The Center for Global Islamic Studies presents their Fall 2016 Conference: Islam and Encounters with Secularism: Futural Openings on October 1, 2016, from 9:00am – 3:00pm in The Atrium – Ustler Hall.
The conference address the issue of current perceptions about Islam and secularism, reflecting how we in recent years we have seen the emergence of new ideas and discourses about how to re-think and implement secularism. The conference seeks to raise the question “Whereto from here and now?” as a way of imagining and embracing futural perspectives that seek to open up new frontiers for addressing the inescapable encounter of Islam and secularism in today’s and in future realities. In addition to hosting talks that will provide a general overview of the issues at stake, the conference will also provide insights from a variety of contexts, approached from different disciplinary angles. Keynote speaker: Carrie Wickham, Professor of Middle Eastern Studies, Emory University. Her talk is entitled“Humanist Islam as a Catalyst of Democratic Transformation: Some Preliminary Reflections on the Tunisian Case.” Panelists: Ovamir Anjum, Imam Khattab Endowed Chair of Islamic Studies at the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies at the University of Toledo; Anouar Majid, Director of the Center for Global Humanities, University of New England; Cecelia Lynch, Professor of Political Science, University of California, Irvine; Badredine Arfi, Professor of Political Science, University of Florida; and Tamir Sorek, Professor of Sociology, University of Florida. Discussant: Bruce Lawrence, Nancy and Jeffrey Marcus Humanities Professor Emeritus of Religion, Duke University.
The conference is co-sponsored by the UF Office of Research, the Center for the Humanities and the Public Sphere with support from the Yulee Fund, the Raymond and Miriam Ehrlich Chair in the Department of the Political Science, the Department of Political Science, and the Center for European Studies.Professor Richard Madsen (Sociology, UC San Diego), one of the most eminent sociologists and scholars of religion in the US, will give a Delton Scudder Public Lecture. This event is sponsored by the Religion Department, and is organized by Professor Mario Poceski (contact person).
Topic: How Christianities became Chinese Religions
Time: October 27, 2016, starting at 5:00 pm
Venue: 219 Dauer Hall
Lecture Abstract
Many types of Christianity have taken root in China, some of them so different that it is best to talk of them sociologically (if not theologically) as Christianities. In Chinese popular discourse, these are all called “foreign religion.” However, they have all in their own ways become indigenized into various parts of a pluralistic Chinese culture. In some cases, this has come from above, through the efforts of elite religious and political leaders. In others, from below, through grassroots creativity. A challenge today for these pluralistic Christianities in a pluralistic culture is that the Chinese government is trying to create a unified Chinese culture to support a strong unified political system.
Speaker
Richard Madsen received an M.A. in Asian studies and a Ph.D. in sociology from Harvard. He is a Distinguished Professor of Sociology the University of California, San Diego, and was a co-director of a Ford Foundation project to help revive the academic discipline of sociology in China. Professor Madsen is the author, or co-author, of twelve books on Chinese culture, American culture, and international relations. His best known works on American culture are those written with Robert Bellah, William Sullivan, Ann Swidler, and Steven Tipton: Habits of the Heart(Berkeley, University of California Press, 1995) and The Good Society (New York, Knopf, 1991). His books on China include Democracy’s Dharma: Religious Renaissance and Political Development in Taiwan (Berkeley, University of California Press, 2007), Chen Village under Mao and Deng (co-authored with Anita Chan and Jonathan Unger) (Berkeley, UC Press, 1992), Morality and Power in a Chinese Village (UC Press, 1984) [winner of the C. Wright Mills Award], Unofficial China (co-edited with Perry Link and Paul Pickowicz) (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1989), China and the American Dream (UC Press, 1994), China’s Catholics: Tragedy and Hope in an Emerging Civil Society (UC Press, 1998), and Popular China: Unofficial Culture in a Globalizing Society, co-edited with Perry Link and Paul Pickowicz (Boulder, CO: Rowman and Littlefield, 2002) |
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