Below is a list of events that will be hosted by the Religion and Diversity Project in 2014.
January 2014
Lecture – Critical Thinkers in Religion, Law and Social Theory
Date: January 16, 2014, 4:00 to 5:30pm
Title: Groupness and the Fight for Respect: Responses to Stigmatization among African-Americans, Black Brazilians, Ethiopian Jews, Mizrachis, and Arab Israelis
Speaker: Michèle Lamont (Harvard University)
Location: University of Ottawa, Simard Hall, Room 125, 60 University, Ottawa, Ontario
Abstract: I will report on a large collaborative interview-based research project on how groups that are marked differently respond to stigmatization and discrimination. By considering narratives concerning responses to actual incidents and ideal responses, I analyze variations between African-Americans, Black Brazilians and Israeli Ethiopian Jews, as well as Mizrachis and Arab Israelis. I describe the relative salience of confrontation, the management of the self, and non-responses across national contexts, as well as patterns across classes. I also provide an explanation for similarities and differences by pointing to variations in sense of groupness, national cultural repertoires, and the impact of neo-liberalism across national contexts.
Résumé: Je rendrai compte d’un grand projet de recherche collectif fondé sur des entrevues qui traitent de la manière dont les groupes identifiés différemment réagissent face à la stigmatisation et à la discrimination. En considérant les récits sur les réactions face à de véritables incidents ainsi que sur des réactions idéales, j’analyse les variantes entre les Afro-américains, les Brésiliens noirs et les Juifs Éthiopiens d’Israël, ainsi que les Mizrahims et les Israelites arabes. Je décris l’importance relative de la confrontation, de la gestion de soi, de l’absence de réponses dans les contextes nationaux ainsi que des tendances selon les classes. J’offre également une explication quant aux ressemblances et différences en soulignant les variantes en ce qui concerne le groupe, les répertoires culturels nationaux et l’impact du néo-libéralisme sur les contextes nationaux.
Biography: Michèle Lamont is Professor of Sociology and African and African American Studies and Robert I. Goldman Professor of European Studies at Harvard University. She is also fellow of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research, where she co-directs the program Successful Societies. Her recent publications include Social Resilience in the Neo-Liberal Era (with Peter A. Hall, 2013), and Responses to Stigmatization in Comparative Perspectives: Brazil, Canada, Israel, France, South Africa, Sweden and the United States (coedited with Nissim Mizrachi, Ethnic and Racial Studies, 2012).
Biographie: Michèle Lamont est professeure en sociologie et en études africaines et afro-américaine ainsi qu’une « Robert I. Goldman Professor of European Studies » à l’Université Harvard. Elle est également membre de l’Institut canadien de recherches avancées où elle codirige le programme de Sociétés réussies. Ses publications récentes comprennent Social Resilience in the Neo-Liberal Era (avec Peter A. Hall, 2013), et Responses to Stigmatization in Comparative Perspectives: Brazil, Canada, Israel, France, South Africa, Sweden and the United States (coédité avec Nissim Mizrachi, Ethnic and Racial Studies, 2012).
Lecture – Laboratoire de recherche empirique des groupes religieux, Session 1
Date: January 20, 2014
Title: Analyse du concept de minorité au sein des commissions publiques sur les diversités culturelles et religieuses : discussion méthodologique
Speaker: Giomny H. Ruiz (Université de Montréal)
Location: Université de Montréal, Faculté de théologie et de sciences des religions, Pavillon Marguerite-d’Youville, 2375 chemin de la Côte-Ste-Catherine, Montréal, Québec
For more information, click here.
Lectures – Regards « extérieurs » sur la laïcité et le projet de loi 60
Date: January 24, 2014
Title: La tentation de la croix, la séduction de l’Europe: une lecture schmittienne des rapports entre laïcité et religion dans le constitutionnalisme européen
Speaker: Susanna Mancini (Université de Bologne)
Title: Pluralisme, tolérance et laïcité: complémentarité ou contradiction?
