New Colloquium on Religion and International Affairs to Catalyze Interdisciplinary Research

October 15, 2010

The Institute’s Religion and Internationalism Project is kicking off a new faculty colloquium in October in collaboration with Brown’s Religious Studies Department, with the ultimate goal of creating an interdisciplinary network at Brown that would engage in a series of joint projects over the next few years.

The Religion and Internationalism Faculty Colloquium will take the form of book discussions and research presentations relating to current debates about the meaning and place of religion and secularism in international affairs, both in the academy and beyond. It seeks to bring together scholars from across the Brown community with the aim of developing novel interdisciplinary research approaches and theoretical inquiries, and exchanging ideas on policy relevant initiatives that would inform public debates.

The first meeting will focus on Is Critique Secular? Blasphemy, Injury and Free Speech (Doreen B. Townsend Center for the Humanities, UC Berkeley, 2009, with essays by Talal Asad, Wendy Brown, Judith Butler, and Saba Mahmood). It will take place on Tuesday, October 19, from 3pm to 5 pm at the Kim Koo Library, which is located on the third floor of the Watson Institute.

Those interested in participating in this event and/or being part of the Religion and Internationalism Faculty Colloquium should contact Institute Professor Nathaniel Berman, Associate Professor of Religious Studies Thomas A. Lewis, or Institute Visiting Fellow Nukhet Sandal.

Also during the week, Berman will give a talk on "The Sacred Conspiracy": Religion, Nationalism and the Crisis of Internationalism" at Cornell University Law School. The lecture at Cornell takes place on Thursday, October 21, at 4:15pm in Myron Taylor Hall.