Religion and Human Rights Unit

We seek papers that explore the topics of religion and human rights from a breadth of scholarly perspectives. We seek analyses of the way in which particular religious actors and traditions articulate the compatibility or incompatibility of religion and human rights; how human rights serve to complicate or enhance our understanding of categories such as “religion” and “secularity”; and how the intersection of religion and human rights implicates issues of race, gender, law, politics, ecology etc.

Proposals on any topic related to religion and human rights are welcome. 

In keeping with this year’s presidential theme of La Labor de Nuestras Manos, we are particularly interested in proposals on the following topics:

For a possible co-sponsorship with the Religion and Ecology Program Unit and the Women of Color Scholarship, Teaching, and Activism Program Unit, we invite papers that consider: 

• religion and human rights “on the ground”: explorations of the conversation and practice of human rights within grassroots communities, especially in dialogue with religious thought and scholarship of religious studies
• the co-creation of “sacred spaces” in the community-engaged work of scholars, laborers, and activists. How do practices of rest and resistance foster such spaces?
• ecology and resilience: How might faith traditions and practices that emphasize relations with the natural world bolster our capacity to build just and flourishing communities and ecosystems? How does the “work of our hands” for climate justice bolster our capacity to build just and flourishing communities and ecosystems?
• intersectional approaches to climate change and environmental justice. We are especially interested in considering intersectional vulnerabilities; centering survival for people of color and the global South in climate justice efforts

For a possible co-sponsorship with the Practical Theology Program Unit, we invite proposals focused on religion, labor/work, and human rights. Here again we will explore the conversation and practice of human rights within grassroots communities, especially in dialogue with religious thought and scholarship of religious studies.

We also invite proposals that consider religious, theological, and philosophical approaches to human rights ideas. In keeping with the presidential theme, we especially welcome proposals on Islamic thought and human rights.

Finally, we invite proposals in areas related to: human rights and religious freedom; environmental rights and the “rights of nature”; human rights in marginalized communities; the limits of human rights in cases of oppression; human rights, religion, and immigration; history of human rights thought and practice; and human rights thought and practice as understood from diverse methodological perspectives.