Le Centre d’études et d’interprétation du fait religieux (CEDIFR) organise un colloque international entre le 3 et le 6 mars 2016. Cette rencontre scientifique viendra clôturer un programme de recherche de trois ans intitulé : Rituels religieux au Liban entre partage et cloisonnement communautaire. Une dizaine de chercheurs ont cherché à documenter la vie religieuse au Liban à travers une série d’enquêtes sur différentes pratiques rituelles ayant cours dans le pays, sur la création et le fonctionnement des espaces d’échange et d’interaction liés aux rituels et sur les différents acteurs qui y sont impliqués.

Argument 

We are pleased to announce the international conference organized by the CEDIFR (Centre d’Etude et D’Interprétation du Fait Religieux) between the 3^rd and the 6^th of March 2016.  This scientific meeting will mark the closing of a three-year research program entitled: Religious rituals in Lebanon through shared devotions and sectarian barriers. This program was funded by the Council of research of the University Saint Joseph in Beirut in the frame of the CEDIFR, in collaboration with three other Lebanese academic institutions (UL - LAU and IFPO) and two foreign institutions (IICA and IDEMEC).

A dozen of researchers have tried to document the religious life in Lebanon through a series of surveys on different ritual practices, on the creation and functioning of the spaces of Exchange and interaction related to the rituals and the various actors involved. This meeting will enable to reflect on the contributions of the analysis of the rituals in the study of religion of nowadays.

The conference will bring together leading academic scientists, researchers and scholars in the domain of interest from around the world. The meeting will turn around the ritual and devotional practices seeking to document and analyze contemporary mutations. The meeting will offer to revisit rituals dealing with actors, gestures, words, the postures. Rituals can be regarded as one of the fields of identity production. Lectures could debate the multiple factors and mechanisms that contribute to the developments of interfaith spaces and partitioning with a focus on individual and collective devotional practices. The interest can also concern stakeholders who are involved as well as the role and the posture of each. A Session of this conference will be devoted to Visual Anthropology and especially the performance of filming rituals. Filmmakers on rituals are invited to present their work.

In this conference, organizers will also invite discussion of the following topics (but are not limited to): Individual rituals collective ritual versus, Pilgrimages and devotional practices, Instrumentalisation of rituals, Sacred and worship objects: stone, water, statues, icons, relics, amulets, holy books..., Renewed ritual: photography, audiovisual technology, digitization, internet..., Religion and body: ritual, ritual experience and emotion, Motivations: Protection, health, illness, disability, death and bereavement, Humor and rituals, Rituals and religious tourism, The role of actors in the transmission and dissemination of rituals (different multi-faith networks), in their conservation or rejection (by clerks), in their application, their creation, their transformation and their evolution, Ritual innovation, Research methods for the study of rituals.

Official Languages

French and English

Calendar

Paper submission by 15 October.

Proposals will have to provide names of presenter(s) and their email address(es), the name, institution affiliation, a summarized biography, the title of proposal of the paper with a summary of 300 signs to send in format Word or pdf.

All proposals should be sent as an e-mail or as a Word document attached to an e-mail to Nour FARRA HADDAD nour@neoslb.com

Notification of acceptance: 15 November

Final program: 15 December

Scientific Committee

• Nour Farra Haddad,
• Dionigi Albera,
• Franck Mermier,
• Michel Tabet.