Conference on ‘Religion and Nationalism’ at Utrecht University

16 June, 2019

On June 17th, Utrecht University hosts an international conference on religion and nationalism. Prof.dr. Peter van der Veer, director of the Max Planck Institute of Religious and Ethnic Diversity, will give his farewell lecture. The title of the lecture will be ”Transitions: Refugees and Religion”.

Location: Sweelinckzaal, Drift 21, Utrecht University

See below for the full panel & lecture schedule:

Monday 17 June

8:30-9:00 Welcome and coffee

9:00-9:20 Irfan Ahmad (MMG-MPG): “The oeuvre of Peter van der Veer: a preliminary outline”

9:20-10:20 PANEL 1

1. Stefan Binder (University of Göttingen):  “On the ‘impossibility’ of atheism in Secular India”

2. Marieke Bloembergen (KITLV and Leiden University): “All along the hippie trail, and back in time. Moral geographies of Greater India in Indonesia across decolonization”

3. Sana Ghazi (MPI-MMG): “Ganga-Jamni tehzeeb (The confluence of cultural ‘rivers’): islamicate, syncretism, nationalism”

4. Mangalika de Silva (New York University):  “Of what borders the border: autochthony and the diaporas of the dead, the missing and bereaved in postwar Sri Lanka” 10:20-10:35 Comment by Peter van Rooden (UvA)

10:35-11:50 PANEL 2

5. Jingyang Yu (MPI-MMG): “Become Christian to remain Chinese”

6. Susan Legêne (Vrije Universiteit): “Anti-slavery discourse and early 19th century transnational views on states, nations and citizens”

7. PL de Silva (Institute of Strategic Studies and Democracy (ISSD) Malta): “Cultivation of hatred”

8. Oskar Verkaaik (University of Amsterdam):  “The relevance of historical anthropology”

9. Kamenko Bulić (University of Amsterdam):  “The corruption of the language and the demise of the state: on Yugoslav common language and  post-Yugoslav national languages”

11:50-12:05 Comment by Birgit Meyer (UU)

12:05 –12:45 Lunch break

12:45-13:45  PANEL 3

10. Mahmoud Alinejad (Australian Government): “The rivalry of secular and religious nationalisms and the split in Iranian national identity”

11. Miriyam Aouragh (University of Amsterdam / University of Westminster): “Married to the cause – love as resistance in Morocco”

12. Matthijs van den Bos (Birkbeck College):  “The promised land of Fadak: locating religious nationalism in Shiite politics”

13. Shaheed Tayob (University of Stellenbosch): “Race, animals and religion: a case of sacrifice, violence and public space in South Africa”

13:45-14:00 Comment by Peter Pels (Leiden University)

14:00-15:15  PANEL 4

14. Jie Kang (MPI-MMG): “Nationalism and Chinese Christianity: from anti-Imperialism to Islamophobia”

15. Jeroen de Kloet (University of Amsterdam / CUC): “Rising, becoming, overcoding – On Chinese nationalism in Wandering Earth and Operation Red Sea”

16. Samuel Lengen (University of Virginia): “Digital imaginaries and the Chinese nation-state”

17. Margaret Sleeboom-Faulkner (University of Sussex): “International competition and nationalism in the Life Science”

18. He Xiao (Fudan University): “Moral labor, nationalism, and the state in contemporary China”

15:15-15:30 Comment by Peter van der Veer

16.15-17.00 Farewell lecture by Peter van der Veer: ”Transitions: Refugees and Religion”

17.00-18.30 Reception 

Contact & information:

Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity Hermann-Föge-Weg 11 • 37073 Göttingen • www.mmg.mpg.de Contact: Julia Müller   Jie Zhang   +49 (551) 4956 – 229  /  +49 (551) 4956 – 226 vdvoffice@mmg.mpg.de vdvoffice@mmg.mpg.de