CONFERENCE: THE NON-RELIGIOUS AND THE STATE: CHOICES AND FRAMEWORKS FOR SECULARS FROM THE AGE OF REVOLUTION TO THE CURRENT DAY

 

 

The conference is organised as part of the research into multiple secularities done by our research group Secular Studies Association Brussels (SSAB) within the field of secular studies. Secular Studies has grown out of religious studies as a fully-fledged interdisciplinary field, with specialized journals such as Secularism and Nonreligion (NSRN) and Secular Studies (Brill), separate monographic series such as Religion and Its Others and Studies in Religion, Nonreligion and Secularity (De Gruyter), Secular Studies (New York University Press) and New Perspectives on the History of Liberalism and Freethought (De Gruyter) and international and interdisciplinary groups such as the Nonreligion and Secularity Network and the International Society for Historians on Atheism, Secularism and Nonreligion. Our conference adds to current research by ensuring a worldwide scope, as evidenced by our program, and thus utilising the unique position Belgium holds as a crossroads for ideas, concepts and divergent research cultures present in the Romanesque/Latin world and the Anglo-American sphere of influence respectively.  The members of SSAB boast a network to match this ambition.

The work done during the conference will result in a publication in the peer reviewed series New Perspectives on the History of Liberalism and Freethought (De Gruyter) in 2023. This event will thus open up discussions within secular studies that are linked to historical and judicial work, adding a new dimension to a field that is known primarily for its research into sociological and psychological aspects of the secular(s). This is of course linked to current issues of ‘vivre’ ensemble’ in a post-secularist society that struggles to guarantee freedom of religion or belief (FORB) for its citizens.

                                                   ^{source gallica.bnf.fr /bibliothèque national de france}

 

 

Keynote Speakers

• Carolin Kosuch, Georg August University Göttingen
• Jeffrey Tyssens, SSAB-VUB
• David Nash, Oxford Brookes University
• Stacey Gutkowski, King's College London

Program (download program book here)

Thursday 20 October 2022 -  Preliminary Session (HuisvandeMens Brussel)

Afternoon

14u00-14u40

François Finck (Centre d’Action Laïque)

  Laïcité: on the evolutions of a polysemic concept

Evren Altinkas (University of Guelph)

  Secularism in Turkey: Mustafa Kemal Ataturk and his secular reforms

Discussion      14u40-15u00

 

Break               15u00-15u15

15u15-16u15

Adam Mohamed Farhi (Norwegian University of Life Sciences)

  The Non-Religious Movement in the MENA Region: Forming Regional and International Connections Against Lifeworld Colonization

Adelina Aredondo (Universidad Autónoma del Estado de Morelo)

  Laic education as a pillar in the construction of the laic state in Mexico On the Rise of a Secular State in Mexico

Pascal Tanner (Université de Lausanne)

  Transformation of collective identity within organized secularism in Switzerland

Discussion      16u15-16u30

 

Friday 21 October 2022 (Palace of the Academies)

Morning

Welcome         9u15-9u30

Rector of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel

 

Keynote 1        9u30-10u00

Carolin Kosuch (Georg August University Göttingen)

  Clashes, Competition, and Common Goals: Italian Secularisms and the Liberal State

Discussion      10u00-10u15

 

10u15-10u55

Adelaide Madera (University of Messina)

  Atheism in the judicial discourse: a comparative analysis between the US and the  Italian constitutional scenario

Silvia Baldassarre, Rossella Bottoni, Cristina Cianitto, Ilaria Valenzi (multiple universities)

  The respect for and the promotion of belief organizations’ rights in the EU space: results from the Atlas project

Discussion      10u55-11u15

Break                             11u15-11u30

11u30-12u10

Leo Igwe (University of Cape Town)

  Sexuality Beyond Belief: Non religiosity and Same sex relationships in Ghana

Sabrina Testa (CNRS- EPHE)

