Home Annual Meeting Call for Papers Groups African Diaspora Religions
January 2013

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Call for Proposals

This year’s theme for this Group is technology, identity, and authenticity in African diaspora religions. We seek to address:

  • How is the rapid expansion of African diaspora religions through technology — the internet, blogs, YouTube, etc. — changing the racial and geographic composition of adherents?

  • To what extent is this participation in “virtual religion” through online forums and communities instead of flesh-and-blood houses of worship affecting the issue of the “authenticity” of religious practice and rituals?

  • How does religious art and ritual become translated/communicated through online media?

  • For a cosponsored session with the Teaching Religion Section and African Religions Group, rethinking paradigms and methods in religious studies through teaching African and African diaspora religions. Contesting logocentricity, representing innovation and dynamism of oral traditions, using visual media, familiarizing the exotic, redefining “religion” — these are among the challenges and opportunities of teaching African/African diaspora traditions in religious studies

Mission

This Group endorses the study of African diaspora religions beyond its traditional parameters to include broader geographies, histories, and cultures of people of African descent and the way they shaped the religious landscape, not only in the Caribbean and the Americas, but also in Europe and Asia. This study defines “diaspora” as the spread and dispersal of people of African descent — both forced and voluntary — through the slave trade, imperial and colonial displacements, and postcolonial migrations. This Group emphasizes the importance of an interdisciplinary approach and is central to its vision. The aim is to engage a wide range of disciplines and a variety of scholars who work on different aspects of African diaspora religions. It considers the linguistic and cultural complexities of the African diaspora, the importance of African traditional religions, Afro-Christianity, Afro-Islam, and Afro-Judaism, the way they have and continue to inform an understanding of Africa, and also the way they have and continue to shape the religious landscape of the Americas, Europe, and Asia.

Anonymity of Review Process

Proposer names are anonymous to Chairs and Steering Committee members until after final acceptance or rejection.

Questions?

Maha Marouan
University of Alabama
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Method of Submission

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