AAR Annual Meeting 2014

The American Academy of Religion held its 2014 Annual Meeting in November 22-25 at San Diego, California. I traveled to the congress via London in the excellent company of Minna Hietamäki, Ritva Palmén, Joona Salminen and Olli-Pekka Vainio.

Charles Taylor

Having recently focused on some of the central literature on recognition, the main philosophical attraction for me was Charles Taylor. He has, among a multitude of other things, written the seminal 1992 paper on "The Politics of Recognition". During the congress, Taylor spoke on several occasions, and he also received the 2014 Martin E. Marty Award for the Public Understanding of Religion.

Heading towards Pasadena

On Friday the 21st, before the official start of the congress, we visited the Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena. On this trip, we were joined by Timo R. Stewart who works in political history. Our host at Fuller was Veli-Matti Kärkkäinen, who holds a Professorship of Systematic Theology at the Seminary. We took part in his seminar session where Minna Hietamäki presented our Centre of Excellence, Olli-Pekka Vainio gave a talk, and the rest of us participated in the discussions.

Minna Hietamäki presenting our CoE

Olli-Pekka Vainio giving his talk

After the seminar, Professor Kärkkäinen kindly hosted a lunch at the University Club of Pasadena, and organized a guided tour for us of the campus area. We then drove back to San Diego via Hollywood and Downtown Los Angeles, getting some first-hand experience of the incredible traffic jams.

Lunch at the Pasadena Club

On Monday the 24th, President Jimmy Carter gave a talk on "The Role of Religion in Mediating Conflicts and Imagining Futures" and participated in a discussion panel that followed. He is clearly a gifted speaker, and he made some interesting connections between the topics of climate change and equality for women.

Jimmy Carter giving his talk

Overall, the congress had around 10.000 participants which were easily swallowed by the huge Convention Center. There were sessions of all sizes dealing with an incredible variety of topics. The Exhibit Hall also hosted a nice book exhibit with over 150 publishers and conference discount prices. In addition to the programme and discussions, it was good to enjoy the sun, and to be able to spend some quality time with the colleagues.

San Diego Convention Center

Scientific Advisory Board Meeting

Our Centre of Excellence had its first Scientific Advisory Board meeting during 14-15 November 2014. The Academy of Finland's Research Council for Culture and Society has appointed the Board which consists of Professors Werner Jeanrond (Oxford), Judith Lieu (Cambridge), and Elisabeth Parmentier (Strasbourg). The SAB's task is to support and monitor the CoE during its operation, and the Board convenes twice over three years.

Round of introductions

During the first day, we had the Academy's Council Chair Olli Mäenpää present, as well as Science Adviser Riitta Launonen who started the Board meeting by talking about The Academy of Finland's Centre of Excellence programme and the role of the Scientific Advisory Board. After this, Risto Saarinen presented the CoE as a whole, and then the individual Team Leaders Ismo Dunderberg, Virpi Mäkinen and Sami Pihlström gave short presentations of their respective teams. We then proceeded to comments from the SAB and discussion. Together with Anna-Liisa Tolonen, I represented the researchers of our CoE.

Judith Lieu, Werner Jeanrond and Elisabeth Parmentier

We then heard two presentations with a historical orientation. The first one was by Ritva Palmén, whose topic was "Recognition in the Tenth and Twelfth Century Dialogues". The second presentation was by Maijastina Kahlos, who talked about "Alienation, Accommodation, Adaptation: Imperial and Ecclesiastical Discourses and Religious Dissenters in the late Roman Empire in 370-450. After the talks, we proceeded to dinner around a long table.

The second day's programme was more systematically oriented, and included three presentations. Risto Saarinen started the morning session by talking about his research topics and his book manuscript Recognition and Religion: A Historical and Systematic Study. After Saarinen, I gave a presentation of the central ideas of my submitted research paper "Mediated Recognition and the Categorial Stance". After a short coffee break, we then continued to Anna-Liisa Tolonen's talk about the story of the mother and her seven sons.

All in all, it was very good to be able to hear the SAB members' comments and questions, and also to meet with the whole CoE together. The discussions were highly interesting, and I certainly got quite a few ideas for future research from the two days. Judging by the comments I've heard, I was not alone in this either.

STKS Symposium on Religion and Identity Politics

On 12-13 November 2014, the Finnish Theological Literature Society (STKS) organized in collaboration with Risto Saarinen's Academy project Ecumenical Recognition and Toleration of Otherness a two-day symposium with the title 'Religion and Identity Politics'. The event took place in the Main Building of the University of Helsinki. The CoE was also represented in the organization and in the presentations. In addition to Saarinen, the CoE members Minna Hietamäki, Elina Hellqvist and myself gave talks.

 

Academy project members Panu Pihkala, Risto Saarinen,
Minna Hietamäki and Elina Hellqvist

For the past calendar year, I have been working on systematic analyses of recognition closely related with the theme of identity politics. For me personally, then, the meeting's two days were an inspiring display of various cases that richly resonated with the more general structural issues in my own focus. On the second day, I also gave a presentation in Finnish with the title 'Religious Identity and Rational Recognition'.

All the papers will be published next year as a yearbook of the STKS, and I expect this package to become an interesting read.

