Category Archives: call for papers

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

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

SCPT: The Society for Continental Philosophy and Theology
CALL FOR PAPERS
SCPT’s Fourth Biennial Conference: Postmodernism, Truth, and Religious Pluralism

April 11-12, 2008
Gordon College (Wenham, MA)

Keynote Speakers:
Roger Haight (Union Theological Seminary)
Richard Kearney (Boston College)

With the so-called “return of religion,” it is almost impossible not to address the issue of religious pluralism, which acutely raises the question of truth. What kind of positive sense of religious truth is possible in a postmodern era? What is religious truth—is it representational, propositional, orthopractical, symbolic, aletheiological, or something else altogether? How does the notion of “truth” square with a multiplicity of religious traditions? Is the very term “religion” appropriate in a pluralistic society, since the term is distinctly western? How might the earnest faith of a Christian, say, be compatible with the equally earnest faith of other believers or even non-believers? With the varieties of religions (not to mention the varieties of expressions of religions), how can their respective differences be respected? Are there forms of religious expression that simply cannot find a place in the public square?

We encourage papers that draw on continental figures; philosophical traditions such as deconstruction, feminist philosophy, hermeneutics, and phenomenology; and religious traditions such as Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, and Judaism.

Only complete papers (maximum of 3,000 words) will be accepted. Papers should be prepared for blind review and sent to Trent.J.Koutsoubos@Wheaton.edu as email attachments.

DEADLINE: FEBRUARY 15, 2008

The Society for Continental Philosophy and Theology seeks to promote inquiry at the intersection of philosophy and theology. For more information about SCPT, visit http://www.scptonline.org. For further information regarding the conference, contact Bruce Ellis Benson.

***********************
Bruce Ellis Benson
Professor and Chair
Department of Philosophy
Wheaton College
501 College Avenue
Wheaton, Illinois 60187
(630) 752-5817 (office)
(630) 752-5555 (fax)

CALL FOR PROPOSALS

From the Association of Asian American Studies list

Asian American/Asian Research Institute
CUNY CONFERENCE ON ASIAN AMERICAN WOMEN
Celebrating Successes, Meeting Challenges

Friday, May 16, 2008
CUNY Graduate Center – Elebash Recital Hall
365 Fifth Avenue, New York, New York

Deadline for Proposals: Friday, January 18, 2008
E-mail: conference@aaari.info
For more information: www.aaari.info/2008women.htm

Established in 2001 by the City University of New York Board of Trustees, the Asian American/Asian Research Institute (AAARI) is a university-wide scholarly research and resource center that focuses on policies and issues affecting Asians and Asian Americans.

AAARI’s objectives include: bringing together scholars in order to develop and sustain an intellectual and cultural center that addresses the needs of New York’s diverse ethnic subgroups of Asian origin; stimulating the study of Asian people, languages, cultures, and countries, as well as Asian immigrants and their descendants who live in the United States; identifying and researching relevant issues that affect the Asian and Asian American communities; disseminating research results and educating the public about Asian and Asian American issues.

The City University of New York (CUNY), with twenty-three institutions city-wide, is rich in faculty who have expertise in Asian and Asian American studies. Each year CUNY enrolls over 31,000 Asian American students, who will soon emerge as a vital segment of New York City’s workforce and leadership. AAARI serves a pivotal role for the diverse CUNY community – faculty, staff, and students alike–and seeks to ensure that public discussion regarding Asian and Asian American issues remains dynamic and relevant.

2008 AAARI CUNY CONFERENCE
Asian American Women: Celebrating Successes, Meeting Challenges

The Asian American/Asian Research Institute will host a one-day conference on May 16, 2008 titled Asian American Women: Celebrating Successes, Meeting Challenges, a forum where we will examine past, present, and future challenges and objectives for Asian American women.

