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Call for Papers

Theme: Radical/ized Religion
Subtitle: Religion as a Resource for Political Theory and Practice
Type: Interdisciplinary Conference
Institution: University of Chichester
Location: Chichester (United Kingdom)
Date: 9.–11.6.2017
Deadline: 14.4.2017

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Questions of radical and radicalized religion are at the forefront of
conversations in the media as well as academic discourse. These
conversations include concern about religious extremism, secularism
and a reinjection of religion into politics following the
post-secular “turn to religion”. Phenomena such as the Christian far
right and Islamism are widely discussed but often as separate
phenomena. In the UK, schools are required to teach students about
citizenship, ethics and religion. At universities, academics are
required to report extremist activities as part of the Prevent
Strategy. Ostensibly about rooting out “radical Islam”, the law is
applicable to a range of political and religious beliefs. These
recent issues highlight the difficulty of understanding the
connection between religion, the public sphere and political dissent.
The boundaries between activism, radical politics and extremism are
blurred. Is there sufficient room for Islam to motivate political
activism without risking condemnation as extremism? With the on-going
debates over Europe’s borders and the resurgence of far right
political movements in Europe, why are some expressions of religious
rhetoric deemed acceptable aspects of “our” political identity and
heritage while others are rejected as extremist? How do we more
broadly understand the relationship between religious belief and
political activism, between religion and radicalism, and the place of
religion as politicized practice in the public sphere?

By bringing together different disciplinary perspectives – political
science, biblical studies, philosophy of religion, anthropology and
sociology amongst others – this conference examines the intersections
between religion and politics in contemporary society, focusing on
how such intersections foster concepts of citizenship and ranges of
practice from political activism to extremism. In analysing the
logics, narratives and prejudices explicitly and implicitly used to
sort activism from extremism, we will investigate alternative ways of
thinking about the connection between religion and politics.
Questions conference participants might address include (but are not
limited to):

- How is religion being interpreted, appropriated and reinvented in
  order to mobilise political change in contemporary society?
- How might we differentiate between religious activism and extremism?
- Are there patterns for political uses of religion that are shared
  across different religious affiliations (such as sacrifice,
  martyrdom, holy/just war)?
- How do notions of citizenship inform interpretations of religious
  identity?
- In what ways do religions become a way of conceptualizing
  citizenship?
- In what ways are governments responding to extremism, particularly
  regarding the role of religion?
- Are issues of race and gender inextricably caught up in discourses
  of religion in relation to political change?
- How do we understand the “post-secular” in light of religions in
  the political sphere?
- In what ways does the far right utilize religion to form
  conceptions of “self” and “other”?
- How do labels such as “Islamism” delineate particular spaces for
  political Islam at the exclusion and obfuscation of other forms of
  Muslim practice?
- What are the differences and similarities between far right and far
  left attitudes to, and uses of, religion?
 
We welcome contributions from theology, religious studies, biblical
studies, philosophy, history, law, literature, politics, sociology
and anthropology.

Please submit 300 word abstracts to: radicalizedrelig...@chi.ac.uk
Panel proposals are also welcome and should include 300 word
abstracts for each paper and a 300 word explanation of the rationale.

Deadline for submissions: 14 April 2017.

Keynote Speakers 

Torkel Brekke (Deputy Director of Peace Research Institute Oslo) –
‘Radicalized Christianity and hostility against Muslims in
Scandinavia’ 

S. Sayyid (Professor of Social Theory and Decolonial
Thought, ​University of Leeds) – ‘Liberation Theology and the
Temptation of Politics’ 

Yvonne Sherwood (Professor of Biblical Cultures and Politics,
University of Kent) – ‘The Politics of the “Resident Alien”’ 

Øvyind Strømmen (Managing Editor, Hate Speech International) – ‘The
Nordic far right and the use of religious imagery’

Further information about the speakers, registration and the
University fo Chichester are available at the conference website:
http://radical-izedreligion.weebly.com




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