  Le prix de l'existence : l'incroyance organisée face à l'État au Brési

Discussion      12u10-12u30

 

Lunch               12u30-14u00

Afternoon

Keynote 2        14u00-14u30

Jeffrey Tyssens (SSAB-VUB)

  The Atheist and the Court. The Failed Secularisation of the Judicial Oath in 19th-Century Belgium

Discussion      14u30-14u45

 

2 papers           14u45-15u25

Niels De Nutte (SSAB-VUB - deMens.nu)

  Accomodationism as a battlefield: the recognition and subvention of local secular humanist chapters in Belgium in the 1970s

Ellen Van Impe & Rik Röttger (CAVA/SSAB-VUB)

  A History of Ambiguity. The Dutch languagenon-confessional community in Belgium and the state (1971-2002)

Discussion      15u25-15u45

 

Break               15u45-16u00

16u00-17u00

Jean-François Husson (Université de Liège)

  Le financement des organisations laïques

Vincent Genin (EPHE, PSL-GSRL)

  L’assistance morale et religieuse en Belgique francophone depuis les années 1970. La quête de reconnaissance du « pilier laïque »

 

Anne Lancien (Science Po Paris - IEP)

  La Ligue de l’enseignement et l’Etat français : entre influences et dissonances, de 1950 à nos jours

Discussion      17u00-17u20

 

Drink               17u30-19u00

Diner for speakers 20u00

 

 

Saturday 22 October 2022 (Palace of the Academies)

Morning

Keynote 3        9u30-10u00

David Nash (Oxford Brookes University)

  Duelling with the Devil you know. Secularism in Victorian England and its relationship to the state

Discussion      10u00-10u15

 

10u15-10u55

Johannes Gleixner (Collegium Carolinum München)

  An atheist wall of separation? The Soviet state, the League of the Militant Godless and the complicated border between the political and the non-religious sphere

Katharina Neef (Universität Leipzig)

  Socialist Secularism? The public presence of secularism and the absence of freethought in the GDR

Discussion      10u55-11u15

 

Break                             11u15-11u30

11u30-12u10

Eva Guigo-Patzelt (Paris-Sorbonne)

  L’association des libres penseurs (1988-1991) et le système politique est-allemand, vus par les chercheurs en athéisme scientifique 

Stefan Schröder (University of Bayreuth)

  Organized Non-religion and the state in 21st-century Germany: Religion-related incorporation and inner conflicts

Discussion      12u10-12u30

 

Lunch               12u30-14u00

Afternoon

Keynote 4        14u00-14u30

Stacey Gutkowski (King's College London)

  State (non) secularism and the religiously doubtful in the Middle East

Discussion      14u30-14u45

 

14u45-15u25

Sofia Nikitaki (KULeuven)

  Nonreligious Perceptions of Church-State Relationships in the EU: A Cross-cultural Qualitative Study in Belgium, Greece and Norway

Alain Vannieuwenburg (CAVA - deMens.nu)

  Luxembourg: une séparation à l’amiable

Discussion      15u25-15u45

 

Break               15u45-16u00

16u00-17u00

Joseph Blankholm (University of California at Santa Barbara)

  The Burden of Nonreligious Freedom on Secular Women in the United States

Alejandro Ortiz Cirilo (Universidad Pedagógica Nacional)

  Argentina, Brasil y México: La disyuntiva entre educación laica o la enseñanza religiosa en las escuelas públicas

Abraham Hawley-Suárez (University of California at Santa Barbara)

  Do Mexicans Want a Secular State? Taxonomy of Attitudes towards Secularity in Four Groups of Religious Affiliation

Discussion      17u00-17u15

 

Concluding remarks SSAB-chair     17u15-17u30

 

Pricing

• 50 euros for professional researchers
• 35 euros for professionals outside of academia,
• 25 for doctoral and postdoctoral participants
• 10 euros for students

PLEASE REGISTER HERE