Asian American women’s experiences and concerns illustrate the heterogeneous and complex histories and interests of this important segment of the U.S. population. This year’s AAARI conference will investigate the landscape of Asian American women’s historical and contemporary experiences, examining and evaluating past accomplishments while maintaining a critical and pragmatic eye to future goals. The conference seeks to explore the manifold realms of Asian American women’s lives from the diverse vantage points of scholars, researchers, business professionals, educators, activists, artists, legislators, writers, and students. During the conference, we will ask ourselves what we have learned from Asian American women’s histories, and how we can apply this knowledge to present and future challenges for our communities.

SESSION TRACKS

COMMUNITY ADVOCACY
Asian American community advocates are spearheading work to garner visibility and recognition of Asian American women’s issues.  These issues include domestic violence, literacy, labor organizing, the low-wage economy, bias crimes, housing, and immigration legislation. How do individuals and organizations at the forefront of these issues forge and sustain relationships with dynamic Asian American communities? What obstacles do they face as liaisons between Asian America, the media, private industry, and government agencies?

BUSINESS, LEADERSHIP, AND PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Focusing on the resources and strategies that support and encourage Asian American women as they seek to become better leaders in both local and global economies, the session will examine gender, ethnicity, and cultural norms in the workplace, while highlighting the differences between small business and large corporations and issues of executive management in political, public service, educational, and non-profit fields.

BALANCING CAREER AND FAMILY
Women, in general, have to negotiate familial responsibilities while also focusing on their careers.  Have Asian American women been successful in balancing career and family? What roles do immediate and extended families play in helping Asian American women juggle career and family? This session will explore how Asian American women address issues such as child-  care, professional commitments, day-to-day domestic chores, and elderly parents. Related topics include stress- and time-management as well as financial resources.

PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION AND GOVERNMENT
Historically, Asian American women have been underrepresented in positions of authority in public administration and government. What are the personal and professional obstacles for women in reaching their career goals in these areas?  Do the voices of Asian American women have an impact on policy and decision making?  What does the future hold for other Asian  American women who want a meaningful role in public administration or to serve in public office?

SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING
Science and engineering have traditionally been dominated by men. Although the number of women working in these fields is increasing, we still hear of cases where teachers, faculty, and advisors actively discourage female students from studying science and/or engineering. With many women actively contributing as scientists and engineers, it is time to ask how Asian  American women have negotiated and become successful in these traditionally male-dominated fields, and to examine the challenges and obstacles Asian American women face in their academic and professional careers.

HEALTH AND WELLNESS
Asian American women face distinct social, cultural, and political barriers to physical and mental health and wellness. The purpose of this session is to explore occupational, genetic, environmental, and cultural factors in disease or health risks for this population. We will also examine how cultural beliefs, traditional practices, and linguistic deficiency impact health care delivery, wellness education, government policy, and disease prevention for Asian American women.

MEDIA, VISUAL, AND PERFORMING ARTS
Representations of Asian American women are changing, and examinations of racial stereotypes are insufficient in representing the complex position of Asian American women in the U.S. How are Asian American cultural producers seeking to examine and complicate the intricate relationships between popular culture, artistic production, and identity? What roles do historical depictions of this community play in expanding our artistic understandings of Asian American women in the present and the future?

LITERATURE
No longer relegated to the back door of autobiography, Asian American women writers are charting new literary maps through formal and thematic innovations that reflect complex intersections between gender, race, class, sexuality, religion, and language.  This session seeks to examine how the arc of Asian American literary production informs these writers, and what lies ahead for emerging authors.

NEW DEMOGRAPHICS
The landscape of Asian America is continuously changing: How do we understand these shifts in our examinations of new immigrants, mixed-race identities, and the dynamic diasporic communities that emerge as migratory paradigms evolve?  As local communities are shaped by the changing demographics, what is the response of mainstream culture and public policymakers?  To what extent do transnational businesses and global capital influence Asian American communities?  How do these developments impact the daily lives of Asian American women and define their identities?

