EASR 2019 takes place in Tartu this summer!

The 17th Annual Conference of the European Association for the Study of Religions (EASR) takes place at the University of Tartu this summer. The conference is organized by the Estonian Society for the Study of Religions in cooperation with the School of Theology and Religious Studies, the Institute of Cultural Research of the University of Tartu and with the help of the Asian Centre of the University of Tartu.

The topic of the EASR conference in Tartu is “Religion – Continuations and Disruptions”. In other words scholars will be looking at religious change and topics related to it. Clearly it has been taking place continuously and scholars have been studying it for some time as well, yet specific circumstances as well as methodological troubles with distinguishing continuities from new developments continue to raise new debates and force us to pursue novel paths of researching the issue as such.

The overarching topic itself is particularly well exemplified by the title of the first keynote lecture – “Endangered Religions” by Michael Stausberg from the University of Bergen. In his keynote Stausberg will be turning his attention to the idea of extinction and being endangered. Clearly this is something we regularly speak about when it comes to species, cultures and languages, yet rarely invoke when discussing religious movements. Thus the lecture will be evaluating whether we can talk about ‘endangered religions’ and whether there have been religions who consider themselves to be endangered.

In the conference agenda overall one can find numerous studies on this issue of continuation and disruption by scholars of religion from many different perspectives. Particularly noticeable are history of religion, anthropology of religion and sociology of religion, but also religious education or topics such as Christianity, Islam, indigenous religion, Indian religions, religion and politics, religion and media and so on.

All in all, almost 700 scholars from about 50 countries will be visiting Tartu for five days to participate in many different panels, roundtables, keynote lectures and other events. The academic program is accompanied by an extensive cultural program which offers everybody a chance to get to know Tartu and its surroundings as well, aside all the academic activities. On-site registration will be open: https://easr2019.org/registration/

Conference Program in detail: https://www.conftool.com/easr2019/index.php?page=browseSessions&present…

Information: Madis Arukask, President of the Estonian Society for the Study of Religions, an Associate Professor at the University of Tartu. madis.arukask@ut.ee tel +3725045547