E-mail letter of information: 14.06.05
CALL FOR BIDS FOR HOSTING The IAHR XXth Quinquennial Congress 2010 and other News
Dear officers of the IAHR affiliates,
At the International Committee meeting in Tokyo March 2005, it was decided that the in-coming Executive Committee of the IAHR should issue a call to all member associations regarding bids for hosting the XXth Congress of the IAHR in 2010.
Due to the wish to have an update of the names and addresses of the officers of the IAHR-affiliates as well as to the wish of the Executive Committee to revise the guidelines for hosting an IAHR Quinquennial Congress, it has not been possible to issue this call until now.
Nevertheless, here it is, together with an attached file with the above-mentioned revised guidelines ("A Basic Framework for Running an IAHR World Congress") which you can also find at the web site of IAHR (http://www.iahr.dk/congress.htm).
We sincerely ask all of you to consider if your association is interested in hosting this next World Congress of the IAHR, and we strongly advise you to take a close look at the attached guidelines, if and when you decide to ponder the matter.
The deadline for submission of bids is January 31st 2006.
Bids should be sent by both e-mail and ordinary mail to the Secretary General of the IAHR,
Tim Jensen, The Study of Religions, University of Southern
Denmark, Campusvej 55, DK-5230 Odense M (t.jensen@filos.sdu.dk).
The IAHR Executive Committee will then make its decision within 3 months, i.e. no later than end of April, 2006.
More News:
Though minutes and news from the business meetings during the Tokyo Congress will, of course, be mailed to everybody in due time, I shall use this opportunity to pass on some more IAHR related information:
- The names, adresses, and e-mail adresses of the new IAHR Executive Committee can be found at the IAHR website.
- Please notice that together with the new Executive Committee comes a series of new offices a new delegation of the duties of the officers of the Executive Committee. Please take a look at the new delegation of duties new offices.
- As for the daily business and correspondence of the IAHR, this is still the duty of the General Secretary, and I kindly ask you to direct correspondence with the IAHR to the General Secretary who may then pass it on to the relevant officer and the Executive Committee at large.
- The XIXth Quinquennial World Congress of the IAHR in Tokyo March 24-30,2005, was, not least thanks to the Japanese hosts, a great success, and the Japanese hosts managed to help fund the participation of a large number of scholars from all around the world.
- The Executive Committee, especially the former Deputy General Secretary Gerrie ter Haar, responsible on behalf of the IAHR for the academic program, the Publications Officer, Brian Bocking, and the General Secretary, is, in cooperation with the Japanese hosts, working on the collection and publication of proceedings, adjunct proceedings et al, and we intend to get it 'out' within a year or so. Please do not forget to consult the rules and regulations regarding adjunct proceedings and spin-off publications in case you have in any plans in that regard.
- Likewise, the Executive Committee is in the process of editing the proceedings from the World Congress in Durban in 2000, but in this, as in other matters, we are restrained by the financial situation of the IAHR.
- At its first meeting in Tokyo, the Executive Committee made several decisions aimed at the improvement of the financial situation. We have set up several sub-committees devoted to finances, and fund-raising, and an endowment fund will be established as soon as possible.
- The BASR, The British Association for the Study of Religions, following the Tokyo Congress, has been so generous as to donate 1.000 British pounds to the IAHR. We are extremely grateful for this, - and it is our hope that other national associations as well as individual members will follow in the footsteps of our British colleagues so that the IAHR can continue to e.g. help fund scholars from less affluent countries. As soon as the Executive Committee has established the Endowment Fund notice will be given to all our members and it will be made public at our website.
- Following the Tokyo Congress quite a few affiliates have paid up, and we are grateful for this. In the future we intend to tighten up the process of the payment of the annual fee.
- A special task force headed by the President, Rosalind I.J. Hackett has been set up to take a closer look at the possibilities of the IAHR to improve the service we offer young and female scholars.
- At the International Committee meeting as well as at the General Assembly, several members urged the in-coming Executive Committee to tighten up the various policy-statements of the IAHR (including article 1 of the Constitution) in order to make it clear to everybody, not least outside the IAHR, that IAHR is an academic, non-religious association. The Executive Committee is working on it.
- In Tokyo several national and regional associations were adopted as members of the IAHR: The Greek Society for the Study of Culture and Religion (GSSCR), the Turkish Association for the History of Religions (TAHR), the Romanian Association for the History of Religions (RAHR), and the South and Southeast Asian Association for the Study of Religion (SSEASR). As for the affiliation and disaffiliation of the Taiwan Association for Religious Studies, I can only say that I have, following the meetings in Tokyo, mailed the President of TARS and urged the TARS to help us find a way out of this unhappy situation. The General Secretary, furthermore, hopes to be able to witness the reorganisation of the Russian Association the History of Religions in late 2005, early 2006.
- Honorary Life Membership was in Tokyo conferred upon Prof. Peter Antes, Prof. Michio Araki, and Prof. Giulia Sfameni Gasparro. The Executive Committee congratulates all of them.
- Several special and regional IAHR and IAHR co-sponsored conferences are in the process of being planned for the years ahead. So far Greece and Turkey have plans for conferences in 2006, and the SSEASR for 2007. Please see our website at http://www.iahr.dk for further developments.
- The Membership Secretary, Prof. Abrahim Khan, has tried to contact all of you in order to update our files on officers, number of members of the national associations etc. Please, once again, take another look at the information posted at our website, and let us know if there are any changes. And, please do not forget to notify us whenever there are changes.
Finally, I just want to assure you that you are always welcome to mail or phone me in matters regarding the IAHR. I, as well as the other officers and members of the Executive Committee, am looking forward to continued and fruitful cooperation with all of you, and we are grateful to have so many excellent scholars and good colleagues helping us promote the academic study of religion throughout the world.
Sincerely,
Tim Jensen, Copenhagen, June 14, 2005.
