Chair for the Study of Religion. Interview with Alain Dieckhoff and Stéphane Lacroix

The Chair for the Study of Religion is the first initiative of its kind in the French academic landscape. Its mission is to bring together researchers working on religion; to consolidate and develop the courses that Sciences Po offers on this theme; to participate in public and scholarly debate; and to support the emerging generation of researchers. Alain Dieckhoff and Stéphane Lacroix answer our questions about this new project.

How did the Chair for the study of religion come about?

A fair number of Sciences Po researchers have been working on the question of religion for many years, either individually or collectively. Among the collective projects are the Observatoire international du fait religieux (International Observatory on Religion) that CERI runs with the Sociétés, religions, laïcités group (Societies, Religion, and Secularism, EPHE/CNRS), and the IRN programme “Contextualizing Radicalization” led by Nadia Marzouki. This context explains why we have decided to create a chair for the study of religion. We worked together on the project, thinking about how to bring together existing research at Sciences Po on the theme of religion while also highlighting innovative and lesser known work.

How would you define the theme of the Chair?

The thematic basis of the Chair is religion, and more specifically (but not exclusively) Islam. The Chair proposes a comparative and interdisciplinary approach to the study of religions through the social sciences. We intend to involve all the social science disciplines: anthropology, history, political science, sociology, geography, etc. On the other hand, our approach is not philological or orientalist.

What are the Chair’s objectives?

There are four objectives: to involve as many researchers working on religion as possible; to bring together and develop the courses that Sciences Po offers on this theme, at undergraduate, Master’s, and doctoral level; to participate in public and scholarly debate and, finally, to support early career researchers. We are talking about a chair, so it has a real link with teaching. We will host a visiting scholar through the Chair, and this scholar, while collaborating on research with his or her colleagues, will also contribute to the teaching component. The Chair is also meant to foster academic debate, with round table discussions between researchers, and public debate, for example through the organisation of regular conferences. We want to be present in the public arena and for our work to be public, because we are not only interested in engaging with other academics, but also with a wider audience. We plan to hold four conferences a year. The first, called Faith versus Identity? Religion in the Cultural Wars, will take place on 22 October via webinar. After a short presentation of the Chair, there will be a debate moderated by Nadia Marzouki, researcher at CERI, with Olivier Roy, professor at the European Institute in Florence and Adrien Candiard, researcher at the Dominican Institute for Oriental Studies in Cairo. A second conference will be held before the end of the year, the third in March, and the fourth in May.

Finally, the chair will support the emerging generation of researchers working on religion through the First Book Prize to be awarded annually. We chose to create a first book prize because we know how important a step the first book is in an academic career and how much depends on a researcher’s first publication—which may stem from their thesis but not always—in terms of standing out in an increasingly difficult academic job market. By awarding this prize, we hope to give a boost to early career researchers. There is no age limit; we accept all first manuscripts, regardless of the author’s age. Several thesis awards already exist, and this prize is intended to be complementary to them.

Link to the Chair's homepage.

Interview by Corinne Deloy, CERI. Translated by Jessica Edwards.