Sikhs in Europe. Migration, Identities and Representations, Edited by Knut A. Jacobsen & Kristina Myrvold
Sikhs in Europe. Migration, Identities and Representations, Edited by Knut A. Jacobsen, University of Bergen, Norway; Kristina Myrvold, Lund University, Sweden (Ashgate, 2011)
Sikhs in Europe are neglected in the study of religions and migrant groups: previous studies have focused on the history, culture and religious practices of Sikhs in North America and the UK, but few have focused on Sikhs in continental Europe. This book fills this gap, presenting new data and analyses of Sikhs in eleven European countries; examining the broader European presence of Sikhs in new and old host countries. Focusing on patterns of migration, transmission of traditions, identity construction and cultural representations from the perspective of local Sikh communities, this book explores important patterns of settlement, institution building and cultural transmission among European Sikhs.
Contents: Introduction: Sikhs in Europe, Knut A. Jacobsen and Kristina Myrvold; Part I Sikhs in Northern and Eastern Europe: Institutionalization of Sikhism in Norway: community growth and generational transfer, Knut A. Jacobsen; The Sikh community in Denmark: balancing between cooperation and conflict, Helene Ilkjaer; The Swedish Sikhs: community building, representation and generational change, Kristina Myrvold; Sikhs in Finland: migration histories and work in the restaurant sector, Laura Hirvi; The Sikhs in Poland: a short history of migration and settlement, Zbigniew Igielski. Part II Sikhs in Southern Europe: Mirror games: a fresco of Sikh settlements among Italian local societies, Barbara Bertolani, Federica Ferraris and Fabio Perocco; ‘Did you get papers?’: Sikh migrants in France, Christine Moliner; Caste, religion, and community assertion: a case study of the Ravidasias in Spain, Kathryn Lum; Sikh immigrants in Greece: on the road to integration, Niki Papageorgiou. Part III Sikhs in the United Kingdom and Ireland: Sikh diversity in the UK: contexts and evolution, Eleanor Nesbitt; Sikh-ing beliefs: British Sikh camps in the UK, Jasjit Singh; The Valmiki, Ravidasi and Namdhari communities in Britain: self-representations and transmission of traditions, Opinderjit Kaur Takhar; The Sikh diaspora in Ireland: a short history, Glenn Jordan and Satwinder Singh; Glossary; Index.
Link to publisher – Ashgate: http://www.ashgate.com/default.aspx?page=637&pageSubject=549&calcTitle=1&sort=pubdate&forthcoming=1&title_id=10934&edition_id=14157
Punjabi Subaltern Summit – 2012
Sunday, January 15, 2012, 11:00 AM to 05:00 PM
ICSSR Seminar Hall, Panjab University, Chandigarh
Agenda
The Punjabi Subaltern Summit is a one-of-its-kind conclave where politicians, thinkers, change agents, writers, artists, academicians and media professionals will try to find a common ground on the pressing problems that plague our state. An attempt to break free from the parochial structures that have suppressed the social narrative on lesser-known issues like caste, religion, representation and federalism. By harnessing the spirit and dialect of new media, it strives to infuse the intellectual mainstream with a sense of purpose and direction, bringing back the long-lost ebullience into its ethos. This non-partisan forum is a bold attempt reclaim the mantle of Punjabiyat.
One of its immediate aims is to influence the pre-poll debate in Punjab. We plan to organize this event every year in a bigger and better format, expecting that it will become a fixture or an annual pilgrimage for the regional intelligentsia.
For detailed information on the agenda and issues to be discussed, please visit: www.subaltern.in.
