Catherine Holtmann, Director of the Muriel McQueen Fergusson Centre for Family Violence Research (MMFC) and Nancy Nason-Clark, director of the MMFC’s Religion and Violence Research Team at the University of New Brunswick, in Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada invite researchers and graduate students to submit paper proposals for a workshop that will take place September 13-14, 2016.

Issues related to religious diversity and family violence are of particular importance, given the persistently high rates of family violence around the world, the us/them binary between native-born and immigrants in public discourse, and the debates concerning honour crimes and domestic violence fueled by Islamophobia.  Proposals from multiple disciplinary perspectives are welcome, including Sociology, Religious Studies, Social Work, Law, Psychology, Political Science and Gender Studies.  We encourage scholars working from or within different faith perspectives, such as Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, Christianity and other religious groups to submit proposals.

Papers can address any of the following topics:

  • the relationship between religion, gender and different forms of family violence including intimate partner violence, child abuse, dating violence and the abuse of older adults;
  • the tensions and conflicts between human rights and patriarchal religious practices;
  • policy and legal implications of religious diversity and family violence in specific contexts;
  • religious understandings and practices of gender equality and gender complementarity;
  • honour crimes and family violence;
  • abuse perpetrated by religious leaders;
  • the intergenerational transmission of family violence and abuse;
  • the relationship between sacred texts and family violence;
  • the response of public service providers to abused religious women and children;
  • responses to family violence that incorporate aboriginal spiritual practices;
  • the challenges associated with addressing family violence amongst religious minority groups; and
  • including religious groups in a collaborative community response to family violence.

Please provide a title and an abstract of 200 words for your proposed paper. Please note proposals/presentations can be in either French or English.  A condition of participation is an agreement to present a near-publishable draft of the proposed paper at the workshop with the understanding that it will be submitted for possible inclusion in an edited collection resulting from the workshop. Participants will be asked to revise their papers post- presentation to bring them (within reason) into conversation with other relevant papers and ideas from the event, for submission by December 1, 2016.

Proposals are due by Noon April 1, 2016.

Proposals should be sent electronically to:  Kim Wade (kwade@unb.ca).

Further information can be obtained from Catherine Holtmann, cathy.holtmann@unb.ca or by phone at 506-458-7442.