The intersection of religion, individuation and belongingness is a complex and multidimensional issue that has spawned many interesting academic debates recently. These debates, in general, have centred or problematised the continuous relevance and political force of religion in the face of modernity and rationality and the post-secular reformulation of their basic presumptions. The issue is more expressive and pertinent in the current attempts of scrutinising the intimate connections and contradictions in presupposing Submission and Agency, Sacred and Profane, Private and Public. Recent scholarship has focused on interactions between religion and political institutions, the vast repertoire of religious traditions and practices, and the distinctiveness of sacred belongings from other forms of belonging. There is also an emerging emphasis on the ‘everyday’ and religion and its reflection on articulations of believing, behaving, and belonging. Especially with a phenomenological turn in the study of religion, the religious texts, symbols and practices, therefore, are not understood independently of their social extensions. This development is crucial to studying the interface between the region and gender. The continuous acknowledgement of patriarchy in feminist scholarship has given rise to a gender perspective that has a nuanced understanding of belonging and un-belonging. Another site where gender meets religion is protests of various sorts by women’s movements in South Asia for claiming citizenry rights and social and political spaces (Sabarimala Issue, Nuns fight against sexual harassment, multiple debates and contexts around Hijab in Iran, France and Karnataka, women’s gathering in Shaheen Bagh against CAA etc.). It is in this context the School of Gender Studies, Mahatma Gandhi University, in collaboration with the Centre for Cross-national Communication in South Asia, Mahatma Gandhi University is organising a two-day national seminar with a particular focus on the theme Belonging/Unbelonging: Religion, Gender and Everyday Politics in South Asia.
Major Sub Themes-1
SUB THEMES:
- Everyday Politics and Embodied Religiosity
- Religious Diversity and Pluralism
- Religion, State, and Governance Faith, Youth and Change
- Religion and Visuality in South Asia
- Religion and Ecology in South Asia
- Religion, Speech and Expression
- Marketing of the Sacred and Spiritual
- Migration, Religion, and Reformation
Major Sub Themes-2
SUB THEMES
- Religious Texts and Gender
- Religion, Gender and Activism
- Religion, Gender and Family
- Religion, Body and Social Space
- Gendered Mobilities and Immobilities in Religion
- Belonging in Religion
- Protesting Unbelongings
- Religion, Gender and Disability Religion,
- Gender and New Media Religion,
- Gender and Performance
- Religious Polarization and Gender
Important Dates:
Abstract submission deadline: 26 JANUARY
Acceptance notification FEBRUARY 1
Registration date FEBRUARY 1- 10
Full paper submission FEBRUARY 15
Conference date : FEBRUARY 28, 29
Submission link: https: //forms.gle/wzZfCp8QGP2yrJ4P8
Contact: conference2024onreligion@gmail.com
