Religion and Immigration workshop – CFP
Date: June 7-9, 2022
Location: Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan, Israel.
An interdisciplinary workshop, supported by the Israel Science Foundation, exploring the role of religion in the social and cultural integration of immigrants. Cosponsored by INIRE – the International Network for Interreligious Research and Education: https://sites.duke.edu/inire/
Conference will follow Covid safety regulations. Online presentation may be possible.
Send title and a short abstract (150 words) by 1/4/2022 to hilda.nissimi@biu.ac.il. Acceptance letters will be sent out by April 15, 2022.
In the aftermath of the refugee crisis that shook European societies in the last decade and the divisive debate on migration to the United States, the prospect of cultural and religious conflict has increased and extremist politics now threaten to undermine democratic cultures and processes. Yet, religious communities also extend hospitality to immigrants and often lead the way in cultural and civic integration. Migrant religious leaders provide their communities with a sense of continuity of tradition, and local religious activists provide bridges to the new societies. The multifaceted roles religion plays in immigration are at the center of this conference.
Immigration has radically reshaped the global religious landscape throughout history. As religions enter new and unfamiliar territories, new religious, linguistic and cultural bridges form, and questions of religious change, conversion and secularization become acute. Theologies are transformed. Immigrants retain religious leadership or develop a new one, and both can enhance or disrupt integration. Religions often provide immigrants with the major channel for cautious adoption of local habitus, norms and ideas and negotiation of religious and cultural ideas into the hosting culture. They are a medium for major cultural encounters.
We hope to explore the role of religion in immigration from a post-secular perspective, that is, with the presumption that religions are key social players even in Western “secular” societies and that they should be explored both institutionally as diverse culture.
Our preferred format is a workshop, but participants may choose their mode of delivery (including PowerPoint). If you choose the workshop format, please note that full papers will be expected one month before the conference and presentations will be no longer than 15 minutes.
The conference is multidisciplinary and interreligious. Among the topics:
• Religious leaders as sources/purveyors of continuity.
• Theologians as cultural bridge-builders
• Religious activists as socializing agents
• Religion’s impact on integration: case-studies
• Religious activism, religious institutions and immigration.
• Religious communities facilitating integration.
• Religious organizations and refugees
• Religious sensibilities and humanitarian ideologies
• Religious organizations, lobbying, and immigration policy making
The list is not exclusive. Feel free to add.
The Organizing committee
Efrat Aviv
Serena Bazemore
Malachi Hacohen
Drorit Levi
Zohar Maor
Hilda Nissimi