CFP: Columbia Religion Graduate Student Conference: "Pray, Kill, Eat"

Call for Papers
(DEADLINE EXTENDED TO FEBRUARY 5, 2012)

The Religion Graduate Students' Association of Columbia University is now accepting paper proposals for its Eighth Annual Interdisciplinary
Graduate Student Conference:

Pray, Kill, Eat: Relating to Animals
across Religious Traditions
Friday, April 20, 2012, 9 a.m. - 6:30
p.m.
Columbia University, New York, NY

The keynote speakers for the conference are:

Professor Wendy Doniger,
the Mircea Eliade Distinguished Service Professor of the History of Religions in the University of Chicago Divinity School

Professor Kimberley C. Patton,
Professor of the Comparative and Historical Study of Religion at Harvard Divinity School.


Humans have always had complex and intimate relationships with animals. Animals have been feared, revered, hunted, sacrificed, eaten,
utilized, domesticated, and worshipped for thousands of years. Religious traditions have been instrumental in both reflecting and constructing humans' notions of animals and have integrated such notions into comprehensive mythical, symbolic, and ritual frameworks
of meaning and action. In recent decades, however, many earlier forms of such relationships have been radically transformed in the face of rapid development. At the same time scholars like Kimberley Patton and Wendy Doniger have led efforts to rethink animals
and religion from comparative and interdisciplinary perspectives. This conference, therefore, engages both the shifting complexity of the modern world and a growing body of scholarship in religious studies. We seek papers that explore animals as both religious
objects and subjects, and probe the myriad ways in which religions reflect, shape, and re-shape the relationship between humans and animals.

We welcome papers that address contemporary as well as historical articulations of this topic, drawing on diverse methodologies and sources.
Papers may be on any topic related to animals and religion. Suggested themes include:

- Sacrifice
- The use of animals (or animal parts) in festivals, rituals and other religious contexts
- The deification and demonization of animals
- Religious dietary practices (e.g. prescriptions and proscriptions regarding animals)
- Transgressive practices involving animals
- Animals as the paradigmatic Other
- Blurred categories: hybrids, half-animals, shape-shifting, etc.
- Possession of/by animals
- Animals in religious narratives
- Animal symbolism
- Religion and animals in the 21st century (urbanization, technology, industrialization of animal husbandry)
- Animal rights and the treatment of animals
- Religion, animals, and political discourse
- Evolution and creationism
- Reincarnation

Please submit paper titles and abstracts (300 words or less) to
columbiareligion@gmail.com.

Please include name, institutional and departmental affiliation, and a contact email address.

SUBMISSION DEADLINE (EXTENDED): February 5, 2012
All proposals will receive a response by mid-February, 2012

12th Annual Conference on Science & Tech in Society

Abstracts due Jan. 31st (final call)

Bridging Boundaries between Science & Tech Policy & Studies

March 30-31, 2012, Washington, DC

Topics: Abstracts are welcome on issues relevant to science & technology policy (STP), science & technology studies (STS), and related fields including but not limited to health; energy and environment; space; information and communications; innovation; education; and ethical, legal and social implications of science and technology.

Two Categories: 

• Completed Research:  Full paper presentations, moderated by professor, considered for publication in the Journal of Science Policy & Governance
• Work-in-progress: Presentation of current work-in-progress, emphasis on peer feedback

Eligibility: Open only to students enrolled in a graduate program* at the time of submitting an abstract, for work performed while enrolled. Recent graduates who were enrolled students at the time of submitting abstract are also eligible.
Submission Guidelines: Abstracts should be no longer than 250 words, setting out the main research questions, theoretical framework, methodology, and research findings (tentative for work-in-progress submissions). Submit abstracts via e-mail to abstracts@stglobal.org. Above your abstract narrative (not included in 250 word count), please provide:

• Whether submission is under "completed research" or "work-in -progress"
• Title of your research
• Your full contact information
• Your expected date of graduation
• University + name and website of your academic program/department
• Whether you are applying for a travel grant

Questions?  Email contact@stglobal.org 

* Exception made for members of the Triple Helix

Research Associate position in History of Social Science and Communication of Science

Department of History and Philosophy of Science, University of Cambridge,

Research Associates in History of Social Science and Communication of
Science

Salary: £27,428–£35,788 pa

We wish to appoint two full-time post-doctoral research associates, for
4-years from September 2012, to be part of a European Research Council
funded project 'Economics in the Public Sphere: USA, UK, France, Poland and
Brazil since 1945' (ERC Grant:283754). The project is directed by Dr Tiago
Mata and will comprise of a research team of five members, including one
research assistant/administrator and two doctoral students.

