On 31 August 2021, members of the RETOPEA team presented a panel on Religious Toleration and Peace (RETOPEA): Engaging the Present with the Past in European Contexts at the 18th Annual Conference of the European Association for the Study of Religions (EASR).

RETOPEA collaborators will be speaking at the British Association for the Study of Religions (BASR) Annual Conference held virtually at the University of Edinburgh from 6 to 7 September 2021.

We are looking for a Project Coordinator (Assistant to the Project Leader) for the remaining time of the project (1 September 2021 – 30 September 2022)

Today we started a two-day workshop in Granada. The Fundación Euroárabe, together with the University of Granada and The Open University (the United Kingdom), has organized a workshop with young people from different countries to work, in a creative way, on the topics of religious tolerance and peace. This activity takes place within the framework of the activities that the we are carrying out these months in different cities of the United Kingdom, Belgium, and Spain.

Several European societies are still suffering from the conflicts rooted in the past. The Workshop will discuss the outcomes of 12 EU funded international research projects that dealt with the processes of negotiating those troubled pasts. By analysing the discourses in history, media, politics and arts & culture the workshop explores how these discourses impact European societies. Join us on May 28th 2021!

On May 19th RETOPEA team will present the project's use in teaching tolerance during the 16th edition of Warszawskie Inicjatywy Edukacyjne (Warsaw Education Initiatives).
This year's event is dedicated to Warsaw as a city of reconciliation. Alicja Bielak will give a lecture "Warsaw confederation - between tolerance and acceptance" and present the RETOPEA's clipping on the topic in front of the teachers and students.

The European Ombudsman admitted that a community page linked migrants to terrorism The stairs of the public institute Aliste host an intense chat between teenagers. A spring sun heats up a debate on aporophobia, refugees, human rights, and prospects for the rural future as the bell decrees recess time. The stampede of students makes the chairs and tables rattle before fleeing to the patio and outside the educational center of Alcañices (Zamora), a town of 1,000 inhabitants.

As part of an EU-funded, Horizon 2020 project, the Routledge Handbook on the Governance of Religious Diversity (2021) looks at how religious diversity is managed, governed, and accommodated in a broad variety of settings. The volume provides both an overview of how different states have historically navigated the entanglements between national and religious identities, as well as an assessment of current practices, norms, and institutions. Interested? Listen to the recorded webinar devoted to the book.

On 28 May 2021 (9.00AM-5PM CET) H2020 REPAST project – Revisiting the Past, Anticipating the Future teleconference will be held. One of the quests participating in the roundtables will by our PI, Prof. Patrick Pasture.

The RETOPEA team have run two workshops in schools in Tampere in Finland (from November 2020 to February 2021 ) and Tartu in Estonia (from February to April 2021) with students aged 16-17. These workshops aimed to engage teenagers in meaningful and creative ways with the subject of religious toleration and peace, both in history and the present day, through film-making.

Happy Birthday to Prof. Irene Dingel and congratulations to Leibniz-Institut für Europäische Geschichte for launching another promising project in religious studies! Editors of the new project are Judith Becker, Corinna Ehlers and Andrea Hofmann.

During the upcoming three Thursdays an online conference "Together and Side by Side: Religious Communities and Civil Society in South-Eastern Europe" will be held. The conference is dedicated to the engagement of the religious communities with civil society in South-Eastern Europe after 1989. Join the discussion between 29 April and 20 May 2021.

Maybe you have already noticed that some of our clippings are linked with Leibniz-Institut für Europäische Geschichte projects? Among them, you will find "On site, in time. Negotiating differences in Europe" prepared under the guidance of Joachim Berger, Irene Dingel and Johannes Paulmann.

What can students of politics, philosophy, economics or modern history learn from studying the early modern period? Christophe Schellekens (Utrecht University) writes for The Many-Headed Monster blog about his experience in teaching early modern history in non-history degrees.

Next week The European Social Science History Conference begins, at which RETOPEA appears in as many as 3 panels! Keep an eye on our schedule.

On March 17, 2021, 6:00-7:00 PM CET Herman J. Selderhuis, dean of the Theological University of Apeldoorn will give a presentation "Early Modern Studies as a Key to Understanding the Religious Situation in Europe Today". The webinar will inform on the state of research, on lacunae and desiderata and aims and providing insight into how RESILIENCE can contribute to this research. At the same time the webinar aims at collecting feedback from users: what are their needs in this respect?

