Category Archives: Public Lectures

INFORM Seminar: “How Minority Religions React to the Law”

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Registration is now open for the next Inform Seminar, How Minority Religions React to the Law, in conjunction with the Department of Theology and Religious Studies, King’s College, London.

Saturday 1st June, 10am-5pm (registration at 9.30). Bush House Lecture Theatre 1, King’s College, London, 30 Aldwych, London, WC2B 4BG.

Please visit https://inform.ac/seminars to book tickets via Paypal or credit/debit card.

Registration costs:

  • Standard: £38
  • Unwaged/ university student: £18
  • A Level student: £10

After 12th May, ticket prices will increase by £10, across all three categories and refunds will not be offered.

Speakers include:

  • Professor Eileen Barker, FAcSS, FBA, OBE, Professor Emeritus of Sociology at the London School of Economics and Founder and Honorary Acting Director of Inform.
  • Dr Effie Fokas, Senior Research Fellow at the Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy (ELIAMEP), host institution to the Grassrootsmobilise project, which studies grassroots level mobilisations ‘in the shadow’ of European Court of Human Rights religious freedoms jurisprudence.
  • Professor Susan Palmer, Director of a four-year (SSHRC Insight) research project, ‘Children in Sectarian Religions and State Control’ at McGill University’s School of Religious Studies, who will present a paper on The Trials of the Old Order Mennonites of Manitoba, 2013-2106.
  • Ringo Ringvee, a government official from Estonia who will speak about minority religions’ reactions to recent laws in Estonia.
  • Eric Roux, President of the Union of Churches of Scientology of France and Vice President of the European Office of the Church of Scientology for Public Affairs and Human Rights.
  • Dr Rin Ushiyama, Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Sociology, University of Cambridge, an expert on Aum Shinrikyo, and its offshoots Aleph and Hikari No Wa.
  • Peter Zoehrer, Secretary General of FOREF Europe (Forum for Religious Freedom), Austria, and a member of the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification.

Church of England, Research & Statistics Unit presents Faith in Research 2019

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Wednesday 19th June 2019
9.30am – 4.45pm,
Novotel Hotel, Birmingham

This exciting conference will provide you with insights from keynote speakers: Professor Christopher Southgate (“How can congregations be helped in times of tragedy?”) and Dr Kathryn Kissell (“Boundaries in Ministerial Life? The Why, Where and How for Longevity in Ministry”).

You will also be able to attend two of four breakout sessions which will tackle:
  *   Clergy and wellbeing
  *   Social action
  *   Church and culture
  *   Children and young people

Book your ticket here

Booking closes Friday 7th June 2019
For further information please contact charlotte.sibtain@churchofengland.org

Charlotte Sibtain
Statistical Researcher
Church House
Great Smith Street
London SW1P 3AZ

Public Lecture: Muslims in the Balkans between Nationalism and Transnationalism

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Dr Ina Merdjanova
Coventry University London Campus: G03 & G04
Thursday 7th March 2019
6pm- 6.30pm: Refreshments
6.30pm-8pm: Lecture/Q&A

After 1989, Islam reappeared as an important social and political factor in the Balkans. With the newly-emerged religious freedom, and in the context of multiple structural and cultural post-communist transitions, Muslim communities underwent remarkable transformations. They sought to renegotiate their place in formally secular legal and normative environments, mostly as minorities in majority-Christian societies. They reclaimed their Islamic faith, practices and identities in a complex geopolitical situation dominated by anti-Muslim sentiments, particularly after 9/11, which mapped upon already existing national and regional apprehension of Islam related to the legacies of the five centuries of Ottoman rule in the Balkans. Post-communism created conditions for a rising political and cultural awareness of Muslims, which was frequently expressed by recourse to two frames of reference: the national and the transnational. Despite a certain level of tension between those two perspectives, they were closely intertwined. Generally, it can be argued that transnational Islamic influences in the region often reinforced Muslim ethno-national identities rather than prompting a radical redefinition of religious allegiances in the key of a “universalist” Islam.

Bio:  Ina Merdjanova is a senior researcher and adjunct assistant professor in religious studies at the Irish School of Ecumenics, Trinity College Dublin, & Leverhulme visiting professor at the Centre for Trust, Peace and Social Relations at Coventry University.  Her recent publications include Religion as a Conversation Starter: Interreligious Dialogue for Peacebuilding in the Balkans (with Patrice Brodeur; Continuum, 2009, paperback 2011), and Rediscovering the Umma: Muslims in the Balkans between Nationalism and Transnationalism (Oxford University Press, 2013, paperback 2016).

Public Lecture: “I don´t want to speak in tongues – I speak human rights”

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BA Religion and Society International Annual Lecture
by Prof. Peter Nynäs, Åbo Akademi University, Turku, Finland.

