Our projects
The Stream has seen significant engagement with 1 roundtable, 4 workshops, 1 symposium, and 3 conference panels. Most of these gatherings received Stream funding and have successfully shaped collaborative research, both across disciplines in the Faculty of Arts, and stimulated collaborative publications (1 edited volume, 2 journal articles, 3 book chapters).
A number of these efforts have led to competitive grant applications (7 ARC DPs, 2 ARC FFs, and a number of other external grants), trans-disciplinary HDR supervisions, and 2 Cotutelle arrangements, with The University of Groningen (Aukje Muller) and The University of Aarhus (Daniel Tranter).
From its first roundtable meeting in late 2016 onwards the Stream has supported and stimulated the following activities:
2023-2024
At least two workshops exploring new directions in the study of religion and society aimed at consolidating the work done over the period of Macquarie University’s Strategic Research Framework. These workshops will bring together the members of the Religions and Society Stream to explore new avenues of research and formulate trans-disciplinary research projects for funding applications.
2022-2023
Associate Professor Eva Anagnostou and Dr Ken Parry will be collaborating with Professor George Steiris of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens in order to establish an exchange program of academic visitors on the topic of Byzantine philosophy. This will lead to workshops and resulting publications for which Stream funding will be critical.
2022
A collaboration with the Institute of Advanced Studies at Aarhus University on Religion and Temporalities by Associate Professor Jaap Timmer and Anna-Karina Hermkens with Professor Ton Otto. Funding is requested for two fellowships in Aarhus (2020-2021), an international conference in Aarhus (2021) and a follow-up workshop at Macquarie University in 2022, with Professor John Barker (The University of British Columbia and doyen of the anthropology of Christianity in the Pacific) and Professor Simon Coleman (University of Toronto).
Stream funding will be sought for this event. The planned output will include two books (by Timmer and Hermkens) and one edited volume on Christianity and Temporalities.
2021
Associate Professor Chris Houston and Associate Professor Jaap Timmer will organise a workshop on self-alternation, with a focus on a number of religious themes including conversion, pilgrimage, prophecy, spirit possession, etc. They will seek participation from all disciplines in the Faculty of Arts.
Dr Anna-Karina Hermkens and Associate Professor Jaap Timmer will be editing a special issue of the renowned Berghahn Journal Religion and Society on Religion and Temporalities.
2020
Professor Maddox and Professor Bronwen Neil are planning to submit an ARC Discovery Project grant application (for funding in 2021) to advance the theme of religion in public life.
Dr Anna-Karina Hermkens and Associate Professor Jaap Timmer will organise a workshop on Religion and Temporalities in 2020 to develop this theme in conversation with Macquarie-based scholars across disciplines. The workshop will lead to publications by Hermkens and Timmer and lay the foundation for a further development of this theme in collaboration with Aarhus University (see below).
Professor Bronwen Neil will organise a workshop on Leadership & Religion in the Ancient and Modern Worlds. This event will be the second in a series of CACHE workshops in 2020. This will be a major gathering of international and Australian scholars, to lead to high-profile research outputs and new collaborations with South Africa and US.
2019
Professor Maddox edited a special issue of the highly ranked, open-access journal Religions on religion in Australian public life.
A workshop on religion in Turkey and Indonesia by Dr Banu Senay, with Professor Vedi R. Hadiz (The University of Melbourne), Associate Professor Greg Fealy (ANU), Dr Aydogan Kars (Monash University), Dr Robbie Peters (The University of Sydney), and a number of Macquarie University-based researchers including Associate Professor Chris Houston, Associate Professor Jaap Timmer and Dr. Max Harwood. This workshop will feed into a meeting either at Monash University or the University of Sydney in 2020, from which publications will flow.
A workshop on Faithful Bodies, with keynotes from Donovan Schaefer (University of Pennsylvania), held on 23 August with Macquarie University contributions from Chris Mueller (MMCS) and Louise D’Arcens (English).
2018
Workshop
(9 November, funded) on Byzantine Neoplatonism, organised by Associate Professor Eva Anagnostou-Laoutides and Dr Ken Parry (both Ancient History). The workshop was attended by twenty scholars including ten speakers both national and international.
