Social Sciences and Religion seminar
Conveners: Professor Madawi Al-Rasheed and Dr Marat Shterin
Many manifestations of religion in the contemporary world challenge our assumptions about how religion is or should be lived, believed, and practiced. This seminar series provides an opportunity to get an insight into how social scientists approach the challenging issues through empirical research and theoretical analysis.
Seminars are open to all students and members of staff.
Time:
16.30-18.00
Venue: Room 2E, Chesham Building, Strand Campus, King’s College, London
Seminars 2012-13
Semester one (Autumn term) 2012-13
18 October
Dr Aitemad Muhanna, LSE Middle East Centre
“Women’s Moral Agency and the Politics of Religion in Gaza Strip”
25 October
Dr Emma Aubin-Boltanski, CNRS, Paris
Special screening of the film Catherine, Body of the Passion (Beirut 2012) is the portrait of a Catholic Maronite visionary living in Beirut. Native of the Lebanese mountain, housewife and mystic, Catherine pursues daily the project of being a saint. Every year, on Good Friday, she simultaneously revives Christ’s Passion and Mary’s suffering. During the ritual, she is both the Virgin and her Son, the Mother and her daughter, the saint and her worshipper. As a living icon, she offers her own body to the sight and touch of hundreds of worshippers. She blurs the border of sacred and profane; female and male; parent and child; past and present; image and living person. The documentary is an exploration of this body-Passion as a symptom of the anxiety experienced by the Oriental Christians in the Middle East.
01 November
Alex Lambeth, King’s College
"The Public Intellectual and Islam"
15 November
Dr Loulouwa Al-Rachid, Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris (IEP)
“Religion and Popular Culture in the Arab Spring”
22 November
Dr Fanar Haddad, National University of Singapore and Queen Mary, University of London
"Don't say the 'S'-word! Sectarianism, Nationalism and Conflict in the Middle East."
29 November
Omar Hakim, King’s College
“Media and Religious Competition: Conversion Wars among Muslims and Christians in Egypt”
04 December
Professor Madawi Al-Rasheed, Dr Carool Kersten & Dr Marat Shterin (King’s College)
Demystifying the Caliphate: Historical Memory and Contemporary Contexts
Book Launch and Reception- 5-8pm River Room- Strand Campus, King’s College
06 December
Professor Deniz Kandiyoti, SOAS
"Secularism in Turkey: Myth, Reality or Empty Signifier?
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Semester two (Spring term) 2012-13
17 January
Dr Jasjit Singh, University of Leeds
Keeping the Faith: The transmission of Sikhism among young British Sikhs (18-30)
24 January
Dr Igor Cherstich, School of Oriental and African Studies
Clarifying' Sufism, 'Demonising' Salafism: Re-articulation of Religious Practices in Gaddafi's Libya
31 January
Shanon Modh Sidik, King’s College London
Inside knowledge: personal experience and ethnographic insight in the study of Muslim sexualities
7 February
Dr Abby Day, University of Kent and Chair of the British Sociological Association’s Sociology of Religion Group
Belief and Identity: making sense of the UK 2011 census
14 February
Dr Anna Strhan, University of Kent
Conservative Evangelicals and the Moral Lives of the Metropolis
28 February
Dr Kathryn Spellman, Agha Khan University, London
Ethnographies of Islam: Ritual Performances and Everyday Practices
7 March
Prof. Gwilym Beckerlegge, the Open University
Swami Vivekananda ‘Patriot –Prophet’: Religion and Hindu Nationalism
14 March
**Please note that this seminar will take place 3:30 – 5:00, Room K-1.99**
Dr Andrew Dawson, Lancaster University
New Religious Movements in Brazil