The School of Social Science is now accepting applications for 2010-2011 visiting Members, who will do work around the theme of “secularism”:
In the light of what, for many, is being defined as a world-wide resurgence of religiosity both as a spiritual and political force, attention has been drawn to the question of the secular. For those who take secularism to be one of the foundational principles of modernity, the appearance of religious-based movements constitutes a critical challenge to the established ways of life associated with liberalism and democracy. Those skeptical of the universalist claims of liberalism argue that sharp oppositions between the secular and the religious, modernity and traditionalism, obscure historical and political processes of state-building, colonial domination, and post-colonial negotiation. Although the question of secularism is a broad one, recent discussions have focused on Islam, on its compatibility with the practice of state religious neutrality; on the assimilability of Muslim minorities in the nominally secular nations of Western Europe; on the relationship between democratic elections and the coming to power of Islamic religious parties in North Africa and the Middle East.
For more information or to apply, visit their website here.