This year, the Paulson Lectures in the Study of Religion will be held by Catharina Raudvere, who is an internationally renowned scholar of Old Scandinavian religion and mythology and contemporary Muslim women’s practices and Sufi women in the Islamic world.

Paulson Lectures in the Study of Religion are organised by the Estonian Society for the Study of Religions in cooperation with the Estonian Doctoral School for Humanities and Arts and the School of Theology and Religious Studies of the University of Tartu.

Schedule

19.11.2024 – 16:15-17:45 at Lossi 3-117, Tartu

Seeing and Being Seen. Community Life Beyond the Established Religious Institutions

Based on fieldwork materials from Turkey and Bosnia, this lecture will focus more on contemporary pious life outside the established religious institutions. To what extent are such constellations new in a more profound sense, and to what extent is it a question of visibility of practices with a long-term history? Muslim women’s prayer circles will be the point of departure for the discussion.

20.11.2024 – 16:15-17:45 at Lossi 3-117, Tartu

Claims of Religious Authority and Legitimacy. Spaces for Knowledge Production

As with other spaces for interpretation of texts and tradition, there are also other interlocutors on the scene who represent different aspects of gender and generation than usually among the dominating voices within the established religious institutions. A focal point in this lecture will be not so much on new messages but on the means and tools for mediation in a landscape of alternative voices. Who can claim legitimate religious knowledge, and in what situations? What historical imaginaries are deemed to be relevant for contemporary exegesis?

21.11.2024 – 16:15-17:45 at Lossi 3-117, Tartu

Between Transmit and Transform. Taking Ritual Responsibilities

Alternative forms for gatherings, teaching, and learning by necessity affect the mode of religious practices. For those who take ritual responsibilities in smaller piety communities, negotiations are essential for the legitimacy of both leaders and practices, as well as for keeping up the continuation of the activities. Also, in this lecture, a key theme will be the rhetorical entanglement of claims of historical lines and assurance of meeting today’s challenges when attracting new participants.

Catharina Raudvere

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Catharina Raudvere is a professor of the History of Religions at the Department of Cross-Cultural and Regional Studies, University of Copenhagen. She has published the monograph The Book and the Roses. Sufi Women, Visibility, and Zikir in Contemporary Istanbul (2003) and edited Contested Memories and the Demands of the Past. History Cultures in the Modern Muslim World (2016), Nostalgia – Loss and Creativity. Political and Cultural Representations of the Past in South-East Europe (2018) and Neo-Ottoman Imaginaries in Contemporary Turkey. Gendered Discourses, Agencies, and Visions (with Petek Onur 2022). Raudvere has, together with Zilka Spahić-Šiljak, produced the educational film Bosnian Muslim Women’s Rituals. Bulas Singing, Reciting and Teaching in Sarajevo (2016). Raudvere is PI for the Nordic network “Contemporary Muslim Lay Piety. Interpretations, Performance and Mobilization and PI for the research project “Pious Practices among Danish Muslims. Diversity, Devotion, and Aesthetics” 2023–2026.

Ivar Paulson's lectures are a series that focuses on the most noteworthy topics, issues, and new developments in the contemporary study of religion. Ivar Paulson (1922-1966) was known for the wide range of peoples, religious beliefs, and practices he was interested in, and he studied these by combining several different research approaches. Similarly, Paulson's lectures aim to highlight and bring together some of the more significant developments from various approaches and perspectives in the contemporary study of religion.

Project "Cooperation between universities to promote doctoral studies" (2021-2027.4.04.24-0003) is co-funded by the European Union.