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Dear friends and colleagues,

this week we would like to announce our colloquium next week with David Koussens. We would also like to draw your attention to a conference next week and a call for papers.

Enjoy and have a good week!

Your KFG-Team

Next week’s Colloquium: David Koussens on “Secularism(s) in Contemporary France (1989-2021)” | 15 November

Next Wednesday, our Senior Research Fellow David Koussens will give a presentation on his research project “Secularism(s) in Contemporary France (1989-2021)” at our colloquium.

The colloquium will take place in a hybrid format (on-site and online). In the Member Area you will find more information and the zoom connection data.

15 November | 9.15–11.45 am (CET)
Strohsack, Room 4.55 and online via zoom

International Conference: “Communist Perspectives on Atheism in the 20th Century” |13–14 November, Aubervilliers and online

Our Senior Research Fellow Todd H. Weir drew our attention to the conference on "Communist Perspectives on Atheism in the 20th Century". In recent years, scholars in historical and secular studies have become increasingly interested in communist attitudes towards religion, communist regimes’ efforts to uproot religion, and interactions between Marxists and Christians. Sponsored by the Explaining Atheism programme, this conference will explore transnational communist perspectives on atheism in the twentieth century and Marxist-inspired attempts to explain and influence the evolution of atheism. Building on work on “scientific atheism”, “atheist establishments” and “thought collectives”, the conference explores differences and commonalities within the Soviet bloc – within which scholarly debates on atheism took place in what might be called a limited international scientific community.
Todd will be chairing “Panel 3: Eastern European ambivalences in the late 1970s and 1980s.”

13–14 November
Aubervilliers and online

CfP: 11th ESHS Conference “Science-and-Religion, Atheism, Secularism: Entangled histories”

We’de like to point you to a call for contributions for the 11th European Society for the History of Science (Barcelona, September 2024), on “Science-and-Religion, Atheism, Secularism: Entangled histories”:

In the burgeoning field of science and religion historical studies, atheism is a newcomer, but secularism has been a staple. This panel aims to identify and bring to the fore the many ways that science has historically interacted with atheism, the religious underpinnings and anticlerical stances of such interactions, and the reciprocal relations of secularism with science, religion and atheism. We are interested not only in the theological and philosophical modes of engagement, but also in the lived experiences of the people involved. What avenues of research emerge when we consider not only religion, but also religiosity, not only science but scientific practice, not only secularism but also laïcité, and not only liberal atheism, but also Marxist and (anti)communist struggles?

Interested scholars are invited to send a paper proposal (title, abstract of 150 words, name, affiliation, and short biography) to Kostas Tampakis ktampakis@eie.gr and/or Jaume Navarro jaume.navarro@ehu.es. 

Deadline: 17 November 2023 

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.