Speaker: Michel Rosenfeld (Cardozo Law School)
Location: Université de Montréal, Room B-4265, Pavillon Jean-Brillant, 3200, rue Jean-Brillant, Montréal, Québec
February 2014
Lecture – Laboratoire de recherche empirique sur les groupes religieux, Session 2
Date: February 10, 2014
Title: Étude de cas : État du Vatican, Saint-Siège et relations internationales
Speakers: Anne Leahy (McGill University)
Location: Université de Montréal, Faculté de théologie et de sciences des religions, Pavillon Marguerite-d’Youville, 2375 chemin de la Côte-Ste-Catherine, Montréal, Québec
For more information, click here.
Student Symposium – Je est un autre: regards croisés sur les frontières de l’identité
Date: February 11, 2014, 9:00am to 5:00pm
Location: Université de Montréal, Room C-3061, Carrefour des arts et des sciences de l’Université de Montréal, Montréal, Québec
To obtain the complete programme, please visit the event page on Facebook: www.facebook.com/colloquejeestunautre
For more information, please click here.
Lecture – Laboratoire de recherche empirique des groupes religieux, Session 3
Date: February 17, 2014
Title: Minorités religieuses et neutralité de l’État en France et en Europe : tensions et débats contemporains
Speaker: Anne-Laure Zwilling (Université de Strasbourg)
Location: Université de Montréal, Faculté de théologie et de sciences des religions, Pavillon Marguerite-d’Youville, 2375 chemin de la Côte-Ste-Catherine, Montréal, Québec
For more information, please click here.
Workshop – Introduction to DEDOOSE
Date: February 19, 2014, 1:00 to 2:30pm
Facilitator: Jing Feng (University of Ottawa)
Presented by: Ottawa Multicultural Media Initiative (OMMI)/L’Initiative des médias multiculturels d’Ottawa (IMMO)
Location: Université de Montréal, Faculté de théologie et de sciences des religions, Pavillon Marguerite-d’Youville, 2375 chemin de la Côte-Ste-Catherine, Montréal, Québec
Jing Feng is a Doctoral Candidate in Human Geography at the University of Ottawa. Her research interests lie in the area of social and economic integrations among immigrants in Canadian cities, as well as the way in which these integration processes influence immigrants’ everyday life in urban areas. Applying both quantitative and qualitative research methods, Jing is currently writing her doctoral dissertation entitled “Geographies of Employment among Chinese High-tech Workers in Canada: An Ottawa case study.”
Dedoose is an online application for analysis of qualitative data, including transcripts of interviews and focus groups, as well as texts for content analysis. This workshop will offer an introduction to Dedoose web-based work-space and its key features. More specifically, participants of this workshop will learn how to prepare and import texts, create new projects, add and apply codes, create descriptors, as well as organize and read excerpts
*Please note that the presentation will be delivered in English and that the discussion will be held in English.
For more information, please click here.
Lecture – Building Bridges: Lunch and Learn
Date: February 26, 2014, 12:30 to 2:00pm
Title: Deconstructing Misconceptions: Women and Islam
Speaker: Tayyibah Taylor (Azizah Magazine)
Presented by: The Religion and Diversity Project, the Embassy of the United States of America and the Ottawa Multicultural Media Initiative
Location: University of Ottawa, Simard Hall, Room 123, 60 University, Ottawa, Ontario
Tayyibah Taylor is the founding editor-in-chief and publisher of Azizah Magazine, an award winning publication. Through Azizah, Tayyibah Taylor realized her vision of providing a vehicle for the voice of Muslim American women – a vehicle that portrays their perspectives and experiences, and shatters commonly held stereotypes. She presently works on the steering Committee of WISE, an organization that convenes global Muslim women leaders and fosters Muslim women’s participation in Islamic law and contemporary debates. Tayyibah blends her passion for spirituality, women’s issues and communication to further the causes of Muslim women.
Tayyibah Taylor est la rédactrice en chef fondatrice et l’éditrice de la publication primée Azizah Magazine. Grâce à Azizah, elle a réalisé sa vision qui consistait à offrir un véhicule donnant une voix aux femmes musulmanes américaines : un véhicule présentant leurs perspectives et leurs expériences tout en éliminant les stéréotypes répandus. Elle siège présentement sur le comité directeur de WISE, un organisme qui convoque les femmes musulmanes leader internationalement et qui encourage la participation des femmes musulmanes à la loi islamique et aux débats contemporains. Tayyibah marie sa passion pour la spiritualité, les enjeux liés aux femmes et la communication pour faire avancer la cause des femmes musulmanes.
