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Dear friends and colleagues,

Our colloquium is taking a two-week break, and we will be back on 8 June. In the meantime, we are inviting you to our KFG-workshop "Multiple Secularities in Africa and the Diaspora", which will take place from 1 to 3 June. We also have recommendations for two lecture series, an online talk and a hybrid conference for you. Also, we would like to share a podcast with you.

For all staff and Fellows here on site, we also have an important note about office use on Monday next week. Last but not least, a little reminder about tonight's Screening Religion: We will be showing the film "Outback Rabbis" at naTo at 7 p.m. See you there!

Take care and have a good week,

Anja & Lucy

Reminder: Screening Religion “Outback Rabbis”, Tonight at naTo

We would like to remind you of our Screening Religion tonight: The film Outback Rabbis, directed by Danny Ben-Moshe, is a story of a unique group of people with a distinct set of beliefs, willing to go to the extrems to fulfil their religious duties. It takes us into the remotest corners of Australia and the hidden world of the Australian Jewish community in the bush.

The film will be shown in English and there will be a discussion afterwards.

Tonight | 7.00 p.m. (CET)

Cinémathèque Leipzig at naTo, Karl-Liebknecht-Straße 46, 04275 Leipzig

Free entry, donations welcome

KFG-Workshop “Multiple Secularities in Africa and the Diaspora”, 1–3 June

In two weeks we will be hosting the KFG-workshop on “Multiple Secularities in Africa and the Diaspora”. Convened by Marian Burchardt, Magnus Echtler and Katharina Wilkens, the three-day event will focus on Africa in the field of secularity studies. It seeks to tackle epistemological distortions and blind spots through empirical studies of African social realities.

The workshop will take place as a hybrid event. You are very welcome to register for participation: If you wish to attend, please send us a short inquiry. If you wish to attend in person, we ask you to additionally name the panels you wish to attend on site, as space and seating is limited.

Workshop Dates:

1 June | 2.00 –7.00 p.m. (CET)

2 June | 9.00 a.m.–6.30 p.m. (CET)

3 June | 9.00 a.m.–12.30 p.m. (CET)

Hybrid Format: Leipzig University and Online via zoom

Public Lecture: Nur Yasemin Ural on “Affect Theory and Materiality of Emotions: Secular Affects after Charlie Hebdo”, 19 May

Our Senior Researcher Nur Yasemin Ural will give a lecture as part of the seminar “Material Secularities: Interdisciplinary Perspectives” and speak about “Affect Theory and Materiality of Emotions: Secular Affects after Charlie Hebdo”.

Yasemin together with our Senior Researchers Magnus Echtler and our Senior Research Fellow Katharina Wilkens, is offering the seminar this summer semester at Leipzig University.

The lecture is open to everyone who is interested. If you would like to attend the event in person, please register with the organizers.  

19 May | 5–7 p.m. (CET)

Leipzig University | Seminar building, Room S 403 and online via zoom

Lecture Series: “Erfurt Monday Lectures: New Topics in Religious Studies”, 23 May

We would like to point to this lecture series by the University of Erfurt on “New Topics in Religious Studies” this summer semester.

On 23 May, Cynthia Hoehler-Fatton from the University of Virginia will give a talk on “Urgency and Spiritual Power: An Indigenous Religion Option and Islam in Colonial Western Kenya”.

23 May | 5 p.m. (CET)

Online via Webex

Conference on “Pandemics in Local and Historical Cosmologies: From the Earliest Documents to COVID-19”, 20–21 May

We would like to draw your attention to this international multidisciplinary conference, organised by the Centre for Oriental Studies and the Department of Estonian and Comparative Folklore at the University of Tartu, together with the Groupe Sociétés, Religions, Laïcités and the École pratique des hautes études, the Institute for the Science of Religion at University of Bern and the Department of Mongolian and Tibetan Studies at University of Bonn.

Our Senior Research Fellow Karénina Kollmar-Paulenz from the University of Bern will contribute to the conference with her presentation on “’Subduer of the troops of demons’ (bdud kyi dpung rnams `joms mdzod ma): disease in the gCod tradition of Tibetan Buddhism”.

20–21 May

University of Tartu (Ülikooli 16, room 214) and Online

Finding: Podcast (in German) with Sebastian Rimestad on “Sacralisation of Russian Politics? On the Orthodox Churches in Russia and Ukraine”

The idea that state and church, politics and religion belong closely together is not new, but a narrative with old roots in the Eastern Roman Empire. The “sacralisation of Russian politics”, which is a recurring theme in connection with the war in Ukraine, is a consequence of this old narrative, as our Senior Research Fellow Sebastian Rimestad explains as a guest in a new episode of the podcast “Erleuchtung garantiert” (“Enlightenment guaranteed“) of the University of Zurich.

He also explores the questions of what it means to be “Orthodox”, what the political loyalty of the churches in Russia and Ukraine is like and why statistics on religious affiliation should be taken with a grain of salt.

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.