Code of counduct for the EASR e-lists

The European Association for the Study of Religions promotes the academic study of religions through the international collaboration of scholars whose research has a bearing on the subject. The six EASR mailing lists are not a forum for the circulation of apologetic material, political propaganda and other non-academic agendas.

Our mailing lists may be used to circulate information about relevant events (conferences, workshops, and lectures), publications, study programs and job openings in fields related to the academic study of religions. Furthermore, you are encouraged to post news, articles, calls for papers, calls for applications, book reviews, informal requests or any other material related to the academic study of religions.

The EASR mailing lists are not filtered: emails from subscribers to the list are distributed immediately and automatically. Individual list members are responsible for the content they post. Subscription requests must be confirmed by the list owner. New subscribers may be asked to briefly state their interest in the academic study of religion before their subscription is confirmed.

Conduct

Be civil and considerate

1. Be constructive in your questions and discussions. Do not insult or put down other members of the mailing lists.
2. Harassment and sexist, racist, or exclusionary comments or jokes are not appropriate. Harassment includes derogatory comments, deliberate intimidation and offensive comments related to religion, gender, sexual orientation, age, disability, physical appearance, body size or race.
3. Disagreement is no excuse for poor conduct or personal attacks.
4. If you would not feel comfortable saying something to a colleague or acquaintance face-to-face offline, it is not appropriate on an EASR mailing list either.

Discuss and argue on academic grounds

1. Abstain from posting material and comments of confessional, apologetic, theological, interfaith or other similar concerns.
2. If you disagree, do so politely, by disputing logical errors and assumptions with evidence-based arguments rather than by attacking individuals.
3. Comment only on work you are acquainted with and abstain from “strawman arguments”.
4. If something seems outrageous, check that you did not misinterpret it. Ask for clarification first, rather than assuming the worst.

Respect time and attention

1. List members are often busy people with a heavy workload. As a result, we value concision and clarity. Emails that are brief and to the point take more time to be written, but are repaid many times over when other members of the list make the same effort.
2. Conversations should remain focused and on-topic. If you must change the topic, start a new thread by changing the subject line of your emails. Also, avoid flooding the list with long threads by reading the entire thread first, instead of responding quickly to many emails in a short period of time.
3. In order to limit the participation to the EASR lists subscribers, do not include e-mail addresses of other persons in the address line of emails to the list.

Enforcement

Most members of the EASR community comply with this code, not because of the existence of the code, but because they have long experience participating in academic communities where the conduct described above is normal and expected.

Failure to observe the code may be grounds for reprimand, temporary suspension, and/or removal from the lists. A removal from the list will be considered after the second reprimand.

If you have concerns about someone’s conduct, we encourage you to do the following:

• Direct contact: it is appropriate to email a list member, mention that you think their behavior was out of line, and (if necessary) point them to this document.
• List owner: The lists are owned by the EASR, represented by the EASR internet officer. You may contact the internet officer at internet.officer@easr.eu.
• EASR general secretary or any other EASR officer may be addressed as well in confidence.