Dear participants of the Religion, Cognition and Culture research project,
With the excitement and success of the January conference behind us, we would like to bring you up-to-date on activities and plans as well as invite you to morning workshop in May (see below).
IACSR
First of all, it is a pleasure to announce the establishment of the International Association for the Cognitive Science of Religion (IACSR). This association was established during the conference in Aarhus and consists of colleagues from around the world who are working with cognitive approaches to the study of religion. Please take a few moments to visit the website where you also will find the Executive Committee.
Conference "Symbolization" in January 2007
We are in the planning stages of the next conference slated to be held in January 2007. The topic as announced is "Symbolization". The website will soon contain further information and a call for papers.
Workshop 23rd of May
We would like to invite you to attend a workshop on Tuesday the 23rd of May at 9.15-12.00. Besides presenting any news, Gretchen Koch and Armin W. Geertz will present Daniel C. Dennett's new book Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon (New York: Viking, 2006), followed by an open discussion. The meeting will most likely take place in 025 at the Faculty of Theology. Please let us know as soon as possible if you wish to attend.
Advisory Board
The research project now has an Advisory Board consisting of neurologist Kjeld Fredens, psychologist Henrik Høgh-Olesen and anthropologist Andreas Roepstorff. Their participation is a good illustration of the interdisciplinary nature of our project.
Doctoral students
We are pleased to announce that we have two doctoral students directly linked to our research project. Gretchen Koch began her project here in October 2005 and Uffe Schjødt in January 2006. Their websites are under construction. The university is currently revamping its website so that individual webpages will conform to a common layout. At the moment, the website is unfinished and chaotic, so please have patience.
New secretary
It is also a pleasure to announce that Annette Larsen has been attached as secretary to our project.
Guest lecturer and doctoral student
Another interesting up-coming event is that we will have Prof. Joseph Bulbulia as guest lecturer during the period of July-December. His work in evolutionary psychology fits in nicely with our research area.
We are working on bringing a guest doctoral student to Aarhus as well as another guest lecturer. We will keep you posted.
Cooperation with focus area Communication, Cognition and Culture
We have also increased our cooperative ventures with the Communication, Cognition and Culture research focus area at the Faculty of Humanities in Aarhus. One of the up-coming events will be co-hosting the Niels Bohr Visiting Professors Chris Frith and Uta Frith, both of whom will be visiting Aarhus on and off during 2007-2010. The theme of their activities will be "Interacting Minds". We all look forward to having them. More information can be found at this address: http://www.pet.au.dk/~andreas/ccc/program.html
Belfast
Our cooperative ventures with the Institute of Cognition and Culture at Belfast have mostly consisted in sending visiting scholars to Belfast, but also filling out applications for various European projects. We will keep you informed on developments as soon as we get word.
Anthologies
Jeppe and I are currently editing collections of papers and hope that we can present the anthologies soon.
We look forward to a productive year!
Yours truly,
Armin
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Armin W. Geertz
Professor, Dr. Phil.
Head, Research Area on
Religion, Cognition and Culture
Department of the Study of Religion
University of Aarhus, Taasingegade 3
DK-8000 Aarhus C, Denmark
Office: Bldg. 442, room 211
http://www.teo.au.dk/en/research/current/cognition
