The “Humanitarian Ethics, Religious Affinities, and the Politics of Dissent” UC Humanities Studio is pleased to announce a dissertation workshop for UC graduate students, to be held on March 17-18, 2014 at UC Santa Cruz. Graduate students will have the opportunity to share and receive comments on a chapter of their research project, which will be read by a group of 4-6 UC faculty, including faculty in the Humanities Studio, and other workshop participants. This is a unique opportunity for graduate students researching the intersections of religion and politics to meet scholars and peers in the field.
To participate, you must apply in advance (see instructions below). Although we are especially interested in projects that are interdisciplinary and transnational in scope, we welcome applicants specializing in a variety of national and regional contexts, with training in any discipline in the humanities or social sciences, who are thinking through the links and dissonances between humanitarian and religious ethics, broadly conceived.
This could include, for instance, projects on religious groups and the media, media and humanitarianism, or religion and protest politics, just to name a few. We also welcome historical perspectives on the intersections of humanitarianism and religion. If selected, the Humanities Studio will cover the costs of your travel, accommodation, and some meals.
About the Humanities Studio
Funded by a two-year UCHRI-Luce Foundation Grant on “Religion in Diaspora and Global Affairs” (2013-2015), our Humanities Studio seeks to put discussions of humanitarianism and religion that take place in the university classroom in conversation with such discussions taking place in the media and in politics. Members of the Studio include Mariam Lam (UCR, PI), Neda Atanasoski (UCSC, PI), Leshu Torchin (University of St. Andrews), Cecelia Lynch (UCI), Natalie Avalos Cisneros (UCSB), Angilee Shah (PRI), and Andrew Lam (New American Media). Considering the important role that both religion and notions of the humanitarian good play in shaping answers to the question of who should intervene into instances of crisis and violence, and when to intervene, generating such a conversation is timely and important. Our studio begins from the premise that the links between humanitarianism and religion extend beyond the historical connection of religious groups to humanitarian action. Indeed, campaigns that link humanitarian action to the development of human rights can in and of themselves be viewed as evangelizing, demanding the world’s faith in singular notions of humanity, rights, accepted values, normalcy and justice. Our group thus also wishes to highlight how people protest against such singular notions of justice, and how religious affiliations contribute to such modes of protest.
Submission Deadline: Friday, January 31 (notification of acceptance and rejection will be sent out by mid-February)