March 2014
Panel – Perspectives on diversity and religion at a crossroads
Date: March 3, 2014, 1:00 to 3:00pm
Title: In Your Face: Niqab-Wearing Women in Canada and Beyond
Panelist: Natasha Bakht (University of Ottawa)
Title: Good heavens! Paradoxes of Chinese religiosities and identity
Panelist: André Laliberté (University of Ottawa)
Presented by: The Diversity and Equity Research Group (DERG) / Groupe de recherche sur la diversité et l’équité (GRDÉ)
Location: University of Ottawa, Faculty of Social Sciences, FSS 5025, 120 University, Ottawa, Ontario
Panel in English followed by a bilingual Q & A / Table ronde en anglais suivie d’une période de questions et réponses bilingue
For more information, please click here.
Seminar – The Diversity and Equity Research Group (DERG)
Date: March 13, 2014
Title: Les dessous neufs du Nous : la Charte des valeurs québécoises et les risques de dérives néoracistes
Speaker: Paul Eid (UQAM)
Location: University of Ottawa, Faculty of Social Sciences, FSS 4015, 120 University, Ottawa, Ontario
For more information, please click here.
Lecture – Laboratoire de recherche empirique sur les groupes religieux, Session 4
Date: March 19, 2014
Title: Le dialogue interreligieux dans la relation de couple. Etude de terrain au Québec
Speakers: Julia Martínez-Ariño (Université de Montréal)
Location: Université de Montréal, Faculté de théologie et de sciences des religions, Pavillon Marguerite-d’Youville, 2375 chemin de la Côte-Ste-Catherine, Montréal, Québec
For more information, please click here.
Lecture – Critical Thinkers in Religion, Law and Social Theory
Date: March 20, 2014, 4:00 to 5:30pm
Title: Secularism’s Dependency, Religion’s Necessity
Speakers: Paula Montero (São Paulo University)
Location: University of Ottawa, Simard Hall, Room 125, 60 University, Ottawa, Ontario
Abstract/résumé: This project proposes a comparative research programme on religious diversity in Brazil and Canada. In both cases there are multiple religious agents challenging the limits of the public space and its configuration. Some of the most outstanding of the Brazilian religious field are its immense diversity of creeds, its ongoing capacity to invent new religions, and the widespread belief in God’s existence among the major part of the population. The Brazilian religious field has undergone profound transformations in contemporary Brazil. Alongside the decline of the Catholic Church hegemony and the Pentecostal Protestantism there is an intensification of debates about what it means to be a secular society. Paradoxically, civil society gives evidence to the increasing significance of religion in public debate and at the same time religious actors appropriate the secular discourse of science to attract new adherents.
Bio/biographie: Paula Montero is a full professor at the University of São Paulo, and she is President of the Brazilian Center of Analysis and Planning (CEBRAP). After researching a PhD in Social and Cultural Anthropology at the University of São Paulo, she was invited to Columbia University (1984) as Visiting Scholar of the Institute of Latin American Studies, and to the University of Chicago (1996) as a Tinker Visiting Professor. Since 1983, she has been interested in popular religions in Brazil. In recent years she has focused on issues of intercultural relations and multiculturalism; her latest work has centered on Christian missions among the Amazonian Indians. At present she is studying new forms of religious organizations, and their activities in the modern public sphere.
April 2014
Lecture – Building Bridges: Lunch and Learn
Date: April 3, 2014, 12:30 to 2:00pm
Title: “But that’s culture, not religion”: the politics of Christianity as cultural heritage
Speaker: Erin Wilson (University of Groningen)
Presented by: The Canada Research Chair in the Contextualization of Religion in a Diverse Canada / La Chaire de recherche du Canada en étude de la religion dans le contexte multiculturel canadien
Location: University of Ottawa, Simard Hall, Room 129, 60 University, Ottawa, Ontario
Please R.S.V.P. before Friday, March 28, 2014 (info@religionanddiversity.ca), a lunch will be provided.
