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Wednesday Weekly 18 January 2023

Dear friends and colleagues,

There will be no colloquium next week, but we will continue our Screening Religion series: On 25 January, we will be showing the award-winning documentary “Midwives”. On 27 and 28 January we will host the next KFG workshop on “Religion and its History in Turkey: New Approaches, Alternative Perspectives”, convened by Markus Dreßler and Gökçen Beyinli, and you are welcome to register for participation.

Furthermore, we have a number of new publications by KFG members for you, the announcement of a workshop organized by the Institute for the Study of Religion and information on a survey conducted by the Welcome Centre at Leipzig University. We conclude this Wednesday Weekly with a Call for Papers.

Enjoy and have a good week!

Anja & Lucy

Screening Religion with “Midwives”, 25 January at naTo

Next Wednesday, our Screening Religion film series will continue with the film “Midwives”, directed by Snow Hnin Ei Hlaing. The film received the 2022 World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Award for Excellence in Vérité Filmmaking at Sundance Film Festival. It portrays two women as they face their daily challenges, but also how they pursue their hopes and dreams in the midst of an environment where chaos and violence are constantly growing: Hla, a Buddhist and the owner of an improvised clinic in western Myanmar, where the Rohingya – a Muslim minority – are persecuted and denied basic rights. And Nyo Nyo, a Muslim woman and trained midwife who works as an assistant and translator at the clinic. Although her family has lived in the region for generations, they are still seen as invaders.

The film will be shown at Cinémathèque Leipzig at naTo in Rakhine/Arakanese, Rohingya, and Burmese languages with English subs. After the film there will be a discussion and an information desk organized by the non-profit association Burmahilfe Leipzig e.V.

25 January | 7 pm (CET)

Cinémathèque Leipzig at naTo, Karl-Liebknecht-Straße 46, 04275 Leipzig

Free entry, donations welcome

Watch Trailer

KFG-Workshop “Religion and its History in Turkey: New Approaches, Alternative Perspectives”, 27–28 January

Next week we will be hosting the KFG-workshop on “Religion and its History in Turkey: New Approaches, Alternative Perspectives”. Convened by our Associate Member Markus Dreßler and Gökçen Beyinli from Hamburg University, the two-day event aims to revisit Turkish modernity experience on the centenary of the republic by considering the diverse forms of religiosity and the complexity of religious life in Turkey. With contributions of critical and theoretical religious studies research, it will question the binary conceptualisations of religion as well as the strict dichotomy between religion and the secular.

The workshop will take place as a hybrid event. If you wish to attend the workshop on-site or virtually, please register via e-mail.

Workshop Dates:

27 January | 9.00 am–5.00 pm (CET)

28 January | 9.00 am–1.30 pm (CET)

Hybrid Format: Leipzig University and Online via zoom

Workshop Programme

New Publication I: Dietrich Jung on “Islam in Global Modernity: Sociological Theory and the Diversity of Islamic Modernities”

We would like to announce the latest publication of our Senior Research Fellow Dietrich Jung. In his book “Islam in Global Modernity: Sociological Theory and the Diversity of Islamic Modernities” he combines sociological theorising with studies on the Middle East and Islam. The diversity of modernities that can be observed in our world is linked to the claim of living in a global modernity, in a world society. The book underpins this claim with numerous excursions into Islamic history. It criticises the view that modernization can be equated with westernization and considers different projects of specifically Islamic modernities as integral parts of world society. From this perspective, the study contributes to the “provincialisation” of European history in contemporary social scientific thought.

Jung, Dietrich. Islam in Global Modernity: Sociological Theory and the Diversity of Islamic Modernities. Wiesbaden: Springer Fachmedien, 2023.

New Publications II-IV by Mark Mullins: “The Life and Death of a Heisei Religious Movement: What the Aum Shinrikyō Affair Revealed about Japanese Society”

Our Senior Research Fellow Mark Mullins would like to share three publications with us:

With his chapter on “The Life and Death of a Heisei Religious Movement: What the Aum Shinrikyō Affair Revealed about Japanese Society” he contributed to the anthology “Japan in the Heisei Era (1989–2019): Multidisciplinary Perspectives”, edited by Tina Burrett, Jeff Kingston, and Noriko Murai.

Mullins, Mark R. “The Life and Death of a Heisei Religious Movement: What the Aum Shinrikyō Affair Revealed about Japanese Society.” In Japan in the Heisei Era (1989-2019): Multidisciplinary Perspectives, edited by Tina Burrett, Jeff Kingston, and Noriko Murai, 206-17. London: Routledge, 2022.

