Call for Papers
ESWTR Journal 2013

In-between Spaces

edited by Uta Blohm, Márta Bodó, Sigríður Guðmarsdóttir, Stefanie Knauss, Ruth Papacek

The in-between is often considered as a bare and infertile space. To venture into the borderland between two states, for example, can be fatal; it is a lawless area, threatening and chaotic, hostile to human well-being and flourishing. Yet recent reflections inspired by post-colonialist and queer theory have raised the awareness that the in-between is not necessarily sterile, but precisely because of its uncircumscribed, fluid nature, being non-identified and undefined, it can be the space where new ideas develop, new insights open up and new forms of relationship to the world and to other human beings take shape.
Theology and religious studies have always moved in an in-between space: because of their subject, the study of the human relationship with the transcendent, and because of their relationship both to academic research and to personal faith. In particular feminist and gender-conscious approaches in these fields find themselves very often in a borderland of identities and affiliations.
The interest and aim of this volume is to explore the in-between space in its positive and negative, challenging and limiting aspects, to investigate in which sense theology and religious studies move in an in-between, and in how far they are challenged by the in-between in many other senses (identity, geography, politics, academia...).

We therefore invite papers that explore the following themes:
• the characteristics of ‘in-between spaces’ as a both positive and problematic concept;
• theories of the ‘in-between’ as a category of theological and religious reflections from the perspective of gender;
• reflections on theology and religious studies as positioned in an academic or institutional borderland, the positive and negative consequences of this;
• theology and religious studies from a gender perspective as a borderland between academic research, personal experience and political activity;
• the in-between with regard to identity (national, sexual, class etc.) and its challenges to theology and religious studies;
• the in-between as a geographical or topographic notion (borderlands such as between Mexico and the US, the iron curtain etc.): can theology and religious studies flourish there, or even help to turn these areas into fertile ground?;
• being in-between political and socio-political systems and changes and their relation to feminist/gender-aware theology and religious studies;
• artistic explorations of the in-between and its meaning for human existence (theatre, film, video art, visual arts etc.);
• being in-between religions or denominations (sharing and exchange of traditions, patchwork, questing, dialogue...);
• the space between academic disciplines or methodologies and its challenges (between religious studies and theology; interdisciplinarity as a borderland etc.);
• how is the in-between explored in particular fields of theology, e.g. in which sense does the biblical text serve as an in-between space in relation to bodies, empires and cultures? Or how does religious education take place in an in-between or even requires it in order to be fruitful?
• all other subjects related to the in-between as a category of feminist and gender-conscious studies of religion and theology.

Submissions:
Completed papers should be submitted by September 15, 2012, in either English, German or Spanish to Ruth Papacek ([log in to unmask]), Marta Bodo ([log in to unmask]) or Stefanie Knauss ([log in to unmask]).
Papers should be 20.000–30.000 characters (including spaces). Please include a summary (max. 250 words) and a short author biography (max. 50 words). Papers submitted to the ESWTR Journal undergo an initial selection by the editors and then go through a double-blind peer review process.
Only papers that comply with the standards of the stylesheet can be accepted and forwarded to peer review; the stylesheet is available on the webpage of the journal (http://www.eswtr.org/journal_home.html) or from the above listed persons.
For further information, please contact Marta Bodo or Stefanie Knauss.