Migration, Human Dislocation, and the Good News: Margins as the Center in Christian Mission

A Call for Papers for the 13th Assembly of the International Association for Mission Studies

August 15–20, 2012
Toronto, Canada

Migration, Human Dislocation, and the Good News:
Margins as the Center in Christian Mission

The IAMS 2012 Toronto Assembly will explore the profound missiological dimensions of human migration and dislocation, past, present, and future. We will attend especially to the many repercussions of widespread contemporary human movement for the theory and practice of Christian mission.

The Hebrew and Christian Scriptures, reflecting the lives of God’s people who were uprooted, exiled, and scattered, features epic experiences of human mobility like the call to a new land, exodus and resettlement, and the scattering of the early Christians. The last half-millennium has seen the Gospel span the globe, often accompanied by the disenfranchisement and sometimes obliteration of other peoples. Dislocation, compelled and voluntary, continues to characterize our contemporary human story as people cross state boundaries or move within their own countries in search of safety or well-being. Christian mission, often a feature of large-scale movements of peoples, must continue to attend responsibly to these historic global realities.

We welcome papers on mission and diverse aspects of human mobility from across the disciplines. These can touch upon a range of themes including ethnicity, race, gender, HIV-Aids, human rights, violence, poverty, nationalism, other religions, and ecclesiastical tradition. In addition, we urge IAMS Study Group members to prepare papers and share research, especially as these relate to the Assembly’s migration theme.

Study Groups:

Previous study groups have organized around: *Healing and Pneumatology; *Biblical Studies in Mission; *Women in Mission; History; *Interreligious Relations; *Globalization and Mission; *Ethnic Minorities and Mission; and Documentation, Archives, Bibliography and Oral History. IAMS welcomes suggestions for other thematic groups, and volunteers for facilitating, organizing and chairing study groups that have been inactive (indicated by an asterisk*) since 2008.

Timeline:

1. Proposed topic, with 150–200-word abstract, is due by July 1, 2011.
2. Draft paper is due by January 1, 2012.

Guidelines for writing paper: Papers are not to exceed 4,000 words, including notes. Writers will be expected to strictly adhere to the Style Guide for Mission Studies

http://missionstudies.org/index.php/journal/style-guide-for-mission-studies/

Process governing acceptance of paper: All proposals with abstracts will be carefully reviewed by the IAMS Executive Committee, who will finalize the Toronto program at its 2012 January meeting. Writers will be notified of the committee’s decision before April 2012.

Address all correspondence to:

The Secretariat
International Association for Mission Studies
c/o Church Mission Society
Watlington Road, Oxford OX4 6BZ, United Kingdom

Tel: +44 1865 787400
Fax: +44 1865 776375

E-mail: secretary@missionstudies.org

Toronto Assembly – IAMS

August 15-20, 2012 (Wednesday – Sunday)