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Religious Refugees in Europe, Asia and the Americas – 6th to 21st centuries
Workshop, 16-18 June 2005
Centre for the Study of Human Settlement and Historical Change
National University of Ireland, Galway
Abstract
For centuries, differing religious and cultural identities have caused problems within societies, in particular when - as e.g. in the early modern period - states attempt to establish religious and cultural conformity. The migration of dissenting religious groups – whether forced or voluntary - can be understood as a means of escaping orthodoxy and of maintaining cultural diversity. In both cases, migrants brought their cultural diversity into the countries of refuge. These new destinations now had to succeed in what the homeland had failed: they had to integrate these newly arriving diversities while simultaneously enabling them to assimilate – if possible – to the normative systems of the hosting societies.
The workshop’s aim is to analyse in a comparative perspective European, American and Asian concepts of religious conformity and of religious diversity. Are there “ideal” patterns – existing over time and space – to deal with religious diversity? Under which circumstances does religious diversity lead to expulsion or voluntary migration? Do “received” concepts as to immigration policy exist? How do they change over time and space? How do religious minorities react to expulsion or the pressure of conformity?
To answer these questions, the proposed papers will provide examples taking the early medieval period, the early modern period and the 19th and 21st centuries. It will bring together research carried out on groups expelled for their non-conformity or migrating to other destinations to safeguard their religious identity.
To ensure that the various papers will lend themselves to comparison a format will be introduced. All papers will deal with the political and religious situation of the country from which the refugees originally came, the political and religious situation of the country of refuge, the emigration and immigration policies being enforced and the perception of hosts and refugees and integration problems and processes.
Provisional Programme
Thursday, 16th June
17.00
Welcome and Opening Remarks: Prof. Dr. Nicholas Canny, Academic Director, Centre for the Study of Human Settlement and Historical Change (CSHSHC), National University of Ireland (NUI), Galway
17.15-19.30
From Diversity to Orthodoxy? Migration and Integration of Religious Refugees in Medieval and Early Modern Europe: 6th –17th centuries
Chair: Dr. Susanne Lachenicht (NUI, Galway)
Eric Graff (NUI, Galway): Columbanus and Irish Monks in Diaspora (6th/7th centuries).
Prof. Dr. Seymour Phillips (University College Dublin): Jews in 13th century England.
Dr. Douglas Catterall (Cameron University, Oklahoma): Scots and Sephardic Jews in the United Provinces (16th – 17th century).
Discussion
Friday, 17th June
10.00-13.00
“Modern” States and Religious Diversity in Europe (late 17th – early 20th centuries).
Chair: Prof. Dr. Hermann Wellenreuther (University of Göttingen)
Dr. Sandra Maria Hynes (NUI, Maynooth): Dissenters in England, Scotland and Ireland (1660-1685).
Dr. Susanne Lachenicht (NUI, Galway): Huguenots in Ireland, Britain and Brandenburg-Prussia (1660-1750).
Coffee Break
Chair: Prof. Dr. Nicholas Canny
Dr. Colm O’Conaill (NUI, Galway): Politics, Religion and Family Identity. The Exile and Return of the Dillon Family from the Williamite Conquest to the French Revolution (1692-1789).
Dr. Róisin Healy (NUI, Galway): The German Empire and the Jesuits (1872-1917).
Discussion
13.00-15.00 Lunch
15.00-18.00
Migration and Integration of Religious Refugees in the Atlantic World (17th - 18th centuries).
Chair: Prof. Dr. Claudia Schnurmann (University of Hamburg)
Prof. Dr. Rosalind J. Beiler (University of Central Florida): Information Networks and the Dynamics of Migration: Swiss Anabaptist Exiles and their Host Communities (Palatinate, the Netherlands, and British Colonies, 1650-1730).
Prof. Dr. Bertrand van Ruymbeke (Université de Paris VIII): Huguenots in North-America (17th-18th centuries).
Coffee break
Chair: Eric Graff
Prof. Dr. Hermann Wellenreuther (University of Göttingen): The Herrenhuther in Europe and the British Colonies (1735-1776).
Dr. Christine Hucho (Mainz): The Schwenkfelder and the Herrenhuther Women in the British Colonies.
Discussion
Saturday, 18th June
10.00-13.00
Christians, Jews and Muslims: Migration within and from South-East-Europe and the Near East (17th -21st centuries).
Chair: Dr. William O’Reilly (NUI, Galway and Centre for History & Economics, Cambridge)
Claus Gattermann (University of Göttingen): Confessional Changes in the County of Baranya after 1686.
Prof. Dr. Anja Pistor-Hatam (University of Kiel): Shiite Migration from Iran to the Ottoman Empire.
Coffee break
Dr. Kate Daniels (University of Cambridge): Religious Conflict and Migration to North America: Arab Christians in the Late Ottoman Empire.
Dr. Makram Khoury-Machool (University of Cambridge): Religion, Ideology or Conformity? Jewish Iraqi Migrants to Israel.
Discussion
12.00-13.30
Wrap-up Session and Closing Remarks
Prof. Dr. Nicholas Canny, Prof. Dr. Hermann Wellenreuther, Prof. Dr. Claudia Schnurmann,
Dr. Susanne Lachenicht
We would like to thank the Fritz Thyssen Foundation, Cologne, Germany and the Faculty of Arts, NUI Galway for funding this workshop.
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