2nd ReSpell International Conference | Anthropology of Religion in Transition: Transreligiosity, Global Shifts and the Future in the Field | Online Conference

The International Conference, organized by the research project Religion, Spirituality and Well-being. A Comparative Approach of Transreligiosity and Crisis in Southern Europe (ReSpell, ref. 2022.01229.PTDC), funded by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT), and co-organized by the Department of Social Anthropology and History, University of the Aegean, seeks to reimagine the anthropology of religion in light of the conceptual and ethnographic transformations shaping our world today. Over the last decades, anthropologists have documented how religious and spiritual practices increasingly transcend institutional, doctrinal, and national boundaries. These developments invite us to revisit the very foundations of the field of the anthropology of religion – its methods, theoretical premises, and epistemological commitments – and to ask how the anthropology of religion can once again become central to anthropological inquiry.

Taking ‘transreligiosity’ as a key conceptual lens, the conference explores how people navigate overlapping religious, spiritual, and secular worlds, and how these crossings challenge conventional understandings of belief, identity and the sacred, among others. At the same time, we wish to confront the institutional and disciplinary challenges faced by anthropologists of religion today, in Greece and southern Europe, where the field remains underrepresented, but also globally, where its boundaries and visibility are being renegotiated.

Keynote Lecture:

“Digital revolution” and the anthropological study of religion/s: challenges, pathways, dead-ends, with Prof. Lionel Obadia, University Lyon 2 France and Senior Chair at IUF (2025-2030)

Participation in the conference is free of charge; however, the registration is mandatory in order to receive the Zoom Link.

Register here: https://aegean-gr.zoom.us/meeting/register/P2-WlysMTi2PwbCaeiw3bg

The Zoom Link received after registration is valid for both conference days.

The conference will be held in the time-zone of Athens, Greece (GMT +3).

Organization: Project ReSpell | Department of Social Anthropology and History, University of the Aegean 

Organizing Comittee: 

Eugenia Roussou (Department of Social Anthropology and History, University of the Aegean / CRIA Iscte)

Joana Martins (CRIA NOVA FCSH/ In2Past)

Natasha Martins (CRIA Iscte / In2Past)