Candidates must have an outstanding record in a field related to the
project (history of social science, communications studies, and sociology
of knowledge) and an excellent knowledge of the economic and political
history of the country case selected. Preferred applicants will have
experience in one or more of the research methods: archival research, oral
history, ethnographic observation, content and textual analysis of media.
Candidates must have completed their doctorate prior to taking up the
appointment.

In addition to pursuing their own original research, post holders are
expected to help maintain a project website, organize and participate in
project seminars and workshops, and provide editorial assistance. They will
be expected to produce at least one research paper a year on a topic
relevant to the project and assist in compiling and editing a collected
volume of papers. All staff will be based in Cambridge.

Project description
The project studies 'economic journalism' as a site for the production of
public economic knowledge. The practices of journalists will be examined to
reveal how they parse competing claims of expertise by academic economists,
other social scientists and by laymen. The project takes a cross-national
approach examining the economic press the in USA, UK, France, Poland, and
Brazil. Cultural standards of trust, the history and economics of the
media, and the history of economics and social movements will be used to
explain the emergence of distinct national genres of 'economic journalism'.
The project offers an original perspective on how public knowledge of the
economy is an iterative process engaging journalists, academics and laymen
and explores the implications of this knowledge formation for the
possibilities of public support for economic action and policies.

Relevant excerpts from the original ERC proposal can be found at
www.hps.cam.ac.uk/jobs/econpublic.pdf

The application, in hard copy only, should consist of:
§ cover letter.
§ up-to-date CV, including publications.
§ 2 samples of original, written work in a related area (10,000 words).
§ 2 references: applicants should ask their referees to post or email
references to the Administrator , to arrive by
the closing date.
§ A description of your research plans and how your research will
contribute to the project (max 1,000 words).
§ Parts 1 and 3 of the University's CHRIS/6 application form.

Applications should be sent to Reception, Department of History and
Philosophy of Science, University of Cambridge, Free School Lane, Cambridge
CB2 3RH. Informal enquiries may be made to Tiago Mata or
the Administrator , (01223) 334540.

§ Limit of tenure: 4 years, or until 31 August 2016
§ Quote reference: JN12891
§ Closing date: 1 March 2012
§ Interview date: 22 March 2012

Chemical Heritage Foundation fellowships

The Chemical Heritage Foundation is an independent research library that awards 18 fellowships (10 short-term and 8 long-term) per year.  As such, we are the largest fellowship program in the history and social studies of science in the country.  We construe "chemistry" broadly and fund a wide range of work (see our website--http://www.chemheritage.org/research/fellowships-and-travel-grants/beckman-center-fellowships/index.aspx --for a list of current fellows).  Fellows find a lively academic community at CHF, where they have the opportunity to participate in a writing group and weekly talk series, and are a part of the Philadelphia Area Center for the History of Science consortium of scholars and libraries.  

Dissertation Fellowship in Humanities and Medicine or Social Science and Medicine

The UC Humanities Research Institute offers the Andrew Vincent White and Florence Wales White Graduate Student Scholarship. Applicants need not be US citizens. This award grants up to $20,000.

Eligibility:
-Full-time UC graduate student
-Research involves the humanities and medicine or theoretical social sciences and medicine
-Advanced to candidacy by June 30, 2012
-Based at home campus during scholarship

Application deadline: February 2, 2012

Letters of reference due February 29, 2012

Program Overview

The Andrew Vincent White and Florence Wales White Scholarship will be awarded to one or more regularly enrolled full-time UC graduate students working in appropriate fields. To be eligible for the Andrew Vincent White and Florence Wales White Scholarship, candidates must be current full-time UC graduate students whose research involves the humanities and medicine or theoretical social sciences and medicine; advance to candidacy by June 30, 2012, and be enrolled at their home campus during the scholarship period. Preference is given to students who are more advanced in their dissertation research and writing. The scholarship, of up to $20,000, may be used for a mix of fees, living expenses, and research expenses for one academic year. The student will be based at his or her home campus; the scholarship is not a residency at UCHRI. 



Awards will be announced no later than May 2012.