ESF-LiU Conference on Historiography of Religion, 10-14 September 2012
Programme: The conference will focus on the question: How, under which conditions and with which consequences are religions historicized? The conference aims at furthering the study of religion as of historiography by analysing how religious groups (or their adversaries) employ historical narratives in the construction of their identities or how such groups are invented by later historiography (comparative historiography). Thus the biases and elisions of current analytical and descriptive frames have to be analysed, too (history of research). Combing disciplinary competences of Religious Studies and History of Religion, Confessional Theologies, History, History of Science, and Literary Studies, the participants will help to initiate a comparative historiography of religion by applying literary comparison and historical contextualization to those texts that have been used as central documents for histories of individual religions and analyze their historiographic character, tools and strategies. Furthermore they will stimulate the history of historical research on religion; that is, identifying key steps in the early modern and modern history of research. The comparative approach will address Circum-Mediterranean and European as well as Asian religious traditions from the first millennium BCE to present.
Date: 10-14 September 2012
Venue: Scandic Linköping Vast, Sweden
Format: - Lectures by invited high level speakers
- Poster sessions, round table and open discussion periods
- Forward look panel discussion about future developments10-14 September 2012
Chaired by: Jörg Rüpke, Max-Weber-Centre, University of Erfurt, DE
Co-Chaired by: Susanne Rau, Department of History, University of Erfurt, DE
Call for Applications: click HERE
To learn more about the conference, click HERE
Conference flyer – Please circulate this announcement among your colleagues and contacts!
Sikhs in Europe: Migration, Identity and Translocal Practices
June 16 – 18 at the Centre for Theology and Religious Studies, Lund University
The Centre for Theology and Religious Studies at Lund University is organizing a conference on the Sikhs in Europe. The aim is to gather leading scholars in the multi-disciplinary field of Sikh studies and discuss current research projects focusing on patterns of migration, identity formations, self-representations, transmission of traditions and translocal practices among Sikhs in different parts of Europe. While two conference days are dedicated to presentation and peer-review of papers by the members of the academic network Sikhs-in-Europe, the third conference day will be a workshop for Ph.D. students affiliated to European universities. The conference is open to students and researchers in all disciplines.
Final programme: Sikhs in Europe – Final Conference Program (1)
British Religion in Number
British Religion in Numbers, http://www.brin.ac.uk, has been officially launched. Please feel free to invite people to visit the site and explore the source catalogue, tables, charts, maps and text we have uploaded to date.
The site is (and always will be) a work in progress and we are still uploading data and commentaries, so please visit recurrently to see what we have added.
We also wanted to publicise the ‘blog’ feature (http://www.brin.ac.uk/news) and to encourage people to comment on the posts already made. Since we added this feature in January, we have posted 73 articles on new surveys and resources, research notes, and comments on news stories.
See further: http://www.brin.ac.uk/about/
Seminar on Religion and Social Identity in Punjab
International Seminar on Religion and Social Identity In Punjab
Organised by Department of Sociology, Panjab University, Chandigarh in collaboration with the University of Manchester, UK
FEBRUARY 18-19, 2010
Venue: ICSSR, Panjab University, Chandigarh, India
See attached programme: Punjab University Programme
Debate about the right to carry a kirpan
Should religion be an excuse for carrying daggers?
Sikhs should be allowed to carry ceremonial knives in schools and other public places, says Britain’s first Asian judge. But can religion ever justify loopholes in the law, asks philosopher Rebecca Roache.
The idea of children being allowed to carry knives while at school sounds like a red rag to a bull. But that is what Sir Mota Singh QC, Britain’s first Asian judge, who is now retired, says should be allowed. Not any old knife – but the ceremonial dagger known as the Kirpan.
The Kirpan is one of five “articles of faith” which also include Kesh (unshorn hair) and Kara (steel bangle) that are worn by practising Sikhs.
Read full article: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/8506074.stm
Mightier than the kirpanI find it hard to justify knives being allowed in schools – be they Sikh ceremonial symbols or otherwise
Hardeep Singh Kohli The Guardian, Tuesday 9 February 2010
What do you know about Sikhism? The men wear turbans. It comes from the north-west of India. It has at its heart the five “Ks”, the kesh (long hair), kara (steel bangle worn on the right hand), kaacha (undergarment), kanga (comb) and kirpan (a ceremonial dagger); all baptised Sikhs are expected to wear the five “Ks” daily. Sikhs are regarded as the best dancers in the world. This is all unequivocally true, especially the last part.
