Research programme

Comparative Religion Network

Within the Comparative Religion Network staff and graduate students from LIAS-LUCSoR (and beyond) discuss ongoing work and cooperate on key issues in the comparative and systematic study of religion.

Contact: Markus Davidsen

The Comparative Religion Network (formerly: the Leiden Working Group for the Study of Fundamental Problems and Methods in the Scientific Study of Religion) brings together staff and graduate students from LIAS-LUCSoR (and beyond) who with their research and teaching aim to contribute to the comparative and systematic study of religion. Founded in 2021, the Comparative Religion Network hosts about six hybrid meetings a year, in the seminar room of the KITLV with the possibility of joining via Microsoft Teams, as well as several seminars on particular themes. The general theme for our research meetings in the Spring of 2025 is the study of the comparative study of religion in Leiden. If you want to be added to the Network’s email list, please contact Markus Altena Davidsen.

Meetings spring 2025

Date and place	Meeting type	Theme
Friday 14 February, 10.00-11.30 KITLV (HMO 1.30)	Research seminar	Lecture by Eric Jorink: Georg Hornius (1620-1670) and the comparative study of history, peoples and religions in Leiden Discussion about the symposium on research history; fine-tuning the programme.
Friday 14 March, 14.30-16.30, followed by drinks KITLV (HMO 1.30)	Research seminar	Shared readings on C.P. Tiele: C.P. Tiele (1860). “Het onderwijs in de godsdienstgeschiedenis aan de Leidsche Hoogeschool”, De Gids 24/1, 815-830. (Juni). C.P. Tiele (1897). Ch. 1. “1 Conception, aim, and method of the science of religion”, in Elements of the Science of Religion, Part I: Morphological, Edinburgh & London: W. Blackwood and sons.
Friday 28 March, 13.00-17.30 HMO 1.80	Seminar	The Hebrew Bible / Old Testament and Scribal Scholarship in Antiquity on the Occasion of the Eightieth Birthday of Arie van der Kooij
Friday 11 April, 13.00-18.00 Lipsius 1.48	Seminar	Het publieke belang van religiewetenschap
Monday 28 April, 19.30-22.00 Lipsius 1.47	Seminar	There and Back Again: Spirit Travels in Western Religious Traditions
Friday 23 May, all day Lipsius 1.47	Seminar	Symposium on the history of the comparative study of religion in Leiden
Friday 20 June, 13.30-16.30, followed by drinks KITLV (HMO 1.30)	Research seminar	Presentations of PhD projects