Call for Papers: Religion, Gender and Body Politics Post-secular, post-colonial and queer perspectives

International conference on behalf of the international research project “Interdisciplinary Innovations in the Study of Religion and Gender: Postcolonial, Post-secular and Queer Perspectives”, at Utrecht University, The Netherlands, 12-14 February 2015.

Call for papers

At this conference we welcome contributions that:

· use theoretical approaches drawing from insights in post-secular, postcolonial, queer and gender theories, clarifying body practices as a contested site of religious and secular practices;

· either theoretically or empirically challenge the secular/religious and public/private binaries in understanding contemporary body politics;

· do not only explore expressions and accounts of ideal religious and secular practices and norms, but also their manifold articulations with all the lived ambiguities and ambivalences;

· suggest, imagine or develop innovative methodologies in order to understand the complex ways in which religious and secular identities are formed through bodily practices.

Moreover, at this conference we encourage an interdisciplinary approach, welcoming insights from, amongst others, gender studies, men and masculinity studies, disability studies, theology, religious studies, anthropology, history, literature, cultural studies and media studies.

Key-notes

Minoo Moallem, Professor of Gender and Women’s Studies, University of California, Berkeley Yvonne Sherwood, Professor of Biblical Studies and Politics, University of Kent Ulrike Auga, Professor of Theology and Gender Studies, Humboldt University, Berlin Scott Kugle, Associate Professor of South Asian and Islamic Studies, Emory University, Atlanta Sarojini Nadar, Professor of Gender and Religion, University of KwaZulu-Natal Please find the preliminary program with key-note lectures attached to this email and on our website: http://projectreligionandgender.org/programme

Practical Information

Panel sessions · Paper or panel proposals need to be submitted on the project website before 1 December 2014 (http://projectreligionandgender.org/submission). The conference organisation will inform all applicants about its decision before 15 December 2015.

· Individual paper proposals should include your name and institutional affiliation, the title of your paper and an abstract of max. 250 words.

· Besides individual papers it is also possible to submit proposals for a pre-arranged panel session of one and a half hour. A panel consists of maximum three to four paper presentations. Please provide the following information (max. 1.000 words): title of the panel session; name of the chair of the panel session; names, titles and abstracts of the papers.

Poster sessions · There is also the possibility to present your research via a poster presentation. Poster proposals need to be submitted on the project website before 1 December 2014 (http://projectreligionandgender.org/submission). The conference organisation will inform all applicants about its decision before 15 December 2015.

· Poster proposals should include your name and institutional affiliation, the title of your poster and an abstract of max. 100 words.

· During the ceremony on the second day (see programme), a prize of €200,- will be awarded for the best poster presentation.

Finances · The conference fee is €200,- and includes an annual membership of the International Association for the Interdisciplinary Study of Religion and Gender (IARG).

· For students or researchers with a low budget, we can provide a small reduction of the conference fee.

Contact · For more information you can contact the project assistant Jorien Copier (projectreligionandgender@gmail.com).