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Wednesday Weekly 3 August 2022

 

Dear friends and colleagues,

Today's Wednesday Weekly puts a focus on new publications for you, including a new issue in our Working Paper Series. We also have two Calls for Papers for you. And we are again looking for a student assistant to support us with our publication and public relations activities.

Have a good week!

Anja & Lucy

 
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Quiet August

Many of us will be on holiday in August. Therefore we will have a short summer break with our official events this month and have a quiet August. So there will be no colloquia for the next four weeks. But also all those who will stay in Leipzig can quickly get into the holiday feeling in the evenings and weekends: Around Leipzig there are a lot of beautiful lakes, for example the Cospuden Lake – or as the locals call it: Cossi – or the Kulkwitzer Lake – also known as Kulki. Both are easily and comfortably accessible by bike. And if you feel like another bike tour and fresh snacks, you can check out the Mundraub website and plan a tour to freely accessible fruit trees and fruit bushes.

 
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Call for Applications: Studentische/wissenschaftliche Hilfskraft (Student Assistant) from 1 October

We are looking for a student assistant to support the academic and administrative coordination of our KFG with publications and public relations. The position becomes vacant on 1 October and comprises 10 hours per week.

Feel free to forward the job posting to potentially interested students. The deadline to apply via e-mail (cover letter, CV, relevant supporting documents, work samples if applicable) is 31 August. Thank you!



    More Information    
 
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New Working Paper #24 by Haraldur Hreinsson on “Sagas and Secularity: The (Re)Construction of Secular Literature in 20th-century Iceland”

We are happy to announce the next publication in our Working Paper Series: In his publication, our Senior Research Fellow Haraldur Hreinsson explores “Sagas and Secularity: The (Re)Construction of Secular Literature in 20th-century Iceland”. This paper approaches the formation of secularity in Iceland from a different angle than so far. Adopting a research perspective shaped by both cultural history and sociology of culture, it investigates the role of the Icelandic sagas, and the medieval culture which spawned them, in the development of secularity in Iceland. Instead of looking at the processes through which Christian religion came to be separated from other spheres of society, it probes the discourses legitimising such a separation. It pays special attention to the reception and understanding of the sagas and the medieval culture which produced them, and further asks how they provided a background against which a secular culture could be imagined, both in the past and for the present.


Hreinsson, Haraldur. “Sagas and Secularity: The (Re)Construction of Secular Literature in 20th-century Iceland” Working Paper Series of the CASHSS “Multiple Secularities – Beyond the West, Beyond Modernities” 24. Leipzig University, 2022.


    Working Paper Series    
 
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New Publication I: Monika Wohlrab-Sahr and Levent Tezcan (eds.) on “Islam in Europa – Institutionalisierung und Konflikt“ (Islam in Europe - Institutionalisation and Conflict)

We would like to draw your attention to the latest special volume of the journal Soziale Welt on “Islam in Europa – Institutionalisierung und Konflikt” (Islam in Europe – Institutionalisation and Conflict”), edited by our Director Monika Wohlrab-Sahr and Levent Tezcan from the University of Münster. In addition to analyses of institutionalisation processes that entail modes of a new normality, this volume offers contributions on political Islam, anti-Muslim policies as well as on social negotiations on conflict and integration. Finally, scholarly and literary reflections are examined with regard to their normative underpinnings. The volume brings together contributions from sociologists, Islamic scholars and literary scholars, including several contributions from KFG members. In our Member Area you find the complete publication.


Tezcan, Levent, and Monika Wohlrab-Sahr. "Islam in Europa: Institutionalisierung und Konflikt – Einleitung." In "Islam in Europa: Institutionalisierung und Konflikt," ed. Monika Wohlrab-Sahr and Levent Tenzcan, special issue, Soziale Welt 25 (2022): 7-23.

Lena Dreier on „Neue islamische Bildungsprojekte als Domestizierung des muslimischen Selbst? Studierende der islamischen Theologie in Deutschland”

Our Associate Member Lena Dreier develops the thesis that the subject of Islamic theology combines experiences of "Islamicity" and new forms of knowledge. The article locates the development at German-language universities in the context of European development.


Dreier, Lena. "Neue islamische Bildungsprojekte als Domestizierung des muslimischen Selbst? Studierende der islamischen Theologie in Deutschland." In "Islam in Europa: Institutionalisierung und Konflikt," ed. Monika Wohlrab-Sahr and Levent Tenzcan, special issue, Soziale Welt 25 (2022): 107-34.


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Gert Pickel und Cemal Öztürk on „Die Bedeutung antimuslimischer Ressentiments für die Erfolge des Rechtspopulismus in Europa – Konzeptuelle Überlegungen und empirische Befunde“

This study by our Senior Research Fellow Gert Pickel and Cemal Öztürk from the University Duisburg-Essen sheds light on the prevalence and socio-psychological drivers of anti-Muslim prejudice and its relevance for right-wing populist parties' mobilization success.


