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Dear friends and colleagues, 

As already assumed in last week’s Wednesday Weekly, the days are getting sunnier and – finally – a bit warmer.

We will be back with our colloquium on 5 May as online event. We would also like to remind you of the 1^st ReCentGlobe Annual Meeting taking place today and tomorrow. Moreover, we have a recommendation for an online lecture and a networking event for you.

Enjoy and have a good week!

Anja & Lucy

KFG Colloquium: Bernd-Christian Otto on “Psychologisation and Resacralisation Strategies in Western 'Magic(k)' from the 19th to the 21st century”

Next Wednesday, our Senior Research Fellow Bernd-Christian Otto will present his research project on “Psychologisation and Resacralisation Strategies in Western 'Magic(k)' from the 19th to the 21st century”. His project responds to recent research that tends to explain the 'survival' of magic(k) in the modern Western world by pointing to a process of psychologisation. From the 19th century onwards, it is asserted, practitioners, compelled by cultural dynamics of secularisation, increasingly moved away from explaining the effects of their practices by recourse to religionist ideas and patterns, instead focusing on the mind as the locus and prime mover of ritual efficacy. The project revisits this narrative by analysing a selection of practitioners from the 19th to the 21st centuries.

In the member area, you find an outline of the research project as well as some additional reading. Jason Josephson-Storm, KFG Senior Research Fellow and currently Chair and Associate Professor of Religion at Williams College in Williamstown (US), will comment on Bernd-Christian’s presentation.  

The colloquium will take place as online event and, just for once, in the afternoon (CET). Please note that attendance in person is not possible right now.

5 May | 3:15–5:45 p.m. (CET)

Online via zoom

Reminder: First ReCentGlobe Annual Meeting 28/29 April

The Leipzig Research Centre Global Dynamics has started its First ReCentGlobe Annual Meeting. Today and tomorrow you can still join the conference titled “2020: A Caesura in the History of the Global Condition?”. There will be contributions from the different research areas and the new labs as well as public panel discussions on the social threat potential of conspiracy theories (tonight) and another one on the new research building “Global Hub” (tomorrow morning).

The conference will be held in German with some parts being presented in English. If you want to take part in the event, please register via e-mail.

28 April | 9:00 a.m.–8:00 p.m. (CET)

29 April | 9:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m. (CET)

Online via zoom

Livestream on Youtube (parts of conference)

Online lecture on “Prajna-Paramita in the Humanistic Buddhism Perspective”

Our colleague Nikolas Broy draws our attention to an online lecture titled “Prajna-Paramita in the Humanistic Buddhism Perspective”, organised by The Fo Guang Shan Institute of Humanistic Buddhism. Among the speakers are Lewis Lancaster, Professor Emeritus at the Institute for South Asia Studies at the University of California, Berkeley, Venerable Miao Guang, Deputy Chancellor and Director of the Department of International Affairs at the Fo Guang Shan Institute of Humanistic, and Venerable Jue Wei, Head of Program for Humanistic Buddhism, Director of the Humanistic Buddhism Centre, and Senior Lecturer at Nan Tien Institute in Australia.

The lecture will be presented in English and – due to time difference – at an unfortunately somewhat unconventional time of day early in the morning. 

Date: 1 May | 5–6 a.m. (CET)

Online via Youtube | Recording available later

„Mapping Religionswissenschaft. Vernetzen, vertiefen, sichtbar machen“ (“Mapping the Study of Religions. Networking, deepening, making visible”) – Videoclips

The HRK and BMBF funded project “Mapping the Study of Religions. Networking, deepening, making visible” aims at expanding and strengthening the networking of young professionals in the Study of Religions. As part of the project, short video clips have been created, in which representatives and workshop leaders of the project tell about their main areas of work and research methods, and what exciting developments they currently see in the field of the Study of Religions. Among others, you will find statements of our Senior Research Fellow Adrian Hermann and our colleague Sebastian Schüler.

You are welcome to stream the videos, to share them, to get in touch with the representatives and to carry the networking into the future.

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.