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Dear friends and colleagues,

Next week our Associate Senior Researcher Sebastian Schüler will present his research project at our colloquium. Also, we would like to point to the extended deadline for the Call for Papers for Housam Darwish’s Workshop “Religion and Secularism as Problem Space in Postcolonial Occidentalist Discourses within the MENA Region” in November. Finally, we have a new publication for you as well as a recommendation of two conferences with the participation of KFG fellows and staff. 

Have a good week and take care!

Anja & Lucy

Next Week’s Colloquium: Sebastian Schüler on “Metaphors of Distinction and Transgression: Conceptualizations of the Religious and Secular in the U.S.”, 13 April

Next Wednesday, our Associate Senior Researcher Sebastian Schüler will give a presentation on his research project on “Metaphors of Distinction and Transgression: Conceptualizations of the Religious and Secular in the U.S.”. This research project aims to investigate the use of metaphors in the communication of two religious movements in the USA between 1960 and 1989 by means of systematic metaphor analysis. The research project investigates how religious reality is constructed metaphorically and how religion is thereby also conceptually differentiated from its other/opposite or newly placed in relation to it.  

Our Director Monika Wohlrab-Sahr will comment on his presentation. As always, you can find the relevant readings in our Member Area.

The colloquium will take place in a hybrid format (on-site and online). Please register for the colloquium via e-mail, if you would like to join in person. In the Member Area you will also find information on the zoom connection data.

13 April | 9.15–11.45 a.m. (CET)
Strohsack, Room 4.55 and online via Zoom

Call for Papers – Extended Deadline: KFG Workshop "Religion and Secularism as Problem Space in Postcolonial Occidentalist Discourses within the MENA Region”, 3–4 November

In February, we announced the KFG Workshop and the respective Call for Papers for the Workshop "Religion and Secularism as Problem Space in Postcolonial Occidentalist Discourses within the MENA Region”, which will take place in November 2022. The workshop is organized by our Associate Senior Researcher Housamedden Darwish and our Associate Member Markus Dreßler, and its goal is to discuss the question of religion and secularity/secularism in (postcolonial) Occidentalist discourses and their critiques in the MENA region.

The deadline for abstract submission has now been extended.

If you wish to participate, please send your abstract and all inquiries to Housamedden Darwish.

New deadline for abstract (300–400 words) and short biography: 15 April
Notification of acceptance: End of April
Deadline for draft version of full paper: 30 September
Workshop: 3–4 November

Monika Wohlrab-Sahr’s Keynote at Conference “Building Trust, Constituting Allegiance, Imagining Society: A Symposium on Global Religion and Secularism”, 8–9 April

A standard feature of many secularization narratives is the modern triumph of trust (in experts, critical thinking, and multi-cultural democracy) over pre-modern allegiances (to political, religious, racial “tribes” and dogmas). This international conference on “Building Trust, Constituting Allegiance, Imagining Society: A Symposium on Global Religion and Secularism” scrutinizes this supposed antagonism, challenging the assumption that contemporary forms of trust in medicine, laboratory science, technological expertise, and democratic decision-making transcend the pre-modern. Our Director Monika Wohlrab-Sahr will be a keynote speaker at this two-day conference, which is organized by the Nanyang Technological University Singapore.  

Conference Date: 8–9 April | Online

Giuseppe Tateo on “The workings of Orthodox charismatic action in downtown Bucharest” at Conference on “New Approaches to ‘Re-Enchanted’ Central and Eastern Europe”, Budapest 7–8 April

We would like to draw your attention to a conference entitled “New Approaches to ‘Re-Enchanted’ Central and Eastern Europe”, which aims to shed light on the various dimensions and aspects of re-enchantment in Central and Eastern Europe. Our Senior Research Fellow Giuseppe Tateo will be one of the contributors; he gives a talk on “The workings of Orthodox charismatic action in downtown Bucharest”. The conference is organized by the Institute for Theoretical Studies of the Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design of Budapest (MOME) in cooperation with, among others, the SIEF Ethnology of Religion Working Group and the ‘Re-Enchantment of Central and Eastern Europe’ Research Project (Re-Ench-Eu) at Charles University in Prague. 

Conference Date: 7–8 April | Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design, Budapest

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.