Please distribute to your list.
Many thanks,
Mihaela Mihai

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Call for Applications


Lisbon Summer School 2012: “Secularism, Gender and Democracy”



Time and Place
July 4-July 6, 2012 at the Centro de Estudos Sociais, Lisbon, Portugal (CES).

Invited Faculty
Veit Bader (Free University, Amsterdam, The Netherlands)
Rajeev Bhargava (Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, New Delhi, India)
Chia Longman (University of Ghent, Belgium)

Website
https://sites.google.com/site/secularismgenderanddemocracy/
(The website will also in the near future cover information on the
social programme during the summer school.)

Outline
The Lisbon Summer School 2012 has as its topic the contentious
relationship between religion and politics, and the impact that this
relationship has on gender issues. Religion undoubtedly plays an
important role in contemporary societies: multiculturalism, migration
and bioethical debates, among others, put religion in the spotlight,
thereby calling for a redefinition of classical secularization
theories. Today, the separation between religion and politics is being
questioned more or less radically, as is the meaning and the substance
of democracy. At the same time, European as well as non-European
societies are experiencing a profound reshaping of their political
landscapes. The Mediterranean area is especially affected by massive
transformations – as can be seen in phenomena like the “Arab Spring”
or the Spanish “indignados”–movement. In these contexts, it has become
clear that new modes of governance redraw the boundaries between
institutional actors and citizens, and create space for horizontal
networks. Gender relations lie at the heart of these transformative
processes. In Europe, gender relations have over the last 20 years
become the focal point of controversies over the contested separation
of religion and politics - the various “Hijab affairs” in many
European countries attest to this fact. This broad theme will be
discussed on the three days of the summer school along the following
lines:

We will look into contemporary configurations of secular regimes from
a comparative and historical perspective.
We will scrutinize the manifold and complex ways in which gender is
affected by, and at the same time itself affects, modes of religious
governance in modern societies.
We will focus on the democratic challenges and opportunities that
religious diversity creates within liberal political regimes.

The topic of this summer school is by definition interdisciplinary.
Grasping the complex interface between religion and politics, and how
they it impacts on gender and gender relations involves different
disciplines, such as Political Science and Sociology, Gender Studies,
Philosophy, Anthropology, Religious Studies and Theology. Each of
these disciplines can offer original and in-depth insights into the
topic of this summer school. Therefore, researchers and practitioners
working in these academic fields are invited to apply. Both
theoretical papers on the normative and conceptual problems, and
empirical papers on case studies, comparative accounts, and historical
trajectories are welcome. In terms of teaching methodology, this
summer school is based on the idea that only a productive dialogue
between the faculty and the participants can promote the flourishing
of democratic scholarship. Therefore, each of the three days of the
summer school will consist of a morning session, with interactive
presentations by the faculty, and of an afternoon session, featuring
the individual presentations of the participants. Participants will
hence have the unique opportunity to engage in critical conversations
with the faculty, and discuss their own research projects. Faculty
members will present original contributions to the topic as well as
comment on the participants’ papers.

How to Apply
To participate in the summer school you must have at least completed a
BA degree. Interested graduate students and postdoctoral researchers
should fill out the following form. (If you cannot open this link,
please go to the website and fill in the form there.)

Deadline for Applications
April 1, 2012

Fees
200 EUR

Language
The working language of the summer school is English.

Preparing for the Summer School
Participants will be asked to circulate their contributions prior to
the summer school. There are no formal requirements for these
contributions, but we would encourage the participants to only submit
advanced research papers. What is more, all the participants are
supposed to read the assigned texts in advance.

Organizers
The Lisbon Summer School 2012 is organized by the Observatory on the
Politics of Cultural and Religious Diversity in Southern Europe
(POLICREDOS) at the Centro de Estudos Sociais, Universidade de
Coimbra, Portugal.

Contact
Mathias Thaler: mathiasthaler(at)ces.uc.pt
Teresa Toldy: toldy(at)ces.uc.pt