Publishing Projects on Recognition

The first Centre of Excellence gathering during the fall term was held on Tuesday 29 September. This time, the whole CoE met together, and there were no separate team meetings. Three different book projects on the themes of recognition and identity politics were presented and discussed in the Faculty Hall.

Elina Hellqvist presenting

In the first talk by Maijastina Kahlos and myself, an international book project with the working title Reflections on Recognition: Contemporary and Historical Studies was discussed. Along with a host of international contributors, the volume also includes a group of writers from the CoE. There will be a conference organized around this book project at the University of Helsinki in May 26-28 2016. The book will be edited and the conference organized by Kahlos, Ritva Palmén, and myself.

The second presentation by Elina Hellqvist and Minna Hietamäki dealt with a Finnish book that has, at the time of writing this, just come out from the press. In addition to Hellqvist and Hietamäki, the editors of the volume on Religion and Identity Politics (original title: Uskonto ja identiteettipolitiikka) include also Panu Pihkala. This book published by the Finnish Theological Literature Society (STKS) is based on both Risto Saarinen's Academy of Finland project and his Centre of Excellence, also funded by the Academy. [A link to the report on the symposium can be found here.]

The third presentation was given by Ritva Palmén and Heikki Haara, who are editing another Finnish volume on recognition. This book has its origins in the teaching modules provided by various members of the CoE under the Master's Degree Programme Religion, Conflict and Dialogue [link here]. Its team of authors is strengthened by an addition of further important contributors. During the discussions, one of the topics that came up was the challenge of translating theoretical terminology from German and English into ordinary-language Finnish.