A link to a combined report, featuring all events, some longer descriptions and images, can be found HERE.
8-11 May: ESITIS Symposium - Methodologies and Ideologies in Interreligious Engagement: Building Bridges in a Multipolar World
The 2024 ESITIS Conference explored the radical pluralities at the heart of contemporary interreligious engagement.
Its geographical and methodological pluralities provide new generative possibilities for understanding, as voices from the majority world contribute perspectives that reflect local historical trajectories, and as disciplines within the political sciences furnish conceptual tools that complement a focus on texts and rituals in theology and religious studies and the sociology and anthropology of religion.
Understanding the role of religion vis à vis governmental and international relations provides new resources for understanding the forces that shape religious life within and between traditions and provides new opportunities to build peaceful relations.
The 2024 ESITIS Conference has the ambitious aim of exploring the interrelations not only between religious traditions, but between multiple pluralities: approaches, methods, and university disciplines in which the study of religion is now located, alongside forms of scholarly activism whose purpose is not only to understand but to transform such relations.
The six keynote lectures addressed the changing pluralities of approach, the significance of conflict as a guiding framework for interreligious research, the challenges of conformity to intellectual models that are alien to indigenous researchers, the effects of funding restricted to projects that conform to governmental and funder interests, the contribution of folklorist approaches, and the significance of activism for scholarly engagement with relations between traditions.
As well as plenary lectures, the conference featured 28 short paper sessions devoted to the conference themes, ESITIS hosted two workshops on strategies for publishing in academic journals and for writing effective proposals to access funding for projects that reflect new approaches to interreligious engagement.
Keynotes and some of the papers presented at the conference will be printed in forthcoming volume and journals (e.g., ESITIS journal: Interreligious Studies and Intercultural Theology).
23-24 May: Co-Creating Knowledge(s)
On the 23rd and 24th of May, PhD candidates Merel Talbi, Charlotte Rulkens, Nora Kindermann and Iris Lechner hosted the two-day workshop 'Co-Creating Knowledge(s)'. The central theme of the workshop was to explore the connections between co-creation theory, co-creation practice, philosophy and epistemology, from a wide variety of perspectives. The organizers thoroughly enjoyed hosting all wonderful speakers, engaging in interactive and creative sessions and getting to know all amazing participants at the VU Amsterdam.
During the workshop we learned a lot by sharing, listening and engaging in such a fun way! We listened to talks from co-design expert Pieter Jan Stappers, the importance of street corner epistemology, as outlined by Katherine Furman, how co-creation is used in academic research, what insights we can take away from philosophy and epistemology and the use of co-creation in urban planning, museums and neighborhoods (including more philosophical reflections!).
5-14 June: Organ in Situ
A new chapter is opening in the story of the pipe organ: 21st century technology liberates it from its machine-like aspect. It is as if the instrument finally unveils its true nature – dynamic, lively, colorful, arousing curiosity. ORGAN IN SITU welcomes graduate and post-graduate organ musicians, inviting and training them to explore the horizons opened by this development, and create music beyond anything heard before. It is an initiative of and organized by the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Faculty of Humanities, Chair Organ Studies.
To ORGAN IN SITU, doing artistic research is finding answers to core questions by being active artistically. As sharing artistic insights can't do without sharing words, ORGAN IN SITU also includes training in academic research: as soon as we speak, we are thinking and reasoning, i.e. including the realm of the academic. ORGAN IN SITU is led by Tutor Organ Studies dr. Jakob Lkk, also known as Jacob Lekkerkerker (in charge of all artistic and artistic research activities), and by prof.dr. Hans Fidom (responsibile for the academic aspects).
ORGAN IN SITU’s third edition took place on Sunday 9 until Friday 14 June 2024. Thanks to the support of CLUE+, the Vrije Universiteit's Interfaculty Research Institute for Culture, Cognition, History and Heritage, it was possible to welcome indeed new next to rejoining students, as it allowed opening a second venue next to the Orgelpark: the Thomaskerk, located in proximity to the VU's main building and boasting a comparable brutalist architecture. The group SOUND REBELLION, formed by the students of the first ORGAN IN SITU week (2022), not only taught the new students but also used the Thomaskerk to create an impressive Sound Event (SR doesn't do concerts), presented on Friday June 14th. The new students happened to break new grounds as well: the Montreal based Sapphonix Collective, for example, creates highly successful queer art events, aiming to 'recontextualize the pipe organ within the 21st century’.