PEDAGOGY, EDUCATIONAL POLICY AND CURRICULAR ISSUES
What changes have we seen in college and university curricula since the introduction of courses in Asian American studies? How has the incorporation of Asian America, along with other ethnic and gender studies borne out of civil rights struggles, shifted the U.S. academic landscape? This panel will explore pedagogical and curricular dimensions of the field, including a focused examination of the varied programs inside Asian America, a discussion of how geopolitical differences affect development and funding of Asian American programs east of California, as well as the alliances and/or boundaries between Asian American studies and other ethnic and gender studies programs.

DEADLINE: FRIDAY, JANUARY 18, 2008

EMAIL PROPOSALS AND QUESTIONS TO: conference@aaari.info

WE WELCOME PROPOSALS FOR THE FOLLOWING:

- Individual papers
- Workshops
- Artistic presentations: performance, literary readings, film screenings (max. 10-12 minutes in length, with technical specifications provided)

PROPOSALS MUST INCLUDE:

- Working title
- Description of presentation (individual paper, artistic presentation, workshop, etc.)  – Brief double-spaced abstract (one to two pages, 11 or 12pt font, one-inch margins)  – Presenter’s name, address, phone number, email address, title, and institutional affiliation

DISCLAIMER

This invitation to submit a proposal to the 2008 AAARI Conference on Asian American Women does not constitute an offer to pay travel or accommodation costs associated with the conference. No speakers’ fee or travel expenses are paid to successful applicants.  Conference presentations may be taped (audio and video) and transcribed for possible future publication.

Call for Paper or Panel Proposals

Creating a Community of Scholarship on Asian Pacific American Issues:
A Graduate Student Conference
University of California, Berkeley
April 4-5, 2008

A National Conference
Current scholarship on Asian Pacific American issues is expanding beyond traditional disciplinary and regional boundaries, signaling a movement toward establishing new paradigms of understanding aspects of APA experiences. This conference highlights emerging scholarship of graduate students examining issues pertaining to the Asian Pacific American community as they partake in shaping the future of the field.
What new projects or research questions are emerging? What are new communities of study, modes of analysis, pedagogies, and possibilities for collaboration and comparative research? We hope that interested graduate students will use this conference to become familiar with each other’s research themes and methodologies and come to challenge traditional notions of research in Asian Pacific American scholarship.

We believe this conference will be an excellent way to build a community of scholars because graduate students working in the field of Asian Pacific American studies are most often scattered in different departments at every university. This conference will provide a space for interdisciplinary and intercollegiate exchanges through the presentation and discussion of cutting-edge projects in the field. Following University of Illinois Urbana Champaign in 2006 and University of Illinois Chicago in 2007, this conference marks the third year of organizing efforts specifically in support of graduate student-centered scholarship and research in Asian Pacific American studies.

We welcome paper or panel proposals that advance the knowledge of Asian Pacific American experiences by graduate students at any stage of their research and in any discipline. The proposal should include an assessment of where this scholarship fits within the current literature of the chosen field and how the work contributes to and/or expands the knowledge of APA experiences.

Submission Deadline: November 15, 2007

Email: communitiesofscholars@gmail.com

Paper submissions should include (1) contact information (including university, year in school, address, telephone number, fax number, and e-mail address); (2) a 300-word abstract summarizing the paper’s argument and assessing its relation to the field; and (3) a one or two page curriculum vitae and a brief biography for each presenter.

Panel proposals should include (1) a cover sheet with contact information for the chair and each panelist (including university, year in school, address, telephone number, fax number, and e-mail address); (2) a one-page rationale explaining the relevance of the panel to the theme of the conference; (3) a 300-word abstract for each proposed paper, summarizing the paper’s argument and relation to the field; and (4) a one or two page curriculum vitae and a brief biography for each presenter.

Submission guidelines:

• Please submit individual paper proposals or full panel proposals via e-mail attachment by November 15, 2007 to communitiesofscholars@gmail.com with the subject line, “Conference Submission.” Please also direct any questions to that email address.
• Attachments should be in Word, pdf, or rtf formats.
• Submissions should be one document (i.e. include all required information in one attached document).

