Conference "Dynamics of Religion in Southeast Asia" Goettingen (Germany), June 26-29 2013


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The research network "Dynamics of Religion in Southeast Asia" (http://www.dorisea.de/en) holds its mid-term conference from June 26-29 in Goettingen, Germany.

Conference Outline In global comparison, Southeast Asia stands out as a region marked by a particularly diverse religious landscape. Various "ethnic religions" interact with so-called "world religions", all of the latter - with the exception of Judaism - being represented in the region. While religion has oftentimes been viewed as an antithesis to modernity, scholarship has shown that religion shapes and is intertwined with modernization processes in crucial ways and that its role in contemporary Southeast Asian societies is intensifying. The mid-term conference "Dynamics of Religion in Southeast Asia" will explore this link between "religion" and "modernity" by focusing on three dimensions of religious dynamics, namely mediality, politics and mobility. In the spirit of Southeast Asian studies as a holistic, i.e. trans-disciplinary approach, we selected papers from diverse fields that investigate the peculiar dynamics of religion in times of globalization, and the ways in which these dynamics mediate change and continuity in Southeast Asia.

Conference Keynote Lecture: Robert Hefner, Boston University

Panel 1: Spatial Dynamics of Religion between Modulation and Conversion Panel Keynote: Janet Hoskins, University of Southern California

Panel 2: Secularization of Religion, Sacralization of Politics? The State of Religion in Southeast Asia Panel Keynote: Anthony Reid, ANU

Panel 3: Materializing Religion: on Media, Mediation, Immediacy Panel Keynote: Justin McDaniel, University of Pennsylvania

Please visit the conference website for more information: http://www.dorisea.de/de/node/996.