The International Society for the Sociology of Religion (ISSR), also known as the Société Internationale de Sociologie des Religions (SISR), arose in 1989 from the International Conference on Sociology of Religion (Conférence Internationale des Sociologie Religieuse), founded in 1948. It publishes the Social Compass

Social Compass

Social Compass is a peer-reviewed academic journal that covers research in the field of sociology of religion. The journal's editor-in-chief is Céline Polain...

and plays an important role in fostering international contacts between sociologists of religion; its 1995 meeting was attended by around three hundred scholars. Past presidents of the society include James A. Beckford

James A. Beckford

James Arthur Beckford is a British sociologist of religion. He is Professor Emeritus of Sociology at the University of Warwick and a Fellow of the British Academy...

, Karel Dobbelaere

Karel Dobbelaere

Karel Dobbelaere is a Belgian educator and noted sociologist of religion. Dobbelaere is an Emeritus Professor of both the University of Antwerp and the Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium...

 and Bryan R. Wilson

Bryan R. Wilson

Bryan Ronald Wilson, , was Reader Emeritus in Sociology at the University of Oxford and President of the International Society for the Sociology of Religion 1971-75.-Academic life:...

; its current president is Jean-Paul Willaime

Jean-Paul Willaime

Jean-Paul Willaime is a French sociologist specialized in contemporary Protestantism, Christian ecumenism, Secularism and religions, theories and methods in the sociology of religions.-Cursus:...

, who took office in 2007.

External links

• Home page of the International Society for the Sociology of Religion