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Introduction
On May 25-27, a group of DSR faculty and PhD students visited the University of Tübingen for a partnership-building workshop co-sponsored by the DSR and the Center for Religion, Culture and Society (CRCS) of the University of Tübingen. Kicking off with a group boat tour—or Stocherkahnfahrt—on the Neckar River, the workshop was held in the beautiful Fürstenzimmer of the university castle, overlooking the town and valley. The DSR and the CRCS are both hubs for the study of religion that are deeply committed to interdisciplinarity and that are actively thinking about how “religion” figures in the public sphere. The workshop built on several formal and informal collaborations that have connected religion scholars across the two locations over the years and came out of wanting to build more sustained collaboration between the DSR and the CRCS, in support of research projects, courses, and student and faculty international mobility.
Reflection from DSR Faculty Pamela Klassen and Amira Mittermaier
Entitled “The Study of Religion: Pasts, Presents, & Futures”, the workshop included sessions on “reckonings” and the study of religion in Germany and Canada, the concept of “originalism” in the study of early Islam, connections among religion, the digital humanities, and AI, and graduate student panels on “futures” for the study of religion. We were also given a tour of the university's teaching museum, covering both archeological and ethnographic collections, followed by a joint panel on museums, universities, and responsibility. Our hosts included CRCS co-directors, Monique Scheer and Holger Zellentin. DSR faculty participants were Pamela Klassen, John Marshall, Amira Mittermaier, Walid Saleh, and J. Barton Scott, as well as Emily Hertzberg of the Ethnography Lab in the Department of Anthropology. PhD students included Mohannad Abusarah, Shannon Drew, Christina Gousopoulos, Sloane Geddes, and Ridhima Sharma.
The goal of the workshop was to take stock of the study of religion in this current moment, and to think about the discipline’s various pasts and possible futures. Our conversations in the castle over the two days of the workshop repeatedly returned to the question of how different political contexts, challenges, and commitments shape the fields of religious studies in our two respective locations. One helpful outcome of the workshop, from our perspective, was being reminded that the study of religion takes many different forms through a variety of methods that are always shaped by local and national cultures of scholarship.
As we consider what kinds of large-scale collaborations might emerge from the workshop, we were excited to learn about already existing smaller-scale possibilities for connections, such as postdoctoral teaching fellowships at the University of Tübingen and integrating a Global Classroom element into our teaching. The generosity of our hosts at the University of Tübingen, along with the support of the Research Office of the Faculty of Arts and Science for graduate student travel, are much appreciated!
Reflection from DSR Doctoral Students Shannon Drew and Sloane Geddes
The Tübingen-Toronto workshop brought together faculty and graduate students from both universities to explore the stakes and challenges of researching religion today.
We enjoyed getting to meet and work with Tübingen’s students in a graduate panel on the futures of the study of religion and are grateful to have had the opportunity to participate in multidisciplinary conversations in a beautiful setting.
Much of the workshop was centered on the University of Tübingen’s Excellence Strategy “research, relevance, responsibility.” This provided several critical angles through which we could examine complexities of the field, and particularly to consider the entangled questions of responsibility in an increasingly digital age.
During the workshop we were guided through several collections held in the University’s museums and one moment was particularly impactful. Specifically, discussion of a pair of funerary masks in the Ethnology museum, how they were likely “collected,” and how they house the souls of the departed, rendered the violence of colonial collections palpable. Objects like these opened up discussion of academic responsibility and ethics through actions like repatriation and facilitating connections between objects and communities.
The “Religion and the Digital Humanities” panel prompted a conversation on possibilities for the usage and study of digital tools, particularly to engage a wider audience in public humanities, as well as fears and dangers in the growing question of AI and academics. We discussed the threats of AI, and its relationship to the rise of fascism, as well as the study of religion’s potentially essential role in responding to AI, given our responsibilities in teaching and our connection to the study of ethics. It was clear that responsibility–in our research, our teaching, and in our collaborations–is necessary but also needs to be continuously re-evaluated.
Academic neutrality was a widely debated and discussed topic that allowed us to think through the role of the academy in society. It seemed to us, in reflection, that responsible research needs to be self-reflective, involved with communities (via living people or grounded in historical/cultural contexts), and continually engaged with the concerns of the contemporary world. We look forward to future collaborations with Tübingen’s study of religion community!
(Photos courtesy Pamela Klassen and Sloane Geddes)