10-14 June: Financing Alexandre Martinez's Visit of LAC 2024
Alexandre Martinez: "As a PhD candidate, it is important to both communicate about our work and to create working connections with other researchers.
I have been working as a PhD for four years now in the field of archaeology, and one of the biggest conferences I cannot miss is the LAC – acronym for Landscape Archaeology Conference – a biannual conference on many subjects related to landscape archaeology.
This year, the LAC 2024 reunited more than 300 presenters – a record – benefiting from a dynamic recovery after the online editions that took place during the COVID years.
Such an event is rather expensive, including both the registration fees and all the other costs related to transportation and accommodation. Most often, PhD candidate have enough funding to attend some events such as the LAC, but what happens when you don’t have any money left from your research contract, like it happened to me this year?
Well, CLUE+ happened.
The CLUE+ research institute proposes several grants per year to students and PhD candidates in order to help them succeed in their research project.
I applied to a call for grant proposals earlier this spring in the hope of getting the funding that I needed to attend the LAC 2024. This call sounded very interesting, as CLUE+ does have some expectations, such as interdisciplinary research, scientific relevance, and the relation between the proposal and the CLUE+ programs. Getting the grant was very important to me, because this conference was the last I would attend as a PhD candidate.
In the end, I am very grateful to CLUE+ for having given me the chance to built such a great experience. Besides the scientific outreach and networking that comes with every conference, the CLUE+ learned me to be more than a student by experiencing grant writing and organizing and chairing at an international conference. I am certain that both will be of use in my future life as an academic."
5 July: Future of Hindu Spiritual Care Symposium
The "Future of Hindu Spiritual Care Symposium," held on July 5th, 2024, at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (VU), marked a significant milestone for the students of the Integrative Spiritual Care program 2022–2024 at the Hindu Seminary of VU. Generously funded by CLUE+ and the Chair of Hindu Spirituality at VU, this event celebrated the completion of the students' studies and explored the evolving landscape of Hindu spiritual care in the Netherlands.
Prof. Dr. Sharda S. Nandram opened the symposium with a warm welcome on behalf of Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (VU) and the Faculty of Religion and Theology, setting a gracious and inclusive tone for the event. She extended invitations to representatives from the youth, the Hindu Council of the Netherlands (Hindoe Raad Nederland), the broader Hindu community, and interfaith spiritual care groups to participate in the lighting of the lamp ceremony.
By including diverse groups in this significant tradition, Prof. Dr. Nandram highlighted the symposium's inclusive nature and its dedication to fostering a collaborative and enlightened community.
Drs. R. Datadin, the former chairman of the Hindu Council (Hindoe Raad Nederland), served as the moderator of the symposium. She set the tone for unity, commitment and a shared purpose to learn from each other in the field of spiritual care. This was a fitting start to a day devoted to exploring and advancing Hindu spiritual care in the Netherlands.
The symposium effectively showcased the broad spectrum of Hindu spiritual care. It highlighted the need for increased visibility through primary care, various platforms, and mandirs to provide the essential support and guidance for spiritual care.
The symposium's valuable sessions and discussions demonstrated the necessity for further targeted meetings to explore specific issues and groups. Participants were inspired to continue the dialogue on spiritual care beyond their immediate fields and expressed a willingness to delve into interdisciplinary contexts, such as those involving the military and prison systems.
This symposium was not only a celebration of academic and professional achievements but also a crucial step towards enhancing research and practice and understanding of Hindu spiritual care in the Netherlands.
The Hindu Seminary at VU extends heartfelt thanks to CLUE+ for their generous support, making this symposium possible. The event not only celebrated academic achievements but also strengthened the foundation for future developments in Hindu spiritual care, aligning with CLUE+'s objectives of fostering interdisciplinary research and community engagement.