boundary 2, an international journal of literature and culture
presents b2 editors
• Joseph Buttigieg of Notre Dame University
• Stathis Gourgouris of Columbia University
• Ronald Judy of the University of Pittsburgh
• Aamir Mufti of UCLA
• Bruce Robbins of Columbia University
who with several Pittsburgh Colleagues will hold
A Colloquium on
Secularism
10 AM to Noon, Saturday, March 14, 2009
501 Cathedral of Learning
In 2007, boundary 2 issued a call for papers that produce a historical humanist critique of religions, especially faith-based or monotheistic religions. This call for papers rested on the assumption that a critical journal is by definition a secular project and neither legitimates religions nor aligns itself with them or their apparent secular derivatives. boundary 2 will provide a forum to discuss this "new critique of religion" that not only takes into account the foundations of ‘modernity’ but takes as its own starting point the changed place of religion in our world(s). We sought and published essays that describe, analyze, and historicize the implications of the ways in which religions work in the world today. Topics included the contrast between faith and reason; the manipulation of religion by secular power; the relations between religion and populism; the political actions that have made religions prominent again; and so on. These essays clarified the work religions do in their social orders and how critical intellectuals should best understand that work and best evaluate the worlds that they intend to produce.
[For information about this event contact Meg Havran (havran@pitt.edu).]
