PATRONS AND PARTNERS OF THE ACADEMY
IN THE OCCASION OF THE EX NIHILO ZERO CONFERENCE
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PATRONS AND MENTORS OF THE ACADEMY
IN THE OCCASION OF THE LAUNCH EVENT
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PATRONS
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European Parliament
European Commission
Commissione Nazionale Italiana per l'UNESCO
Assemblée parlementaire de la Méditerranée
Camera dei deputati
Italian Ministry for Education, University and Research
Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation
Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche
Consiglio Nazionale Forense
Bologna Municipality
Emilia Romagna Region
Assemblea legislativa dell'Emilia Romagna
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PATRONS
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European Parliament
Unesco UniTwin
Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation
Italian Ministry for Education, University and Research
Bologna Municipality
Emilia Romagna Region
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PARTICIPANTS TO THE LAUNCH EVENT
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KEYNOTE SPEAKERS
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Francesco Ubertini, Rector of the University of Bologna, Italy
Giuseppe Versaldi, Prefect of the Congregation for Catholic Education, State of Vatican City
Patrizio Bianchi, Regione Emilia Romagna, Italy
Massimo Inguscio, President of the CNR, Italy
Carlos Moedas, European Commisioner for Innovation and Research
Jan Figel’, Special Envoy of the European Commission for Religious Freedom
Stefano Manservisi, DG Devco, European Commission
Annette Schavan, Former Federal Minister of Education and Research, Germany
Igor Kitaev, UNESCO Regional Bureau for Science and Culture in Europe
Kishan Manocha, OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights
Martina Larkin, World Economic Forum, Geneva
Alberto Melloni, Secretary of FSCIRE, Italy
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PARTICIPANTS TO THE LAUNCH EVENT
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KEYNOTE SPEAKERS
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Francesco Ubertini, Rector of the University of Bologna, Italy
Giuseppe Versaldi, Prefect of the Congregation for Catholic Education, State of Vatican City
Patrizio Bianchi, Regione Emilia Romagna, Italy
Massimo Inguscio, President of the CNR, Italy
Carlos Moedas, European Commisioner for Innovation and Research
Jan Figel’, Special Envoy of the European Commission for Religious Freedom
Stefano Manservisi, DG Devco, European Commission
Annette Schavan, Former Federal Minister of Education and Research, Germany
Igor Kitaev, UNESCO Regional Bureau for Science and Culture in Europe
Kishan Manocha, OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights
Martina Larkin, World Economic Forum, Geneva
Alberto Melloni, Secretary of FSCIRE, Italy
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OUR LATEST NEWS
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Giuseppe Alberigo Award 2019
March 4, 2019
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Fscire and Emilia-Romagna Region, together with the European Academy of Religion, are glad to announce the second edition of the Alberigo Award.
Giuseppe Alberigo (1926-2007) was an historian of great magnitude who was able to combine exceptional, exemplary rigour in research and a unique timeliness in the intellectual and theological debate of his time, thereby offering a precious contribution to sowing the seeds of criticism in generations of scholars internationally.
In memory of his fervour and wealth of critical studies, the Region of Emilia-Romagna and the Fondazione per le scienze religiose Giovanni XXIII, to which Alberigo dedicated 54 years of his life, will confere a sum of € 30,000 (Senior Award, € 20,000; Junior Award € 10,000), which will reward scholars engaged in a field of religious science, whether historical, exegetical, theological or other, without any form of limitation concerning the type of study.
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Candidacies must be presented by the authors themselves and/or third parties – scholars, centres, journals, editors, associations, academies or departments – provided that they be registered members of the European Academy of Religion (EuARe), by sending a paper or digital copy of their books published within the last three years, or works that have yet to be published, in any field of religious science. Every candidacy must be accompanied by a brief presentation of the particular aspects of the volume or paper, the curriculum vitae of its author(s) and the indication of the category of the Award applied for. Candidacies will be received by July 31st, 2019.
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The three finalists in each category will be invited to present a lecture at the annual convention of the European Academy of Religion in 2020, when the President of the Emilia-Romagna Region or his delegate will confer the awards in a special ceremony.
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Establishment of the network of European Centers on Religion and Politics
June 16, 2019
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Over the past three decades, a significant number of centers for "religion and public life" have emerged in European universities. During the third congress of the European Academy of Religion on March 4 2019, the leaders of some of these centers launched the network of European Centers on Religion and Politics.
