Call for Proposals

This Consultation seeks proposals for papers addressing the following topics:

• The politics of religious space. We are interested in papers that address situations in which religious sites are involved in conflict, contestation, or peacemaking. Possible topics may include the destruction, vandalism, or opposition to religious sites; the use of religious sites for political purposes; and the use of religious sites for peacemaking purposes, including sanctuary movements or interfaith uses of religious spaces
• The theoretical and methodological work of Edward Soja. We seek papers that apply the work of Soja to religious spaces or geographies

As always, we encourage submissions from across time periods and religious traditions.

Mission

This Consultation seeks to bring together scholars of diverse traditions, religions, and time periods, and who explore the function of space or place as a constitutive component of religious experience, practice, thought, institutions, and communities. We support scholarship that employs methodologically innovative approaches for understanding the relationships between space and religious meaning within specific traditions, and we encourage comparative work that investigates these topics across traditions and time periods. In particular, we seek to encourage analysis of the structures of power embedded in notions of sacred space and in the social formations mapped onto religious spaces, in how hierarchies are maintained and challenged within religious spaces and places, and in the materiality and physical experience of space. We wish to encourage examination of how contests over physical space and place function over time and how divergent meanings associated with individual places are negotiated, both peaceably and, all too frequently, violently.

Anonymity of Review Process

Proposals are anonymous to Chairs and Steering Committee Members during review, but visible to Chairs prior to final acceptance or rejection.

Questions?

Jeanne Halgren Kilde
University of Minnesota
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Leonard Norman Primiano
Cabrini College
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Method of Submission