Theme: Migration, Diaspora, Transnationalism in World Christianity
Location: Princeton Theological Seminary, New Jersey, USA
Date: 10-14 March 2025
Announcement
Discourse surrounding the topics of migration, diaspora, and transnationalism continues to spark a wide range of interdisciplinary interests, both in the academy and at large. However, despite the interdisciplinary nature of World Christianity, the field still lacks adequate theoretical and empirical insights concerning such discourse, specifically in the intersectionality of migration, diaspora, and transnationalism pertaining to the global spread of Christianity. With Christianity’s center of gravity having shifted from the global North to the global South, the emergence and proliferation of global South Christianities in the last few decades, particularly in Europe and the North American diaspora, have occasioned the remapping of old Christian landscapes. Thus, the expansion of global South Christianities through international ministries and networks marked a watershed in the multidirectionality of missions—an epochal shift in the trade winds of Christian history. Among other factors, this shift is also attributable to migration: a crucial factor determining a religion’s mobility and demographic expansion. Through both mission and migration, immigrant and diaspora Christian communities did not merely emerge as outposts in new cultural contexts, but rather became institutions integral to European and American civic life. Reverse missions and South-South links and religious networks, as instances of religious transnationalism, break the stereotype that places the global North at the center of Christianity’s discourse. Transnational religious networks and social dynamics in the global South, but also with their various diasporas deserve further scholarly attention.
Thus, new forms of religious transnationalism have emerged between Christian communities in the global North and global South, carrying significant religious, cultural, economic, political, and social import worldwide. Likewise, the nature of a globalizing world marked by the rise of global capitalism and its need for large urban conglomerates, industrialization, and technological revolution have drastically changed the speed of communication and interconnectivity. These, along with climate change, political and economic crises, ethnic and religious conflicts, and the proliferation of armed conflicts, have created new migration and diaspora patterns both regionally and globally. Furthermore, Christians increasingly live in religiously pluralizing contexts and new realities, often needing to negotiate and reinterpret their faith traditions in complex cultural and multireligious settings. Whereas new forms of interfaith/inter-religious and intercultural relations have proliferated in such contexts, these encounters have also led to the rise of conflicts, cultural misunderstandings, and identity crises contributing to the rise of renewed forms of xenophobia, fundamentalism, and religious nationalism.
The 6th World Christianity Conference seeks to interrogate the intersectionality of migration, diaspora and transnationalism within the interdisciplinary field of World Christianity. Relevant topics may include but are not limited to: South-South and South-North transnational networks; immigrant and diaspora churches; identity and belonging; power and politics; race, ethnicity, and xenophobia; borderland religion; contested spaces and religious conflict; religious nationalism; immigrant and diasporic theologies; music; migration, ecumenism and interfaith relations; migration, sexual and gender diversity; reverse mission and mission from everywhere to everywhere; reverse migration/diaspora; language and translation; religion and urbanism; new media/social media in diasporic networks; economics, brain-drain, brain gain, brain circulation; social/cultural/spiritual capital; church growth and Christian mission; leadership dynamics across local and translocal cultural contexts; interpersonal relations among immigrant/diaspora congregations; the feminization of migration; women and lived religious life expressions and experiences in immigrant and diaspora contexts; women ordination; youth and intergenerational dynamics; women, migration and diaspora Christianity.
We welcome panel and paper proposals from any discipline on any topic relevant to the conference theme, whether contemporary or historical. In 2025, the global South and global North will be our primary, although not exclusive, frames of reference. We particularly encourage case-based studies grounded in historical/empirical research, while proposals from ethical, theological, and missiological perspectives will also be considered.
Submission Deadline: 30 September 2024
Paper or Panel proposals should be submitted through the online conference registration portal. Questions via email to:
Proposals should include Name, Institutional affiliation and Status, Email address, Contact phone, Paper/panel title and abstract (±250 words).
Notification of successful proposals by October 30, 2024.
Conference Registration: early-bird registration begins on November 1 and ends on December 30. Full registration fee will be charged thereafter.
Conference fees (include refreshments, meals and the conference banquet):
- $250.00 – early bird / $275.00 – full registration fee (faculty based in USA, Canada and Europe)
- $120.00 – early bird / $140.00 – full registration fee (faculty based in the Global South, graduate students/retirees)
- Virtual (Student): $60.00 / Virtual (Faculty): $120.00
- PTS students – free but must register by the registration deadline
- Accommodation: Limited availability (single/shared rooms) at Erdman Center on the Princeton campus. Rooms (single occupancy) with shared baths in Alexander and Hodge Halls. Other options for accommodation to be announced later.
Limited travel subsidies will be available for participants from the Global South with accepted paper/panel proposals
Conveners: Afe Adogame, Raimundo Barreto, Soojin Chung