But I’d like to concentrate on the fact that Sikhism is the only world religion that requires devotees to carry a dagger. The function of the kirpan arose from necessity. From the end of the 16th century, as the Moghuls swept through Persia into the peace-loving hinterland of the Hindus, converting them to Islam, Sikhs became defenders of freedom, guardians of religious independence, champions of tolerance; and we were willing to lay down our lives for the cause. In that context it is easy to understand why we needed daggers, which were carried with us at all times since the threat of violence was constant.
Read full article: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2010/feb/09/dagger-dilemma-sikhism-kirpan-schools
CFP: Special Issue on Religion and the Internet: The Online-Offline Connection
Heidi Campbell & Mia Løvheim have put out a call for papers for a special issue of Information, Communication & Society on Religion and the Internet: The Online-Offline Connection, which is also linked in with the 2010 Conference on Media, Religion, and Culture in Toronto.
In particular this special issues aims to explore the relationship between online and offline forms of religious practice and community. Key questions include:
- What is truly unique about the performance of religion online?
- How is the practice and conception of religion online connected to offline practices, communities and institutions?
- In what ways does religion online reflect trends seen offline in religious culture and practice?
- How do these transformations connect with issues of globalization and glocalization?
You can read the full CFP over at When Religion Meets New Media: http://religionmeetsnewmedia.blogspot.com/2009/11/call-for-papers-for-special-issue-of.html
Associate Professor or Professor – Macquarie University (Sydney, Australia)
Position available: Associate Professor or Professor
The Centre for Research on Social Inclusion at Macquarie University (Sydney, Australia) specialises in the following areas:
- Migration and Multiculturalism
- Community Capacity Building
- Religion and Social Inclusion
- The Future of Work and Social Hope
- Welfare, Care and Social Policy
- Social and Environmental Justice
- Inclusion and Exclusion in Urban and Regional Spaces
We seek a senior academic at Level D or E, who will contribute a powerful research focus pulling together the theory and practice of inclusion, encompassing at least two of the above areas.
Attractive start-up and relocation conditions are designed to bring someone with a strong current research program and ability to attract high-quality PhD candidates.
Enquiries: Dr Marion Maddox on (02) 9850 4431 or email marion.maddox@scmp.mq.edu.au
Applications Close: 15 November 2009
More information on the Centre for Research on Social Inclusion via our website: http://www.crsi.mq.edu.au/
For more information on the position, go to: http://tinyurl.com/yzlm28w
CFP: RaD Conference 2010
Religion shaping development: inspirational, inhibiting, institutionalised?
Conference organised by the Religions and Development Research Programme, 21st-23rd July, 2010, University of Birmingham, UK: first announcement and call for papers.
The conference (21st-22nd July) will bring together findings from the RaD programme and related research. On 23rd July, a range of development actors will be invited to explore the policy and practice implications of the research. Papers on the conference themes are invited – see further: http://www.rad.bham.ac.uk/index.php?section=1
Please send abstracts (2-400 words) to Dr Tina Dugbazah j.e.dugbazah@bham.ac.uk by 30th November, 2009.
PRG Meeting – 31 October 2009
The next Punjab Research Group meeting will take place on 31st October 2009 at De Montfort University, Leicester.
Speakers include:
Kathryn Lum, (European University Institute, Florence) ‘A community at a crossroads: a case study of the Ravidassia Sangat in Barcelona’
Navtej Purewal, (University of Manchester) ‘Articulations of Caste through Religion: Codes of Hegemony and Invisibility in West Punjab’
In the past few months, the issue of caste in Punjab has been making the headlines for a number of reasons. Therefore, it seems that this would be a good opportunity to discuss the issue of caste in contemporary/historical Punjab(s). If you are currently working in this area and would like to share your research findings with the PRG then please contact me. Please could you also circulate this note to anyone else you think might be interested in presenting a paper.
If you would like to attend please email me: pvirdee@dmu.ac.uk
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