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Dear friends and colleagues,

The conditions of this Wednesday Weekly are in a dramatic way different from that of last week. All of a sudden a war has been forced upon Ukraine, and we are all shocked and worried about the coming developments in this area and beyond. And the recent events certainly also touch upon some of the debates that we had in our group. We will try to keep you informed about talks and discussions at our university that are related to this issue.

However: Whatever the official relations between Germany and Russia may be, in political or economic terms, from our side this will not affect our strong interest in scholarly and personal exchange with colleagues from both Russia and Ukraine.

Amidst these developments we again would like to provide you with a number of information: Our Screening Religion series can finally take place at the cinema again and we invite you to join us on 16 March. We also have a publication, a Call for Papers as well as recommendations for a workshop and a lecture for you.

Have a good week!

Monika, Lucy & Anja

Construction work in the KFG office, 7–25 March

From 7 March there will be some construction work on our floor to comply with fire regulations. In detail, our blue kitchenette will receive a door – this construction work is expected to take place between 7 and 14 March. During this time you can, of course, still use the green kitchen.

In addition, a separate room for our RICOH printer will be built where you currently still find tables and chairs. This work is expected to start 14 March and be finished 25 March. During this time it will still be possible to print and we will let you know the interim location of the printer as soon as possible. Offices 4.16 to 4.21 can be reached via the entrance to the left of the lift for the duration of the construction work.

Screening Religion: “Between God and I”, 16 March at naTo

We are happy that our Screening Religion film series starts again after a long break: The film “Between God and I”, directed by Yara Costa, tells the story of Karen, a Muslim independent young woman, who advocates for Sharia on the diverse Ilha de Moçambique but is filled with doubts and contradictions about her identity and the community she lives in.

The film will be shown in Portuguese and Macua with English subs. After the film there will be a discussion.

Due to the current situation, there is limited seating. We recommend ticket reservations. Please always check online which anti coronavirus measures are in place at the Cinémathèque on the day of the screening.

16 March | 7.00 p.m. (CET)

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

Free entry, donations welcome

Online Workshop “Modernity and the Construction of Sacred Space”, 4–5 March

We want to draw your attention to an online workshop organized by Aaron French and Katharina Waldner from the Institute for the Study of Religions at University of Erfurt in cooperation with the SpatioTemporality Research Erfurt. The convenors invite people to attend “Modernity and the Construction of Sacred Space” – the presentations will revisit the question of “sacred space” from an interdisciplinary perspective, focusing on religion, space, architecture, and esotericism during the emergence of the modern period.

To attend please register with Aaron French to receive the WebEx link.

4–5 March | 12.00–6.00 p.m. (CET)

Online via WebEx

Call for Papers: Workshop “Reckoning with God: Divine-Human Relations after the Arab Spring”, 30 June–2 July

This workshop on “Reckoning with God: Divine-Human Relations after the Arab Spring” aims to reflect upon how God-human relations are colored by the socio-economic and political circumstances in which they are cultivated. Examining the distributions of relational power that God-talk reveals, we highlight in this workshop the importance of paying closer attention to how believers speak of and relate to God.

The convenors of the workshop, which will be held at the Orient-Institut Beirut, seek contributions which foreground the figure of God and divine-human relations in the contemporary Arab world, across religious traditions and from numerous disciplines – particularly anthropology, sociology, history, and religious studies.

Abstracts should be sent to Joud Alkorani.

Submission of abstracts: 9 March

Workshop Date: 30 June–2 July

Evening Lecture “Sehnsucht nach dem Gefühl: Subjektivität, ‘Betroffenheit‘ und Zivilgesellschaft seit den 1960er Jahren“ (“Longing for Emotions: Subjectivity, ‘Concern‘ and Civil Society since the 1960s“)

We would like to point to this hybrid keynote lecture (in German), which will open the joint conference “The Dynamics of the Religious in Processes of the Political” of the Cluster of Excellence “Religion and Politics” at the University of Münster and the DFG Research Unit “Being Catholic”. In her lecture, Ute Frevert provides a historical classification of a new emotional regime that can be associated with modern capitalism. This new emotional regime focuses on an emphasis on subjectivity and individual autonomy beyond social constraints and conventions. Guiding concepts are self-realisation and concern.

You can register here.

8 March | 7.30–9.00 p.m.

Hybrid (Online via zoom after registration and Hotel Schloss Montabaur, 56410 Montabaur)

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.