NSF Dissertation Grant Deadlines

SBE Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grants (SBE DDRIG)

Full Proposal Target Date:  January 15, 2012

Research on Science and Technology Surveys and Statistics

January 15, Annually Thereafter

Full Proposal Deadline Date:  February 1, 2012

Science, Technology, and Society

February 1, Annually Thereafter

Full Proposal Deadline Date: February 9, 2012
Biological Anthropology

Program Guidelines: NSF 11-547

The National Science Foundation's Division of Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences (BCS), Division of Social and Economic Sciences (SES), National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics (NCSES), and the SBE Office of Multidisciplinary Activities (SMA) award grants to doctoral students to improve the quality of dissertation research. These grants provide funds for items not normally available through the student's university. Additionally, these grants allow doctoral students to undertake ...
More at http://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=13453&org=SBE

USMEX Dissertation Fellowship Applications

Call for Applications 2012-2013 The Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies (USMEX) at the University of California, San Diego invites applications for dissertation fellowships for the 2012-2013 academic year. The Center's Visiting Fellows Program is the largest residential fellowship program in the United States for research on Mexico. Each year the program brings together scholars from the social sciences, history, and related fields. Visiting Fellows are expected to be PhD candidates who are ABD and have completed a substantial portion of their dissertations. Postdoctoral and Visiting Professors please click here for more information. We in particular encourage University of California graduate students to apply to the program. The majority of the fellowship awards are for residential periods between 4 and 9 months in duration. Fellowships generally start at the beginning of the academic year and are not given over the summer months (July-September). Stipends are determined by UC general policies and funding availability. Priority will be given to proposals on social policy, public health, governance, discrimination and poverty and local development; although, the Center will consider supporting research in other more general studies. For a current list of visiting fellows and their research projects click here. Awards have been given in the past supporting research on contemporary Mexico, Mexican history, and U.S.-Mexican relations. Comparative studies with a substantial Mexico component are also encouraged. PLEASE NOTE:   Applications will ONLY be accepted via the Center's Online application website. Please click here to begin the application process. Visiting Scholars Program applicants will need to upload the following supporting documents AS A PDF FILE: A. A complete and up-to-date curriculum vitae. B. An abstract of proposed research project (250-word maximum). C. A research proposal (3000 word maximum) OR a dissertation chapter/job paper if you are applying for the Post Doctoral fellowship. D. One copy each of no more than 3 of your publications or unpublished papers that relate directly to the proposed research project. Letters of recommendation (up to three) can be uploaded on the Center's online application site. The deadline for receipt of all application materials, including letters of reference, is Wednesday, February 15, 2012 at 4pm (PST). For additional information, please contact: Greg Mallinger Events/ Programs Coordinator Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies, University of California, San Diego Tel: (858) 822-1696, Fax: (858) 534-6447 E-mail: gmallinger@ucsd.edu

For more information, visit usmex.ucsd.edu.

Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies 9500 Gilman Drive, Mail Code 0510 La Jolla, CA 92093-0510

2012 UC Human Rights Fellowship

The Institute for International, Comparative and Area Studies (IICAS) is pleased to announce the 5^th annual student competition for human rights fellowships.  Successful applicants for the 2012 UC Human Rights Fellowship will receive $4,500 for summer internships with a human rights organization of his or her choice.

Information and application instructions may be found at the IICAS home page or at the following website: http://iicas.ucsd.edu/research-grants/student/human-rights-fellowship/index.html

Applications are due no later than 3pm Monday, March 5^th, 2012.  

Volunteer to Participate in Discussion Workshops on Climate Change Communication

Greetings and Happy New Year!

The AMS Committee on Improving Climate Change Communication (CICCC), which is part of the Commission on the Weather and Climate Enterprise, is now recruiting volunteers to participate in a pair of discussion workshops to be held during the upcoming AMS Annual Meeting.

The workshops are scheduled for Sunday, 22 January, 1:00pm-4:00pm CST and Monday, 23 January, 1:30pm-4:30pm CST. The focus of each workshop is climate change communication in relation to the CICCC Charter and Mission to… 

“Facilitate communication among members of the weather, water, and climate community so as to foster greater understanding about strongly held but divergent views on climate change. This will be accomplished through various forums, including face-to-face meetings, for open and respectful dialogue of these diverging views.”

