The third annual Symposium on the Social Scientific Study of Religion will be held on July 15-17, 2006 at Renmin University of China, Beijing. The keynote speakers include

Dr. Rodney Stark, University Professor of Social Sciences at Baylor University Dr. R. Stephen Warner, Professor of Sociology at the University of Illinois at Chicago) Dr. Zhuo Xinping, Director of the Institute for the Study of World Religions at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences Dr. Chiu Hei-Yuan (Qu Haiyuan), Professor of Sociology at Academia Sinica, Taiwan Participation in the Symposium is open to international scholars across different disciplines (for example, sociology, anthropology, history, political science, and economics). We welcome proposals for presentation addressing some aspect of the “new paradigm,” recent theoretical developments in the sociology of religion, or empirical studies of religion among the Chinese (Chinese societies and diasporas). Please submit the title and a one-page single-spaced abstract by April 1, 2006. Notification of inclusion on the program will be made by May 1, 2006. The complete paper is due by June 1, 2006.

No registration fee is required.

Proposals and requests for additional information should be e-mailed to: Dr. Fenggang Yang at fyang@purdue.edu .

In conjunction, the third Summer Institute for the Social Scientific Study of Religion will be held on July 10-23, 2006, at Renmin University of China. The Summer Institute participants are scholars and graduate students at Chinese universities. The major lecturers include Rodney Stark and Byron Johnson of Baylor University and R. Stephen Warner of University of Illinois at Chicago.

For more information about the Summer Institutes and Symposia, please visit http://www.cla.purdue.edu/sociology/religion/