[Commlist] Special Issue on ‘Digital Youth and Religion’

*Reminder: CFP - Special Issue on ‘Digital Youth and Religion’ - 
Abstracts Due: May 18, 2021*

Public and academic discourse on the online activities of youth have 
been stormy and ambivalent at times. Nevertheless, a significant body of 
work has been devoted to the grass-rooted workings of youth on new media 
platforms, albeit in adolescents’ autonomous settings, such as social 
media (e.g., Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, YouTube), online gaming, and 
interpersonal communication (e.g., instant messaging, WhatsApp). While 
past scholarship has yielded a rich offering of insight into these 
activities, there is a clear dearth of research on the online social 
worlds of religious youth. Nowadays, youth are afforded multiple venues 
of religious creeds and interpretations in unprecedented formats and 
channels. These channels enable access to youth outreach, foster 
communal participation, and shape youths’ identities, belief systems, 
and affiliation to (or from) religious institutions.

The purpose of this Special Issue is to draw together concepts, 
theories, and empirical data related to the study of three legacies: 
youth cultures, digital culture, and religious studies. We invite 
scholars that study different societies, faiths, cults, and sects from 
interdisciplinary fields (e.g., media studies, sociology, anthropology, 
semiotics, cultural studies, religious studies) to submit a proposal.

Suggested topics include, but are not limited to:

●religious youth as media producers and participants;

●social representation of religious youth on social media;

●religious youth mobilization: constructing global and regional communities;

●religious youth movements’ online representation and activities;

●creating religious youth subcultures through social media;

●identity work among religious youth communities and networks;

●religious authority and youth in online informal contexts: 
bloggers/vloggers, social media moderators, online peer leaders;

●methodological challenges to and possibilities for the study of 
religious youths’ online activities;

●shaping youth’s spiritual beliefs through digital game design and 
gameplay; and

●religious youth’s deviance: adolescent engagement in religious 
transgressions and taboos.

If you are interested, please send a title and abstract to the Guest 
Editor by email before *18 May 2021*. Accepted abstracts will be 
notified and duly announced as Planned Papers.

No payment from the authors will be required.

*For the full call for papers info 
see:*https://www.mdpi.com/journal/religions/special_issues/youth_religion <https://www.mdpi.com/journal/religions/special_issues/youth_religion>

*For further inquiries and applications,*contact: 
(oren.golan /at/ edtech.haifa.ac.il) <mailto:(oren.golan /at/ edtech.haifa.ac.il)>

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