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