Pickel, Gert, and Cemal Öztürk. "Die Bedeutung antimuslimischer Ressentiments für die Erfolge des Rechtspopulismus in Europa: Konzeptuelle Überlegungen und empirische Befunde." In "Islam in Europa: Institutionalisierung und Konflikt," ed. Monika Wohlrab-Sahr and Levent Tenzcan, special issue, Soziale Welt 25 (2022): 303-55.


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Monika Wohlrab-Sahr and Sana Chavoshian on “Islamwissenschaft an den Grenzen von Wissenschaft, Religion und Politik: Eine feldanalytische Perspektive“

With this article, our Director Monika Wohlrab-Sahr and our Associate Member Sana Chavoshian pursue a twofold intention: First, in a historical approach and with reference to Bourdieu's field analysis, they reconstruct the autonomisation of Islamic Studies as a scientific field with its own doxa, and the challenges posed by social sciences, cultural studies, and – more recently – Islamic theology as subjects of the extended field of Islamic studies. In a second step, the positioning of academics in this field is reconstructed on the basis of open expert interviews.


Wohlrab-Sahr, Monika, and Sana Chavoshian. "Islamwissenschaft an den Grenzen von Wissenschaft, Religion und Politik: Eine feldanalytische Perspektive." In "Islam in Europa: Institutionalisierung und Konflikt," ed. Monika Wohlrab-Sahr and Levent Tenzcan, special issue, Soziale Welt 25 (2022): 409–44.

 
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New Publication II: Peter Kneitz on “Negotiating Modernity by Concepts of Relatedness: Towards the Construction of Malagasy Solidarity (Fihavanana Gasy)”

Our Senior Research Fellow Peter Kneitz has just published an article on “Negotiating Modernity by Concepts of Relatedness: Towards the Construction of Malagasy Solidarity (Fihavanana Gasy)”. In his publication, he explores ‘fihavanana’, a term that can be roughly translated as ‘solidarity’, a very prominent aspect of relationality in Madagascar, serving as a means of control and of conflict resolution and also as a guarantee of peace. Yet there is another, very different, dimension to fihavanana that is waiting to be uncovered, which this article aims to highlight, namely a battle term, coined to negotiate issues of modernity and identity. The paper aims to show that the concept of ‘Malagasy solidarity’ (‘fihavanana gasy’) has its roots not in problems of violence or war but in the experience of deep social rupture produced by confrontation with European concepts of enlightenment, rationality, Christianity and secularity during the 19th century.

The contribution is part of a special issue in the Journal of Southern African Studies edited by Peter Kneitz, which will be published over time.


Kneitz, Peter. "Negotiating Modernity by Concepts of Relatedness: Towards the Construction of Malagasy Solidarity (Fihavanana Gasy)" Journal of Southern African Studies online (2022): 1-19.

 


    More KFG Publications    
 
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Call for Papers I: “Engaging Buddhism in the West Studies: past, present, .... future?” / A Special issue for the journal Contemporary Buddhism

We would like to point to a Call for Papers for a special issue of the journal Contemporary Buddhism on “Engaging Buddhism in the West Studies: past, present, .... future?”, edited by our Senior Research Fellow Ugo Dessì together with Lionel Obadia and Lukas K. Pokorny.

Questions on globalization, the massive digitalization of societies, the so-called “spiritual revolution,” postcolonial considerations on the moral geographies of the East, offer, among others, avenues for new research to understand the dynamics and reshaping of Buddhism in the Western contexts and equally the transformations of the West irrigated by Buddhism values, beliefs, and practices. The aim of this special issue is to welcome original contributions exemplifying new trends, new topics, and new fieldworks dealing with Buddhism in the West (two conceptual categories deserving a critical appraisal) and shedding new light in this field. The issue will be published in 2023.

For more information, please contact the journal’s editor*ial team: Stefania Travagnin, Kate Crosby and Pyi Phyo Kyaw.


Submission of papers by 30 October via e-mail to the editors Lionel Obadia, Ugo Dessì and Lukas K. Pokorny.

Publication date: 2023



    Call for Papers    
 
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Call for Papers II: "Finding Home away from Home"

We have another Call for Papers for an international publication for you with the working title “Finding Home away from Home”. The volume follows an international Summer School, which will be held at the University of Jena from 3 to 7 October and is made possible by the organization of the Diaspora Studies Research Network. However, participation in the Summer School is not a prerequisite for inclusion in the anthology. The edited volume welcomes both theoretical and empirical contributions on contemporary diasporas in Europe, the role of international organizations and civil society, and aims to advance scholarship and debate on emerging global networks, belonging, and transnational identities in the state of deterritorialization.

Please submit your max. 500-word abstract and a 150-word CV via e-mail.



    Call for Papers    
 

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.

 
Kolleg-Forschungsgruppe "Multiple Secularities - Beyond the West, Beyond Modernities"
Nikolaistraße 8-10, 04109 Leipzig
Mail: multiple-secularities@uni-leipzig.de

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