FAITH AND SCIENCE: FISSURES IN POST-SECULAR SOCIETIES
Workshop organizer: Dr Alexander Smith
WORKSHOP
This interdisciplinary, one-day symposium will explore the interface
between politics, religion and science in post-secular societies. It is
being funded by the British Academy and will be held in the School of
Sociology and Social Policy at the University of Nottingham in May 2010.
DESCRIPTION
Recent policy debates over embryonic stem cell research have exposed
deep, moral fissures amongst American conservatives - fissures that
divide even elements of the pro-life movement on the central
Constitutional question of the relationship between Church and State.
Despite President Obama's executive order to overturn President Bush's
2001 ban on Federal funding for embryonic stem cell research, much
remains at stake - economically, politically and scientifically - for
supporters of such research. What do the divisions that this issue has
highlighted amongst American conservatives tell us about the potential
for supporters of new medical technologies and patient 'choice' in
accessing them to build a secular counter-movement to the Christian
Right that cuts across denominational and political boundaries? Have
Republican 'moderates' identified the research promise of biomedicine
and embryonic stem cells as something around which to rally and unite
otherwise divergent interests in US politics? While maintaining a focus
on the USA, this workshop will comparatively explore how medical
technologies come to be mobilized in a range of multi-faith,
post-secular Western liberal democratic settings (e.g. Australia,
Canada, Israel, New Zealand, UK and Western Europe) where the potential
exists for faith groups to rally in democratic politics. It will
address the changing role of political, professional and scientific
elites in potentially divided publics as well as current policy debates
over medical ethics and patient choice. In particular, the workshop
will consider the status of 'expertise' in public discourse in order to
assess the extent to which there is a 'problem of experts' for
democratic theory, as suggested by Stephen Turner (Liberal Democracy
3.0).
Potential papers are invited from scholars working in any field of the
social sciences (e.g. anthropology, political studies, sociology, etc.)
Please send abstracts, which should be no longer than one page in length
and attached in Word with a .doc suffix with a note of your
institutional affiliation and position, to [log in to unmask] no
later than 15 January 2010. Preference may be given to early career
researchers and postgraduates. Reasonable travel and accommodation
expenses will be reimbursed to those selected to present papers.
OUTPUT
The workshop organizer hopes that the symposium might stimulate ideas
for larger, comparative research projects that participants might seek
to explore in collaboration with one other. Such ideas will be informed
by the research interests of senior colleagues, who possess expertise
drawn from varied contexts around the world. Furthermore, the funding
application for this workshop included a 'dissemination strategy' as
part of its justification. In this case, an agreement was given to
secure publication of the papers in a special issue of a journal or an
edited volume. To this end, the workshop organizer asks potential
paper-givers to undertake to provide the right of first refusal for
publication to whichever journal agrees to review them as part of a
special issue on the workshop's theme.
PROPOSED TIMETABLE
Deadline for submission of abstracts 15 January 2010
Confirm participation 1 February 2010
Submission of papers for circulation amongst symposium participants 1
May 2010
Workshop + discussion of plans for research collaboration and
dissemination 20 May 2010
Submission of revised workshop papers 31 Oct 2010
Dr Alexander Smith
Leverhulme Early Career Fellow in Sociology
School of Government and Society
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham B15 2TT
United Kingdom
+44 (0)121 415 8633 (office)
+44 (0)7769 966 696 (mobile)
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