ERC Conference on Global Orthodoxy 25-27 Jan 2024
The ERC conference “Rewriting Global Orthodoxy: Oriental Orthodox Communities in a Transnational World”, 25-27 January 2024, focuses on the textual and visual culture as a (differentiated) religioscape that binds oriental Christian communities together, at the local, national and regional – European – level, as well as on the transnational level, connecting the communities in home and host countries.
Thursday 25 January 2024, 09:00 – 17:00
Friday 26 January 2024, 09:00 – 17:00
Saturday 27 January 2024 09:00 - 13:30
Location: Huize Heyendael, Nijmegen
This conference contextualizes the results of the ERC project Rewriting Orthodoxy: Oriental Christians in Europe, 1970-2020, by comparing and contrasting the situation of the Oriental Christians with each other, with those in other parts of the world, and with those of Eastern Orthodox communities, especially those in migration contexts. This includes project database documenting publications of the Oriental churches over the past fifty years: FourCornersoftheWorld.
Keynote speakers include Heather Sharkey, Anna Hager, Pooyan Tamimi Arab, Vlad Naumescu, in addition to other relevant scholars and researchers, including Prof. dr. Alfons Brüning of IvOC.
Conference contributions will focus on the following aspects:
- How do Oriental and Eastern Orthodox migrant communities forge a social imagery (expressed in textual and visual cultures) that sustains their diaspora lives (in European countries, or other countries of migration), in a larger transnational context? How is this contemporary imagery connected to earlier versions, as expressed in religious art and literature?
- To what extent do we see similar developments in Eastern and Oriental Orthodox communities, from social constructs, to education, to interaction with other communities and regarding jurisdictional matters? Is there a shared, Eastern and Oriental, ‘Global Orthodoxy’ in the making?
- How can the study of the varieties of Orthodoxy contribute to the study of religion in the contemporary world? What can the combined study of text, image, sound and practice contribute to our understanding of the varieties of religious life more generally?
Click here for conference program (pdf, 206 kB).
Registration
Students, scholars and relevant stakeholders in the field of Oriental Orthodox Christians in Europe are welcome to attend the conference. Kindly register your participation by sending an email to Elise Aghazarian: elise.aghazarian@ru.nl by 20 January 2024.
The conference is organized as part of the final phase of the ERC-Adv project Rewriting Global Orthodoxy: Oriental Orthodox Christians in Europe, 1970-2020, Radboud University, Faculty of Philosophy, Theology and Religious Studies; PI: Heleen Murre-van den Berg