Hello everyone,
As we start 2022, we at SAR wish you all the best for your life, health, and
New Year plans!
As always, we circulate monthly newsletters that consist of announcements and
current information related to the anthropology of religion. We hope to
include new books and articles, calls for papers, employment opportunities,
awards and prizes, conferences and workshops, publishing opportunities, grant
and fellowship opportunities, Society news, and any other information germane
to the anthropology of religion. If you have any information that you would
like to share with the broader SAR network, please do not hesitate to contact
me (febiramadhan2025@u.northwestern.edu )!
Also, keep up with the most recent SAR news and activities on our website,
Facebook, and Twitter pages!
Thank you,
Febi R. Ramadhan
SAR Communication Liaison
PhD Student, Northwestern University
Happy New Year from the President
Dear SAR community,
I wanted to pass a brief note along to the membership as I attempt to fill the
exceptionally large shoes that SAR past-President Courtney Handman left me.
We are launching several new initiatives to broaden the appeal of SAR
membership in an era of declining participation in scholarly societies.
First, is the monthly SAR newsletter you are now reading, which we launched
last December. The newsletter is very capably edited by Febi Ramadhan, so if
you have any news that would be of interest to SAR members, I encourage you to
send it to Febi so that it can be included in future issues. Second, we have
updated the SAR logo and website. Check them out at
https://sar.americananthro.org/. The website is generously maintained by
Douglas Bafford of Holy Cross. We would like to broaden the appeal of the
website so if you have text, photographs, or other content that is appropriate
for website, please send it to Doug and me. Third, we encourage members to
submit invited sessions to the SAR for the 2022 AAA annual meeting in scenic
Seattle. Lastly, the Society is only as strong and as active as its
membership and there are ample ways to get involved, including by running for
an open board position (see below). If you have ideas for ways that we can
work together to enhance the activities and outreach of the Society please get
in touch with me. If anyone is interested in organizing a webinar for SAR
members and fellow travelers, that would be a great way to leverage the SAR’s
institutional rubric to promote scholarly inquiry and academic collegiality.
I look forward to working with everyone over the next two years!
Best wishes for 2022,
Daromir Rudnyckyj
President, Society for the Anthropology of Religion
Professor, University of Victoria
Society News
The AAA elections are just around the corner and there are ample opportunities
to get involved in the leadership of the SAR Board! The Society of the
Anthropology of Religion will have the following positions open in the next
AAA election:
1. President
2. Secretary
3. Student Member
4. Member-at-Large (4 positions)
SAR members are welcome to run for any of these positions. Self-nominations
are accepted. If you would like to run for one of these positions, please send
your nomination materials to Daromir Rudnyckyj, SAR President, at
daromir@uvic.ca as an attached MS Word file no later than February 1, 2022.
Nomination materials should consist of a biographical sketch, a platform
statement, and a photo. Please make the filename your nomination materials as
follows: “lastname.docx”. Please be sure your photo is .jpg with your last
name as the filename. Please be sure to follow the precise instructions in the
attached MS Word document in composing your nomination materials.
If you have any questions about serving on the board, please feel free to
contact daromir@uvic.ca or one of the other current board members listed at
our website!
New Books and Articles
Faith in Flux: Pentecostalism and Mobility in Rural Mozambique
Devaka Premawardhana
University of Pennsylvania Press, 2021 (Paperback)
Link: https://www.upenn.edu/pennpress/book/15789.html
Learning Morality, Inequalities, and Faith: Christian and Muslim Schools in
Tanzania
Hansjörg Dilger
Cambridge University Press, 2021
Link:
https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/learning-morality-inequalities-and-faith/16257CE0CC490625108DB9875B40803A
Religion and the ‘Secular Shadow’: Responses to COVID-19 in Ethiopia
Terje Østebø, Kjetil Tronvoll, & Marit Tolo Østebø
Religion, 2021
Link: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0048721X.2021.1943769
God’s Wrath in the Era of the Digidemic: Religious Interpretations of Covid-19
Terje Østebø, Kjetil Tronvoll, Marit Tolo Østebø
Journal of the American Academy of Religion, 2021
Link:
https://academic.oup.com/jaar/advance-article/doi/10.1093/jaarel/lfab099/6454862?login=true
Intersections of Political Power, Religion, and Public Health in Africa:
Covid-19, Tanzanian President Magufuli, and Nigerian Prophet T. B. Joshua
Laura A. Meek
Somatosphere, 2021
Link:
http://somatosphere.net/2021/magufuli-joshua-public-health-covid-tanzania-meek.html/
Multi-religiosity in Contemporary Sri Lanka: Innovation, Shared Spaces,
Contestations
Edited by Mark P. Whitaker, Darini Rajasingham-Senanayake, Pathmanesan
Sanmugeswaran
Contributors: Alex McKinley, Anton Piyarathne, Darini Rajasingham-Senanayake,
Dennis McGilvray, Dominic Esler, Eva Ambos, H.L Seneviratne, Harini
Amarasuriya, Jude Fernando, Kalinga Tudor Silva, Malathi de Alwis, Mark P.