“Buddhism in Aotearoa New Zealand: Multiple Sources and Diverse Forms”

In his article on “Buddhism in Aotearoa New Zealand: Multiple Sources and Diverse Forms”, co-edited with Sally McAra, Mark presents a provisional survey of Buddhists and Buddhist organizations in Aotearoa/New Zealand, identifying their key characteristics in terms of national origin, ethnicity, and areas of geographical concentration.

McAra, Sally, and Mark R. Mullins. “Buddhism in Aotearoa New Zealand: Multiple Sources and Diverse Forms.” Journal of Global Buddhism 23, no. 2 (2022): 161-84.

Review Discussion: Religion, Politics, and the Law in Postwar Japan

The “Review Discussion: Religion, Politics, and the Law in Postwar Japan” by Mark Mullins, Jolyon Baraka Thomas, and Matthew D. McMullen, reviews two recent publications on religion, politics, and the law in Japan, specifically the postwar period: “Faking Liberties: Religious Freedom in American-Occupied Japan” by Jolyon Thomas, was published by University of Chicago Press in 2019, and “Yasukuni Fundamentalism: Japanese Religions and the Politics of Restoration” by Mark Mullins, published in 2021.

Mullins, Mark R., Jolyon B. Thomas, and Matthew D. McMullen. “Review Discussion: Religion, Politics, and the Law in Postwar Japan.” Japanese Journal of Religious Studies 49, no. 1 (2022): 115–46.

Read Full Article

More KFG Publications

Workshop “Nourishing Values, Feeding Differences: (Religious) Foodways Compared”, 2–4 March at Leipzig University

Our Associate Member Jörg Albrecht points to an international workshop, organized by the Institute for the Study of Religion at Leipzig University: The workshop on “Nourishing Values, Feeding Differences: (Religious) Foodways Compared” seeks to explore how religion is related to human nutrition in a transregional and cross-cultural historical perspective. Moving beyond comparing religious dietary rules or examining metaphorical usages of “diets as religion,” the workshop takes a specifically Religious Studies perspective to investigate conflicts over food norms, in which religion becomes significant for negotiations of foodways and vice versa. In addition to Jörg Albrecht, conveners of the workshop are also our Associate Members Bernadett Bigalke and Thomas Krutak as well as our colleague Nikolas Broy.

If you would like to attend, please contact Jörg Albrecht. The public evening lecture can be attended without prior registration.

Workshop Dates: 2–4 March

Leipzig University, Institute for the Study of Religion, Schillerstraße 6, Room S102

Full Workshop Programme

Call for Papers: 2023 Conference of the International Society for Media, Religion and Culture on “Metaphor & Misinformation: Religion in Media-Driven Worlds”, 2–5 August in Bochum

The history of religion, and current debates regarding spirituality, are full of diverse metaphors that are used to communicate complex ideas. These metaphors are woven into myths that help make the intangible accessible and create personal worldviews. Yet in an age of fake news and post-truth, the use of images and narratives can complicate already complex discussions of religion in the mediated public sphere. In light of this, this workshop on “Metaphor & Misinformation: Religion in Media-Driven Worlds” invites papers that explore the concepts of metaphors and the communication of religious information within media cultures throughout history. Conveners are Heidi A Campbell, Professor at the Department of Communication and Journalism at Texas A&M University, Míriam Díez Bosch, Director of the Blanquerna Observatory on Media, Religion and Culture at Ramon Llull University in Barcelona, and Tim Karis, Managing Director of the Center for Religious Studies (CERES) at Ruhr University Bochum.

Extended Deadline for Paper proposals: 28 January

Notification of acceptance: End of February

Conference Dates: 2–5 August

Call for Papers

Welcome Centre Survey

We would like to draw your attention to a survey conducted by the Welcome Centre at Leipzig University: It aims to get feedback about the centre’s services as well as your impressions of your stay in Leipzig. Your feedback is always valued and most appreciated. You can participate in the survey by clicking on this link. Please respond by 23 January.

The data provided in the survey exclusively serves purposes of the Welcome Centre of Leipzig University and will not be passed on to third parties. Filling out the entire surveys will take about 10 minutes.

Welcome Centre Presentation

If you have any content that you think suits the purpose of the weekly, please feel free to send it to us at multiple-secularities@uni-leipzig.de.

Kolleg-Forschungsgruppe "Multiple Secularities - Beyond the West, Beyond Modernities"
Nikolaistraße 8-10, 04109 Leipzig
Mail: multiple-secularities@uni-leipzig.de

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