Call for Papers

Date: July 9-12, 2019

Venue:  Barcelona, Spain

Proposal Submission Deadline: December 16, 2018

Session Conveners:

• Mary Lou Rasmussen, Australian National University
• Elisabeth Arweck, University of Warwick

Organized religion is currently experiencing profound generational change in Europe and the Anglophone world. Young people are increasingly identifying as non-religious.

What does this mean for the sociology of religion and education? Political debates about religion, politics and education often exclude the voices of children and young people. Do young people still want to get educated about religion? What is the relevance of education about religion when increasingly young people are declaring themselves as having no faith?

What does this mean for future imaginings of education about religion? Through social media and digital cultures contemporary teenagers are exposed to diverse perspectives on religion, politics and education. How are their experiences mediated by where they go to school, their faith, their politics, their gender and sexual identity and their geographic location and ethnic identity? How is this shaping their worldviews? What is taking the place of religion in young people’s lives in relation to education about ethics/spirituality/morality? Education about gender, and sexuality is being weaponized by the recent resurgence of nationalism and populism in some European countries – take recent debates in Hungary over attempts to ban gender studies.

Source: https://www.sisr-issr.org/en/conferences/sessions