CFP: From Disciples to Followers: Questioning the Digital Experience of Religions Online

The 2026 edition of the UCSIA Summer School is titled “From Disciples to Followers: Questioning the Digital Experience of Religions Online”, and marks the final year of UCSIA’s three-year cycle on “Religion & Politics: (Dis)Entanglements in Communities and Societies”.

This summer school invites early-career scholars to critically examine how digital technologies, online platforms, and political economies are reshaping religious practices, publics, authorities, and forms of belonging.

Call for papers

We welcome paper proposals from PhD candidates and postdoctoral researchers working in the humanities, social sciences, or law, whose research engages with religion in relation to digital media, online publics, theology, ritual, ethics, or (theo)politics.

Contributions may address, among other themes:

→   the transformation of religious authority, authenticity, and community in online environments
→   the interaction between digital religion and political imaginaries
→   historical and comparative perspectives on media and religion
→   questions of power, representation, racialization, and moral vocabularies in digital religious spaces

Selected participants will join an intensive one-week mentoring programme combining expert lectures, interdisciplinary discussions, paper presentations, and individual tutorials.

The Faculty

Two experts have already confirmed their attendance:

Yasmin Moll (University of Michigan) is a socio-cultural anthropologist whose work explores the intersections of religion, media, politics, and ethics in the Middle East and North Africa.

Alessandra Vitullo (Sapienza University of Rome) is a sociologist specializing in digital religion, online mediation of belief, and the transformation of religious authority and belonging in digital cultures.

Submit your abstract by 20 April 2026, and be part of this enriching academic experience!