“I don´t want to speak in tongues – I speak human rights”- Some observations from a global study on heteronormativity and religion among young adults”

March 12th 2019 at 6-8pm
Richard Hoggart Building (Main Building), RHB 256
Goldsmiths, University of London
Followed by Q&A & wine reception

Religion, sexuality and gender intertwine in a range of different ways. During the last decades, global movements have increasingly affected our perceptions of and attentiveness to this, and the contradictory signals emerging in a post-secular situation. Many young people today express well-articulated openness to variations in terms of gender and sexualities and also actively take part in making change, whereas neoconservative voices also seem to gain more and more public space and influence – and revitalize heteronormativity as an ideal.

In this talk I will initially look at some basic findings from a study on young adults and religion that I implemented in 13 countries worldwide. This project was primarily not about gender and sexuality, but the extensive data we have collected has allowed me to explore issues around forms of heteronormativity, and in particular in relation to religion and values. In addition, both the mixed method approach in this study and the global scope allow me to raise some methodological and conceptual questions. To what extent and how do young adults today express heteronormativity?
Biography

Dr Peter Nynäs is Professor of Comparative Religion at Åbo Akademi University and director of the Åbo Akademi University Centre of Excellence in Research Young adults and religion in a global perspective (2015–2018), a cross-cultural, comparative, and mixed-method study of religious subjectivities and values in ten countries around the world. He previously led the Centre of Excellence in Research Post-Secular Culture and a Changing Religious Landscape in Finland (2010–2014). He has edited volumes such as On the Outskirts of “the Church”: Diversities, Fluidities and New Spaces of Religion in Finland (with R. Illman & T. Martikainen, LIT-Verlag, 2015), Religion, Gender and Sexuality in Everyday Life (with A. Yip, Ashgate 2012), and Transforming Otherness (with J. Finch, Transaction 2011). The volume Sensitizing ‘religious’ variety in a global perspective: between universalism and particularism, is scheduled for 2019 (with R. Illman, N. Novis & R. Fernandez, Equinox)

FREE, RSVP via eventbrite here<https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/ba-religion-and-society-international-annual-lecture-tickets-56029619099>

INFORM Seminar: “Health & Healing in Minority Religions”, 24 November, King’s College, London

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Early Bird Registration ends 4th November.

Registration is now open for the next Inform Seminar, Health and Healing in Minority Religions, in conjunction with the Department of Theology and Religious Studies, King’s College, London.

Saturday 24th November 2018, 10am-5pm (registration at 9.30). Bush House Lecture Theatre 1, King’s College, London, 30 Aldwych, London, WC2B 4BG.

Please visit http://inform.ac/seminar-payment to book tickets via paypal or credit/debit card.

Registration costs:

Standard: £38

Unwaged/ university student: £18

A Level student: £10

After 4th November, ticket prices will increase by £10, across all three categories and refunds will not be offered.

Provisional Programme:

10.00-10.10           Welcome

10.10-10.35           Eileen Barker, FAcSS, FBA, OBE, Professor Emeritus of Sociology at the London School of Economics  – Religious Attitudes to the Body, Health and Healing

10.35-11.00           Tony Brace, The European Association of Jehovah’s Witnesses – Jehovah’s Witnesses and Blood Transfusion: Faith or Fanaticism?

11.00-11.25           Carole M. Cusack, University of Sydney – G. I. Gurdjieff on Health and Healing: Diet, Fasting and Spiritual Exercises

11.25-11.55           Coffee

11.55-12.20          Sarah Harvey, Senior Research Officer, Inform – Illness as Impurity: practices for cleansing and purifying the body

12.20-12.45          Chris French, Head of the Anomalistic Psychology Research Unit in the Psychology Department at Goldsmiths – The psychology of belief in and use of complementary and alternative medicine 

                                (CAM)

12.45-13.10           Robin Harragin Hussey, District Manager of Christian Science Committee on Publication for UK and Ireland – Holiness and Healing in Christian Scientists’ Practice Today

13.10-14.10           Lunch

14.10-14.35           Suzanne Newcombe, Research Fellow at Inform, Lecturer in Religious Studies at the Open University – The Body in Contemporary Yoga and Ayurveda

14.35-15.00           Simon Dein, consultant psychiatrist in Essex UK, honorary clinical professor at Durham University – The End of Suffering:  Mysticism, Messianism and Medicine in Lubavitch

15.00-15.30           Tea

15.30-15.40           Website launch

15.40-16.40           Panel

We look forward to seeing you there! Feel free to circulate the attached pdf and help spread the word.

