Call for Applications – Public Religion, Spirituality and Lifestyle – UCSIA Summer School – 28 August-3 September 2016, Antwerp

Dear all,

We would like to draw your attention to the call for applications for the 2016 UCSIA summer school on “Religion, Culture and Society: Entanglement and Confrontation”. This summer school is a one-week course taking place from Sunday 28th of August until Sunday 3rd of September 2016 (dates of arrival and departure). This year the programme will focus on the topic of Public Religion, Spirituality and Lifestyle

Topic:

In this year’s programme, the summer school will discuss issues and questions arising from new emerging forms of religion and the way these emerge, contrast and complement existing religious histories and structures.

‘Spiritual but not religious’ youth, Green Muslims, westerners converting to Buddhism and New Age movements, the re-emergence of Confucianism in Communist China, but also sects, the anti-vaccination movement and (g)local jihadists, these examples show how different forms of religion and religiosity meander through social realities today. On the one hand these (new) spiritual movements may want to move away from fixed dogmatic religious formulations and embedded power structures to give form to a deep desire to live a meaningful life, at the other hand they may also look for ways to contest expressions of modern day life. At the same time also organized religions look at ways to give an answer to contemporary issues by renewing their religious traditions, dogmas and structures.

Guest lecturers are Candy Gunther Brown (Religious Studies, Indiana University); Thijl Sunier (Cultural Anthropology, Faculty of Social Sciences, VU University Amsterdam); Adam Yuet Chau (Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, University of Cambridge); & Linda Woodhead (Sociology of Religion, Lancaster University).

Practical details:

Participation and stay for young scholars and researchers are free of charge. Participants should pay for their own travel expenses to Antwerp.

You can submit your application via the electronic submission form on the summer school website. The completed file as well as all other required application documents must be submitted to the UCSIA Selection Committee not later than Sunday 15 May 2016.

For further information regarding the programme and application procedure, please have a look at our website: www.ucsia.org/summerschool.

Please help us to distribute this call for applications among PhD students and postdoctoral scholars who might be interested in applying for this summer school.

For all further information, do not hesitate to contact us on the address below.

Best regards,

Sara Mels
Project coordinator
sara.mels@ucsia.be

www.ucsia.org