The Impact of Religion: Challenges for Society, Law and Democracy
Religion has become a crucial research area in a wide variety of academic disciplines. The Impact of Religion conference in Uppsala provides an opportunity to disseminate, share and obtain results within this expanding field.
The first Impact of Religion conference was held in May 2013. This conference offered a forum for sharing recent research on the role of religion in both the public and the private sphere – locally, nationally and internationally. Its design reflected the work of its host: the multi-disciplinary research programme known as the Impact of Religion: Challenges for Society, Law and Democracy.
The programme of the first conference payed particular attention to the links between religion, law and wider social developments.
Conference Programme
May 20-22 2013 - Venue: Uppsala University Main Building
Monday May 20
11.00 Registration opens
13.15 Opening of conference
- Welcome by Eva Åkesson, Vice-Chancellor, Uppsala University
- Welcome by Per Pettersson, Director of the Impact of Religion Research Programme, Uppsala University
13.30-15 Plenary 1: Challenges of religion (podcast)
- to secularism : Jonathan VanAntwerpen, Director of Communications and Program Director, Social Science Research Council, USA
- to democracy: Ian Leigh, Professor of Law, Durham University
- to social science: Grace Davie, Professor of Sociology of Religion, University of Exeter, UK
Chair: Maarit Jänterä-Jareborg, Deputy Director of the Impact of Religion Research Programme, Uppsala University
15.00 Coffee
15.30-17.30 Paper session 1
17.45 Reception
Tuesday May 21
09.15-10.45 Plenary 2: Values, religion and the global challenges (podcast)
Heiner Bielefeldt, Professor, Erlangen/Nürnberg University, UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion and Belief
Yilmaz Esmer, Professor of Political Science, Bahcesehir University, Turkey
Response: Inger Furseth, Professor of Sociology of Religion, University of Oslo
Panel discussion
Chair: Anders Bäckström, Professor of Sociology of Religion, Uppsala University
10.45 Coffee
11.15-12.45 Paper session 2
12.45 Lunch
14.00 Paper session 3
16.00 Coffee
16.30-17.40 Plenary 3: Rethinking religious – secular intersections
Ayelet Shachar, Professor of Law, Canada Research Chair in Citizenship and Multiculturalism, University of Toronto, Canada
Marie-Claire Foblets, Professor of Law and Anthropology, Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, Halle, Germany
Effie Fokas, Phd in Political Sociology, Research Fellow, Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy, ELIAMEP, Athens, Greece
Mattias Martinson, Professor of Systematic Theology and Studies in World Views, Uppsala University
Panel discussion
Chair: Iain Cameron, Professor of International Law, Uppsala University
19.00 Conference Dinner with entertainment, live music and dance (special registration needed)
Wednesday May 22
09.15-10.15 Plenary 4: New configurations of religion in the public and private spheres
Siniša Zrinščak, Professor of Social Policy, University of Zagreb, Croatia
Response: Katarina Boele Woelki, Professor of Comparative Law, Private International Law and Family Law, University of Utrecht, Netherlands
Response: Niels Henrik Gregersen, Professor of Systematic Theology, University of Copenhagen, Denmark
Panel discussion
Chair: Mattias Gardell, Professor of Comparative Religion, Uppsala University
10.15 Coffee
10.45-11.45 Paper session 4
12.00-13.00 Plenary 5: Does religion have an impact? (podcast)
Linda Woodhead, Professor of Sociology of Religion, Lancaster University, UK
Chair: Mia Lövheim, Professor of Sociology of Religion, Uppsala University
Closing / Thanks
13.00 Lunch
End of conference