Whitaker, Mythri Jegathesan, Neena Mahadev, Pathmanesan Sanmugeswaran,
Sasikumar Balasundaram, Selvy Thiruchandran
Routledge, 2022
Link:
https://www.routledge.com/Multi-religiosity-in-Contemporary-Sri-Lanka-Innovation-Shared-Spaces/Whitaker-Rajasingham-Senanayake-Sanmugeswaran/p/book/9780367862343
Call for Papers
Religion in an Unstable World: Challenges, Transformations, and Future
Prospects
Sociology of Religion Biennial Conference, July 13-15, 2022
Proposal deadline: January 31, 2022
Link:
https://www.rug.nl/research/centre-for-religious-studies-new/research-centres/centre-religion-conflict-globalization/esa-rn34-conference/
The Materiality of Lived Religion: Evocations, Persuasions, Outrage
The Working Group on Lived Religion in Eastern Europe and Eurasia Annual
Conference, June 22-24, 2022
Abstract deadline: February 15, 2022
Link: https://www.livedreligion.com/news
Buddhism in the Anthropocene
Center for Contemporary Buddhist Studies, Max Plank Institute for Social
Anthropology, July 14-15, 2022
Abstract deadline: February 28, 2022
Link: https://twitter.com/SaskiaAbrahmsK/status/1480575673404170249
Representations and Interpretations of the Passion and Death of Christ: Global
Perspectives
Religions
Manuscript deadline: April 15, 2022
Link:
https://www.mdpi.com/journal/religions/special_issues/passion_death_Christ
Podcast
Living with Religious Difference – Ruins, Treasures, and Memories of State
Violence in Eastern Anatolia
Dr Marlene Schäfers talked to Dr Anoush Suni (Northwestern University) about
her research on the reverberations of the historic Armenian presence in the
lives of contemporary Kurdish communities in eastern Anatolia. Together they
explore how the memory of the Armenian past lives on within Kurdish
communities, how legacies of state violence materialize in ruins and
treasures, and discuss how Armenian religious sites take on new meaning within
Kurdish life worlds.
Link:
https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/player.captivate.fm/episode/9d50e154-a6bb-4f2f-8fa3-6035aa9b79f9/__;!!Dq0X2DkFhyF93HkjWTBQKhk!HJ2bxX-RDIpalvk_FkctflhZyJv-40VHuXeJcvTmfPl3lMXvILoYRj5j5webJbMWE4SBAavrhwLtYi1q$
Employment Opportunities
Visiting Assistant Professor of Religious Studies (Indigenous Traditions)
Religious Studies Department, Hamilton College
Closing Date: January 24, 2022
Further information: https://apply.interfolio.com/100639
Assistant Professor of Anthropology
Department of Anthropology, Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences,
Universiteit van Amsterdam
Closing Date: January 31, 2022
Further information:
https://vacatures.uva.nl/UvA/job/Assistant-Professor-of-Anthropology/737260802/
Assistant Research Professor in Biblical Studies and/or Early Judaism (non-
tenure track)
Department of Classics and Ancient Mediterranean Studies, Pennsylvania State
University
Closing Date: Position open until filled
Further information:
https://psu.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/PSU_Academic/job/University-Park-Campus/Assistant-Research-Professor_REQ_0000023001-1?source=HigherEdJobs
Assistant Professor in Religion and Culture
Department of Religion and Culture, Wilfrid Laurier University
Closing Date: Position open until filled
Further information:
https://www.wlu.ca/about/governance/senior-leadership/vice-president-academic/assets/resources/black-scholar-religion-culture.html?fbclid=IwAR2tL3kYASwJVv_awpHBDxtELZJRabkEge4OOn9HgZU0BIhaqq87IELAMdo