12-13 November 2026, Utrecht University
Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies
Organizers: Gökçen B. Dinç (Utrecht University) and Birgit Meyer (Utrecht University)

Recent scholarship has demonstrated that “religion” and “the secular” are not universal categories, but
historically produced formations shaped by Christian, post-Enlightenment, and Protestant
epistemologies. Yet, one crucial category that has structured this distinction has received far less
systematic attention: superstition. This conference proposes to conceptualize superstition as a
constitutive “third” category—one that has actively shaped the boundaries of both religion and the
secular in the modern world. The modern construction of “true” religion did not emerge solely through
its differentiation from the secular, but also through the exclusion and reclassification of certain beliefs
and practices as superstition, magic, or according to Christian discourse, “idolatry.” A great deal of
research has examined superstition primarily in relation to witchcraft, magic, and the Reformation in
medieval and early modern Europe, pointing out how the ways in which the triad of religion-science-
superstition operated to oust particular practices and ideas as belonging neither to the domains of
religion nor to science. More recent studies—particularly on modernity in East Asia and Turkey, as well
as in West Africa—have shown that superstition functioned as a politically charged category. It was
mobilized to redefine orthodoxy, discipline specific religious practices conducted by people out of the
normative religious mainstream and produce modern subjects. Building on this emerging body of
scholarship, this conference seeks to develop a global perspective on superstition as a key analytical
category in the study of modern and contemporary societies. Across different regions—from East Asia
and the Middle East to Europe, Africa, South Asia, and the United States—accusations of superstition
have operated as technologies of governance, reform, and social differentiation. By foregrounding the
political and ideological uses of this category, the conference aims to illuminate the contradictions,
conflicts, and negotiations through which boundaries between superstition and related categories as
magic and idolatry have been constructed both institutionally and in everyday life.
We welcome contributions from a wide range of disciplines, including but not limited to history,
anthropology, sociology, folklore, media, and cultural studies. Possible themes include:

• How did superstition function in the co-production of religion and the secular?
• What is the gain of adding superstition as a third category for critical religious studies?
• In what ways was superstition mobilized to regulate practices, bodies, and communities?
• How did the charge of practices as evidence of superstition relate to idolatry and the figure of the
  fetish?
• How did discourses of superstition intersect with gender, race, and class in producing, shaping and
  sustaining unequal power relations?
• How did individuals and communities labeled as superstitious respond to, appropriate, or subvert such
  accusations?
• What transregional or global connections can be traced in the circulation and transformation of the
  category of superstition?
• How is superstition employed in current times?
  
  Conference participation is free of charge. Refreshments, coffee breaks and a conference dinner will be provided. Participants are expected to cover their own travel and accommodation expenses. A selection of papers presented at the conference will be published in a special issue of a leading international journal. Please send your abstracts to f.g.dinc@uu.nl and b.meyer@uu.nl until 1 July 2026.
  Notifications of acceptance will be sent on 15 July 2026.