Gender in Theology and Religion: a Success Story?! Report from a Conference

In January 2011 some fifty scholars from different parts of Europe met in Groningen, the Netherlands for an expert meeting entitled Gender in theology and religion: a success story?! to analyze the factors that contribute to the successful mainstreaming of gender in a theological discipline and to reflect on the future of gender studies in theology and religious studies. Different speakers highlighted the many successes of gender studies in theology and religious studies: its power to 'trouble' the disciplines and their heuristic categories; its contribution to the development of other disciplines such as queer studies and postcolonial studies; the many PhD studies produced; the number of significant publications that had appeared over the last years. All indicate that gender studies in theology and religious studies have matured. But the participants also pointed towards the ambiguity of the success of gender studies in the academy: the indeterminacy of the institutional position and positions of gender studies in the theological disciplines in seminaries, departments faculties and universities; the lack of male scholars’ engagement in gender studies, which is expressed by their absence in these studies and/or the low reception of gender studies publications in their disciplines. Both ambiguities represent a danger for the future of gender studies, according to the participants in the meeting. In order to further the success of gender in theology and religion they formulated the following recommendations: to analyze the position of these studies in their institutions from the perspective of the implied audience (church, academy, ordinary theologians); engage men in gender studies; embrace the cultural turn in religious studies; develop interdisciplinary cooperations with gender studies in the humanities; engage creatively with the changing role of religion in contemporary society; analyze whose perspective one follows and authorizes in the perception of theology, religious studies and gender studies themselves; record the history of women’s and gender studies in theology and religion, and honor and celebrate the successes.

Etnicidad y poder en los países andinos

La relación entre etnicidad y poder ocupa un lugar central en la trayectoria de los países andinos. Esta relación, de origen colonial, ha trazado las fronteras sociales de inclusión y exclusión en los procesos de construcción nacional, durante los siglos XIX y XX, y continúa siendo decisiva en el debate político actual en diferentes escenarios de la región andina. Los estudios incluidos en este volumen asumen que la identidad étnica es una construcción social, históricamente situada, variable y de carácter relaciona!´ Esta compilación se propuso alentar la investigación sobre la presencia de actores y semánticas étnicas en el espacio político del Ecuador y de la América Andina. Los dieciséis estudios que integran este volumen han sido agrupados en cinco secciones: enfoques generales; perspectivas históricas; etnicidad y protesta social; etnicidad y participación política; y etnicidad y religión. Este libro pone a disposición del público las ponencias presentadas en el Coloquio Internacional “El reto de la etnicidad en espacio político (siglos XIXXXI)”; realizado en Quito (2005) y organizado por la Universidad de Bielefeld (Alemania) y la Universidad Andina Simón Bolívar (Ecuador), dentro del convenio de cooperación académica impulsado por ambas instituciones. El evento reunió a un grupo de investigadores provenientes de diferentes países (Colombia, Ecuador, Perú, Bolivia, Canadá, Estados Unidos, Suecia, Francia y Alemania) y de varias disciplinas sociales (historiadores, antropólogos, sociólogos y politólogos).