This new initiative has two major goals. The first one is to improve communication and to foster inter-disciplinary and comparative approaches on the topic of religion and politics across religious traditions political contexts and historical periods among academic institutions in Europe and beyond. The second one is be a platform to disseminate research findings and projects in order to create a fruitful interactions with media and policy-makers working at the interface of religion and politics.
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Belief. An essay by Jocelyne Cesari
February 6, 2020
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The Immanent Frame publishes interdisciplinary perspectives on religion, secularism, and the public sphere. Founded in October 2007 in conjunction with the Social Science Research Council’s program on Religion and the Public Sphere, The Immanent Frame features invited contributions and original essays and serves as a forum for ongoing exchanges among leading thinkers from the social sciences and humanities.
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We are pleased to share the link to one of the latest contributions: an essay on Belief, by Professor Jocelyne Cesari: https://tif.ssrc.org/2020/01/31/belief-cesari/.
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EUROPEAN ACADEMY OF RELIGION EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
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EUROPEAN ACADEMY OF RELIGION EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
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EUROPEAN ACADEMY OF RELIGION STATUTE
AS APPROVED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY ON JUNE 21, 2017
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EUROPEAN ACADEMY OF RELIGION STATUTE
AS APPROVED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY ON JUNE 21, 2017
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PARTICIPANTS TO THE LAUNCH EVENT
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KEYNOTE SPEAKERS
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Francesco Ubertini, Rector of the University of Bologna, Italy
Giuseppe Versaldi, Prefect of the Congregation for Catholic Education, State of Vatican City
Patrizio Bianchi, Regione Emilia Romagna, Italy
Massimo Inguscio, President of the CNR, Italy
Carlos Moedas, European Commisioner for Innovation and Research
Jan Figel’, Special Envoy of the European Commission for Religious Freedom
Stefano Manservisi, DG Devco, European Commission
Annette Schavan, Former Federal Minister of Education and Research, Germany
Igor Kitaev, UNESCO Regional Bureau for Science and Culture in Europe
Kishan Manocha, OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights
Martina Larkin, World Economic Forum, Geneva
Alberto Melloni, Secretary of FSCIRE, Italy
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PARTICIPANTS TO THE LAUNCH EVENT
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KEYNOTE SPEAKERS
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Francesco Ubertini, Rector of the University of Bologna, Italy
Giuseppe Versaldi, Prefect of the Congregation for Catholic Education, State of Vatican City
Patrizio Bianchi, Regione Emilia Romagna, Italy
Massimo Inguscio, President of the CNR, Italy
Carlos Moedas, European Commisioner for Innovation and Research
Jan Figel’, Special Envoy of the European Commission for Religious Freedom
Stefano Manservisi, DG Devco, European Commission
Annette Schavan, Former Federal Minister of Education and Research, Germany
Igor Kitaev, UNESCO Regional Bureau for Science and Culture in Europe
Kishan Manocha, OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights
Martina Larkin, World Economic Forum, Geneva
Alberto Melloni, Secretary of FSCIRE, Italy
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© Stefan Matlik
CLUSTER OF EXCELLENCE RELIGION AND POLITICS, WWU MÜNSTER
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The Cluster of Excellence “Religion and Politics. Dynamics of Tradition and Innovation” at the University of Münster has been investigating the complex relationship between religion and politics across epochs and cultures since 2007. The 140 researchers from 10 countries and more than 20 disciplines in the humanities and social sciences are particularly concerned in the funding phase from 2019 to 2025 with the “dynamics of tradition and innovation”. They analyze in transepochal studies ranging from antiquity to the present day the conditions and factors that make religion an engine of political and social change, with their focus being above all on the paradox that religions often develop their innovative potential precisely by drawing on their traditions. The focus of interest is on Europe and the Mediterranean region, as well as on their entanglements with the Near East, Africa, North and Latin America. The research network is the largest of its kind in Germany; and, of the Clusters of Excellence, one of the oldest and the only one to deal with the issue of religion. It will receive funding of 31 million euros from 2019 to 2025.
