According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, almost 100 million people are displaced. Of the displaced population, about 90 percent are accommodated in developing countries, while about 10 percent are accommodated in developed countries. Yet migration continues to provoke as a polarized and politicized issue in Europe. The fallout is a rising death toll at the borders around Europe. These borders are among the most dangerous and deadly in the world.
Both nationally and transnationally, faith-based organizations have been at the forefront of refugee relief in Europe. They have conducted swift and sustained responses, confronting racist discourses and religious discrimination. Their concerted effort has challenged secularism as the standard of humanitarian engagement to the extent that the United Nations’ Global Compact on Refugees stresses the significance of religion for refugee relief today. These faith-based organizations act like social and political movements which have been crucial in calling attention to issues of justice throughout history. Their call for justice is at the core of this conference.
How do faith-based organizations contribute to justice? What makes justice possible? What makes justice impossible? And what constitutes justice under the current circumstances? By asking and answering questions like these, this interdisciplinary and international conference aims to analyze and assess the conditions, the constraints, and the consequences of practicing justice in faith-based refugee relief in Europe. Engaging a variety of faiths, we invite descriptive and prescriptive contributions, reaching from theology and philosophy through legal, biblical, cultural and religious studies to anthropology, sociology, and geography. Contributions that challenge the current state of the field from migrant and postmigrant angles are particularly welcome.
Please send abstracts of no more than 300 words to Ryszard Bobrowicz (ryszard [dot] bobrowicz [at] ctr [dot] lu [dot] se) and Ulrich Schmiedel (ulrich [dot] schmiedel [at] ed [dot] ac [dot] uk) before 31 May 2023. Decisions about the acceptance of papers will be communicated before 15 June 2023. A number of travel bursaries for PhD students are available upon request.