6/7/10
fyi (as received)
Elisabeth
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The Research Education Program Religion & Society, Copenhagen=3D20
University presents:
PhD course (lecture & workshop)
"RELIGION ON THE MOVE:
MAPPING GLOBAL CULTURAL PRODUCTION AND CONSUMPTION"
by Professor of Sociology Peggy Levitt, Wellesley College
University of Copenhagen, Dec. 13 and 14, 2010
Venue to be announced
Preliminary program:
Public lecture on December 13, 1-3 pm
"Migrants, pilgrims, social movement members, and scholars all =
carry=3D20
religion. Religious objects, narratives, and spirits circulate
actively=3D20
and frequently within and between the layers of religious social fields.
=3D
Yet, we still talk of national religions-of American Protestantism =
or=3D20
French Islam. Many scholarly and popular accounts are based on the=3D20
assumption that religious practices and organizations obediently respect
=3D
national boundaries and that they have unique, identifiable =
national=3D20
qualities of their own. We take stasis and boundedness as the=3D20
organizing principles of religious life while, in fact, religious
ideas=3D20
and practices are constantly and unabashedly in motion. In this lecture,
=3D
I will argue for the need to study religious movement and connection and
=3D
suggests ways of thinking through what happens when religious
elements=3D20
collide. Rather than assuming that religious life stays primarily=3D20
within contained spaces (be they religious traditions, congregations
or=3D20
nations), we should start from the assumption of circulation and=3D20
linkages. Religion is not a packageable, stable set of beliefs and=3D20
practices rooted in a particular bounded time and space. Instead, it
is=3D20
a contingent clustering of objects, bodies, and beliefs that come=3D20
together within a to-be-determined space riddled by power and
interests=3D20
that is shaped and reshaped through constant circulation and =
contact.=3D20
It is not a cohesive, rooted whole but a loosely constructed assemblage,
=3D
created from actors, materiality, and ideas traveling at different rates
=3D
and rhythms, across different scales and scopes. What explains =
what=3D20
happens at these sites of encounter where different religious
elements=3D20
and actors come together? Are there patterns of systematic=3D20
configuration or blockage and, if so, why? What social and =
political=3D20
work gets done, and whose interests are served, when religion is=3D20
conceptualized as a cohesive, bounded system and therefore
controllable=3D20
as such?"
Workshop on December 14, 9-4 pm.
"In this workshop, I will further develop some of the themes I laid
out=3D20
in my first lecture by focusing on the ways in which immigrants are=3D20
transforming the American religious landscape. In God Needs No=3D20
Passport, I studied how Gujarati Hindus, Pakistani Muslims, =
Brazilian=3D20
Protestants, and Irish Catholics living in the Boston Metropolitan
area=3D20
and their family members back home used religious networks to live lives
=3D
that cross borders and to understand how the religious landscape changes
=3D
as a result. I found that, in many ways, American religion is just =
as=3D20
global as its economics and politics. New immigrants import new=3D20
religious traditions, and they "Asianize" and "Latinoize" old ones.
To=3D20
safeguard and expand the parameters of religious pluralism, =
Christian=3D20
America has to be willing to recognize that not all religions fit into a
=3D
Christian box."
Students are invited to make presentations, papers (max 5 pages) to
be=3D20
forwarded by November 15.
ECTS (lecture & workshop) to be announced.
Questions and registration (deadline December 6):[log in to unmask]
Reading materials:
Levitt, Peggy 2005: God Needs No Passport: Immigrants and the
Changing=3D20
American Religious Landscape. New York: The New Press, 2007.
Vasquez, Manuel 2005: "Historicizing and Materializing The Study of=3D20
Religion: The Contribution of Migration Studies" in Karen Leonard,
Alex=3D20
Stepick, and Jennifer Holdaway (eds.): Immigrant Faiths: =
Transforming=3D20
Religious Life in America, AltaMira Press: Lanham
Glick Schiller et al. 2009. "Towards a Comparative Theory of Locality in
=3D
Migration Studies: Migrant Incorporation and City Scale", Journal =
of=3D20
Ethnic and Migration Studies,35 (2):177-2.
Nadia Jeldtoft
PhD Fellow
Faculty of Theology
K=3DF8bmagergade 44-46
Postbox 2164
1150 Copenhagen K
TEL +45 35 32 26 26
DIR +45 35 32 39 87
FAX +45 35 32 36 10
[log in to unmask]
www.teol.ku.dk
_______________________________________________
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