Outcome: a forthcoming volume provisionally entitled ‘Neoplatonists and their Heirs: Christian, Jewish and Muslim’ to be published by Brill in 2020; and an external funding application.
Symposia
(15 September, funded) on “How do we have a conversation about Islam?” by Dr Iqbal Barkat (Cultural Studies) at The Leo Kelly Blacktown Arts Centre. This event was held in conjunction with the inaugural Social Sciences Week and jointly organized by the Religion & Society Research Cluster of Western Sydney University, the Muslim Collective and The Australian Critical Race and Whiteness Studies Association. It hosted 12 speakers from academic, artistic and activist communities, and attracted a large audience.
Professor Marion Maddox co-convened (with Professor Adam Possamai and Professor Cristina Rocha, Sociology, Western Sydney University) a panel at the Australian and New Zealand Associations for the Study of Religion combined conference in Auckland to discuss major issues for religion and public life in the coming decades, and the potential for a bid for an ARC Centre of Excellence in Religion and Australian Public Life, to be submitted in the 2023 round. In addition to the convenors, the panel included academics from the Australian Catholic University, The University of Adelaide, and Deakin University.
Professor Bronwen Neil co-convened the Australian Academy of the Humanities Symposium “Clash of Civilisations: Where are We Now?” Professor Louise D’Arcens and Professor Marion Maddox were among the invited presenters, and Marion Maddox chaired a panel.
Other
Several Stream members held Religions and Society-related external grants since 2016, including Professor Marion Maddox, Dr Ian Tregenza, and Associate Professor Jaap Timmer.
Professor Malcolm Voyce (Law) is continuing his previously funded work on Islamic law, as well as new work on Buddhism and organ transplantation.
2017
| Date | Project | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 18 September 2017 | Workshop (fudned) | On Theocracy and Anthropocracy, organised by Associate Professor Jaap Timmer and Associate Professor Chris Houston. The workshop included papers by Professor Miguel Vatter from the New School for Social Research School of Social Sciences, UNSW, and Lauren McGrow (PhD, Charles Sturt University), an independent scholar and author of Missionary Positions: A Postcolonial Feminist Perspective on Sex Work and Faith Based Outreach from Australia (Leiden: Brill 2017). Professor Marion Maddox (PIR) was the discussant. Outcome: a follow-up panel at the annual meeting of the Australian Anthropological Society in Adelaide; a chapter on anthropocracies in a Festschrift for Joel Kahn by Chris Houston; a chapter in a major volume on Melanesia by Timmer, and a chapter in his book on theocracy-building in the Pacific, also by Timmer; and 2 ARC Discovery Project grant applications by Houston and Timmer. |
| 7 September 2017 | Workshop (funded) | On Religion as Creative Practice organised by Dr Anna-Karina Hermkens and Dr Banu Senay. It was attended by a dozen scholars from a variety of disciplines in the Faculty of Arts. Outcome: a panel on “The Art of the State: Politics, Aesthetics and Religion” as part of the annual meeting of Australian Anthropological Association (AAS) in Adelaide in December 2017, 2 journal articles, and 3 external funding applications: Hermkens, ARC Future Fellow grant application 2018 (unsuccessful) and ARC Discovery Project 2020 (unsuccessful); Senay ARC Discovery Project 2020 (successful). |
| 8 August 2017 | Workshop (co-funded by the Stream and PIR Religion and Politics Cluster) | On Political Community and Belonging beyond Religious and Secular, attended by 20 Macquarie University-based scholars and including a presentation by Associate Professor Erin Wilson (Director of the Centre for Religion, Conflict and the Public Domain, University of Groningen). Ongoing collaboration between PIR and the Centre for Religion, Conflict and the Public Domain, and Associate Professor Wilson, including a Cotutelle enrolment, Aukje Muller, jointly supervised by Associate Professor Wilson and Professor Marion Maddox, from 2018. |
| 24 February 2017 | Research roundtable (funded) | Attended by the members of the Stream. Members presented a précis of their own research. Outcome: Formal launch of the Religion and Society Stream on the basis of vibrant connections facilitated by this full-day event. |