rich and poor grows. New, simultaneously confining and excluding barriers are set. Religion plays a crucial part in these processes.
Religions create and maintain borders. Religious attributes, habits of life, and teachings contribute to the consolidation of current divisions of power and the separation between communities. At the same time, however, religion and religiosity often claim to go beyond borders. Furthermore, the boundaries between religious traditions have often been rather blurred.
Themes connected to borders represent important theoretical foci within the humanities and social sciences. Such approaches aim at understanding the cultural significance of border, space, and place as well as how (and why) borders are established, maintained, and transcended. That these issues are relevant to the academic study of religion can easily be seen in the study of ritual and religious geography, but they are also relevant to the academic delimitation of religious modes, concepts, and institutions. However, this group of themes points to a variety of new and partly unexplored domains, which may contribute valuable insights into the social and historical conditions of humankind.
The academic study of religion is also defined by certain boundaries. During the last decade, the academic field of religious studies has expanded dramatically in Sweden. Courses in religious studies are now taught at more than 20 universities and colleges around the country. New research centers are formed in many different locations. The study of religion is also pursued within other disciplines and departments. This new interest highlights the importance of giving the academic study of religion the opportunity to be presented and discussed in an environment which transcends departmental and disciplinary differences, where a fruitful and interdisciplinary exchange of ideas can take place.
Borders (or boundaries) are also important themes when it comes to discussions about the relationship between the researcher and the object or person studied. Today's discussion is polarized between researchers who have a distanced approach to religion as a phenomenon, and researchers who entirely, or in part, take an insider perspective. Irrespective of what we think about this development, many scholars think that it is no longer possible to draw clear boundaries between the researchers and the religions they study. The conference will endeavor to highlight the questions that this new situation give rise to.
Through this conference, Södertörn University College seeks to gather scholars from different academic disciplines to engage in discussions on religion and borders in the past and the present, in theory and in practice. Religion on the Borders is organized in collaboration with IAHR (International Association for the History of Religions) and SSRF (Swedish Society for the Study of History of Religions).
The Organising Committee is pleased to invite abstracts for individual 20-minute presentations as well as full sessions consisting of three 20-minute presentations. Below you find a list of possible topics, but other topics that correspond to the theme of the conference, are equally welcome. For submition of abstracts, go to Call for Papers.
Suggested topics for paper presentation: religious language religion and space insider's and outsider's perspectives in the study of religion interreligious encounters religion and art religion and colonialism religion and creativity religion and ecology religion and economy religion and law religion and gender religion and historiography religion and human rights religion and identity religion and information technology religion and intersectionality religion and migration religion and the news media religion and performance religion and politics religion and sexuality religion and sports religion and nationalism religion in conflict and peacebuilding religion in globalization religion, health and medicine religious conversion religious texts - religion in text ritual studies syncretism teaching religion religion and the sacred the concept of religion religion and agency religion and entertainment religion and power religion and cognition religion and hierarchy religion as commodity religious modalities religious artifacts
