Religious-Secular Distinctions

Thursday 14 to Saturday 16 January 2010

British Academy, 10 Carlton House Terrace, London SW1

Convenors: Dr Trevor Stack and Dr Tim Fitzgerald

THIS EVENT IS NOW FULLY BOOKED

Programme

For more further information relating to this conference - including podcasts of the papers - please go to the Religious-Secular Distinctions network 

How and why do people – politicians, academics, managers, teachers, journalists, clergy, lawyers – distinguish between religious’ and ‘non-religious’ or ‘secular’? And what happens when they make such a distinction? It matters, after all, whether a museum exhibit is considered cultural or religious,  crucifix a necklace is deemed an expression of faith or a fashion accessory, Shari’a law is regarded as integral to Islam or as another lawcode, a particular state is classified by Europe as secular or not, a minority is viewed as religious or ethnic, and a PhD thesis is considered religious or just about religion.

The conference will broaden our understanding of religious-secular distinctions by bringing together scholars from religious studies, anthropology, history, economics, law, theology, philosophy, sociology and political science. There will be panels on Religious-Secular beyond the Wars of Religion, Religion as a Legal Category, Religious versus Secular Citizens, Distinguishing Religious and Economic, Categories of Gender and Religion, and The Idea of the Secular University.

About the Convenors

Dr Trevor Stack is Lecturer in Hispanic Studies and Director of the newly launched Centre for Citizenship, Civil Society and Rule of Law at the University of Aberdeen. His background is in anthropology and he has worked on people’s perceptions of history in Mexico and notions of citizenship in Mexico and California, and is developing a project on how people in a variety of contexts distinguish ‘religious’ from ‘secular’.
Dr Timothy Fitzgerald is Reader in Religion at the University of Stirling. He has published The Ideology of Religious Studies (2003) and Discourse on Civility and Barbarity: A Critical History of Religion and Related Categories (2007), as well as a conference volume Religion and the Secular: Historical and Colonial Formations (2007). He is currently a visiting research professor at Kyoto University, Japan.

Registration

Registration is required for this conference and places are limited. If you register before 25 December 2009 you receive a further 10% discount on the registration fee.  

Please sign up to the Religious-Secular Distinctions network here:

This conference is sponsored by the Centre for Citizenship, Civil Society and Rule of Law at the University of Aberdeen.