Is “Christianity” “religion” or “culture”? Recent European and North American debates in politics and law suggest a growing trend towards classifying “Christianity” as “culture”, specifically “cultural heritage”, rather than “religion”. As Lori Beaman has argued, this represents a mode of control enabling the “cultural” symbols of the majority to remain in the public sphere at the same time as the “religious” symbols of the minority are excluded. Yet it is also, I suggest, a means for controlling “Christianity” as a site of opposition to the secular neoliberal state. “Culture”, particularly in relation to “cultural heritage”, is inherently weak. It requires protection and preservation by the state to prevent it from disappearing altogether. Its capacity to challenge the state is thus limited. Further, “culture” is positioned as benign, apolitical, relative, with few or no universalist aspirations, fitting neatly within secularist modes of state control. “Religion”, in contrast, is a site of resistance to secularist ideology and statecraft. Classifying “Christianity” as “culture” rather than “religion”, I argue, facilitates its presence in the public sphere, yet only in forms acceptable to the secular state. As part of the dominant “culture”, “Christianity’s” capacity to critique and challenge dominant modes of exclusion is significantly curtailed.
Conference – Quebec’s New Religions: Alternative Spiritualities after Vatican II and the Quiet Revolution
Date: April 25, 2014
Organisers: Susan J. Palmer (Dawson College and Concordia University) and Solange Lefebvre (University of Montréal)
Location: McGill University, The Chapel, second floor of the Birks Building, Faculty of Religious Studies, McGill University, 3520 University Street, Montréal, Québec
This conference will explore the unique characteristics of Quebec’s new religions and the limits of Quebec’s “favorable ecology” (Stark, 1988) for new religious movements (indigenous and imported) since the 1960s. The focus will be on issues of religious freedom and identity, and the public management and recognition of alternative religions within the context of Quebec’s distinct culture and the Chartes des droits et libertés de la personne. Scholars from Quebec and Ontario will present ethnographical studies of specific groups. These include the Catholic intégristes, and eclectic or schismatic movements as well as the local branches of international magical-arcane, theosophical, or UFO-inspired groups. Other papers will address the broader sociological/historical themes that contextualize Quebec’s religious minorities. The discussion will also address the various ways in which Quebec’s new religions movements and spiritual currents have been influenced by this Province’s unique historical, cultural, linguistic, and social forces.
Cette conférence entend explorer les caractéristiques uniques des nouvelles religions au Québec et les limites de l’écologie québécoise “favorable” (Stark, 1988) pour les nouveaux mouvements religieux (indigènes et importés) depuis les années 1960. L’attention se portera sur les questions de liberté de religion et d’identité, ainsi que la gestion publique et la reconnaissance des religions alternatives dans le contexte de la culture distincte du Québec et des Chartes des droits et libertés de la personne. Des spécialistes du Québec, de l’Ontario est des États-Unis présenterons des études ethnographiques de groupes spécifiques. Ceux-ci incluent les Catholiques intégristes, les mouvements éclectiques et schismatiques, aussi bien que les branches locales des groupes magico-arcane, théosophiques, ou inspirés par les extra-terrestres. D’autres papiers concerneront des thèmes sociologiques plus larges qui mettent en contexte les minorités religieuses du Québec. La discussion portera aussi sur les manières diverses dont les NMR et courants spirituels du Québec ont été influencés par les forces historiques, culturelles et linguistiques et sociales uniques de la province.
For more information, please click here.
To read the report, please click here.
May 2014
Religion and Diversity Project – Graduate Student Workshop, Series 2, Session 2
Date: May 8 to 9, 2014
Theme: Knowledge Transfer
Facilitator: Grace Davie (University of Exeter)
Participants: Alyshea Cummins, Christine L. Cusack, Mohamed Fadil, Paul Gareau, Stéphanie Gravel, Jordan Palmer, Matthew Riddett and Giomny H. Ruiz.
Location: University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario
To read Alyshea Cummins’ student testimonial, please click here.
To read the report, please click here.
The Graduate Student Workshop Series’ have been a terrific success, creating three engaged cohorts of graduate students within the Religion and Diversity Project, who had the pleasure of meeting between 2011 and 2016 to exchange ideas, network and develop research relationships. Each Graduate Student Workshop Series was composed of three time spaced thematic components centered around intellectual directions and research design, knowledge transfer and results dissemination.
A Best Practices Guide for Graduate Student Training has been created by Research Associate Cathy Holtmann and Team Member Nancy Nason-Clark and can be found here.