If you are interested in participating, please reply to this message (or send a separate e-mail to CICCC@ametsoc.org) no later than 12 January indicating your preferred workshop session. Participants will be selected based on a first-come/first-serve basis given space limitations, and the selection process will be completed by the CICCC Co-Chairs.

The selection of volunteers will be made so as to gather from across the spectrum of views on climate change. We are seeking those who will creatively, actively, and constructively contribute to the dialogue and process of the workshops.

The format of the workshops will follow a “conflict resolution” model that has proven to be successful in stimulating productive discussion at a similar workshop at the AMS Broadcast Conference.  The workshop will be facilitated by George Mason University, which has previously collaborated with the AMS.

We thank you very much for your time and consideration and look forward to hearing from you very soon,

Ray Ban, Andrea Bleistein, and Paul Croft

CICCC Co-Chairs

Roy Porter Prize

The prize of £500 is honour of the Roy Porter, the distinguished historian of medicine, and is open to all students.  The winning entry may be published in Social History of Medicine.  For a list of past winners, please click here: http://www.sshm.org/content/past-roy-porter-prize-winners

The deadline is: 1 February 2012.

SOCIETY FOR THE SOCIAL HISTORY OF MEDICINE

2011 ROY PORTER STUDENT ESSAY PRIZE COMPETITION.

Rules and Entry Form

The Society for the Social History of Medicine invites submissions to its 2011 Roy Porter Student Essay Prize Competition.

1.         Prize: One prize will be awarded for the best original, unpublished essay in the social history of medicine in this competition. The winner will be awarded £500.00. The winning entry may also be published in the journal, Social History of Medicine, subject to the usual editorial procedures, including double blind refereeing.

2.         Eligible Candidates:  Students: undergraduate or postgraduate, part-time or full-time.

·       All candidates must be members of the Society for the Social History of Medicine on the date of submission. A membership form is available on the SSHM’s website http://www.sshm.org. Alternatively, please contact the Membership Secretary of the SSHM. (The membership requirement may be waived for residents of developing countries as listed on the OUP website.  Please contact the Membership Secretary.)

·       The essay competition is only for students registered as of the deadline for submission of entries and for those students whose postgraduate degree (e.g. Masters, PhD, DPhil) ‘date of completion’ occurred in 2011.

·       Candidates who are uncertain as to whether they are eligible to enter the competition should contact the Secretary before preparing their entry.

3          Essays must be:

·       Unpublished and not submitted to any other competition at the same time

·       Written in English

·       Anonymous (Authors must identify themselves only on a detachable cover sheet)

·       5,000-8,000 words in length (including footnotes).

·       In conformity with the bibliographic conventions of Social History of Medicine, available at http://www.sshm.org.

NOTE: The same essay cannot be submitted more than once, and entries from previous years will not be accepted.

4          Assessment Panel: The panel chaired by the Chair of the Society for the Social History of Medicine, consists of the Society's Representative on the Editorial Board, one of the Editors of Social History of Medicine, and another member of the Executive Council of the Society for the Social History of Medicine, with the assistance of other members of the editorial board.

5          To enter:  Please send an electronic version of the essay and a short CV to the SSHM Membership Secretary, Dr Catherine Cox, as email attachments (email address: Catherine.cox@ucd.ie). Please send a hard copy of the completed form (see below) via mail to Dr Catherine Cox, School of History and Archives, John Henry Newman Building, Belfield, Dublin 4, Ireland. The deadline for mailing entries is 1 February 2012.  All entries must be emailed on or before the deadline date.

Please Note: The announcement of prizewinners will be made at the SSHM AGM held during the Society’s Annual Conference.

NOTES     -       The Editors of Social History of Medicine reserve the right to consider any of the entries for publication, subject to normal refereeing procedures.

-   Members of the Executive Committee of the SSHM or the Editorial Board of Social History of Medicine may not enter either competition, even if otherwise eligible.

-   The prize will not be awarded if the Assessment Panel considers that none of the essays reaches an acceptable standard.

-   Membership Secretary: Dr Catherine Cox, School of History and Archives, John Henry Newman Building, Belfield, Dublin 4, Ireland.

Constructing Worlds: Making and Breaking Order CFP: 1/15/12

Constructing Worlds: Making and Breaking Order

An interdisciplinary conference sponsored by the Graduate Program in

Visual Studies at the University of California, Irvine

April 5-6, 2012

Irvine, California

“When I ask, ‘What is worlding?’ I’m asking what the material,

semiotic, world-making practices at stake are for whom.