Notification of acceptance or rejection of all submissions will be by made by December 15, 2007.

Limited support for graduate student travel to attend the conference may be available.
For more information, contact communitiesofscholars@gmail.com

Sponsored by the Critical Filipino/a Studies Working Group, the Asian Cultural Studies Working Group, the Graduate Asian Pacific Islander Collective, and the Asian Pacific American Studies Working Group at the University of California, Berkeley, and University of California, Davis Asian American Studies Graduate Student Group.

–
Ligaya R. Domingo
Washington State Jobs With Justice Annual Dinner Coordinator and Auction Coordinator
Ph.D. Candidate
University of California, Berkeley
Graduate School of Education
Social and Cultural Studies

Mobile: (206) 390-1422
Home: (206) 829-9884
Email: Ligayadomingo@gmail.com

Southeast Asians in the Diaspora Conference

Call for Proposals

Location: University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign,
Date: 15-16 April 2008
Submission Deadline: Postmarked or Emailed by 16 November 2007.

This two-day conference examines the emerging field of Southeast Asian/ American studies, which because of specific histories of colonialism and imperialism, has produced subjects and objects of analysis that confound categories of diaspora, citizenship, and affiliation. Studies of the Cambodian, Laotian, and Vietnamese diasporas investigate and trouble the structuring effects of Cold War geopolitics; while studies of Hmong, Mien, Cham, and other stateless ethnicities necessarily reconsider the bases for global and local practices of identification as well as strategic claims to rights and resources.

Given this, the field foregrounds important epistemological and methodological shifts that productively disrupt the analytic conventions of area studies, American studies, ethnic studies, and Asian American studies. Thinking across these fields, Southeast Asian/American studies fulfills the intellectual and political promise of what Kandice Chuh imagines as “studies in comparative racialization and intersectional projects that deliberately unravel seemingly stable distinctions among identificatory categories and disciplinary divisions.” Complicating the examination of nationalisms and transnationalisms, Southeast Asian/American studies questions the circulation of, the negotiation with, or challenges to the knowledge regimes of U.S. nation and empire.

In order to explore the dissolution of disciplinary distinctions and the complexities of intersectional analyses, we are soliciting papers, panels, roundtables, workshops, films, videos, readings, and performances.  Submissions are open to scholars, artists, and community members.  This is an interdisciplinary event welcoming individual and panel proposals from a wide variety of disciplines including, but not limited to, queer studies, literature, history, sociology, art history, visual cultures, political science, ethnic studies, women’s and gender studies, performance studies, cultural studies, postcolonial studies, Asian studies and area studies, the performing arts, film or video making, writing, and community activism and leadership.  Participants will be informed of acceptance in December 2007.

The conference is being held to coincide with the Association of Asian American Studies (AAAS) conference in Chicago, 16-20 April 2008.  As a note, AAAS does have limited funding for which graduate students may apply.

Panel or Roundtable Proposal

1.  A one-page description of your panel or roundtable
2.  One-page abstracts of each paper or presenter
3.  One-page CV from each presenter, the panel chair, and/or
the discussant or facilitator
4.  AV needs
5.  Contact information for each participant

Individual Paper Proposal

1.  A one-page abstract of your paper
2.  One-page CV
3.  AV needs
4.  Contact information

Performance, Reading, Video or Film Proposal

1.  A one-page description of your project
2.  A one-page artist resume
3.  If a film, video, or performance, send a sample video or
DVD, if available (this can be returned to you upon request)
4.  AV needs
5.  Contact information

Please mail all materials to

Fiona I. B. Ngô,

or

Asian American Studies Program
1208 W. Nevada St., MC-142
Urbana, IL 61801

Contact:

Fiona I.B. Ngô           OR          Mimi Nguyen
(217) 265-6240

For updates and more information:

http://www.aasp.uiuc.edu/SEAsianDiaspora

Fiona I.B. Ngô
Asian American Studies Program and
Gender and Women’s Studies Program
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
1208 W. Nevada St., MC-142
Urbana, IL 61801