Call for Papers

Date: September 27-28, 2018

Venue: Utrecht University, Drift 21, 3512 BR Utrecht, The Netherlands

Abstract Submission Deadline: April 9, 2018

Organized by: Prof. Birgit Meyer (Utrecht University) and Prof. Peter van der Veer (Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious & Ethnic Diversity)

One of the main political issues today in the entire world, but certainly also in Europe, is that of the refugees. At the end of 2015, there were 21, 3 Mill refugees worldwide, according to UN counts. Since 2014 more than 30.000 people have drowned on their flight over the Mediterranean. Politically the issue of refugees has been responded to by a nationalist upsurge in Poland, Hungary, Germany, The Netherlands, France, Scandinavia, and Britain.

In Europe, the question of nationalism and migration now has been shaping the political landscape for more than a decade. This crisis has many aspects, including citizenship rights, national sovereignty, and migration patterns…

In this conference, we do not want to limit ourselves to the legal perspectives and ultimate classifications of persons as refugees or (“mere”) migrants, but approach the issues from a range of viewpoints of those seeking refuge and involved in the process of being recognized as refugees (even though they may be found to not qualify to be granted asylum), and other actors and institutions who play a role in this process.

Moreover, we want to focus on religion.

Another set of issues concerning the materiality of religion is that of death and the dead.

– Where to bury the dead and how to deal with the dead body in a new environment is one of the questions that concern refugees who settle in foreign lands.

– What happens when refugees introduce new material practices of religion among populations that are anxious about them?

– How traditions are materially transmitted over long distances and borders?

– What can be carried and what has to be left behind?

– What happens when people are moving from their homes to escape an unbearable present and future?

– How is the suffering and exodus understood religiously?

– What is the road to conversion (to the secular or the religious)?

– What does the category of trauma tells us?

We invite abstracts of 500 words maximum by 9 April 2018 that can be used for inviting full papers. These abstracts have to be sent to vdvoffice@mmg.mpg.de. Those who are selected will be invited to submit a full paper by 1 September 2018. The intention is to publish an edited volume and the organizers will have first right of refusal.

More information at: Religious Matters Research Program