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Dear friends and colleagues,

At next week’s colloquium we will have our Senior Research Fellow Birgit Meyer presenting her research project.

Today, we would also like to announce our KFG workshop on “Material Secularities” which will take place from 21–23 June. You are welcome to register as a listener. Moreover, we would like to share with you a Call for Applications, a Call for Papers, recommendations for conferences and a conference report.

We would also like to bring to your attention that the internationally renowned Wave-Gotik-Treffen is taking place this weekend. And as every year, its visitors will shape the cityscape for these days. You can find some information about the WGT here [...].

Enjoy and have a good week!

Anja & Lucy

New Date for Cleaning of windows at our offices: 25/26 May

Two weeks ago, we announced the cleaning of the office windows for the middle of May, which for reasons unknown to us, did not take place. Now the cleaning company is making a new attempt and will have access to our offices on Thursday and Friday this week. Again, please make sure that the windows are freely accessible and without any trays. Thanks again for your assistance – we hope that this time the cleaning will actually take place ;-)

Next week’s Colloquium: Birgit Meyer on “Across the Religious-Secular Boundary: Unpacking a Colonial Missionary Collection”, 31 May

Next Wednesday, our Senior Research Fellow Birgit Meyer will give a presentation on her research project “Across the Religious-Secular Boundary: Unpacking a Colonial Missionary Collection” at our colloquium.

Our Senior Researcher Magnus Echtler will comment on Birgit’s presentation.

The colloquium will take place in a hybrid format (on-site and online). In the Member Area you will find more information including preparatory reading and the zoom connection data.

31 May | 9.15–11.45 am (CEST)

Strohsack, Room 4.55 and online via zoom

KFG-Workshop: “Material Secularities”, 21–23 June at Leipzig University

We would like to announce our next KFG-Workshop: On 21–23 June, our KFG together with the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies at Utrecht University will be hosting a workshop on “Material Secularities”, convened by our Senior Research Fellow Birgit Meyer and our Senior Researchers Magnus Echtler and Nur Yasemin Ural.

With an interdisciplinary approach, this workshop attempts to examine a range of value-laden (and often contested) material-corporeal expressions of secularity, such as the questions of hand-shaking in everyday interactions; halal/kosher food or crosses in public institutions; the one-love-bandage in sports events; national ceremonies; architectural forms of war memorials, etc. Taking a fresh look at the secular from a material angle, the workshop convenors would like to engage with recent debates on ontology, relationality, and non-human actors that consider things, discourses, and symbols as relevant elements of affective, sensual and aesthetic experiences/ expressions.

The workshop will be held in a hybrid format. You are welcome to register as a listener by sending us an e-mail indicating the type of participation (on-site or online). We will then send you the zoom connection data in good time prior to the event.    

21–23 June

Strohsack, Room 4.55 and online via zoom

Call for Applications: 3 PostDoc Positions “Universalism and Particularism in European Contemporary History” at Ludwig Maximilians University Munich

The Center for Advanced Studies in the Humanities and Social Sciences (CASHSS) “Universalism and Particularism in European Contemporary History” at Ludwig Maximilians University Munich is seeking to appoint 3 PostDoc Junior Fellowships with a research topic focusing on economy or human rights or religion/secularity in contemporary European history. The fellowships will last for the summer term 2024 (April–September), with a preferred starting date on 1 April 2024.

The CASHSS “Universalism and Particularism” investigates universalist and particularist models of order in European contemporary history from the 1970s to the present. Its research program focuses on economic, religious/secular and human rights regimes, and poses the question how universalist and particularist claims were constructed in contemporary history and how political-social change was conceived, justified, promoted or even prevented with them.  

Application deadline: 18 June

Call for Papers for International Conference: “Communist Perspectives on Atheism in the 20th Century”, 13–14 November in Paris

In recent years, scholars in historical and secular studies have become increasingly interested in communist attitudes towards religion, communist regimes’ efforts to uproot religion, and interactions between Marxists and Christians. Sponsored by the Explaining Atheism programme, this conference will explore transnational communist perspectives on atheism in the twentieth century and Marxist-inspired attempts to explain and influence the evolution of atheism. Building on work on “scientific atheism”, “atheist establishments” and “thought collectives”, the conference explores differences and commonalities within the Soviet bloc – within which scholarly debates on atheism took place in what might be called a limited international scientific community.

The convenors welcome contributions on communist regimes in Central and Eastern Europe, the Soviet Union as well as Africa, America and Asia during the 20th century. The scope can be extended to theoretical developments within communist movements outside communist ruled countries. The conference is organized by the Centre d’études en sciences sociales du religieux, EHESS/CNRS, Paris.

Submission of abstracts: 15 July

Conference Dates: 13–14 November

Conference Report: „Bedrohungswahrnehmung und Bedrohungsbewältigung – Geistliche Frauengemeinschaften in Säkularisation und Aufklärung“ (“Threat Perception and Threat Management – Women's Spiritual Communities in Secularization and Enlightenment”), 23–24 March at Eberhard Karls University Tübingen

During secularization and the Enlightenment, spiritual life was fundamentally called into question, leading to heterogeneous reactions among those affected: In this context, the spectrum among spiritual women ranged from the development of a “high-performance piety” to the adoption of enlightened ideas, which led to a search for supposedly “useful”, alternative ways of life and to a questioning of the previous way of life.

At this international conference, held at University Tübingen on 23–24 March, different topics of this period, the way people dealt with it in different sources and many other aspects were examined, presented and discussed. The conference made clear some parallels of the 18th and 19th centuries with the reforms of the Middle Ages, but especially with the Reformation of the 16th century, thus linking up with the previous project in the Collaborative Research Center.

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.