Congress – 82 ACFAS Colloque 450 – La religion dans le sphère publique
Date: May 13, 2014
Organisers: Amélie Barras (Université de Montréal), Solange Lefebvre (Université de Montréal)
Location: Concordia University, Montréal, Québec
Workshop – The Study of Religion in Atlantic Canada Workshop
Date: May 20 to 21, 2014
Title: Moving Beyond the University – How Research on Religious Diversity by Atlantic Canadian Scholars Can Make a Difference
Keynote speaker: Sam Reimer (Crandall University)
Location: Saint Mary’s University, Halifax, Nova Scotia
A workshop series bringing together students and scholars of religion in Atlantic Canada to highlight the diverse kinds of research taking place in our region.
Featuring:
- Research presentations from Atlantic Canadian graduate students
- Faculty facilitated professional development sessions
To read the report, please click here.
September 2014
Lecture – Laboratoire de recherche empirique sur les groupes religieux, Session 1
Date: September 11, 2014, 11:30am to 1:00pm
Title: Enjeux méthodologiques au cours des recherches sur la gestion de la diversité religieuse dans les écoles catholiques privées au Québec depuis la laïcisation scolaire.
Speaker: Julia Martínez-Ariño (Université de Montréal)
Location: Room 5031, Université de Montréal, Faculté de théologie et sciences des religions, Montréal, Québec
Lecture – Critical Thinkers in Religion, Law and Social Theory
Date: September 29, 2014, 4:00pm
Title: Constructing Islamic Modernities: Identity, Social Order and Religious Traditions
Speaker: Dietrich Jung (University of Southern Denmark)
Location: University of Ottawa, Simard Hall, Room 129, 60 University, Ottawa, Ontario
Abstract | résumé: This lecture is based on the ongoing research project on Modern Muslim Subjectivities, currently conducted at the Center for Contemporary Middle East Studies, University of Southern Denmark. In combining contemporary social theory with Islamic studies, the lecture addresses the various ways in which Islamic reformers have dealt with the construction of specifically Islamic social orders and forms of subjectivity in the modern age. Illustrated by examples of various Muslim and non-Muslim countries, it presents globally relevant social imaginaries that together with Islamic traditions have served as frames of reference for individual and collective ways to construct modern Islamic identities. In pointing to both similarities and differences between Islamic and non-Islamic forms of modern selfhoods, the presentation claims that also modern Muslim identities have been constructed with respect to a set of more global paradigms. For more information about the project, see: http://www.sdu.dk/en/Om_SDU/Institutter_centre/ih/Forskning/Forskningsprojekter/MMSP
Biography | Biographie: Dietrich Jung is a Professor and Head of Department at the Center for Contemporary Middle East Studies, University of Southern Denmark. He holds a MA in Political Science and Islamic Studies, as well as a Ph.D. from the Faculty of Philosophy and Social Sciences, University of Hamburg, Germany, and has large field experience in the Muslim world. He has published numerous scholarly articles on causes of war, peace and conflict studies, political Islam, modern Turkey and on conflicts in the Middle East. His articles appeared in peer-reviewed journals such as British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, Cooperation & Conflict, Dansk Sociologi, European Journal of International Relations, International Journal, International Journal of Middle East Studies, Middle East Critique, Mediterranean Politics, Politische Vierteljahresschrift, Religious Research Review. Prof. Jung published ten monographs and edited books of which the most recent are: Religion, Politics, and Turkey’s EU Accession, New York: Palgrave Macmillan (ed. with Catharina Raudvere, 2008), Orientalists, Islamists and the Global Public Sphere: A Genealogy of the Modern Essentialist Image of Islam, Sheffield: Equinox (2011), and The Politics of Modern Muslim Subjectivities: Islam, Youth and Social Activism in the Middle East, together with Marie Juul Petersen and Sara Lei Sparre, New York: Palgrave (2014).
October 2014
Lecture – Laboratoire de recherche empirique sur les groupes religieux, Session 2
Date: October 6, 2014, 11:30am to 1:00pm
Title: À la recherche de la diversité religieuse régionale : quelques défis liés à l’approche ethnographique
Speaker: Guillaume Boucher (Université de Montréal)
Co-organisers: Chaire Religion, culture et société, Solange Lefebvre (Université de Montréal) and/et Géraldine Mossière (Université de Montréal)
Location: Room 5031, Université de Montréal, Faculté de théologie et sciences des religions, Montréal, Québec
To confirm your presence, please send an email to:
Mathilde Vanasse-Pelletier
Co-coordonnatrice de la Chaire Religion, culture et société
mathilde.vanasse-pelletier@umontreal.ca
www.crcs.umontreal.ca.