Review by Mikko Ketola (Faculty of Theology, University of Helsinki) of the panel "Do women have a future in the Catholic Church?” organized by "The Tablet" for the occasion of the International Women's Day.

On March 6, 2021, 11:00 AM (PST) we invite you to listen the discussion with Merve Reyhan Kayikci on her latest book. This lecture unpacks how the ethical is embodied through an examination of the lived experiences of female Muslim volunteers in Belgium. It sheds light on the ethical turn in the anthropology of Islam, exploring how volunteering enables the space and time for Muslim women to commit to both orthodox religious and civic social values. As volunteering and caring for people requires careful deliberation of their society and their position as Muslims women in that society, this research unpacks how multiple belongings of Muslim women in Belgium are negotiated, balanced, and influenced.

Everyone has heard the Ciceronian maxim "History is life's teacher”. Yet behind this initial idea there are hiding history teachers, university courses, textbooks, and other concrete ways of conveying historical knowledge and expertise. Starting from this maxim, we would like to invite you to a debate that will consider the transmission of such historical expertise and how its fruits can be applied in practice. One of the key elements in this discussion will indeed be applied history and its potential in educational, policymaking, and other practical contexts. See you on March 9, 2021 02:00 PM CET!

Meet our Research Data Manager, Ilenia Laudito from Leibniz-Institut für Europäische Geschichte and read an #FacesOfRetopea interview.

The report "Counter-radicalisation in the classroom" offers an assessment of the effects of counter-radicalisation policies in the education sector through the empirical analysis of eight grass-roots projects located in schools across the member states of the Council of Europe (Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Germany, Hungary, Norway, and the United Kingdom).

We present the interview with Prof. Violet Soen (KU Leuven) as part of the #FacesOfRetopea series. Prof. Soen talks about using early-modern peace treatises in educational activities. The RETOPEA team has prepared a series of clippings on religious peace agreements that we will soon present in more detail.

Today starts the World Interfaith Harmony Week 2021 webinar series organised by Baraza and URI Europe. The intention of the organizers is to offer opportunities for learning, connection and insights that can further inform and support activities for peace, justice and healing.

On the occasion of the International Holocaust Memorial Day we share the document based on the story of Stephen Breuer, a retired Jewish academic and potter. For years he has been talking to teenagers in local schools where he lives about his experiences of living through the Holocaust.

We continue our series "Faces of Retopea" and today we present one of the short interviews given by our team members. This time Mikko Ketola (University of Helsinki) shares with us his impressions of working for the project

On 22 January 2021, we had a virtual mid-term review at European Commission. It was a very productive day filled with intense and highly productive discussions about the further development of our project and the way we can deal with covid-related hurdles.

The Center for Democracy, Toleration and Religion is pleased to work in conjunction with Reset Dialogues on Civilizations to host the conference “Toleration in Comparative Perspective: Concepts, Practices, Documents” from January 19-23, 2021, over Zoom.

Interested in religious studies? Sign for the last workshops organized by ReIReS consortium! So far five successful ReIReS DH Courses and four Schools have been held. In 2021 there are still three trainings to go in the months March, April, and June.

We start the new year with some good news: our EuARe panel has been resubmitted and 'RETOPEan' collaborators and friends are still invited to join the conference with fresh topics. New proposals will continue to be received until Monday, March 1st, 2021 (23:59, GMT+1), so there is still time to secure your spot on 2021 Program.

Today between 6:00 and 8:00 PM you will have an occasion to listen to Dr. Laura Galián (Universidad de Granada) who will present her research about Religious Interactions in Textbooks: Spain versus Europe ("Las interacciones religiosas en los libros de texto: España frente a Europa") during the session "Islamic Religious Education". Symposium is organised by our partner Fundación Euroárabe de Altos Estudios.

Dr. Merve Kayikci (KU Leuven) published an article on alternative heritage spaces and British Muslim women's endeavors for a more inclusive heritage. It was published as a book chapter in "A Diversity of Paradigms" within the Brill series: "Research in the Social Scientific Study of Religion", vol. 31.

