EVENT DETAILS

Religious Studies Multi-campus Workshop/Conference on "Religion and Nationalism"

May 17-18, 2012
UC Irvine Campus - Humanities Gateway Room 1030

Religious beliefs and nationalist loyalties are among the most powerful
convictions and motivational forces in the world we know. We see them at
work to a varying degree in many different situations, from Ireland to
China, from Afghanistan to Argentina, from Israel to the United States.
Sometimes they reinforce each other; often they are at odds, even
internally or within the same country or region; frequently they
interact in unexpected ways. Neither can be assumed to be always present.

Nationalism is essentially a phenomenon of the last 500 years, much more
recent in history than racial, tribal, or dynastic feelings. Religion is
as old as mankind, yet some have seen religion dying out in the face of
modernity, while others view it today as growing stronger, especially in
the non-western world.

What social needs do religion and/or nationalism fulfill? What human
psychology do they reveal? What realities do they convey? What illusions
do they offer? Are they "imagined communities"? Or inescapable building
blocks? Do they offer important clues as to who we are?

Twenty distinguished scholars from the region -- eight paper-givers and
twelve commentators -- offer us their thoughts about these fascinating
phenomena in examinations of different country settings.

*Thursday, May 17 - Humanities Gateway 1030*

8:15am Coffee


8:50am Welcome


9:00am ISRAEL - Deborah Hertz, UC San Diego

Commentary: Michael Alexander, UC Riverside


10:45am ARAB SPRING - Mark Levine, UC Irvine

Commentary: James Gelvin, UC Los Angeles


12:30pm Lunch Break


1:30pm IRAN -Yuhan Vevaina, Stanford

Commentary: Touraj Daryaee, UC Irvine & Afshin Matin-Asagari, CSU Los
Angeles


3:15pm COMPARATIVE - Richard D. Hecht, UCSB

Commentary:David Rapoport, UC Los Angeles & Ron Hassner, UC Berkeley

*Friday, May 18 - Humanities Gateway 1030*

8:15am Coffee

9:00am UNITED STATES - Jack Miles, UC Irvine

Commentary: Paul Levesque, CSU Fullerton & Jon R. Stone, CSU Long Beach

10:45am CHINA - Perry Anderson, UC Los Angeles

Commentary: Jeffrey Wasserstrom, UC Irvine

12:30pm Lunch Break

1:30pm CHINA - Chaohua Wang, Independent Scholar

Commentary: Richard Madsen, UC San Diego

3:15 RUSSIA - Ivan Strenski, UC Riverside

Commentary: Lynn Sargeant, CSU Fullerton & Patrick Patterson, UC San Diego

The conference is supported by grants from the UCI Humanities
Collective, the UCI Program in International Studies and the Center for
Global Peace and Conflict Studies at UCI. Parking is available in the
UCI Student Center Parking Structure (West Peltason Dr. and Pereira).
The UC Irvine campus honors faculty/staff permits from other University
of California campuses for the purpose of short-term visits. Please
notify the parking attendant upon arrival. A limited number of
complimentary parking permits are available to the public.

To request a complimentary permit or for questions about the conference,
please contact Marc Kanda at (949) 824-6522 or mhkanda@uci.edu
.