For more information, please click here.
Lecture – Critical Thinkers in Religion, Law and Social Theory
Date: October 16, 2014, 4:00pm
Title: Religious Diversity in the UK: How the Attitudes and Views of 13–16-Year-Old Students Interact with their Own (Non-)Religious Identities
Speaker: Elisabeth Arweck (University of Warwick)
Location: University of Ottawa, Simard Hall, Room 129, 60 University, Ottawa, Ontario
Abstract/résumé: Like other countries in Europe and elsewhere, the United Kingdom has experienced increasing religious diversity in recent years. This presents both challenges and opportunities for the relationships between social and religious communities and institutions. In one public sphere—in the media—differences and divisions in local and national contexts are highlighted, while in another—at the level of government—there is recognition that religion cannot be relegated to the private sphere. It is also acknowledged that education in school (through religious education and citizenship education) can further community cohesion by teaching young people about religious diversity. However, not much research has been available on young people’s attitudes to religious diversity or the factors that shape their attitudes. A three-year study (2009–2012) in the Warwick Religions and Education Research Unit (WRERU) at the University of Warwick, UK, funded by the ESRC/AHRC Religion and Society Programme, sought to investigate the attitudes of 13–16-year-old pupils towards religious diversity across the United Kingdom, using both qualitative and quantitative research methods. The proposed paper will report data from the first phase of the project, which was qualitative in nature, using ethnographic research methods, in this case focus group discussions. The questions were framed by a range of academic approaches, including sociological, pedagogical, theological, and psychological aspects. They explored the young people’s views of religious diversity and allow insight into how these views shape their own religious or non-religious identities and what role different school and community contexts play in which young people’s lives are embedded.
Biography/biographie: Elisabeth Arweck is a senior research fellow in the Warwick Religions and Education Unit (WRERU) in the Centre for Education at the University of Warwick, UK. She completed her PhD at King’s College London in 1999 on the subject of New Religious Movements. Since joining WRERU, she has worked on a number of research projects focusing on young people, religion and (religious) education. Recent research has been concerned with young people growing up in mixed-faith families and young people’s attitudes to religious diversity. Elisabeth Arweck is a member of a range of national and international associations, both for the sociology of religion and religious education, and she is the editor of the Journal of Contemporary Religion.
Workshop – Youth, Religion and Identity: A Canadian and International Workshop
Date: October 16 to 18, 2014
Organisers: Peter Beyer (University of Ottawa), Paul Gareau (University of Ottawa), Spencer Bullivant (University of Ottawa)
Location: University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario
The workshop entitled “Youth, Religion, and Identity: A Canadian and International Workshop” was held at the University of Ottawa from October 16-18, 2014 and was organised by Peter Beyer, Paul Gareau and Spencer Bullivant. The goal of this workshop was to underscore and understand the dynamics youth face when engaging religion and identity formation. Researchers from Canada, Australia, Germany, and the UK spoke on how youth negotiate social forces and themselves shape their identities regarding religion.
To read the report, please click here.
The workshop was organised around four themes:
- Institutional Norms and Perceptions
- Sexuality and Gender
- Diversity and Multiculturalism
- Religion and Spirituality
Participants: May Al-Fartousi (University of Ottawa); Elisabeth Arweck (University of Warwick); Peter Beyer (University of Ottawa); Reginald Bibby (University of Lethbridge); Spencer Bullivant (University of Ottawa); Amy Fisher (University of Toronto); Paul L. Gareau (University of Ottawa); Anna Halafoff (Deakin University); Solange Lefebvre (Université de Montréal); Josiane Le Gall (Université de Montréal); Marie-Paule Martel Reny (Université de Montréal); Géraldine Mossière (Université de Montréal); Rubina Ramji (Cape Breton University); Giomny H. Ruiz (Université de Montréal); Heather Shipley (University of Ottawa); Dörthe Vieregge (University of Hamburg); Scott Wall (University of Waterloo); and Pamela Dickey Young (Queen’s University)
Discussions: Each session of the Youth, Religion, and Identity workshop was followed by a lengthy group discussion. These allowed all participants of the workshop and the student observers to engage in a less formal discussion of the topics presented. What emerged was the remarkable similarity of the findings from each of the presenters. Youth were found to be incredibly fluid in how they developed and presented their respective identities. The various themes and issues that emerged included the increasing irrelevance of measurements of church participation, the usage of the “Spiritual, But Not Religious” category of many research subjects, the implicit normativities that come with studying youth at the conceptual level, the effects of increasing diasporic communities throughout each of the countries represented, and the potential of reconceptualising youth ambivalence as a form of agency rather than disinterest.