• A link to the event's page
• A link to STKS

Issues of Recognition and Identity Politics in Scotland

On the 18th of September 2014, Scotland voted in a referendum on whether it should be an independent country. As we know by now, the Scots still recognized their status and identity as members of the United Kingdom. Below are some photographs from Edinburgh before, during, and after the historical referendum.

Common Activities Resume after Summer

On last Tuesday, the 26th of August, the common activities of the CoE officially resumed with two meetings and a gathering of the whole CoE in the evening.

The first meeting at the Collegium focused on preparations related with organizing The 5^th Nordic Conference in Philosophy of Religion in Helsinki on 8–11 June 2015. Timo Koistinen, who is also a member of our Team 3, bears the main responsibility for organizing the conference. He is assisted in this by Dan Eklund and Hanna Ronikonmäki.

Timo Koistinen and Simo Knuuttila

In conjuction with the Nordic conference, the CoE also organizes a special symposium on the 11^th of June with the title “Recognition and Religion”. As the title indicates, the themes of this one-day event are closely related with the CoE’s central research topics. The group dealing with the organization includes Sami Pihlström, Hanne Appelqvist, and myself.

After the first meeting, it was time for all three CoE teams to have their parallel discussion sessions. We continued at the Collegium, and in addition to our team members, enjoyed the pleasure of Simo Knuuttila’s presence in the session.

Risto Saarinen and Sami Pihlström

Risto Saarinen also arrived at our team meeting, straight from Budapest, where he had attended The 18^th Academic Consultation of the Societas Oecumenica. Saarinen brought news from the event according to which our team member Minna Hietamäki had been elected as the secretary of The European Society for Ecumenical Research. In addition, the 19^th Academic Consultation of the Society would be held in Helsinki in late August 2016.

Aku Visala and Elina Hellqvist

After the meetings, members from all three teams got together in an informal and friendly atmosphere at a local beer house.

Outi Lehtipuu and Raimo Hakola

[Picture from previous gathering]

The CoE in Helsingin Sanomat

Helsingin Sanomat, Finland's largest subscription newspaper featured a full-page story (B 6) on our Centre of Excellence on Tuesday the 12th of August. The CoE was represented by Risto Saarinen and Joona Salminen, and the text dealt with our research on the interaction between religion and society.

• A link to the first part of the story can be found here.
• A link to the second part here.

King Gustav Vasa, recognizable for the Lutheran Reformation

and the founding of Helsinki

Recognition Weekend with Axel Honneth

Professor Axel Honneth (University of Frankfurt / Columbia University) gave the 12th Annual Collegium Lecture at the University of Helsinki's main building on Friday the 23rd of May. In conjuction with the 2014 Collegium Lecture, a two-day Workshop on Pathologies of Recognition was organized by the research project Pathologies of Recognition (Academy of Finland), Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Study, and The School of Social Sciences and Humanities (University of Tampere).

Axel Honneth giving his Collegium Lecture

My personal research and reading focuses at the moment very much on Honneth as well as on Arto Laitinen and Heikki Ikäheimo, who have contributed to explicating and further developing the Honnethian concept(s) of recognition. Therefore, it was very nice indeed to be able to meet all three at once in Helsinki.

Arto Laitinen, Axel Honneth, and Heikki Ikäheimo

Our own CoE Reason and Religious Recognition was represented in the workshop programme by our Director Risto Saarinen, who discussed interesting cases of recognition in the pre-Hegelian sources of Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274), Marsilio Ficino (1433-1499), and John Calvin (1509-1564).

Saarinen giving his talk at the workshop

All in all, from a research point of view, the two days were highly interesting, very educating, and intellectually stimulating. They also provided a good opportunity to make new contacts with people working on themes related with recognition. Below are some more photos from "the recognition weekend".

Federica Gregoratto, who spoke on Pathologies of Love

Cillian McBride, who recently published his book on recognition

Nora Hämäläinen speaking on Emotional Capitalism

and the Epistemology of Suspicion

Axel Honneth and Sami Pihlström, who chaired the Collegium Lecture

Sari Roman-Lagerspetz with Honneth in the audience

CoE Ladies Anna-Liisa Tolonen and Maijastina Kahlos

ouside the main building after Honneth's lecture

The Honneth Reception at the Collegium Common Room

Simo Knuuttila's Farewell Lecture

On last week's Thursday, the 8th of May, Simo Knuuttila gave his farewell lecture at the Main Building of the University of Helsinki. Knuuttila's topic dealt with the origins of religion, and the lecture hall was packed full. Below are some photos from the event.

Simo Knuuttila giving his talk on the origins of religion

Flowers presented

Ismo Dunderberg chairing the event

Celebrations of Knuuttila and Niiniluoto

Below are some photos from last week’s Monday, 14 April, when two consecutive events were organized to celebrate Simo Knuuttila and Ilkka Niiniluoto. The first occasion was a workshop for Knuuttila organized at the Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies. The second event of the day was a farewell lecture by Niiniluoto at the Small Hall of the Main Building of the University of Helsinki.

Simo Knuuttila in discussion

Some of the workshop participants

Niiniluoto giving his lecture

Audience at the Small Hall

Jaakko Hintikka attended both events