30/06/2026 14:30 - 17:30

HALL: Pola - AT12

Chair: Abraham S., Wood R.L.

Contact: Wood R.L.

This session will gather sociologists, political theologians, political scientists, historians, democratic theorists and social philosophers, and other scholars doing (or wishing to do) intellectual work that responds to the authoritarian turn in the contemporary world. First, four scholars from different disciplines and geographic areas will present brief papers regarding their analysis of the responses of specific 'public religions' to established or emerging authoritarian regimes. These brief presentations will be designed not as formal papers but as provocaciones (= 'provocations': a term sometimes used in Latin America for this style of presentation: grounded in and summarizing key findings of specialized intellectual work but intended to spur discussion rather than a systematic research presentation). Second, participants will engage in an extended discussion regarding the kinds of ongoing research projects required to advance the intellectual groundwork for contesting the authoritarian turn, both transdisciplinary and within specific disciplines. Third, participants will discuss next steps for establishing a distributed global intellectual network for clarifying and pursuing this agenda, with nodes or subnetworks in diverse geographical areas.