"Refugees and Religion"

Conference report by Peter van der Veer

For more details please contact vdvoffice(at)mmg.mpg.de.

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Thursday 27 September

9.00-9.45 Arrival and Coffee

09.45 Welcome by Birgit Meyer (Utrecht University)

10.00-11.10: Panel 1 (Moderator Birgit Meyer)

Wayne te Brake (Purchase College State University of New York)
War, Migration, and the Politics of Religious Pluralism

Peter van der Veer (Max Planck Institute, Göttingen and Utrecht University)
German Refugees

11.10-12.20 Panel 2 (Moderator Janet Hoskins)

Phi Vân Nguyen (University of Saint-Boniface)
Victims of Atheist Persecution. The Role of Cold War Transnational Religious Solidarity in Refugee Protection - The Case of Vietnam

Tam Ngo (Max Planck Institute, Göttingen & Radboud University Nijmegen) and Nga Mai (Max Planck Institute, Göttingen)
In Search of a Vietnamese Buddhist Space in Germany

12.20-13.30: Lunch

13.30-14.40 Panel 3 (Moderator Phi Vân Nguyen)

Janet Hoskins (University of Southern California)
Refugees in the Land of Awes: Vietnamese Arrivals and Departures

Thien-Huong Ninh (Cosumnes River College)
The Virgin Mary Became Asian: Diasporic Nationalism Among Vietnamese Catholic Refugees in the US and Germany

14.50-16.00 Panel 4 (Moderator Birgit Meyer)

Heleen Murre-van den Berg (Radboud University Nijmegen)
Language and Religion in the (Re)Making of the Syriac Orthodox communities in Europe

Rafaela Eulberg (University of Bonn)
A Darśan-Picture as a Journeyed Memento of Refugees: An Example of the Materiality of Sri Lankan Tamil Hindu Traditions in Exile

16.10-17.20 Panel 5 (Moderator Peter van der Veer)

Alessandro Gusman (University of Turin)
‘Are We an Elected People?’ Religion and the Everyday Experience of Young Congolese Refugees in Kampala

Abdoulaye Sounaye (Leibniz Zentrum Moderner Orient, Berlin)
Ritual Space and Religious Practice: Young West African Muslims in Berlin, Germany

Drinks

Dinner (for speakers and moderators)

Friday 28 September

09.30 Coffee

9.45-11.15 Panel 6 (Moderator Annelies Moors, University of Amsterdam)

Salah Punathil (University of Hyderabad)
Migrant ‘Illegality’, Camp and Violence Against Muslims in the Assam State of North East India, South Asia.

Ala Uddin (University of Chittagong)
The Refugee Crisis and Religious Engagement: Suffering, Shelter, and Survival of the Rohingya Muslims in Bangladesh

Marie Kortam (French Institute of the Near East, Beirut)
Healer and Resistance by Religion in the Absence of Social and Legal Security in Palestinian Camps

11.30-12.40: Panel 7 (Moderator Margreet van Es, Radboud University Nijmegen)

Alexander Nagel (University of Göttingen)
Religious Diversity in German Refugee Accommodation Centers: Micro-Politics of Spatial Separation and Religious ‘Emission Control’

Carmen Becker (University of Hannover)
Becoming a Refugee: Muslimness and Secularity in the Constitution of the ‘Refugee’

12.40-13.45: Lunch

13.45-15.15: Panel 8 (Moderator Birgit Meyer)

Susanne Stadlbauer (University of Colorado Boulder and University of Wyoming)
Secrecy, Secrets, and Emergent Religious Identities: Conversion to Christianity Among Refugees in Germany

Annelise Reid (Utrecht University)
The Making of Belief in Secular Times: Negotiating Inclusion Within the Dutch Asylum Context

William Wheeler (Manchester University)
Conversion Through Destitution: Religious Belief and Legal/Bureaucratic Disbelief Within the UK Asylum System

15.30-16.40: Panel 9 (Moderator Peter van der Veer)

Conference report by Peter van der Veer

Christoph Grüll (University of Groningen)
Faith in an Open Society: Spiritual, Legal, and Political Care in Faith-Based Refugee Responses

Markha Valenta (Radboud University Nijmegen)
Naked in the Sanctuary: The Religious Resistance

16.50-17.45: General Discussion

Drinks