Call for Papers

“Islamophobia and/in Post-Secular States: Religion, Race, Science and Law”

Date: November 12-14, 2021

Venue: University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada / Online

Abstract Submission Deadline: July 15, 2021

Organizer: The Chester Ronning Centre for the Study of Religion in Public Life at the University of Alberta, Augustana Campus (in Camrose, Alberta)

Violence against religious and racialized populations has a significant history in the West: from the Inquisition, which targeted Muslims and Jews in the Iberian Peninsula; to ethnic cleansing and genocide of Indigenous and Native peoples in colonial and settler colonial states; to forced migration and enslavement of African populations, and the Global War on Terror, among many other examples. In fact, Islamophobia might have shaped the conceptualization and construction of the encounter between the West and its internal and external “other.”

The “Muslim subject” has appeared in different forms and shapes throughout history. Once thought to be confined to internal or individual prejudice, Islamophobia, or anti-Muslim racism and violence, is on the rise in Europe and North America. Although contemporary Western societies are considered to be post-secular, requiring citizens to accept the presence of diverse religious communities, they have, nonetheless, adopted various strategies of governing Muslim populations in and through emergencies, intervening into the rule of law with increased militarization, surveillance, and violations of human rights using law, technology, and the media. Analyses of the racialization of Muslim/Islam, securitization of Muslim/Islam, and discourses of rights prominently feature in scholarly and public discourse on Islamophobia.

Possible themes and topics include (but are not limited to):

1. New Approaches and Theorization of Islamophobia in Post-Secularity
2. Relationships between Science, Religion, Law and Islamophobia
3. Connections between (anti)-Blackness, (anti)-Indigeneity and Islamophobia
4. Transnational Activism against Anti-Muslim Racism
5. Functions of Islamic Ethics in the Post-Secular in Addressing/Combating Islamophobia
6. Diverse Religious Communities’ Efforts Against Islamophobia
7. Islamophobia and Reformation/Regulation of Islam

Source: University of Alberta