The Cluster of Excellence is marked by a high degree of interdisciplinarity and methodological diversity, with more than 20 disciplines from seven departments of the University of Münster being involved: history, law and political science, sociology of religion and religious studies, Catholic, Protestant, Orthodox and Islamic theology, Jewish studies, psychology, classical and modern philology, as well as philosophy, art history, Arabic and Islamic studies, ethnology, Assyriology, archaeology, Egyptology and Byzantine studies. Hardly any other institution of religious research in Germany or abroad has such a broad spectrum of disciplines, methods, religions, epochs and cultures involved. This results in a unique combination of historical and contemporary questions, theoretical and empirical perspectives, normative and descriptive approaches, as well as denominational and non-denominational religious research. The Digital Humanities also play a prominent role in the research work of the Cluster
of Excellence.
Answers to pressing contemporary questions
In order to examine the complex object of research in a systematic way, the Cluster divides it into three fields of research: transcultural entanglements and disentanglements, religious diversity and legal-political unity, and criticism of religion and apologetics. Running across and uniting these fields of research are theory platforms, where researchers work with theories of conflict, emotionality and mediality, as well as of social inequality and differentiation. In addition, there are flexible Research Clouds dealing with overarching themes such as theological doctrine and lived religiosity, migration and diaspora, ambiguity and decision-making, and genesis and validity.
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The aim of this fundamental research is not least to create an analytical distance from pressing questions of the present and to avoid simplifications, with members of the Cluster of Excellence contributing socially relevant and self-reflexive knowledge to current debates. The Centre for Research Communication disseminates research from the humanities and social sciences to a large number of target groups in society in transfer formats that are tailor-made to a particular theme – be this research sociological findings on migration in Europe, philosophical reflections on biopolitics, legal analyses of religious constitutional law, or historical studies of the relationship between religion, violence and gender.
To promote early-career researchers, the Cluster of Excellence “Religion and Politics” runs a Graduate School with an interdisciplinary doctoral programme. Postdocs are involved in interdisciplinary research with their own independent projects.
Internationally unique venue for research on religion
The University of Münster has become through the Cluster of Excellence “Religion and Politics” a nationally and internationally outstanding location for interdisciplinary research on religion – in terms of size and diversity of disciplines, methods, cultures and epochs. An internationally unique “Campus of Religions” will be established at the University in 2025, which will bring together Protestant, Catholic, Orthodox and Islamic theology, as well as institutions of non-denominational research on religion, and promote inter- and transdisciplinary, as well as interreligious, exchange. The
University set up with the significant participation of the Cluster of Excellence a Centre for Digital Humanities (CDH) in 2017, which brings together researchers working in the Digital Humanities at the University.
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Interdisciplinary cooperation in the Cluster of Excellence “Religion and Politics” benefits from three epoch-related research centres that have emerged from the Cluster: the Centre for Religion and Modernity (CRM), the Centre for Medieval and Early Modern Studies (CMF), and the Centre for Eastern Mediterranean Studies (GKM). A guest professorship in religion and politics, the “Hans Blumenberg Professorship” (named after the famous Münster philosopher), brings innovative momentum from international research to Münster and strengthens its interdisciplinarity. Since 2022, Speaker of the Cluster of Excellence has been Michael Seewald (Professorship of Dogmatic Theology and the History of Dogma), and its Deputy Speaker Ines Michalowski (Professorship for Sociology of Religion).
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RESEARCH LINKS
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Research Programme
https://www.uni-muenster.de/Religion-und-Politik/en/forschung/index.shtml
Hans Blumenberg Professorship for Religion and Politics
https://www.uni-muenster.de/Religion-und-Politik/en/forschung/zukunft/blumenberg/index.shtml
Cooperation
https://www.uni-muenster.de/Religion-und-Politik/en/forschung/kooperationspartner.html
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PUBLICATIONS
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Selection of current publications
https://www.uni-muenster.de/Religion-und-Politik/en/forschung/publikationen/index.shtml
Publications
https://www.uni-muenster.de/Religion-und-Politik/en/forschung/publikationen/index.shtml
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RESEARCH TRANSFER
Centre for Research Communication
https://www.uni-muenster.de/Religion-und-Politik/en/presse/index.shtml
Press releases on research findings
https://www.uni-muenster.de/Religion-und-Politik/en/presse/pm/index.shtml
“Journalism on Religion” training programme
https://www.uni-muenster.de/Religion-und-Politik/en/presse/fachjournalist/fachjournalismus_religion_2.shtml