33^rd Biannual Conference of the German Association for the Study of Religion (DVRW)

Date: September 3-6, 2019

Venue: Leibniz Universität Hannover, Hanover, Germany

The Institute for the Study of Religion of the Leibniz Universität Hannover is proud to host the biannual conference of the German Association for the Study of Religion (Deutsche Vereinigung für Religionswissenschaft, DVRW) in 2019. The conference will take place at the “Welfenschloss”, the main building of the university. Due to the relevance of the conference theme “Conceptualising Religion”, the International Association for the History of Religions (IAHR) has endowed the conference with the status of an IAHR special conference.

This conference has been granted the status of a special conference of the International Association for the History of Religions (IAHR), aims to build on these discussions by looking into the implications of diverse definitions of religion and the dynamics of conceptualisations within and outside academia.

On the one hand, we want to focus on conceptualisations through which the object of the Study of Religion is constituted and delimited. On the other hand, we aim to discuss the diversity of concepts moulding the perception and the meaning of religion in different regional and socio-cultural settings. Possible areas to be examined include historical transformations of concepts of religion, effects of specific concepts of religion on socio-cultural fields, conflicts about the appropriate and legitimate conceptualisation of religion or the interdependence of religion and other constitutive concepts of contemporary societies, such as “secularity”, “the individual” or “freedom”.

The section on academic concepts of religion invites papers on the conceptualisation of religion in different academic disciplines, including the social and cultural sciences, natural sciences and theological approaches. A focus on concepts of religion in the academic Study of Religion (Religionswissenschaft) is of particular interest in relation to their effects on research and teaching. The section on concepts of religion in various social and cultural contexts invites contributions relating to diverse aspects of past and present societies.

Conference Website: https://www.dvrw2019.uni-hannover.de/en/