To become a member of the ISRLC or for other information, contact:

Prof. Erik Borgman
Postbus 9103
6500 H D
NYMEGEN
Netherlands

Latest News:

21 July 2008

Applications for the bursary for the 2008 ISRLC Conference in Aarhus are due by 31 July, 2008.

18 June 2008

The University of Glasgow Graduate School of Arts and Humanities is hosting a new conference to be held 23-24 September, 2008:

Art, Religion, Identity: An Interdisciplinary Symposium

Keynote speakers:

• Prof. Melissa Raphael-Levine (University of Glouchestershire)
• Prof. Shulamit Reinharz (Brandeiss University)
• Dr. Laura Levitt (Temple University)

In conjunction with an art exhibition at Glasgow University Chapel
celebrating the 100th anniversary of the birth of Glasgow Jewish
artist Hannah Frank, the Graduate School of Arts and Humanities and
the Department of Theology and Religious Studies at the University of
Glasgow will host a two-day symposium on art, religion, and identity.
Questions about the role of identity in art abound, and these
questions only increase when the artist is associated with a
particular social group, be it religious, gendered, or ethnic, through
their own self-presentation or the efforts of outside scholars or
critics. To what extent does association with a social group influence
the production of art? To what extent does an awareness of such
associations influence the viewer's experience of art?

We invite papers on any topic relating to the conference theme,
with a focus on the 19th and 20th centuries, although we are open to
proposals dealing with other periods. We welcome papers from any
discipline, including but not limited to theology, art history, museum
and archive studies, cultural studies, history, psychology, sociology,
anthropology and literature.

Abstracts of 150-300 words, for papers not exceeding 20 minutes in
length, or proposals for posters (A1 size) should be addressed to
Julie Clague and Alana Vincent at this account, no later than 20 July.

More information on the confernce included a detailed Call for Papers may be accessed at the confrence's website, here.

9 June 2008

The University of Aarhus announces a new interdisciplinary research conference on 19-23 August 2008 entitled:

Understanding Conflicts--Cross-Cultural Perspectives

"Conflicts are a part of human life—depending on the competences of all participants, they may lead into harmful disturbance or be the source of authentic social innovation. Recently, the public focus has been on conflicts due to cultural (including ethnic and religious) diversity. Often overlooked, however, is the fact that different cultures not only generate conflicts but also impose on agents different conflict cultures—preferences for certain types of conflict dynamics (war, settlements, reconciliation) and predispositions for certain forms of epistematic approach (rational analysis, psychological hermeneutics, deep orientation). Attention to differences in cultural images of conflicts—the agentive understanding of sources, dynamics and possible transformations of conflicts—is of central significance for conflict transformation in societies with cultural diversity.

UC2008 is the first of a series of large international interdisciplinary meetings that will bring together researchers working on the analysis and transformation of conflicts due to cultural, ethnic, and religious diversity. Our invited speakers are international lead figures in conflict research, sociology, political science, anthropology, psychology, philosophy, the history of ideas and religious studies.

The conference will feature about 100 speakers from all over the world and we are expecting about 400 participants. The official submission deadline for papers has now passed, but we do accept late submissions for certain topical areas (see webpage). Conference papers will be published in an anthology as well as 2-3 special issues of international journals.

Keynote Speakers:

Zygmont Baumann
Russell Hardin
Pumla Goboda-Madikizela
Ron Pundak
Amina Wadud

Since UC2008 is a cross-disciplinary research meeting, all invited speakers are briefly introduced here.

11 December 2007

The International Society for Religion, Literature and Culture announces its next international conference in Aarhus, Denmark, 17-19 October 2008 entitled:

Breaking the Norms. Reception, Transformation and Transgression in Religion, Literature and Culture.

The purpose of the conference is to discuss the role of religion, literature, and culture in disseminating and/or transforming various kinds of normativity.

The preliminary list of keynote speakers includes:

• Rachel Elior from Jerusalem, Israel, who will discuss how religious normativity is transformed within Judaism.
  
• Stephen Pricket from Kent, England/Texas, who will lecture on Reception of scripture in literature.
  
• Kirsten Nielsen from Aarhus, Denmark, who will lecture on Breaking the Norms. Reception, Transgression and Transformation.

As honorary speaker David Jasper will give a presentation on ISRLC at the Banquet Dinner.

More information on the conference may be found here