REMINDER: Presentation with Brian Catlos on “Dynamics of Convenience in the Age of Convergence: Muslim-Christian-Jewish Relations in the Pre-Modern West”, 10 November

We would like to remind you of tomorrow’s presentation by our guest Brian Catlos, Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Colorado Boulder and Research Associate in Humanities at the University of California Santa Cruz. Brian will speak about the “Dynamics of Convenience in the Age of Convergence: Muslim-Christian-Jewish Relations in the Pre-Modern West”.

The presentation will take place in a hybrid format (on-site and online). If you would like to join in person, please register via e-mail. In the Member Area you will find the relevant readings as well as information on the zoom connection data.  

10 November | 9.15–11.45 am (CET)

Strohsack, Room 4.55 AND online via zoom

REMINDER: Workshop with Nilüfer Göle, 11 November

This Friday, we are welcoming Nilüfer Göle, Professor of Sociology at the École des hautes études en sciences sociales (School of Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences) to our KFG for an internal workshop. In a morning session, we will discuss Nilüfer’s work and in the afternoon, we will turn to the programmatic works of the Multiple Secularities group.

The workshop will take place in a hybrid format. For participation on-site, please register via e-mail (as soon as possible as seats are limited due to the capacities of the room. In the Member Area you will find the relevant readings as well as information on the zoom connection data for the workshop.  

11 November | 10 am–4 pm (CET)

Strohsack, Room 4.55 AND online via zoom

Welcome back & Guest Lecture with Dagmar Schwerk, 14 November

We are happy to welcome our Senior Research Fellow Dagmar Schwerk back to our KFG as an Associate Member. For the next two years, Dagmar will be working on her research project “Buddhism, Diplomacy, and Travel: Identity- and Nation-Building in Bhutan” as a Marie Skłodowska Curie Postdoctoral Fellow at the Institute for the Study of Religions at Leipzig University.

In this context, we would like to point out that on 14 November, she will give a guest lecture on “’Tighter Than a Silken Knot and Heavier Than a Golden Yoke’: Tibetan Metaphors of the Religious and Political Between Imagination and Social Reality” at the Center for Religious Studies (CERES) at Ruhr-Universität Bochum.

The lecture will take place as a hybrid event (on-site and via zoom). To participate, please pre-register until 11 November 2022.  

14 November | 4.15–5.45 pm (CET) (Registration required)

Ruhr University Bochum, CERES Palais, room “Ruhrpott” (4.13) AND online via zoom

New Publication I: Giuseppe Tateo on “When Conspiracy Meets Faith: Making Sense of Tragic Events in Bucharest, Romania”

Our Senior Research Fellow Giuseppe Tateo has published an article on “When Conspiracy Meets Faith: Making Sense of Tragic Events in Bucharest, Romania” as part of the book “Religious Dimensions of Conspiracy Theories: Comparing and Connecting Old and New Trends”. The publication contributes to the study of conspiracy culture by analyzing the religious and esoteric dimensions of conspiracy theories. It examines both historical and contemporary examples to explore transnational and transhistorical continuities between religious doctrines, eschatologies, and conspiracy theories. It draws on a broad range of disciplinary insights from historians, sociologists, anthropologists, and religious studies scholars. The book has a global focus and features case studies from North America, Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and Africa.

Tateo, Giuseppe. “When Conspiracy Meets Faith: Making Sense of Tragic Events in Bucharest, Romania.” In Religious Dimensions of Conspiracy Theories: Comparing and Connecting Old and New Trends, edited by Francesco Piraino, Marco Pasi, and Egil Asprem. London: Routledge, 2022.

New Publication II (in Arabic): Housamedden Darwish on “From Peaceful Civil Movement to Civil War and Sectarian Polarization: A Critical Review of Kevin Mazur’s Revolution in Syria: Identity, Networks, and Repression”

We would also like to draw your attention to the latest publication (in Arabic) by our Associate Senior Researcher Housamedden Darwish. His article “From Peaceful Civil Movement to Civil War and Sectarian Polarization: A Critical Review of Kevin Mazur’s Revolution in Syria: Identity, Networks, and Repression” has just been published in the journal Rowaq Maysaloon.

Darwish, Housamedden. “From Peaceful Civil Movement to Civil War and Sectarian Polarization: A Critical Review of Kevin Mazur’s Revolution in Syria: Identity, Networks, and Repression,” Rowaq Maysaloon 7-8 (2022): 425-41.

New Publication III: Peter Kneitz on “Cultures of Relationality and Solidarity in Madagascar” (Special Issue of Journal of Southern African Studies)

Our Senior Research Fellow Peter Kneitz has co-edited a special issue of the Journal of Southern African Studies on the “Cultures of Relationality and Solidarity in Madagascar”. Peter contributes with his editorial and an article on “Negotiating Modernity by Concepts of Relatedness: Towards the Construction of Malagasy Solidarity (Fihavanana Gasy)”.

In the member area, you find his articles as well as the complete issue of the journal.

Kneitz, Peter, Preben Kaarsholm, and Gabriel A. Rantoandro, eds. Journal of Southern African Studies 48, no. 4 (2022).

Conference (in German) on “‘Feuer und Wasser‘? Religion und Sozialismus“, 11–12 November

We would like to point to a conference on the topic of Religion and Socialism with the contribution of our Associate Member Horst Junginger. The conference of the Berlin Institute for Comparative Church-State Research addresses the connection between religion and socialism in the GDR and other countries of the former Eastern Bloc. Horst Junginger will speak on “Atheist and Religious Socialism: A Contradiction in Terms?” and will give closing remarks on Saturday.

11 November | 4–7 pm (CET)

12 November | 10 am–2 pm (CET)

Evangelisches Kirchenforum Berlin-Mitte, Klosterstraße 66, 10179 Berlin