Histories of Religious Pluralism

ISSN: 2632-3257

This new book series will show that a critical understanding of religious pluralism in the past is of vital significance to debates about identity, diversity, and co-existence in the present. Studies will focus on using a historical perspective to address one of three key themes in the period between 1500 and 2000 CE: intra-religious pluralism; inter-religious pluralism; or, religion, secularism, and the nation state. Within this frame of reference, constructive contrasts between a wide range of foci, approaches, and viewpoints will be keenly encouraged. The series will champion established lines of research in political, social, cultural, and gendered histories of religious pluralism – e.g. studies on liberty, persecution, and toleration – whilst also encouraging novel ways of transcending a scholarly discourse which is dominated by ideologies and methodologies derived from the social sciences – e.g. by studies on the theological and literary dimensions of conflict, cohesion, and community. The series will embrace scholarship on subjects from any part of the world. European and extra-European perspectives that complement traditional Anglo-American thinking are particularly welcome. As the ‘global turn’ continues to energize new types of enquiry, the series will also seek to advance studies of indigenous and displaced religious groups. With this scope there is a reflexive acknowledgement that the rationale for and defining concepts of the series are grounded in a ‘western’ intellectual tradition; however, this should serve as a challenge to prospective authors to pioneer new dialogues between ‘western’ and ‘non-western’ approaches and foci, or even surpass the dichotomy altogether. An emphasis will be given to promoting the best research of early career scholars from around the world, whilst also giving more established academics the opportunity to develop their multimedia policy-orientated work – e.g. podcasts, blogs, talks, press briefings, reports for thinktanks, governments, and public agencies etc. – into a book that would engage peers and students alike. In association with Cambridge Institute on Religion and International Studies

3 publications

Post-Anthropocentric Inquiry

In recent years, critical researchers, educators, and activists have become aware of the problems and limitations that have resulted by placing the ‘human’ at the center of all societal conceptualizations, concerns, and practices. Across fields, ranging from medical research laboratory practices—to the construction of the humanities—to the social sciences—to environmental studies (just to name a few), this anthropocentric focus is being called to question. The goal of this book series is to provide scholars and readers with critical opportunities to contest this anthropocentrism, (1) by creating a textual field of Post-Anthropocentric Inquiry that generates critical spaces for (re)thinking philosophies, knowledges, and ways of being/living and performing, as well as methodologies and inquiries, that decenter the human, (2) while at the same time attempting always/already to actively transform inequities and injustices performed by human privilege on nonhuman others, traditionally disqualified human others, and the natural world more broadly. This Post-Anthropocentric Inquiry can represent difference and the multiple, while at the same time exploring and welcoming notions of indistinction. Work that further develops and expands current notions of becoming (animal, earth), new feminist materialisms, critical posthuman sensibilities, hybrid existences (past and present) are example locations from which an intersectional, non-anthropocentric politics may emerge. Additionally, post-anthropocentric inquiry and activism will always include the unthought, not-yet-considered modes of living, thinking, research while critically acknowledging that alternatives can create new dualisms, new forms of human privilege, and are not always liberatory for those labeled not human or for those human beings who have traditionally been marginalized. Further, post-anthropocentric scholarship acknowledges, and attempts to (1) transform, the current post-anthropocentric predicament that facilitates neoliberal capitalism as all forms of life, matter, and relations have been/are constructed to serve market economies, and (2) examine the unprecedented human/nonhuman interaction with the increasingly intrusive and intimate technological order. Post-anthropocentric inquiry is necessary as related to these contemporary aggressive, and all-encompassing post-human conditions. Single or multiple authored manuscripts are encouraged that facilitate the development of Post-Anthropocentric Inquiry by addressing one issue, multiple issues, research purposes, methodologies, and/or forms of activism. Over a wide range of volumes that cross disciplines, the series will address broad issues, as mentioned above, and questions like the following: What is post-anthropocentric inquiry? What is made possible, enabled by post-anthropocentric approaches and research methodologies? How is post-anthropocentric research conducted without (re)privileging the human? How does the work in fields that would decenter the human, like critical animal studies, intersect with professional content and practices in fields like education or medicine? How can coalitions be formed (and actions taken) that decenter the human and increase possibilities for all forms of justice, while countering capitalist and technological orders that devalue all forms of life? Interested authors should contact Gaile S. Cannella, gaile.cannella@gmail.com

2 publications

American Liberal Religious Thought

9 publications