National Catholic Reporter, Jan 11 2018

ASR Past-President Michelle Dillon reports on the changing levels of religious commitment among American Catholic women, based on the April, 2017, sixth iteration of the Catholics in Transition survey.  Among the findings is a difference from the 25-year decline in commitment that the team found from its 2011 survey:

“The overall story is one of stability, and even slightly increased commitment, rather than further decline. Catholic women’s weekly Mass attendance has stabilized. In 2011, continuing a pattern of sharp decline from the late 1980s, 31 percent of women went to Mass weekly, and a similar proportion reported weekly Mass in 2017 (see Figure 1). Today, women are just slightly more likely than men to go to […]

The Religion and Public Life Program (RPLP) at Rice University, directed by Prof. Elaine Howard Ecklund, has launched a new podcast! RELIGION UNMUTED is the podcast that brings women’s voices to the table. We explore how religion impacts public discourse around important social issues, like racism, politics, immigration, health, and the body. Join us for research-driven dialogue that amplifies women’s voices in conversation about religion and public life. Subscribe on Apple podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen; or listen to our latest episode here: https://rplp.rice.edu/research-studies/turning-tables-gender-and-religion.

From its cosmopolitan ports and ultra-modern cities to its ancient heartland to villages where diverse ethnic groups have participated in the cultural mix of China for centuries, China is a land of extraordinary cultural and historical breadth.

The 2019 Heartland and Borderlands Religious Study Tour of China will focus on Chinese Catholics who share in and contribute to the life of their local communities in a range of cultural settings in China. Interested participants can view the study tour itinerary below or visit https://www.uscatholicchina.org/tour-2019sw.

Those who cannot participate in 2019 can drop me a brief note to be kept informed of similar events in 2020.

TOUR LEADER 

Michael Agliardo, SJ, Ph.D.
Executive Director of the USCCA and research scholar, department of sociology, Santa Clara […]

Call for Papers

Call for Papers: What’s Jewish about death? – A Special Issue of SHOFAR: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Jewish Studies 

Guest Editors: Laura Limonic, Assistant Professor of Sociology, SUNY Old Westbury; Tahneer Oksman, Assistant Professor of Academic Writing, Marymount Manhattan College 

Journal Editors: Eugene Avrutin, University of Illinois; Ranen Omer-Sherman, University of Louisville 

In her foreword to Jack Reimer’s foundational 1974 edited collection, Jewish Reflections on Death, a book that explores Jewish death and mourning through assorted lenses, Elisabeth Kubler-Ross inquires, “I have always wondered why the Jews as a people have not written more on death and dying. Who, better than they, could contribute to our understanding of the need to face the reality of our own finiteness?” Certainly, from the Kabbalah […]

Call for papers

Religious identity and education:
A response to contemporary global pressures

A special issue in the Forum for International Research in Education slotted for publication in fall 2018.

One of the challenges and pressures which globalization has engendered for national education systems, schools, and classrooms worldwide is the growth of religious diversity. Thus, in many places, religious diversity has become a new reality of schooling, to which educators do not necessarily know how to properly respond. Moreover, in the context of religious resurgences around the globe, the growth of religious diversity is often associated with the increase in significance of one’s religious identity and its ardent embrace. By contrast, in secularized settings, there is often […]

Dear Colleagues,

This invitation was originally submitted to help produce an Asian American oversample which would include large subsamples of multiple religious groups. The survey however is multiracial and can result in many possibilities for multiple groups comparisons. The deadlines are fast approaching as this is an initiative by political scientists who want to roll this out in November. Support and survey questions are due ASAP. Please contact Janelle Wong for more specific details, and I can try and answer your questions as well.

Best,

Jerry Park

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We (Janelle Wong [U-MD, College Park] and Jerry Park [Baylor]) write to invite you to participate in the Fall 2016 Collaborative Multi-Racial Post-Election Survey (CMPS) […]