Religion, Gender, and Reform

Following the great success of our first round last year, participants in this cluster will be engaged in the investigation of the relationship between women, religion, and reform within the context of social effects. In our second year, we plan to further explore how women in religious milieus articulate their ideas about positive change affecting their lives. Our discussions will continue to address how women challenge the limits imposed upon them and their moral behavior by religious and secular elites in society.

The meetings will be a place to introduce and discuss recent scholarly works and integrate them with works in progress by the Cluster members, share related ideas, debate, deconstruct, and analyze issues that unfold. Such interaction will help participants consider other perspectives, narrow research focus, and try to resolve unforeseen challenges of publications. The group will brainstorm ideas for a Panel Presentation at ASU on ‘Gender and Religion’, as well as propose suggestions on how to organize and contribute to such a Panel that will be open to the public through the IHR. In addition, we will aim to present our findings at academic conferences (such as MESA, AAR-WR, WCMES) as well as consider publishing individual papers and even explore the possibility of and edited volume of work, contingent upon the result of our collaboration; thus making a stronger commitment to the group alliance. In the end, we plan to invite a Speaker to ASU for another public engagement and discussion on the Cluster Theme (Spring 2010).