Religion, Science and Public Concern: Discourses on Ethics, Ecology, and Genomics
Date: Thursday 26 and Friday 27, October 2006
Venue: The Netherlands, University of Leiden
The aim of the conference, organised by the Faculty of Theology at Leiden University, is to bring together researchers interested in interactions between religion, ethics, and science in public discourses. In reflecting upon the social and moral jobs that speakers expect religious, ethical, and scientific notions to do, we may acquire a better understanding of debates on controversial issues of public policy and on the understanding of the role of and the relation between religion, ethics, science, politics, and technology.
The Research Group on Philosophy of Religion and Ethics at the Department of Theology at Leiden University, under the direction of Professor Willem B. Drees, is currently engaged in research in these areas, concentrating on the interaction of religion and science, particularly in relation to perceptions of nature and modern technology.
The programme consist of:
- a public lecture on October 26, 2006 by Bronislaw Szerszynski (Institute for Environment, Philosophy and Public Policy, Lancaster University) with a response by Gerrit de Kruijf (Leiden University) and Hans Achterhuis (University of Twente)
- an international conference on October 27, 2006 with the presentation of papers and confirmed invited speakers Hub Zwart (Radboud University of Nijmegen) and Jan Boersema ( Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam) Scholars are invited to submit proposals for papers, which focus on any of the interactive dimensions of religion, ethics, science, and public discourses. Priority will be given to PhD and postdoctoral researchers.
A variety of perspectives is encouraged (e.g. anthropological, ethical, historical, linguistic, philosophical, political, theological, sociological).
Topics could include:
- Religion and genomics, religion and ecology, religion and science.
- Religious or scientific vocabularies used in public debates.
- The relation between church, state, and science in politics.
- Rationalism, emotion, and identity in public discourses on new technologies.
- Interpretation of sacred texts and myths related to science and technology.
- The role of the media in religious or scientific, public or political debates.
Submission guidelines
Those proposing to present papers should take note of the following
guidelines:
- Please submit a 150-300 words long abstract including the proposed title of the paper + full name, address and e-mail address of the author and some personal background information (e.g. age, study, research field, recent publications), send it to Olga Crapels: o.j.p.crapels@let.leidenuniv.nl.
- Deadline abstracts: April 1, 2006
- Before June 1, 2006 you will receive notice of whether your paper proposal is accepted.
- The conference language is English.
- File type: Word for Windows.
- Abstracts will be reviewed by the program committee based on content, presentation and suitability for the event.
- By submitting an abstract you give permission to publish it on the conference web site, and probably in a printed conference booklet.
- The deadline for the fully worked out version of your paper is September 1, 2006. This full version is only required after acceptance of the abstract and not to be more than 5,000 words including abstract and references.
- The paper will be published as work in progress on the pass word protected web site of the conference.
More information about the conference, the programme and registration is available on the conference web site: