MIDDLEBURY — The Religion Department at Middlebury College will present the Scott Symposium on Secularism on the afternoon of Friday, Jan. 25, at the Robert A. Jones ’59 House Conference Room, with panels at 1, 2:30 and 4 p.m. Community members are welcome to attend.
The symposium consists of Middlebury faculty members from a variety of departments discussing secularism in their teaching and research.
The central questions they aim to address are:
“Do we live in a secular age? What does it mean to make such a claim, and to what extent is it true? How do secular arrangements differ across cultures and societies? What are the histories of secularism? What is the relationship between secularism and religion? How similar is the secular experience, in terms of its affective and/or functional role in human life, to religious experience?”
Professors making short presentations include Ata Anzali (Religion), Erik Bleich (Political Science), James Davis (Religion), Justin Doran (Religion), Rebecca Gould (Environmental Studies), Bert Johnson (Political Science), Paul Monod (History), Elizabeth Morrison (Religion), Jenn Ortegren (Religion), Katy Smith Abbott (History of Art) and David Stoll (Anthropology).
This event is supported by the Charles P. Scott Endowment.