RE21 - Religious Education in a Global-Local World 29/08/2013-30/08/2013

An international conference on Religious Education (of all kinds) which seeks to encourage a sociological and ethnographic/anthropological research-based approach to the study of RE, rather than the ‘top down’ approaches which often start from prescriptive legal, ideological or religious standpoints. The conference aims to foster international academic research into the diverse past, present (and possible future) forms of RE and to enhance public and professional understanding, in Ireland and beyond, of the complex issues and debates surrounding RE in the wider world.

Religious Education (RE) is a term that conveys diverse and often incompatible meanings to different constituencies. For some, ‘RE’ means religious nurturing, either tailored to parental views or meant to inculcate a uniform religiosity. For others, RE means learning about the many religious and non-religious world-views and secular ethics that exist, not promoting one religion or another. Some seek to avoid the ambiguous term ‘religious education’, replacing it with terms such as ‘education about religions and beliefs’ or ‘the religious dimension of intercultural education’.

The RE21 – Religious Education in a Global-Local World conference starts from two assumptions: (a) that RE has and will continue to have multiple and contested meanings and (b) that local interpretations of RE are increasingly in negotiation with each other as a consequence of globalisation. The RE21 conference emphasises a student-centred approach, viewing any kind of ‘RE’ (or indeed its absence) as a formative lived experience for pupils. It stresses a bottom-up, sociological and ethnographic/anthropological research-based approach to the study of RE, rather than the ‘top down’ approaches which often start from prescriptive legal, ideological or religious standpoints.

One aim of this conference is to further international academic research into the diverse past, present (and possible future) forms of RE and we hope to publish selected papers from the conference. A second aim is through discussion and debate at the conference to enhance public and professional understanding, in Ireland and beyond, of the complex issues and debates surrounding RE in the wider world.

We encourage early-career scholars, including advanced postgraduate research students, to share their empirical research findings and insights with others. Subject to availability, priority for funding assistance (see below) will be given to early-career scholars and those from countries geographically distant from Ireland. The RE21 Conference which takes place on Thursday-Friday 29-30 August 2013 is timed to help overseas delegates to attend both the RE21 conference in Cork and the ‘Religion, Migration, Mutation’ EASR/BASR Conference in nearby Liverpool, UK, 3-6 September 2013.

Delegates from all relevant disciplines who are actively engaged in peer-reviewed research and publication in the field of RE worldwide are warmly invited to Cork. Topics may include (but are not limited to) the following:

• Childhood’s role and children’s agency in RE and wider socio-religious formations,
• [Auto-] biographical research on experiences and evaluations of RE,
• Qualitative studies and quantitative surveys of student and teacher attitudes to RE,
• Historical and comparative studies of RE across cultures.
• RE teacher education and accreditation,
• The impact, especially on pupils’ experience and evaluations of RE, of particular configurations of state-religion-education relations.
• Policy analysis in relation to RE and cognate fields.

RE21 Registration (waged): Registration Fee for salaried delegates. Includes tea/coffee, 2 lunches and conference dinner - €70
RE21 Registration (unwaged): Registration Fee for those with no regular salary. Includes tea/coffee, 2 lunches and conference dinner - €30

Contact: Prof. Brian Bocking
Tel: +353 21 490 2359. Email: