Material Secularities
International Workshop at the Centre for Advanced Studies“Multiple Secularities – Beyond the West, Beyond Modernities”, Leipzig University
21–23 June 2023
at Strohsackpassage (Nikolaistraße 8-10, 04109 Leipzig), Room 4.55
Conveners: Magnus Echtler (Leipzig University), Birgit Meyer (Utrecht University), and
Nur Yasemin Ural (Leipzig University)
Approach
In the last decades, questions of the material, affective and corporeal aspects of religion have gained acentral place within cultural theory. While the “material turn” generated numerous studies andestablished sub-fields within anthropology, sociology, and the study of religion, there are still few
scholars who explore secularity from a materialist and affective perspective. With an interdisciplinary
approach, this workshop, tentatively titled “material secularities”, attempts to examine a range of valueladen (and often contested) material-corporeal expressions of secularity, such as the questions of handshaking in everyday interactions; halal/kosher food or crosses in public institutions; the one-lovebandage in sports events; national ceremonies; architectural forms of war memorials, etc. With the“multiple secularities” approach developed at Leipzig University, we take secularities to refer to thevarious forms in which the social differentiation and conceptual distinction between religious and otherrealms are politically and culturally arranged. This approach multiplies the regime of “the secular” asusually understood by Asad, while distinguishing it from secularism, the normative and politicalendeavour to limit the influence of religion. Taking a fresh look at the secular from a material angle, wewould like to engage with recent debates on ontology, relationality, and non-human actors that consider
things, discourses, and symbols as relevant elements of affective, sensual and aesthetic
experiences/expressions.
Hence, our workshop proposes to examine secularity/the secular/secularism as scholarly as well as
political categories always in relation to their co-constituent, namely the religious. The relation itself
varies, from strict opposition or the ideal of complete separation, over interdependencies as thedialectics of din and dunia, or ōbō and buppō (this-worldly and other-worldly spheres within theIslamicate and Japanese traditions), to incorporation in the form of the culturalization of religion ascustom or heritage. Consequently, our foci vary. One of our areas of interest is the investigation of how
the boundary work between religious and other social spheres materializes in different parts of the world.
Yet, we also wish to draw attention to the possibilities of studying materialized forms of secularity intheir own right.
In an extended conversation with the theoretical assumptions of the “Multiple Secularities” project(Wohlrab-Sahr and Kleine 2021), we would like to highlight the methodological and conceptual
implications of a material approach to secularity. Secularity is not an abstraction that hovers above
everyday life as a mere ideology, but “matters” as it inscribes itself in spaces, bodies and material culture.
While taking the perspective of multiple secularities, we would like to bring in a material, affective andspatial dimension to the extensively studied conceptual and discursive distinctions in textual sources.
The workshop will take place as a hybrid event. The corresponding connection data will bemade available to all registered participants shortly beforehand.
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Workshop Programme“Material Secularities”
Leipzig University, 21–23 June 2023

Schedule
Wednesday, 21 June 2023
15:30–16:00

Registration

16:00–16:10

Welcoming Remarks
Christoph Kleine (KFG “Multiple Secularities”)

16:10–17:40

Panel 1: Materiality, Affectivity and Performativity of Multiple Secularities
Chair: Christoph Kleine (KFG “Multiple Secularities”)
Birgit Meyer (Utrecht University)“Materiality”
Nur Yasemin Ural (KFG “Multiple Secularities”)“Affectivity”
Magnus Echtler (KFG “Multiple Secularities”)“Performativity”

17:40–17:45

Coffee Break

17:45–18:45

Display of Secular Objects and Photographs

18:45–19:15

Reception

19:30

Joint Dinner at “Barcelona”

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Workshop Programme“Material Secularities”
Leipzig University, 21–23 June 2023

Thursday, 22 June 2023
09:30–12:00

Panel 2: Secular Practices of Heritagisation
Chair: Mariam Goshadze (Leipzig University)
Irene Stengs (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Meertens Institute Amsterdam)“The Materialization of ‘The Wild Boars Cave Rescue’: Secular Sacreds in Processes ofHeritage Formation in Present-Day Thailand”
Gökçen Beyinli (KFG “Multiple Secularities”)“The Secularisation of Superstitions as Intangible Cultural Heritage in the AKP Era: Hıdrellezand Its ‘Convivial’ Materiality”
Ernst van den Hemel (Meertens Institute Amsterdam)“Magnifying Heritage and Religion in Miniature Parks: The Mosques and Churches ofMadurodam & Miniaturk”

12:00–13:00

Lunch

13:00–15:30

Panel 3: Affect, Emotion, Space/Cultivating the Secular Body
Chair: Nur Yasemin Ural (KFG “Multiple Secularities”)
Donovan Schaefer (University of Pennsylvania)“Hard Feelings: Power, Secularity, and Public Material Culture”
Augustine Agwuele (Texas State University)“Spatial and Materiality of Secularity among Aladura Movement in Yorubaland”
Peter Bräunlein (University of Göttingen)“The Piano as Affective Artefact and the Question of Secular Aesthetics”

15:30–16:00

Coffee Break

16:00–17:45

Panel 4: Negotiating the Material Secular
Chair: Birgit Meyer (Utrecht University)
Stefan Binder (University of Zurich)“Materiality and Moral Judgment among Atheist Activists in South India”
Erik Meinema (Utrecht University)“Material Secularism in Interfaith Dialogues in Coastal Kenya”

19:00

Joint Dinner at “Café Cantona”

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Workshop Programme“Material Secularities”
Leipzig University, 21–23 June 2023

Friday, 23 June 2023
09:15–11:45

Panel 5: Secular Things/Objects/Elements
Chair: Magnus Echtler (KFG “Multiple Secularities”)
Sana Chavoshian (Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient)“Secular Atmosphere: Dust-winds in Iran’s Landscapes of War”
Mascha Schulz (Max Planck Institute Halle)“Is There a Secular Thing? What We Can Learn from Bengali Culturalism in theConceptualization of Secularity as a Material-aesthetic Practice”
Pooyan Tamimi Arab (Utrecht University)“’Reformist, Principlist, the Game Is Over!’: Secularist Visual Culture and the 2022 Nationwide
Protests in Iran”

11:45–12:00

Coffee Break

12:00–13:00

Final Discussion

13:00–14:00

Lunch

14:00

Visit Völkerschlachtdenkmal(https://www.stadtgeschichtliches-museum-leipzig.de/besuch/unserehaeuser/voelkerschlachtdenkmal-forum-1813/)

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