Transforming values

During the last two decades, religious practices and belongings have gained visibility on a global scale. Consequently, the concept of secularity, as well as the relationship between secularity and religion, have become object of intense interdisciplinary and international debates. At this critical juncture, we – junior and senior gender studies scholars from across humanities and social sciences, working in different European countries – aim to deepen and expand our knowledge on how gender, sexuality, and race/ethnicity intersect with religiosity and secularity, with a broader focus beyond Europe. Thus, with this research network, we want to initiate and further advance interdisciplinary and transregional conversations on the dynamic relations between secularity, religiosity and gender across the globe, utilizing the interdisciplinary academic field of gender studies as a starting point.

We will organize workshops, conference panels, and public events to gather and disseminate knowledge on the topic. Drawing on the expertise of projects participants, interdisciplinary conversations will be organized through four specific themes and one overarching theme.

Programme of activities

Meeting 1: September 2018

A project meeting and workshop will be held in connection to the 10th European Feminist Research Conference “Difference, Diversity, Diffraction. Gendering Belonging and Expulsion” at Göttingen University, Germany. During the conference, a panel will be organized, titled: “The entanglements of religions and secularities in media, culture and arts”.

Meeting 2: March 2019

A workshop with project members and a public event with invited guests are planned at the University College London. Title of the public event: “Varieties of religions and secularities: The case of equal rights”

Meeting 3: 25-29 June 2019

A project meeting and a workshop will be held in connection with the European Association for the Study of Religion Conference, at the University of Tartu, Estonia, 25-29 June 2019. During the conference, an open forum panel on the theme will be organized with the title Religion, Gender and Sexuality in Popular/Populist Discourse: Transnational Perspectives.

Meeting 4: 14-17 April 2020

A project meeting and a workshop will be held in connection with the European Consortium for Political Research ECPR joint sessions at Sciences Po, Toulouse (kept online due to COVID-19). During the workshop, one joint panel will be organized, titled "Renegotiations of religiosity/secularity: Challenging boundaries between religious and secular knolwedge(s) and practice(s)".

Meeting 5, 19-21 August 2020

A project workshop and a public event will be organized at the University of Vienna, Austria. In the public event, speakers will share experiences of possibilities and dilemmas of interdisciplinary and transregional collaborations in the study of religion, secularism and gender.

Meeting 6, 24-26 March 2021

A project meeting and a public event will be organized at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden. The public event will be a small workshop with one invited guest and other researchers (max 20 attendees).