Inform@kcl.ac.uk

020 7848 1132

c/o Dept. of Theology and Religious Studies, King’s College London

Virginia Woolf Building, 22 Kingsway, London WC2B 6LE.

Lecture: “Les fondements des laïcités en Afrique centrale à l’épreuve du protestantisme évangélique”

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Le Centre de recherche Société, Droit et Religions de l’Université de Sherbrooke (SoDRUS), en collaboration avec la Chaire de recherche Droit, Religion et Laïcité, vous propose un cycle de conférences. Nous vous invitons à notre première conférence publique de cette session qui aura lieu le mercredi 31 octobre 2018.

Les fondements des laïcités en Afrique centrale à l’épreuve du protestantisme évangélique

Date : Le mercredi 31 octobre 2018

Heure : De 12 h 00 à 13 h 30

Lieu : Faculté des lettres et sciences humaines. Local A4-166

Cette conférence est donnée par Guy Bucumi, chercheur postdoctoral à la Chaire de recherche Droit, religion et laïcité de la Faculté de droit de l’Université de Sherbrooke. Pour plus d’informations, consultez la page suivante : https://www.usherbrooke.ca/chaire-droit-religion-laicite/accueil/evenements/evenements-details/e/38003/ Pour vous désabonner de la liste d’envoi du SoDRUS, merci de cliquer sur le bouton suivant : Se désabonner

Événement Facebook : https://www.facebook.com/events/739511963063678/

SAFSOR: Scuola di Alta Formazione in Sociologia della Religione — Roma, 19-21 dicembre 2018

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ICSOR, viale delle Milizie 108, scala A, interno 1 (metro A: Ottaviano), tel. 3475160442

PROGRAMMA

Mercoledì, 19 Dicembre

  • 9:30 – 10:00: Inaugurazione e saluti, Roberto Cipriani, Cecilia Costa ed Emanuela C. del Re
  • 10:00 – 11:00: Relazione introduttiva del Presidente Onorario dell’ICSOR, Franco Ferrarotti, su “Sacro e religioso”
  • 11:00 – 12:00: Relazione di Cristián Parker, Università di Santiago del Cile, “Popular cultures and religions in the context of multiple modernities: a southern vision”
  • 15:00 – 16:00: “Economia e grandi religioni orientali: una rilettura di Max Weber”, Carlo Prandi
  • 16:45 – 17:45: “La ricerca qualitativa per studiare la religiosità”, Rita Bichi
  • 18:00 – 19:00: “Il Sinodo dei Giovani”, Cecilia Costa
  • 19:30: Visita alla Sinagoga ed al Museo Ebraico
  • 20:30: Cena Sociale: Nonna Betta (via del Portico d’Ottavia 16, quota individuale: 20 euro)

Giovedì, 20 Dicembre

  • 9:00 – 10:00: “Heidegger ed alcuni aspetti degli atteggiamenti religiosi contemporanei”, Paolo Montesperelli
  • 10:45 – 11:45: “Una nuova ‘ora di punta degli dei’. La fioritura delle nuove religioni in Corea del Sud”, Massimo Introvigne
  • 12:00 – 13:00: “Problemi metodologici della ricerca empirica in sociologia della religione”, Enzo Campelli
  • 15:00 – 16:00: “Il divino femminile in Italia: post-shamanism, neo-shamanism e femminismo spirituale”, Enrica Tedeschi
  • 16:45 – 17:45: Presentazione del volume Women and religion. Contemporary and future challenges in the global era, edited by Elisabetta Ruspini, Glenda Tibe Bonifacio, and Consuelo Corradi, Policy Press
  • 17.45-18:45: Cocktail’s lifestyle. Alcool, religioni e nuove ritualità (workshop), Simona Scotti
  • 18.45-19:45: Incontro conviviale con la Comunità Sikh

Venerdì, 21 Dicembre

  • 9:00 – 10:00: “La ‘politicità’ delle religioni assiali. A partire da S. Eisenstadt”, Pietro De Marco
  • 10:45 – 11:45: “Populismo e religione”, Monica Simeoni
  • 12:00 – 13:00: “Imam d’Italia: una ricerca sulle guide spirituali musulmane”, Paolo Naso
  • 15:00 – 16:00: “L’evoluzione della religione nella società digitale”, Costantino Cipolla
  • 16:45 – 17:45: “Minoranze e religioni”, Emanuela C. Del Re
  • 17:45 – 18:00: Dibattito. A seguire: Cerimonia di chiusura e Consegna degli attestati

15e anniversaire du SoDRUS

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Quel sens peut-on donner à l’évolution religieuse québécoise des deux dernière décennies ? Où le Québec s’en va-t-il ?

