Date: December 5-6, 2019

Venue: University of Newcastle, Callaghan, Australia

Co-hosted by: the AASR, the Centre for the Study of Violence and the School of Humanities and Social Sciences.

The relationship between religion and violence continues to be contentious and marked by significant changes in global and domestic politics including humanitarian crises, displaced peoples particularly asylum seekers, the rise and fall of extremist religious movements, the status of hate speech, the role of social media and the ongoing threat of religious terrorism.

These major upheavals, particularly the claims to religious authority and legitimacy through violent means, have led to a growth in collective anxiety threatening global and local security.  Religious violence can be direct and institutional; aimed against individuals or groups; administered by the state or by non-state actors; material and symbolic.

Conference topics include:

• the relationship between religious identity and violent extremism
• state management of religious violence including the regulation of social media and hate speech
• state perpetration of religious violence
• perceptions and constructions of religious violence
• theoretical approaches to the meaning of religious violence including examples of scapegoating and symbolic forms of violence
• the relationship between gender, sexuality, religion and violence with particular attention to current issues of clergy abuse and domestic violence
• representations of religious violence in popular culture
• race, ethnicity, otherness and religious violence
• religion and animal rights
• religious movements for peace and social cohesion

Conference Website: https://www.aasr.org.au/2019-conference