(RaTiRDaCC 2023)
Organized by: RWTH Aachen University (Germany) and IIT Madras (India)
November 21-23, 2023, IIT Madras, INDIA
Call for Papers
Papers
are invited (from early researchers, post-doctoral scholars, Faculty
and practitioners), for an International Conference to be held from
November 21 to 23, 2023 at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras,
Chennai, India. This conference aims to discuss the interplay and
adaptation strategies in, and between, the realms of religion and
technology in an age of tremendous transformations. Among the
transformations, we particularly wish to emphasize the rapid
developments with regard to the digital world and the climate, and the
considerable global changes and challenges they have produced. We think
of ‘religion’ in this context as a key source for value-based solutions,
and of ‘technology’ as a specific approach to the world. We regard
religion and technology as mirror image twins and thus envisage projects
on the changing forms of impacts through both of them.
Recent
trends in religious studies have emphasized “material religion” - with
focus on the material elements of practice rather than just on
theological or doctrinal matters. This turn opens up the way for the
history of technology productively to intervene in a number of ways.
Historians can illuminate the way objects exist in public performances
of religious identity and belonging, and the changes in religion and
religious practices, riding on technological advances (like online
darshans/meditations, social-media channels, online groups, ‘Apps’,
etc.). Beyond organized mainstream religions, papers can also look at
the interface of technology and the ‘magical’ (acts, spirit possession,
black magic), and other so-called 'demonic' work. Others may put the
spotlight on the architecture of religious structures, the spiritual
character of engineering works, the changing light, sound and other
aesthetic elements, and how these changes reshape public participation
both in terms of religion and technological usage and challenges.
Ethical challenges like loss of privacy, anxiety about the human
person’s distinctiveness and dignity, and mankind’s handling of the
environment need to be discussed too with regard to increasing
digitization and climate change. With the above broad lineaments,
proposals can relate themselves to any of the following specific themes:
1. Religion and the Digital World
– the Digital as a method to capture and describe the world and our
livelihoods; vast increase around the world in the use of
telecommunication and digital technologies for promotion of both
traditional and new-age faiths – their increased valency especially
amidst the Covid-19-induced restrictions on physical gatherings; ways in
which pilgrimages have been transformed due to the new digital
facilities (from travel planning to booking darshans);
theological/philosophical re-orientations and reflections centered on
these new openings.
2. Technology and Religion in the Context of Climate Change
– possible solutions to the challenge of climate change from
religion/theology; their distinctiveness from secular thought/debates;
how climate change has impacted on the self-understanding of religions,
their dogmatic, social and moral positions; the climate discourse as a
modern form of apocalypticism; practical manifestation of ecological
sensitivity - influencing the building of mosques, churches, and
temples; influence of local communities and indigenous knowledge
systems.
3. Artificial Intelligence –
philosophical and spiritual/theological reflections touching on
fundamental questions of Being, Consciousness and the (Post)human;
parallelism in the ‘transcendence’ sought to be attained by spiritual
efforts/exercises and those wrought by new spatial categories like
‘metaverse’ (going beyond our understandings of the ‘cyberworld’), and
other such ontological questions and dilemmas.
4. Technology and Religious scholarship/pedagogy
– from printing press to online theology classes; role of technology in
preservation of religious materials and creation of religious
repositories like digitisation of palm leaf manuscripts, building
devotional hymns database; the regional variations in approach and
content; the various innovative practices in creation, delivery and
marketing; the subjectivity of technology and its power to include and
exclude.
5. Representation of Religious-Technological life worlds
– in literature, arts and films including science fiction/ climate
fiction; representations of knowledge in policies and practices
affecting the lives on the ground.
In terms of
methodology, it is hoped that the various proposals and papers would
throw forth a rich mix of different approaches and source materials -
including intercultural theology, oral history, decolonizing research
methodologies, archival work, textual and media analysis, ethnographic
research, social analysis, theoretical formulations and
ethical/philosophical reflections.
To submit a paper proposal, please send the following information on a single-sided document in English, before 23 May 2023 to ratirdacc23@gmail.com. - A provisional Title and the Theme Number it would fit under (nos. 1 to 5 – see above)
- Full name and academic post/institutional affiliation of the author/s
- Full postal and email-addresses
- An
outline of about 400 words, highlighting the relevance of the paper to
the conference themes, or other forms of interaction between technology
and religion, and the main contribution/argument of the proposed paper
- 5-10 keys words
Information
about the acceptance of a paper will be given by end of May 2023
together with guidelines for the paper and its presentation and the
Registration fee payment mode. [A nominal registration fee of Rs.500 (15
USD for international participants) is payable]. Complete papers must
be received by 25 August 2023. Papers (along with session schedule),
will be made available for pre-reading to registered participants. Some
of the papers presented at the Conference will be chosen for further
expansion and inclusion in a special issue of a relevant journal of high
international standing, or in an Edited Volume. (Presentation of paper
in the Conference does not automatically guarantee publication).
Most
of the outstation speakers will be provided accommodation from 20th
November to the evening of 24th November 2023 in the IITM Guest House at
a nominal cost of Rs 500 to 1000 per night depending on the size and
occupancy (single/double) of the room. Participants who are unable to
travel can participate online. Travel or other forms of financial
assistance, if any, will be announced if adequate funds are raised.
TIMELINE
Deadline for submission of Abstracts – May 23 2023
Intimation about selected Abstracts - May 30
Deadline for submission of first Drafts - Aug 25
Conference: Nov 21 - 23, 2023
Intimation about Papers selected for Publication – Dec 3 2023
Resubmission of the selected Papers [for Peer Review] - Jan 10 2024