November 2014
Lecture – Chair in Religion, Culture and Society
Date: November 3, 2014
Title: Mormon Feminism : Historical and Contemporary Issues
Speaker: Claudia L. Bushman
Organiser: Chair in Religion, Culture and Society
Location: Room 5031, Marguerite-d’Youville Hall, Université de Montréal, 2375 chemin de la Côte Sainte-Catherine, Montréal, Québec
Claudia L. Bushman was a Professor of American Studies at Columbia University for many years, and is the acclaimed author of several books such as : « Mormon Sisters : Women in Early Utah » and « Mormon Domestic Life in the 1870s ». She is also one of the founders of the magazine Exponent II, which addresses topics such as Mormon Feminism and Women’s issues within the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. She also contributed to special editions of the famous publication Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought.
En plus d’avoir enseigné les Études américaines durant de nombreuses années à l’Université Columbia, Claudia L. Bushman est l’auteure de plusieurs livres dont « Mormon Sisters : Women in Early Utah » et « Mormon Domestic Life in the 1870s ». Elle a également fondé le magazine Exponent II, qui traite du féminisme mormon ainsi que des questions de genre au sein de l’Église de Jésus Christ des Saints des Derniers Jours. Elle a aussi contribué à plusieurs numéros spéciaux de la célèbre revue Dialogue : A Journal of Mormon Thought.
Lecture – Laboratoire de recherche empirique sur les groupes religieux, Session 3
Date: November 6, 2014, 11:30am to 1:00pm
Title: Méthodologies en sciences de l’éducation : étude de cas ‘typiques’ d’enseignants du programme Éthique et culture religieuse sur l’impartialité
Speaker: Stéphanie Gravel (Université de Montréal)
Co-organizers: Chaire Religion, culture et société, Solange Lefebvre (Université de Montréal) and/et Géraldine Mossière (Université de Montréal)
Location: Room 5031, Université de Montréal, Faculté de théologie et sciences des religions, Montréal, Québec
Conference – Religion and the Exercise of Public Authority
Date: November 14 to 15, 2014
Organisers: Benjamin Berger (Osgoode Hall Law School) and Richard Moon (University of Windsor)
Location: Osgoode Hall Law School, York University, Toronto, Ontario
The workshop will bring scholars of law, politics, history, philosophy and religion in conversation with one another to reflect on the role that religion has on the exercise of public authority in Canada.
To read the report, please click here.
Workshop – Norms of Religious Minority Participation: Fields of Practice
Date: November 28 to 29, 2014
Organisers: Avigail Eisenberg (University of Victoria), Paul Bramadat (University of Victoria), Pamela Klassen (University of Toronto) and Patti Lenard (University of Ottawa)
Location: University of Victoria, Victoria, British Columbia
Conference description: Norms of Minority Religious Participation is an international conference led by Avigail Eisenberg (UVic), Paul Bramadat (UVic), Pamela Klassen (University of Toronto) and Patti Lenard (University of Ottawa) about the place of religious minorities in four ‘fields of practice’ – healthcare, security, education and environmental assessments. The conference brings together scholars working in the areas of Political Science, Religious Studies, Sociology, and Law, with people with personal and professional experience in developing policy and implementing strategies for minority accommodation and participation. Participants will ask: How is religious/spiritual diversity managed in different institutional settings and associated fields of practice? Are strategies for managing diversity site-specific? Are there apparent best practices either within a field of practice or across fields? Do some fields have more proactive policies than others and why? How do governing institutions (either legislatures or courts) help or hinder good policy development within fields of practice?
For more information, please click here.
To read the report, please click here.