Faith & Activism: Call for Contributions

In an ongoing call, the Leeds Centre for Religion and Public Life is publishing a special online series via our ‘Religion in Public’ site titled ‘Faith and Activism’.

This series explores the diverse and complex relationship between faith and socio-political activism in a variety of global contexts and in relation to a range of public issues. We welcome contributions that discuss specific historical or contemporary cases of the relation between faith and activism, and that reflect on the analytical, methodological and theoretical issues that emerge when studying these. For instance, what are the differences and similarities between faith-based and secular forms of activism? What are the fractures in conversations around activism when faith is the motivating factor, and what sensitivities do they reveal? How can faith and activism appear as mutually constitutive categories, with faith taking activist dimensions, or with activism taking faith-like expressions? How do certain analytical frames – e.g. the binary of “conservative” vs. “progressive” religious and activist causes – need to be interrogated, nuanced and/or developed? How do researchers acknowledge their own faith and/or socio-political commitments when studying activist groups with either the same, or a very different, vision?

We are asking contributors to write pieces between 800-1000 words long that use their personal research interest to comment upon subthemes such as (but not limited to):

• Gender, reproductive rights and feminism
• LGBTQ rights and identities
• Climate change and environmental issues
• Race and ethnicity
• Animal welfare

Our aim is to create an ongoing dialogue on the very contemporary and cutting edge research that is being done in this area and provides us with another way to examine the relationship between, and role of, religion and public life.

If you would like to contribute to this series then please email Hollie Gowan at h.g.gowan@leeds.ac.uk, with the following:

• short proposal for the piece (no more than 100 words)
• proposed title
• short author bio (no more than 50 words)

We will be accepting contributions until the Centre decides to bring the series to an end so there isn't a definitive deadline for submitting proposals and the deadline for draft pieces will be set at the discretion of the author and the editors. However, please make sure that you include all of the above when emailing your interest in contributing to this new online series.

Please see here for current pieces in the series.

We look forward to hearing from you!

Please note: the final decision about the publication of your contribution is at the discretion of the Religion in Public editors.

Image Credit: Takver @Flickr