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Dear friends and colleagues,

Usually, March is a quiet month at KFG, but this time it is anything but quiet on the outside. The Russian aggression against Ukraine has been going on for three weeks now, at the same time there are repeated attempts to put an end to this war.

There are many ways to show your solidarity with the people affected – on the website of Leipzig University you can find detailed information on some of them.

In today’s Wednesday Weekly we offer a new Bulletin Entry, two Calls, a recommendation for a Conference and a Finding.

And a friendly reminder that our Screening Religion series is back on the big screen tonight at 7 p.m. (CET) at Cinémathèque Leipzig: We will be showing the documentary “Between God and I”, which tells the story of Karen, a Muslim independent young woman. The film will be shown in Portuguese and Macua with English subs, and after the film there will be a discussion with our Senior Researcher Magnus Echtler. We recommend arriving early to secure a seat and to be informed about the anti-coronavirus measures at the Cinémathèque.

16 March | 7 p.m. (CET)

Cinémathèque Leipzig at nato | Karl-Liebknecht-Str. 48 | 04275 Leipzig

Have a good week!   

Anja

New Bulletin Entry: Dietrich Jung on “Researching Islam in Denmark: Public Debates, Political Opinions, and Freedom of Research”

In our latest Bulletin entry, our Senior Research Fellow Dietrich Jung reflects on the current state of academic freedom in Denmark. Drawing on his personal experiences researching modern Islam, he observes a tendency towards increasing public and political pressure on independent research on controversial topics, which could ultimately endanger the academic integrity and freedom of Danish research.

Our Bulletin gives the opportunity to comment on current political, social or cultural events and developments from the perspective of Multiple Secularities, to place them in a broader context through our expertise or to present alternative perspectives. If you wish to make short, journalistic style contributions to the Bulletin, please contact Johannes Duschka.

Call for Chapters: “Sakrales Recht im säkularen Staat. Zur Rezeption islamischen Rechts in säkularen Verfassungsstaaten” (“Sacred Law in the Secular State. On the Reception of Islamic Law in Secular Constitutional States”)

We want to draw your attention to a Call for Contributions to a book on “Sakrales Recht im säkularen Staat. Zur Rezeption islamischen Rechts in säkularen Verfassungsstaaten” (“Sacred Law in the Secular State. On the Reception of Islamic Law in Secular Constitutional States”). The planned volume is to be published by Nomos in the series Staatsverständnisse (State Concepts), edited by Rüdiger Voigt. It will explore the relationship between Islamic law and secular constitutional states both from the perspective of the state and from the perspective of freedom. The perspectives can certainly not be separated schematically and may therefore be combined with each other. The volume is deliberately designed to be cross-pillar, taking up the comprehensive claim of Islamic legal thought. Contributions on international law and comparative law are also welcome, as are (legal) historical and (legal) philosophical studies.

Please send your proposals and manuscripts via e-mail to Rike Sinder.

Submission of proposals (max. 500 words): 30 April

Submission of manuscripts (max. 58,000 characters incl. spaces): 30 October

Conference (in German): „Provokation Religion“ (“Religion as provocation”), 24–25 March at University of Salzburg

Religion provokes – through (young) people who seriously follow a religious orientation; through the presence of religious symbols in the social public sphere; through the shaping of politics and not least through the astonishing interest in spirituality and new religious movements in Western societies. Today, there is no longer any question of a monocausal, irreversible and evolutionistically conceived dynamic of secularisation, as José Casanova made clear with his reference to the relevance of "public religions" (1994) or Jürgen Habermas with his diagnosis of a "post-secular society" (2001). The Centre for Intercultural Theology and Study of Religions at the University of Salzburg wants to explore this political, cultural and intellectual provocation that “religion” represents, with this interdisciplinary conference. 

Registration is necessary by 23 March.

Dates: 24–25 March

Venue: University of Salzburg, Faculty of Catholic Theology, Auditorium 101, Universitätsplatz 1, 5020 Salzburg/Austria

Call for Papers: African Association for the Study of Religions (AASR) Annual Conference on “Religion in Times of Crisis”, 26–27 July

What is the impact of a crisis on religion and spirituality? The coronavirus pandemic has drastically impacted religion in Africa and the world. Social distancing, vaccines, lockdown, virtual meetings, work from home, and face masks have entered into the global vocabulary. Reflecting on the influenza pandemic of 1918, this present crisis has transformed into an opportunity for spiritual awakening and for innovations in doctrines and theological instruction for some African-initiated churches (Fagunwa, 2020:61.52). This year’s AASR (virtual) conference will explore the challenges for, and transformations of religion in the current pandemic and beyond that.

Please submit any paper and poster presentation proposals via e-mail.

Submission of proposals: 1 April

Conference dates: 26–27 July

Online

Finding: Podcast (in German) “Tell me a History / Erzähl mir eine Geschichte”

What do you do as a student of Islamic Studies who finds this field of study great from the very beginning? You share your passion with others – for example in a podcast. Nadja Danilenko does just that and in each episode (in German) she talks to a scholar about an aspect of Islamic literature, religions, ways of life, events and knowledge. It is not only about what happened or who said what, but also about how we actually know and how we talk about it – in other words, history as history, but also as story. Enjoy listening!

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.