On 10th December (6 PM) Prof. Elena Arigita (Universidad de Granada) will present RETOPEA project during the session "The Digitisation of the Humanities: Innovation Projects for Inclusive, Innovative and Reflective Societies" within the symposium organized by our partner Fundación Euroárabe de Altos Estudios.

We would like to highly recommend the project Religiöse Friedenswahrung und Friedensstiftung in Europa 1500–1800. Our team members Prof. Irene Dingel (as PI) and Dr. Henning P. Juergens from Leibniz-Institut für Europäische Geschichte prepared digital editions of peace treatises from the early modern period in cooperation with Herzog-August Bibliothek Wolfenbüttel.

On the 26th of November 2020, Stefanie Sinclair (Open University, UK) delivered a framework paper introducing the RETOPEA project at an online bilingual Polish/ German workshop on ‘The potential for integration of monotheistic religions in Europe’ organised by the Kreisau Foundation (undacja „Krzyżowa” dla Porozumienia Europejskiego) in Poland.

We are pleased to announce that Patrick Pasture has published a new article entitled "Processing Puritanism in Early New England and the Birth of Religious Freedom" in "Bibliothèque de la Revue d'histoire ecclésiastique" (2020, p. 161-212).

Lidija Georgijeva, head of the Skopje division of our project and leader of the team working on policy recommendations based on the research and educational experience gathered throughout the project, has taken part yesterday in an online conference organized by the Jean Monnet Project EUVadis based in Thessaloniki, Greece.

The head of our project, Patrick Pasture, has spoken in the program Buiten het Boekje, a podcast of Bib Leuven, in which unprecedented figures in the world of literature, culture and media in Leuven are invited every week. The program is led by Victor Longin and Jeremy Van der Haegen.

Tomorrow (Monday, 16th November) our partner Fundación Euroárabe de Altos Estudios starts the online Symposium "The Islam in the Mediterranean 'glocal'. The memory and uses of the past". Two members of the RETOPEA project will present their research during the conference.

On 20 November Dr. Merve Reyhan Kayikci (KU Leuven) will be introducing her new book, "Islamic Ethics and Female Volunteering: Committing to Society, Committing to God," during a webinar organized by Leuven Centre For The Study Of Islam, Culture and Society.

Last Friday Dr. Laura Galián (University of Grenada) gave a lecture about "Religious pluralism in political discourse: Memory and uses of the past in Spain" during the seminar 'Encounters in Chapiz with young researchers' within the Science Week in Andalusia (Semana de la Ciencia en Andalucía). Read the main aims of her presentation.

Today at 17:00 our colleague Dr. Laura Galian will take part in the seminar 'Encounters in Chapiz with young researchers' within the Science Week in Andalusia presenting her research about «Religious pluralism in political discourse: Memory and uses of the past in Spain».

Henning P. Jürgens from the Leibniz Institute of European History (IEG) talks about the challenges of working in distributed international teams in times of the corona pandemic and about the benefits of RESILIENCE for research projects in Religious Studies.

The Department of Religious Studies at the Open University (UK) conducts a series marking Black History Month. Within this enterprise, John Maiden wrote a note on Black Majority Churches and the transformation of British Christianity in which he describes what impact it has on post-1945 British Christianity.

It is not uncommon to see Europe, and in particular the idea of European unity, in the long term as the product of a ‘secularization’ of Christendom, and the rise of tolerance as the result of secular Enlightened thinking. However, secularization is a poor concept to approach the long term transition from (medieval) Christendom to modern concepts of Europe. Nevertheless modern Europe (and to some extent the West) is the heir of Christendom as it actually continues one of its most fundamental features, namely the longing for homogeneity and the fear of diversity.

We are happy to announce that our team member, Karel Van Nieuwenhuyse (KU Leuven) has been selected by the team of historians as the winner of the annual price for scientific communication by the Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium for the sciences and arts. Karel received this price for his role in the publication "A World History of Flanders".

We encourage you to attend an online meeting in the framework of Metaforum (KU Leuven) today at 12:00 during which our colleague Dr. Bram de Ridder will talk about the way in which the Flemish media referred to historical precedents such as the SARS and MERS virus in reporting on the corona crisis. Join the lecture online.