Religion and Political Protest
Call for Papers
The Center for the Study of Conversion and Inter-Religious Encounters (CSoC) invites you to submit a proposal for its 2024 international conference, titled:
Religion and Political Protest
Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (Be’er-Sheva, Israel)
27-29 May 2024
“State and religion are twin brothers”, postulates an old Iranian aphorism. The relation between religion and politics continues to be an important theme in political philosophy and religious thought, and in research in the humanities and social sciences. Our conference aspires to tackle the relations between religion and political protests from a variety of perspectives and methodologies, across religious traditions, and in a variety of historical contexts – from rebellions and dissent in Antiquity to present-day political activism.
Some of the following themes will be at the center of the discussion we envision for the conference:
• The use of religious discourse for bringing about political change, and vice versa
• The enlistment of religious establishments (such as the Catholic church, the Islamic movement) in support of political protest or against it
• Theologies of resistance
• Case studies of religious leaders, orders and associations as proponents of political reform or revolution
• Partnerships between faith-based organizations and secular parties
• Religious rituals (prayer, fast, pilgrimage and processions) as means of protest against governors/rulers/colonial powers/religious establishments
• The relationship between religiosity and/or religious affiliation and personal engagement in political protests
• Messianism in national and global political contexts
• Theories, models and patterns of protest.
Historians of different periods and geographic locations, political scientists, anthropologists, sociologists, theologians, scholars of comparative religion, literatures and cultures are welcome to apply.
CSoC will cover costs for accommodation & board in Be’er Sheva between Monday 27 May and Wednesday 29 May 2024, and offer a thematic excursion on the last day.
We have limited funding for assistance with travel expenses for participants who do not have institutional funding.
Deadline for sending titles, short bios and 300–500-word abstracts: 5 November 2023. Full papers should be limited to 20 minutes.
Please send applications to Mrs. Raya Even David: rayaed@bgu.ac.il
For further details and enquiries please contact organizing committee members:
- Dr. Maya Shabbat (maya.shabbat@gmail.com)
- Dr. Netta Schramm (netta.schramm@mail.huji.ac.il)
- Dr. Dmitry Uzlaner (uzlanerda@gmail.com)
- CSoC