Our 2024 Calendar comprises 6 webinars presented by esteemed international scholars working in the field of science, religion and health:
Recorded webinars
If you happened to miss it, we encourage you to explore our complete webinars available on our YouTube channel:
Details and registration for webinars
#1 Faith and Fertility: A Cross-Cultural Exploration of Religious Influence on Infertility Treatments in Buenos Aires and Tanger»
Dr. Rosa Martínez, University of Barcelona
Dr Gabriela Irrazábal, Conicet/RMIT Europe
13th February 2024 – 13h to 14h30 (CET)
Abstract:
This presentation will analyse two distinct empirical research projects conducted in Buenos Aires (Argentina) and Tanger (Morocco) in comparative perspective. By exploring the normative frameworks in each country and discussing empirical research in both cities, we aim to illuminate the extent to which religious beliefs influence the utilization and acceptance of specific infertility treatments within these two case studies. Buenos Aires, characterized by its historical Catholic influence and a context of medical pluralism, will be contrasted with Morocco, a nation governed by the principles of Sunni Islam. The intersection of religion, science, and health will be elucidated through a focused examination of the use of donated material and the diverse conceptualizations and perceptions surrounding the notion of families in these contrasting cultural contexts.
Registration for Zoom link at https://forms.gle/sroVLVA1kjVPV9yc6
Author’s bio:
Dr. Gabriela Irrazábal is an adjunct researcher at CEIL CONICET in Argentina and IDEAHL Research Fellow at RMIT Europe. She has a Ph.D. in social sciences from the University of Buenos Aires and a B.A. in Sociology from the National University of La Plata (UNLP), Argentina. Her field of study is the intersection between science, beliefs and public health. In particular, she studies social determinants of (digital) health and cutting-edge issues regarding bioethics at the beginning, reproduction and end of life. She is an associate professor in research methods at national universities in Argentina and has been a visiting professor in Latin America, Europe and the US.
Dr. Rosa Martinez-Cuadros is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Barcelona and a member of GENI (Group on Gender, Identity and Diversity) at UB, and of ISOR (Research group on Sociology of Religion) at UAB. She has a PhD in Sociology from the Autonomous University of Barcelona, and her doctoral research was on Islam and political participation. Her new field of study is the intersection between Islam, science and health with a gender perspective. She has recently conducted a pilot study on the use of infertility treatments in Barcelona and Tanger. She has also collaborated in research projects on religious diversity, gender and public space.
#2 Yoga, Science and Health: The Social and Discursive Construction of the Yoga Body
Dr Matteo Di Placido, University of Turin
*Moderated by Prof. Stefania Palmisano, University of Turin
27th Feb 2024 – 13h to 14h30 (CET)
Abstract:
Modern yoga, a body-mind practice developed in the last hundred and fifty years, is gaining international appeal largely thanks to its growing scientific legitimacy as a therapeutic intervention and adjunct treatment (alongside traditional biomedical interventions) as well as thanks to the industry’s inclusivist rhetoric about ‘yoga for everybody’. Starting from ongoing ethnographic research on the pedagogies of modern yoga in Italy (2017 – current), this presentation discusses the ways in which yoga intersects with religious, scientific and healthist idioms. More specifically, it will focus on the social and discursive construction of the yoga body, that is, the body cultivated through constant practice, the expert guidance of yoga teachers and the pursuing of well-being and self-actualization. The presentation will provide a brief discussion of the birth anddevelopment of modern yoga in the second half of the twentieth century focusing on some of its key actors before moving to the analysis of the evolution of the yoga body and its associated representations in the light of yoga’s explosive transnational diffusion. It will conclude emphasizing the reciprocal and reinforcing relationships between scientific, healthist and religious practical-discursive logics in the construction of the yoga body and its alignment with the current neoliberal zeitgeist and its performative demands.
Registration for Zoom link at https://forms.gle/PHHLCWNDnH7fWqWF6
Author’s Bio:
Dr Matteo Di Placido holds a PhD in Sociology and Social Research (University of Milan – Bicocca). He is a cultural sociologist and currently works as a Post-doctoral Fellow (assegnista) for the University of Turin. Matteo was a Visiting Scholar at the Department of Political Science and the Center for Ideas and Society at the University of California Riverside (UCR) and an Academic Associate at the Cardiff School of Sport and Health Sciences at the Metropolitan University of Cardiff, Wales. His research interests span from the processes of transformation, translation and transmission of yoga and Buddhism, the hybridization between the registers of health and salvation, the discursive study and the politics of scholarly knowledge production and social theory.
