Section 11 of the American Political Science Association
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One of the areas of political science: Religion and Politics!
What motivated you to write your latest book Beyond Religious Freedom?
Beyond Religious Freedom is my response to what I see as a need to rethink how we approach the study of religion and politics in the field of international relations. There’s been a gold-rush mentality lately as scholars scurry to ‘get religion right’ – but many of these efforts are confused, or even troubling. The problem, as I discuss in more detail elsewhere, is that international relations ‘got religion’ but got it wrong. Beyond Religious Freedom encourages scholars to step back from the political fray. It neither celebrates religion for its allegedly peaceful potential nor condemns it for its allegedly violent tendencies. Instead, I propose a new conceptual framework for the study of religion and public life. It accounts for the gaps and tensions that I perceived between the large-scale international legal, political and religious engineering projects undertaken in the name of religious freedom, toleration, and rights, and the realities of the individuals and communities subjected to these efforts.
This disjuncture is reflected on the cover, in a photo taken by Samia Errazzouki of the desert with a sand berm in the distance and hand-made flowers sticking out of the sand in the foreground. The Moroccans built the berm in the 1980s during the war against the Polisario in an effort to divide Western Sahara, which they control, from the free zone controlled by the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic. The flowers … {more here}
The interview was conducted by John A. Rees during a symposium on ‘The Politics of Religious Freedom in the Asia-Pacific’ hosted by the Religion and Global Society Program, an initiative of the Institute for Ethics and Society at the University of Notre Dame Australia.
Book: Beyond Religious Freedom: The New Global Politics of Religion. Princeton University Press, 2015. – amazon | barnes&noble
Save the date: December 16, 2016
Menlo College
Who
Political scientists interested in the political attitudes and behavior of Muslim Americans. Scholars already planning to attend include: Matt Barreto, UCLA; Lisa Bryant, CSU Fresno; Karam Dana, UW, Bothell; Amaney Jamal, Princeton; and Ozan Kalkan, Eastern Kentucky University.
What
An all-day workshop on the political experiences of Muslim Americans to discuss what we know, what we don’t know, and how to move forward to improve the state of knowledge.
Venue
The workshop will take place at Menlo College in Atherton, CA with easy access from the SFO and San Jose airports.
Organized by Brian Calfano (University of Cincinnati), Nazita Lajevardi (UCSD), and Melissa Michelson (Menlo College).
"The APSA Religion and Politics Section brings together scholars interested in the study of the interrelations between religion and politics in local, national, regional and global contexts. As of September 14, 2016 the section has 255 regular members and 56 student members for a total of 311 members.
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The outgoing section chair is Elizabeth Shakman Hurd. The incoming chair is Erin K. Wilson. The Executive Council is composed of Beth Hurd (2014-16), Erin Wilson (Chair-Elect, 2016-18), Jeremy Menchik (Secretary-Treasurer, 2014-16), Matthew Nelson (2014-16), Kevin R den Dulk (2015-17), Tarek Masoud (2015-17), and Elizabeth Oldmixon (2015-17). In 2016 Beth Hurd, Jeremy Menchik, and Matt Nelson rotate off, and Erin Wilson assumes the role of Chair. Our By-Laws mandate that the section will be governed by an Executive Committee of six section members, including three named offices: chair, chair-elect (in place every other year) and secretary-treasurer."
2016 Editorial Report
APSA Religion & Politics Organized Section Business Meeting
September 1, 2016
Dear Council and Section Members,
Now in our fifth and final(!) year of editorial operation, we are pleased to report on the health of the journal and our management of it. Submissions are up, we are publishing 4 issues a year, authors receive decisions expeditiously, we receive manuscripts from all over the earth, the journal continues to break into new abstracting databases, and we are proud of the quality of research that has appeared in the journal’s pages. Before we proceed to a review of the life of the journal under our watch, we wish to thank the authors for allowing us to consider their work and the generous and thoughtful reviewers of submissions, including our Editorial Board members, some of whom have reviewed multiple times for us.
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