10/07/2025 08:30
- 12:00
HALL: Lecture Hall 42
Proponent:
Gruziel D.,
Núñez Bargueño N.
Chair:
Gruziel D.,
Núñez Bargueño N.
Speaker:
Gruziel D.,
Markkola P.,
Núñez Bargueño N.,
Sajid M.,
Werner Y.M.
This panel seeks to explore the complex dynamics of religious transformation from the late 19th century to the 1960s through the concept of "(self)reinvention". The panel examines how religions adapted —or resisted adapting— to the challenges of modernity, balancing continuity and change, tradition and innovation, in ways that not only shaped their doctrines and institutions, but also wider society. While the fraught relationship between religion and modernity has been extensively studied, this panel seeks to advance the historiographical debate by privileging two under-explored perspectives: gender and inter-confessionalism. This double perspective will allow researchers to examine how restructured confessional discourses, institutions and practices (have) exercised their transformative influence in modern societies.
Topics of interest include (but are not limited to):
• Gendered, Historical and inter-religious dimensions of religious reinvention
• Processes of negotiation of tradition and modernity within different religions
• The socio-political and cultural forces shaping the renewal of religious practices and beliefs in particular historical periods and phenomena (imperialism, colonialism, Cold War, fascism, communism, humanitarianism).
• The influence of reshaped religious discourses and/or institutions on social phenomena
Please submit an abstract, a short bibliography and a brief bio to Dominika.Gruziel@eui.eu & natalia.nunezbargueno@kuleuven.be by the 4th of April.
We welcome proposals that engage with these themes through diverse historical methodologies. To ensure a broad and inclusive discussion, we are particularly interested in contributions on Islam, Eastern Orthodoxy and Judaism. The panel organizers intend to publish selected contributions as part of a special issue, offering a coherent and impactful exploration of how religion negotiated its role in modern societies across different contexts.