[Air-L] Workshop CFP "Intersections of Youth, Gender, and Religion under Digital Media in the MENA Region"

[Ülker Sözen]

*Call for Papers*

*Intersections of Youth, Gender, and Religion under Digital Media in the
MENA Region*

*Workshop*


*26-27 September 2024, Leipzig University, Germany*


*German* *Research Foundation Project **“**Contested Pieties and
Secularities: Family** a**nd Youth Politics in (post-Kemalist) 'New Turkey'*
*”*


Digital media and online communication technologies have a deep impact in
shaping the expressions, experiences, and governance techniques concerning
the religious lives and affiliations of individuals across the globe. This
transformation takes place under a myriad of features introduced by digital
media such as the fast-paced, multi-directional, and global character of
information flows, the monetization of content production, the algorithmic
architecture of digital platforms, and dataification of social life. In
this environment, digital media has proven to serve as a particularly
significant
medium for religious actors to connect with believers and spread their
beliefs among new populations. Simultaneously, digital media opens up
spaces hybridizing and diversifying religious discourses, identities, and
authorities, along with enabling platforms of connectivity and circulation
to challenge those.

Youth and gender are particular areas of interest within digital religion
studies considering a variety of circumstances. Younger generations use
online technologies more intensely to interpret and interact with the
social world while, correspondingly, social media platforms become the
prominent ground for the production and popularization of youth cultures.
In this respect, digital media is a consequential site to observe the
contemporary strategies of religious authorities for reaching out to the
youth along with how the youth engages with religious discourses and form
religious identities. With respect to gender, on the one hand, digital
media facilitates discourses, practices, and opportunities that can
challenge hegemonic and traditional gender roles that are tied to religious
traditions, as well as bringing in alternative religious identities that
can incorporate gendered forms of rights and visibility politics. Yet, on
the other hand, digital media also provides a pivotal environment for the
circulation of anti-gender ideology, which draws from religious
fundamentalisms along with other forms of far-right politics.

The literature on digital media and digital religion has hitherto focused
predominantly on  Global North and Western historical experiences, while
 frequently overlooking the particularities and experiences of non-Western
contexts. In this light, this workshop aims to offer a platform to case
studies and theoretical undertakings concentrating on the intersections of
youth, gender, and religion under digital media in the Middle East and
North Africa (MENA) region. Digital media played a central role in the
popular social movements in the recent history of the region - namely the
Arab Spring and the Gezi Protests a decade ago and most recently the
protests in Iran. The prominence of the youth, women, and LGBTQ in these
movements and the multiple ways in which religion and religiosities are
addressed therein, render the MENA region an important site to study the
intersections of youth, gender, and religion under digital media.

Some possible themes and topics for contributions to be analyzed within the
framework of youth and/ or gender, religion, and digital media in the MENA
region are:

- Expressions and performances of religious identities

- Governance strategies and policies targeting the youth, gender, and
sexuality

- New age religions and spiritualities

- Social media influencer economies

- Trans-regional and global flows and networks enabled by the digital
condition

- Youth cultures

- Feminist and LGBTQ politics and collective movements

- Anti-gender politics and ideologies

- Negotiation of the religious-secular divide

- Anti-religious and secularist politics and post-secularity on digital
media

Travel and accommodation costs of the selected participants will be covered
or subsidized. However, due to limited budget, participants are encouraged to
use their institutional funding if available. One of the aims of the
workshop is producing a special journal issue or a joint publication. After
the workshop, submission of the final papers for publication will be
expected within a reasonable amount of time.


*Please send your abstracts of up to 500 words accompanied by a short bio** and
information regarding whether you will need financial support for travel* *and
accommodation **to* *uelker.soezen at uni-leipzig.de*
<uelker.soezen at uni-leipzig.de>* by May 3, 2024. *


*Convener:* Dr. Ülker Sözen, Institute for the Study of Religion, Leipzig
University & Associate Member, Multiple Secularities Research Team



*Deadline for abstracts: **03 May **2024*

*Announcement of the selected papers: **17 **May 2024*

*****