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Dear friends and colleagues,

The upcoming month of March is usually a time when things are a bit quieter in our KFG. There will be no colloquia in March and we will continue on 6 April.

Nevertheless, there are of course news from us: We have new publications by our KFG members, two Calls for Papers as well as recommendations regarding job opportunities. Finally, we would like to remind you of our Call for Applications for a student assistant to support our KFG with public relations and publication activities. In case you know someone who might be suitable for the position, please feel free to forward the call. Thank you!

Enjoy and have a good week!

Anja & Lucy

Announcement: Construction work in the KFG office

From 7 March there will be some construction work on our floor.

To comply with fire regulations, our blue kitchen will get a door. In addition, our printer will get his own room. We will be able to give you more details about the building work next week.

Call for Applications: KFG Student Assistant

We are still looking for a student assistant to support the scientific and administrative coordination team of our KFG with public relations and publications activities, starting as soon as possible.

Call for Papers: Conference “The Non-Religious and the State”, 21–22 October

This conference aims to shed light on the fields of activity of the non-religious at large – be it organizations, networks or even committed individuals – and explain how their goals and ambitions impact upon the interface between the state and the religious or the non-religious. To what specific legal statuses have these processes led? What elements were taken into consideration when making these decisions? Who opted for a recognition of a non-confessional lifestance and why? Conversely, who opted for a wall of separation and why? Are things that clear cut? What continuities and discontinuities are to be observed in the history of seculars and their organizations since the end of the 18th century? How can these patterns, whether divergent or entangled, be mapped and framed within a broader conception of ‘multiple secularisms’?

The Secular Studies Association Brussels (SSAB) and its organizing partners invite submissions for its inaugural conference to be held in the autumn of 2022. The general goal of the conference is to produce an open-access edited volume in the series New Perspectives on the History of Liberalism and Freethought (De Gruyter).

Submission of Abstracts via e-mail: 15 March

Registration open to participants: April

Conference Date: 21–22 October | Brussels/Belgium

Call for Papers: 2022 Annual Meeting of the North American Association for the Study of Religion (NAASR) on “Critique in the Study of Religion: Past, Present, and Future”

Our Associate Member Markus Dreßler draws our attention to a Call for Papers for the 2022 Annual Meeting of the North American Association for the Study of Religion (NAASR): The Meeting addresses the idea of “crisis” as an organizing principle for practitioners and scholars of religion. The program for 2022 will explore the role of “critique” in the study of religion as it applies to the four areas Theory, Method, Teaching and Scholar. NAASR invites submissions that substantially respond to any one of these four provocations and explore the implications for the field. Scholars from diverse areas of expertise and disciplinary training are welcome.

Submissions can be uploaded here. If you have any questions, please send an e-mail.

Submission of Abstracts: 1 March

Conference Date: tba | Venue: Denver, Colorado

Job Opportunity I: Assistant Professor at the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies at Utrecht University

Our Associate Member Horst Junginger draws our attention to a job opportunity at the University of Utrecht: For the programmes of Philosophy, Religious Studies, and Islam & Arabic the Department is looking for a new Assistant Professor, who will work at the intersection of the groups of History of Philosophy and Religious Studies, starting 1 August. The successful candidate will have a bridging role regarding research in these two discipline groups.

For more information about this position, please contact Birgit Meyer or Paul Ziche.

Application Deadline: 15 March

Job Opportunity II: Research Assistant “Cluster of Excellence ‘Religion and Politics’” at University of Münster

The Cluster of Excellence “Religion and Politics: Dynamics of Tradition and Innovation” at the University of Münster wishes to appoint a Doctoral Research Associate within the research project “Secularism as a (post-)colonial challenge? Religion and Republicanism in Marseille, 1946-1989” under the direction of Silke Mende.

This fixed-term part-time position (65%) is offered for a three-year term, starting 1 June.

Application Deadline: 14 March

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.