Date : Le mardi 2 octobre 2018

Heure : De 16 h 00 à 18 h 00

Lieu : Campus principal de Sherbrooke, Faculté de droit, Centre judiciaire, local A9-130

Ce débat sera animé par le professeur Sami Aoun (Professeur titulaire, département de politique appliquée, Université de Sherbrooke et directeur de l’Observatoire du Moyen-Orient et l’Afrique du nord (OMAN) à la Chaire Raoul-Dandurand en études stratégiques et diplomatiques de l’UQAM). Trois personnes qui ont été placées directement au cœur de cette évolution québécoise par leurs recherches et/ou par des mandats publics reçus, agiront à titre de panélistes, l’honorable Louis Lebel (Juge à la retraite de la Cour suprême du Canada et juge en résidence à la Faculté de droit de l’Université Laval), le professeur Joseph-Yvon Thériault (Professeur titulaire, département de sociologie, Université du Québec à Montréal) et la professeure Deirdre Meintel (Professeure titulaire, département d’anthropologie, Université de Montréal et directrice du Centre d’études ethniques des universités montréalaises CEETUM).

Pour vous désabonner de la liste d’envoi du SoDRUS, merci de cliquer sur le bouton suivant : Se désabonner

Cordialement,

—

Audrey Anne Blanchet

-Étudiante à la maîtrise en études politiques appliquées, cheminement recherche appliquée (mémoire)

-Coordinatrice du Centre de recherche Société, Droit et Religions de l’Université de Sherbrooke (SoDRUS)

Conference ‘Religion and Culture in Conflict and Peace’

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Good afternoon,

I’d like to share with you the forthcoming conference ‘Religion and Culture in Conflict and Peace’ organised by the centre of Religion Reconciliation and Peace at the University of Winchester, 20-21 June 2018, I think the programme may be of interest to you. We’d be most grateful if you could share this information with anyone you know who could be interested.

Key speakers include Mohammed Abu-nimer and Susan Hayward. As well as some fascinating papers looking at conflicts from around the world, we have also built in a history walk of the City of Winchester.

More information and booking via the conference website:https://www.winchesterpeaceconference.com/

With best wishes,

Rebecca Bellamy

Centre Coordinator & Partnerships Officer

On part-time secondment to the European Council of Religious Leaders

Winchester Centre of Religion, Reconciliation and Peace (WCRRP)

Religion as Political Communication: A Symposium

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Loughborough University’s Centre for Research in Communication and Culture is organising an event on Religion as Political Communication on 7th June 2018. There will be four speakers (see programme below). You are all welcome to attend. The event is free with refreshments provided, but please book your place in advance (via the link below) for catering purpose: 

http://www.lboro.ac.uk/research/crcc/events/eventslist/religion-as-political-communication.html

Religion as Political Communication: A Symposium

10:00 – 16:00, 7th June 2018

Religion is communicated politically in multiple ways: by religious institutions and individuals, by governments with different approaches to religion, via various artistic and cultural expressions, by secular news media, and via digital platforms and communities (Lundby 2017). The types and contents of politically communicated religion are diverse and complex, ranging from the Church of England’s conservative stance on marriage as reserved for heterosexual couples, French lawmakers interpreting religious symbols such as the veil as ‘too political’, the West-End musical success ‘The Book of Mormon’, terrorist acts of violence committed in the name of religion, to representations of ‘Muslims’ as a non-diversified group. Religion can communicate political stances in both direct and indirect ways, such as when drawings of the Prophet Mohammad are considered as unacceptably irreverent expressions of free speech, or when specific positions on abortion, creationism, stem-cell research and euthanasia are inferred when someone declares their stance as ‘religious’. In this symposium, internationally leading scholars on religion and politics are invited to address and debate religion as political communication.

Programme

10:00 Welcome and introductions

10:15 Dr Elizabeth Poole (Keele University): Contesting #stopislam: Political frictions and appropriation in online spaces

10:45 Professor Jolyon Mitchell ((University of Edinburg): The Ambivalent Role of Religion and the Media Arts as Political Communication in Israel /Palestine

11:15 Q & A session

11:45 Lunch and networking

13:00 Dr Jasjit Singh (University of Leeds): The construction of ‘Sikh radicalisation’ in Britain

13:30 Professor Mia Løvheim (Uppsala University, Sweden): Religion, mediatization and a changing political landscape

14:00 Q & A

14:30 Coffee break and networking

15:00 Roundtable discussion

15:45 End of programme

Symposium organisers: Dr Line Nyhagen (Social Sciences), Dr Alexandre Christoyannopoulos (Politics, History and International Relations), PhD student Xinan Li (Social Sciences), Loughborough University.

For speakers’ abstracts, please see: 

http://www.lboro.ac.uk/research/crcc/events/eventslist/religion-as-political-communication.html