Religion and Migration Unit

The Religion and Migration Unit seeks individual paper proposals and panel proposals (presider, three presenters, and respondent). The Religion and Migration Unit is committed to diversity and inclusion.

Panel session proposals should incorporate gender diversity within the panel; diversity of race/ethnicity, and rank are also highly encouraged. The 2024 Religion and Migration Unit Call for Papers for the Annual Meeting to be held in San Diego, CA welcomes proposals on the following themes:

For Co-Sponsorship with Christian Spirituality Unit:

Theme: "Contemporary Spiritual Practices and their Dis/connections to Social Justice and Collective Healing with respect to Refugees and Migration."

For Co-Sponsorship with Women’s Caucus—International Section:

For a co-sponsored session by the Women’s Caucus – International Section and the Religion and Migration Unit, we invite proposals focused on the intersection of religion, migration, and gender. The category of gender is central to any discussion of the causes, characteristics, and consequences of migration, violence, and non-violence. We welcome empirical as well as theoretical papers that explore the involvement of the category of gender into the dynamics of religion and migration, including topics such as:

Gender based violence including sexualized violence, forced migration in past and current wars; the role of religion in limiting or legitimizing gender-based violence against people on the move; the uses and abuses of the category of gender in political debate and public discourse about migration in international and US-American contexts; gender relations in migrant families, division of labor, or social networks; feminist, queer theory and epistemology in the study of religion, gender and migration;  how gendered practices are maintained or challenged and deconstructed or reinstalled in migration contexts; "rethinking" of religion and migration to develop solutions to gendered issues that cause 'othering' violence.

For Co-Sponsorship with the Religion and Human Rights Unit:

We invite proposals focused on the intersection of religion, migration, and violence/nonviolence. Topics may include:

• Borders as sites of violence against marginalized communities, and/or sites of nonviolent resistance
• Violence and marginalization in cases of forced migration, including “survival migration”
• Climate change and environmental destruction as a type of violence that forces people to move
• Consideration of human rights of migrants and refugees as well as human rights protection of communities who are marginalized and on the move, including contemporary challenges to human rights regimes through the realities of migration

Finally, we offer an open call for any other topics dealing with religion and migration, especially proposals that address theoretical and methodological issues at the intersection of migration and religious studies. We are also interested in hosting a book panel, so please feel free to submit panel proposals for recently published books on Migration and Religion (author, panelists, and respondents).