Religion Call for Papers | @relcfp

What Does the United Nations Represent? Reflecting on 75 years of Conflict Resolution and the Promotion of Equity and Human Rights

The editors of McGill’s JCREOR: The Journal of the Council for Research on Religion are pleased to announce a call for papers for our forthcoming volume (Vol. 4, Issue 1). This issue will be dedicated to critical reflection on 75 years of the United Nations as a global organization. Celebrations began on September 21st, 2020, and will continue until 2025, a period which commemorates the 5-year drafting process of the Charter of the United Nations.

The United Nations was born as a response to the atrocities of the Second World War, with a mandate to mitigate international conflict, promote human rights, and ensure that humanitarian needs are met in times of crisis. It is committed to a stance of non-interference in state affairs, as well as to mitigating conflict through peaceful means.

We are interested in critical reflections on the successes and failures of the UN in promoting conflict resolution, ensuring that human rights are respected, and protecting those members of our society that are most vulnerable. We would also like to broaden our call to include critical reflections on these issues in general.

JCREOR is thus interested in submissions which explore some of the following questions:

• What happens when issues of religious freedom come up against other rights and freedoms, in secular democracies or religious states? How has the issue of religious freedom been pursued by the United Nations during its tenure? What are some of its successes and failures in this regard?
• How has the tension between religious freedom, liberal democratic discourse, and varying state interests been exacerbated, problematized, addressed, and/or mitigated by the UN, States, and other national and international institutions?
• Religious disputes have often been characterized as “ethnic” or “cultural” disputes – Does it matter how a dispute is categorized? What interests are at play in different categorizations?
• The Holocaust was an impetus for the formation of the UN, but, since its formation, a number of genocides have occurred (Rwandan, Uyghur, etc). How has religion figured into genocide? What has the impact of UN discourse/action on genocide been? What are the repercussions of the UN labelling something as a genocide? Has this label proven to be an effective means of mobilizing international action?
• What are some of the structural problems with the UN? How does the influence of certain political and state actors hinder the UN’s efforts?
• The UN was founded on Western, liberal democratic ideals; has this alienated non-Western states? Religious States?

This list is by no means exhaustive, and we welcome submissions that broadly addresses the United Nations and its impact on religious communities, practices and beliefs within the study of religion, including: Theology; Comparative Religions; Theory and Method; Philosophy of Religion; History of Religions; Sociology of Religion; Anthropology of Religion; Psychology of Religion; Religious Ethics; Religion and Politics; Critical Race Theory; Religion and Literature; Religion and Art; Religion and Linguistics; Religion and Health; Textual Studies We welcome submissions that focus on traditions from any period or geographic area.

The submission deadline for Vol. 4 Issue 1 is October 3rd, 2022. Submissions received after this date may be considered for subsequent volumes or issues. Articles should fall between 5,000 and 10,000 words in length, including footnotes. Longer items may be considered but should be discussed with the journal editors prior to submission. For detailed submission guidelines, please consult the Guidelines for Contributors on our website (https://creor-ejournal.library.mcgill.ca/about/submissions#onlineSubmissions All electronic correspondence should be sent to the editors at the following email address: amanda.rosini@mcgill.ca

JCREOR is an interdisciplinary, refereed journal published semi-annually by the McGill University Library. The journal combines the talents of professors and graduate students in offering space for scholarly discussions on various aspects of the academic study of religion (https://creor-ejournal.library.mcgill.ca/index).