The 34^th Biennial Conference of the International Society for the Sociology of Religion (ISSR/SISR)

Date: July 4-7, 2017

Venue: University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland

Session Convener: Dr. Yaghoob Foroutan (Associate Professor, Mazandaran University, Iran & Research Associate, Waikato University, New Zealand)

• Muslims in the West: Patterns and Differentials

Convener:  Dr. Yaghoob Foroutan

This panel provides an avenue to consider the dimensions, determinants and differentials associated with the status of Muslims in the western contexts. This is an important issue due to the fact that this particular group are the adherents of the world’s fastest growing religion, i.e. Islam. This panel focuses on the status of Muslims in the western contexts in terms of socio-economic and demographic characteristics including gender dynamics and women’s status, childbearing and fertility patterns, labor force participation and employment status, integration and discrimination hypotheses, second generation, migration and ethnicity, and religiosity.

This panel addresses such key questions as, but limited to, whether and to what extent is the status of Muslims in the western contexts associated with their religious identity? In particular, do Muslims differ from other religious groups in terms of socio-economic and demographic characteristics? Are such experiences different within Muslims by ethnicity and compositional characteristics? Whether and how significantly are such experiences influenced by the religiosity of Muslims?

• Gender and Religion: Correlates and Causes

Conveners:  Dr. Mina Shojaei, Dr. Yaghoob Foroutan

This panel focuses on the place of religion in gender dynamics and women’s status. The term ‘religion’ here refers to all religions around the world (Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism, etc.), focusing either on a specific religion or on varying religions in order to highlight their consequences on women’s status from a comparative perspective. In particular, this panel explains the association between religion and gender in terms of a wide range of issues such as family formation patterns including marriage, childbearing and fertility, separation and divorce, new and emerging forms of family formation (like cohabitation etc.), religiosity, labor force participation and employment status, migration, intergenerational gaps related to the impact of religion on gender and women’s status, and so on.

This panel addresses such key questions as, but limited to, how gender and religion are correlated? Whether and how women’s status is associated with their religion? What does happen to the association between religion and gender upon migration? Whether and how significantly do intergenerational variations exist in terms of the effect of religion on women’s status?  Does the effect of a specific religion on women’s status vary in different settings? From a comparative perspective, what are the effects of varying religions (Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism, etc.) on gender dynamics and women’s status? Are there more important determinants than religion on women’s status?

Conference Website: http://wp.unil.ch/issr2017conference/