I hope all is well with you. I am writing several important announcements regarding the ASR election, conference submissions, and grants/awards opportunities.

  1. The 2024 ASR election is now open. Please log into your ASR account at sociologyofreligion,org and click on the box to cast your ballot. This year we are electing a President-Elect and three council members. The election will remain open until March 15, 2024.
  2. The deadline for the Gallagher Grants has been extended to March 15, 2024. You can learn more about these and other grants/awards on the ASR website and apply for the competitions by logging into your ASR account.
  3. We are now accepting paper abstracts, mini workshops, and complete session proposals for our 2024 conference in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Please log into your ASR account at sociologyofreligion.org to upload your submission. For any questions, contact the Co-Program Chairs, Andrea Henderson-Platt (akhender@mailbox.sc.edu) & Aida Ramos. You can learn more about the conference by visiting the annual meeting page on the ASR website. You can make your room reservations here.
  4. Our 2024 conference will once again feature three symposium. The submission process for these symposium is different than our regular conference submission. We are still accepting submissions for two of the symposia (LISTED BELOW).
  5. If you experience any trouble with your account or have questions, please email the ASR Executive Officer for assistance. We continue to make upgrades to our website and membership system. We appreciate your patience.

— Rachel Kraus, ASR Executive Officer

Symposium Title: Interdisciplinary Scholars of Race and Religion

Studies of race and religion have produced valuable insights since DuBois wrote on the Souls of Black Folk. Although knowledge creation in the area of race and religion is robust, it has been hampered by disciplinary silos. Sociology, religious studies, anthropology, psychology, and theology each inform understandings of how religion is raced, yet, too often, these scholarly initiatives operate in isolation. To bridge these divides, and in cooperation with the Religion and Public Life Program at Rice University, we invite submissions to our second annual interdisciplinary Race and Religion symposium.

Interested participants should submit an abstract related to the proposed session topics of no more than 250 words to Oneya Fennell Okuwobi (okuwobof@ucmail.uc.edu) and Rachel Schneider (rsv2@rice.edu). The deadline for submissions is 11:59pm on March 8th.

Symposium Title: “Religion and the COVID-19 Pandemic?”

We welcome presentations based on qualitative or quantitative research, or on media analysis, that address any of the following questions:

  1. How did religion and public institutions interact during the COVID-19 pandemic? (resistance, collaborations, resilience, etc.); What types of discourses around health, death, illness and science were developed?
  2. What critical and dynamic perspectives on religion and digital media emerged during and after the COVID-19 pandemic?
  3. What do comparative perspectives reveal about how religions in various national contexts navigated the pandemic?
  4. What analysis can be offered regarding the way in which inequalities were experienced in managing religious identities during the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly from an intersectional perspective (North-South; immigrants, minorities)?

If you would like to make a presentation at this symposium, please send a title/abstract proposal (250 words or less), as well as a one-paragraph biography (which includes your institutional affiliation) by March 15, 2024 to the symposium organizers: Solange Lefebvre (solange.lefebvre@umontreal.ca) and Roberta Ricucci (roberta.ricucci@unito.it)