Biographies and the secular

We have assembled a wide array of experts who present contributions which focus upon personal trajectories to
and from non-religion. The program covers a broader geographical scope than the traditional European or 'Western' areas. In addition, a variety of contributions tackle both the gender and family dimensions. Speakers are not limited to historians but come from several disciplines, notably anthropology, philosophy, religious studies and sociology. We offer contributions that problematize the intellectual-emotional interface in choices of existential culture. These cover both secular leaders as well as those individuals who have remained in the shadows of historical analysis. All of these papers are based on fine-grained analyses and the problematization of existing literature, such as, for instance, on deconversion trajectories and the question of innate religiousness.

This conference serves to further connect both our research group as well as the individuals presenting with leading scholars in the field (such as our keynote speakers), as well as new researchers from a variety of academic institutions, both domestic and abroad (most notably two speakers from East Asia, a region rarely covered by secular studies).

An earlier Eutopia workshop in Gothenburg (Sweden) has already led to the publication of a special issue on this topic. Given the wide array of speakers and topics and the general quality of this conference, the results will be published in one of the book series of the field.