Religions and Secularities in the Caucasus:

Religions and Secularities in the Caucasus: New Configurations

Tbilisi, June 1-3, 2015

Ilia State University

Programme

Conference Sponsors: CASCADE project, in collaboration with the ISSICEU project, under

the aegis of the Seventh Framework Programme of the European Union; and the Ilia State

University. Organizers: Alexander Agadjanian, Silvia Serrano, Sophia Zviadadze.
The international conference is dedicated to dynamic interaction of religion and

secularity in the Caucasus, both Northern and Southern. Revitalization of religions,

emerging new forms of religiosity, and the instrumentalization of religion in politics

have played a crucial role in reshaping the Caucasian societies after the breakdown of

the Soviet Union. Religion became a source of political legitimacy, social capital and

everyday values.

At the same time, the post-communist societies largely retained the deeply ingrained

atheist legacy, combined with the new forms of secularity coming from the West. The

discourses of secularity have been varied and multiple, as were religious actors and

forms of religiosity. The conference will consider the institutional arrangements of

religion and religious diversity within the secular political context; the forms and

limits of religious presence in the public sphere; the current public debates about

religion and secularity.

The conference will look at changes in the religious landscape in the Caucasus,

relating them to the global trends and the current academic literature of the field,

both theoretical and secularity.
The conference is free and open to the public.

Author: admin

Share This Post On