The Hong Kong Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences, the University of Hong Kong, the National University of Singapore, and the Social Science Research Council have announced plans for the third Conference on Inter-Asian Connections, to be held June 6-8, 2012. This year's conference will include a workshop directed by Christophe Jaffrelot and Mirjam Künkler on Networks of Religious Learning and the Dissemination of Religious Knowledge in Asia.
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Announcements, events, and opportunities related to topics of interest to TIF readers are posted here. Additionally you may find round-ups of news items and brief commentary on current events.
For a listing of all of the events announcements, click here.
For a listing of announcements regarding books, click here.
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Pitzer College to add “secular studies” major
by Justin ReynoldsThanks to the efforts of sociologist Phil Zuckerman, this fall Pitzer College in California will become the first undergraduate institution in the country to offer a major in secularism, The New York Times reports.
May 9, 2011
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The new faces of the European far-right
by Nilüfer GöleWith the ascent of Marine Le Pen to the head of the National Front and her growing popularity in the polls, France joins the surge of nationalist parties that is sweeping over all of Europe. We must understand the new dynamics that underlie this relapse toward a continent-wide far-right movement: in its latest change of face, the far-right misappropriates the legacy of 1968 at the same time that it targets Islam under the guise of defending national values, just as its leaders claim to embody the value of personal liberty all the while asserting their belonging to the “land” of popular imagination, thus forging a new rhetorical repertoire and introducing it into European political culture.
May 11, 2011
books
Rethinking Secularism
by The EditorsRethinking Secularism helps to reframe discussions of religion in the social sciences by drawing attention to the central issue of how ''the secular'' is constituted and understood. It provides valuable insight into how new understandings of secularism and religion shape analytic perspectives in the social sciences, politics, and international affairs.
May 11, 2011
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Crafting the secular studies syllabus
by Charles GelmanPitzer College having announced that it will offer a major in "secular studies," the Harvard University Press Blog compiles a list of titles essential to the subject.
May 12, 2011
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Claremont School of Theology to train Christians, Jews, and Muslims
by Grace YukichThis week, Claremont School of Theology in California announced that a large financial gift will allow them to transform the seminary into an institution that will train Christians, Jews, and Muslims. According to The Los Angeles Times, the new university---which will be called Claremont Lincoln University, in the couple's honor---will serve as an umbrella for three largely separate programs: the existing program for Christian pastors-in-training, another program for rabbis, and a third for imams.
May 17, 2011
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CFP: “Ancient Aitia”
by Jessica PolebaumA call for papers for the NYU Classics Graduate Student Conference (Dec. 3, 2011): "Ancient Aitia: Explaining Matter between Belief and Knowledge."
May 18, 2011
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Physicists making religion headlines
by John D. BoyEver since he told a Guardian reporter last weekend that the idea of an afterlife is a "fairy story," Stephen Hawking has been in the religion news. The author of A Brief History of Time isn't the only physicist making religion headlines. Not long ago, a paper presented at the American Physical Society's annual meeting led the BBC to report: "Religion may become extinct in nine nations, study says." Finally, the ongoing work on particle physics at CERN prompted its director to tell an interviewer: "we are crossing the boundary between knowledge and belief."
May 20, 2011
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Religion first, then civilization
by Justin ReynoldsFor years, the German archaeologist Klaus Schmidt has been excavating an 11,600-year-old assemblage of carved pillars at Göbekli Tepe in southeast Turkey. His discoveries, reports Charles C. Mann in National Geographic, are making some question whether it was religion that first prompted humans to settle down and start civilizing themselves.
May 20, 2011
books
Matters of Ultimate Concern
by Jessica PolebaumAs the 2012 election season draws ever closer, Scott McLemee considers the essays collected in The Power of Religion in the Public Sphere (ed. Eduardo Mendieta and Jonathan VanAntwerpen).
May 25, 2011