Call for Papers

In late June we will be conducting an interdisciplinary symposium on the topic “Religious ‘Others’, Schooling, and the Negotiation of Civic Identities“, in Hanover/Germany.

We would ask interested Junior scholars (Ph.D. level, Post-Doc or Junior lecturers) to submit in the next couple of weeks an abstract (of approximately 500 words) of a possible paper presentation at the symposium. (No senior scholar slots (assistant professor or tenured) are available any more at this point). If the paper is accepted, your travel and accommodation expenses would be covered by the event. We would be able to offer a final answer by mid-January.

Julia Eksner

Ph.D. Adjunct, Program in Intercultural Education
Freie Universität Berlin
Habelschwerdter Allee 45
Room KL 23/236
14195 Berlin – e-mail: eksner@googlemail.com

Zvi Bekerman

Ph.D. School of Education, Melton Center
Hebrew University
Jerusalem
Israel, 91905 – e-mail: zvi.bekerman@mail.huji.ac.il

“Religious ‘Others’, Schooling, and the Negotiation of Civic Identities”

Interdisciplinary Symposium – 25 to 28.06.2014

Summary :

The symposium will explore the relationship between hegemonic discourses of citizenship, religio-cultural belonging, and the negotiation of civic identities among religio-cultural minority youths in educational settings. The question of how non-dominant youths negotiate their civic identities as citizens in light of their coexisting religio-cultural identities has been at the center of a heated debate in many modern societies. The ongoing public concern about the resurgence of the religious – and here especially the religious ‘other’ – in the public sphere has led to the emergence of a public debate over how to handle the ‘religious’ in the institutions, civic society, and public sphere of ‘postsecular’ society. The symposium will explore how societal master narratives about secularity, religion/ the religious ‘other,’ and citizenship are instantiated in the everyday practices of schools and classrooms, and how students from religious minority groups in turn come to navigate their identities as citizens.

These questions will be theorized and explored empirically in presentations, round tables, and discussion workshops focused on 1) the macro-level of hegemonic formations of citizenship and belonging, with attention to the role of the religious ‘other’ in these formations, 2) the micro-level of everyday practices through which these formations are enacted in curricula and in the classroom, 3) the personal experience of moments of inclusion, exclusion, and silencing, and 4) the policy level of ongoing transformations and mutual openings.

50 researchers –half each senior faculty and junior researchers – from four continents and from a wide range of disciplines will participate and explore the interdisciplinary topic. Two events for junior researchers will be organized: a pre-symposium workshop as well as a ‘meeting point’ to facilitate networking between senior and junior researchers. Conference proceedings will be published with open access.