Religion and Citizenship: Re-Thinking the Boundaries of Religion and the Secular

Last year’s inaugural symposium was over-subscribed and therefore early submissions are encouraged.

Time: 10 a.m. – 5 p.m.

Religions today are implicated in a wide variety of publics. From contests over the environment and democracy to protests against capitalism, religions remain important factors in political and public life across diverse, and interconnected, global contexts. A variety of diverse responses have been articulated to the so-called ‘return of religion’ in the public sphere, drawing into question relations between the religious, the non-religious and the secular. As scholars have developed new theoretical understandings of the terms of these debates and questioned how these are bound up with cultural conceptualizations of citizenship, education – in schools, universities and less formal educational contexts – has often been a site where contestations of the religious and the secular have been acutely felt.

The aim of this symposium is to consider the interrelation between conceptions of the religious, the secular, citizenship and education, and to explore how these issues affect the study of religion in higher education. We hope to attract presentations of sufficient quality to lead to an edited publication.

The day will be highly participative and engaged. The symposium will be organised as a single stream so that the day is as much about discussion as it is about presentation, and therefore the number of formal papers will be limited.

Contact: Dr Paul-François Tremlett [email protected]

Costs

• £36.00 for BSA/SocRel members; 
• £45.00 for non-members; 
• £20.00 for SocRel/BSA Postgraduate members; 
• £25.00 for Postgraduate non-members.