#3 The universalization of spirituality: politics, medicine, and science
Dr Rodrigo Toniol, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro
18th April 2024 – 13h to 14h30 (GMT -3) / *18h to 19h30 (CET)
Abstract:
This research delves into a novel and significant exploration of the phenomenon of spirituality gaining legitimacy in the official health field. It’s a journey into how secular institutions have embraced this concept, integrating it into the fabric of official health attention. The empirical focus is on three pivotal dimensions of the healthcare field: clinic, scientific medical research, and public health. This research, therefore, has as its main objective to analyze the way in which spirituality has been established and legitimized as a health dimension from the use of this category in public policies, clinical routines of care, and as an object of privileged investigation in groups of medical research.
Registration for Zoom link: https://forms.gle/KjEZ1DQcQcSKRBaz9
Dr Rodrigo Toniol is Associate Professor at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro/Brazil and member of the Brazilian Academy of Sciences. His research themes focus on the areas of religion, health and science.
#4 Spiritual coaching and holistic practices in Canada. Legal, social and epistemological considerations
Géraldine Mossière, Institut d’Études Religieuses, Université de Montréal
Paul Bramadat, Centre for Studies in Religion and Society, University of Victoria
30th April 2024 – 13h to 14h30 (Montréal GMT -4) / *19h to 20h30 (Barcelona CET)
Abstract:
Spiritual coaching based on holistic practices is raising and has lately become an industry on its own. In this presentation, we explore some of the social and legal issues raised by this growing phenomenon and propose conceptual and methodological avenues for more in-depth studies. Exploratory data will feed discussion.
Registration for Zoom link: https://forms.gle/tWwmUax3AK5GkseE8
Dr Géraldine Mossière is an anthropologist and associate professor at the Institute of Religious Studies of Université of Montreal. Her more than fifty professional publications address contemporary religiosities including religious diversity in secular societies. She has also published and edited numerous books and special reviews on contemporary spiritualities as well as conversion processes and experiences (see Converties à l’islam. Parcours de femmes au Québec et France, Presses de l’Université de Montréal, 2013; New spiritualities and the cultures of well-being, Springer, 2022). Her current works address the healing dimension of spiritualities, including spiritualities in public institutions, mind-body practices as well as spiritual coaching.
Paul Bramadat is Professor and Director of the Centre for Studies in Religion and Society at the University of Victoria. He holds teaching appointments in the Department of History and the Religious Studies Program. He is interested in the intersections between secularism, religious radicalization, securitization, post-colonialism, and religious identity in contemporary Canada. Much of his research is interdisciplinary and policy-relevant, and revolves around emerging understandings of religious, political, and ethnic identities in rapidly evolving liberal democratic societies. Author of The Church on the World’s Turf, and editor of several books, such as International Migration and the Governance of Religious Diversity, Religion and Ethnicity in Canada, Religious Radicalization and Securitization in Canada and Beyond, and Public Health in the Age of Anxiety: Religious and Cultural Roots of Vaccine Hesitancy.
#5 Building bridges between Science and the African Healing Traditions of Southern Africa: A conversation with Sinethemba Makanya (Inyanga, PhD.)
Dr Lorena Carrasco Nuñez. Department of Sociology, University of Witwatersrand
Dr Sinethemba Makanya. Centre for the Study of Race, Gender, and Class, University of Johannesburg
23rd June 2024 – 14h to 15h30 (UTC +2) Johannesburg/Barcelona
Abstract:
In this seminar, Sinethemba will be in conversation with Lorena Nunez Carrasco (PhD), a medical anthropologist based at the School of Social Sciences at Wits University. Lorena has researched healing practices in African Initiated Churches to understand how they work addressing mental health and wellbeing among migrant communities.
Some of the questions we will be discussing in the seminar are:
· The particularities of her journey through, and transits between an African and scientific traditions.
· The experience of learning and teaching at the crossroads of these systems of knowledge and practice -dissonances, incommensurability, points of encounter- what bridges can be built?
Registration for Zoom link: https://forms.gle/wz26YpepKnPGVGob9
Sinethemba is an Inyanga (Indigenous Healer) specialising in psycho-spiritual dis-ease, mental disease, and sexual reproductive health. She serves as an academic coordinator and lectures in the streams of Medical and Health Humanities and Health Systems Science at the Department of Family Medicine and Primary Care at the University of Witwatersrand. Sinethemba is currently completing her postdoc at the Centre for the Study of Race, Gender, and Class, University of Johannesburg. She completed her PhD in Medical Humanities and Psychology at the Wits Institute of Social and Economic Research (WISER), University of Witwatersrand in which she examined traditional healer’s constructions of mental health.
Lorena Núñez is an Associate Professor in Sociology at the University of the Witwatersrand Johannesburg, South Africa. Her previous work has centered on African Initiated Churches and the intersection of faith, illness, and urban life. Presently, she is investigating mourning experiences amidst migration and displacement, particularly within the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Lorena is a co-editor and contributor to the Routes and Rites to the City volume, a co-editor and contributor to the book Healing and Change in the City of Gol’ (Springer, 2015) and has published in numerous journals including African Studies, African Journal of AIDS Research, and Health and Place.
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