Who-what-lives-dies-how in this worlding? What imaginaries and flesh

are conjoined in these particular acts of worlding?”

- Donna Haraway, Wellek Library Lectures, 5/2/11

Worlding, in Haraway’s model, is an overlapping and intersecting of

both tangible and intangible practices which decide who or what

exists, how, when, where, and why - in short, how worlds are

established, maintained, ordered, and deconstructed. Taking into

account the introduction of various technological, philosophical, and

political developments into our contemporary cultural discourse, the

2012 Visual Studies Graduate Conference at UC Irvine will ask what it

means to make a world, sense a world, exist in a world, or destroy a

world.

The conference will explore constructed worlds in all their visual

manifestations and encourages submissions that deal with the idea of a

world that is not preexisting and fixed, but constructed, or in the

process of creation. This idea of a world is exceedingly supple and

open to numerous complex interpretations. A world can be both tactile

and virtual, exterior and interior. It can be ancient, contemporary

and everything in between. Technology, language, physical migration,

global economics, political discourses, and a litany of other

phenomena contain the power to not only construct new worlds, but also

to redefine and destroy existing worlds. With these ideas in mind, we

seek papers that highlight not only the generation of worlds, but also

their delineation within society. We welcome papers that discuss how

ideology implements and transforms the process of world making or

world breaking, provoking new methods of communication and cultural

interaction.

We hope to receive submissions from across the humanities, arts,

social sciences, and natural and technological sciences which engage

issues of vision, visibility, and visuality, including (but not

limited to) gender and sexuality studies, critical theory, ethnic and

cultural studies, history, anthropology, sociology, environmental

studies, literature and language studies, information and technology

studies, philosophy, political science, classics, art history, and

film and media studies.

Potential topics include:

● The construction and experience of built environments: leisure

worlds such as theme parks, themed attractions,

World’s Fairs and expositions, tourist destinations, malls,

Spectropoli, and virtual worlds

● Distinctions and definitions of urban, suburban, and rural

territories; nature and recreation preserves

● Creating order out of chaos: authority, regulation, and discipline

in the construction of worlds, colonization, nation-building, the rise

of the state, and biopolitics and necropolitics

● The world in binaries: public/private, representation/reality,

utopia/dystopia, creation/destruction, global/local,

universal/particular

● World making as art/art as world making: design practices, museum

exhibitions, and cooperative collaborations

which engage in world making

● Worlds constructed around social categories: ethnicity, cultural

practice, socioeconomic standing, religion, political orientation,

gender, and sexual orientation and practice

● Phenomenological aspects of world making

● Time and space: the evolution of worlds over time, and the

establishment and revision of boundaries

● Rendering worlds: geospatial categorizations, urban planning,

ancient and modern cartography, GIS, digital or

virtual globes, scientific imaging, space, ocean and earth-based photography

The deadline for submissions is January 15, 2012. Please email your

200-250 word abstract to: makingworlds2012@gmail.com.

Final presentation length is 20 minutes. Conference presentations will

also be part of a special online issue of Octopus Journal

(www.theoctopusjournal.org).

IICAS European Studies Speaker Series: Jeffrey Andrew Barash

Jeffrey Andrew Barash

Professor of Modern European Intellectual History, Department of Philosophy

Université de Picardie Jules Verne at Amiens

"Is Collective Memory a

Figment of the Imagination?"

Monday, January 9, 2012

3:00-4:30 PM

Galbraith Conference Room, H&SS 4025

Register<http://iicas.ucsd.edu/speaker-series/registration.html>

Jeffrey Barash has published extensively on the problem of historical

meaning in relation to memory, myth, personal experience, and political

identity in studies of Martin Heidegger, Paul Ricoeur, Hannah Arendt, and

Ernst Cassirer. His lecture is taken from a chapter of a new book in

progress, "Collective Memory and the Historical Past."  The lecture

concerns the reality of the remembered past and the role of imagination in

creating symbols and myths within the scope of the public realm.

View Barash's webpage<http://sites.google.com/site/jeffreyandrewbarash/Home>.

Read Barash's recent article, At the Threshold of

Memory<http://iicas.ucsd.edu/_files/papers/european-studies/Barash_Threshold_of_Memory_META.pdf>.