1st international symposium on freedom of religious expression in death
18-19 September 2023, University of Rome “La Sapienza” (hybrid format)
In an increasingly multicultural and multireligious society, religious freedom is one of the main problems modern nations must face. If in life many minorities are struggling to live their religion, the situation is even more drastic in death, an element of life too often ignored or marginalized.
Many minorities, and especially migrants, are unable to officiate their funerals according to their traditions. This poses a concrete obstacle in their integration process, forcing them to send their loved ones “back home”, even if they have died in countries where they have lived for decades, and started businesses and families. Moreover, as the Covid-19 pandemic made evident for everybody, being denied the right to a traditional funeral poses many interferences to a healthy grieving process, creating many emotional and psychological wounds that affects many citizens and their well-being.
The Freedom of Religious Expression in Death (FRED) project aims to explore this too often overlooked issue, and to bring together scholars from the many fields involved in this phenomenon (law, migration studies and religious studies to name just a few) to converse with each other and to work together to explore this understudied – but crucial for a true multicultural society – reality.
Conference fee: None
Abstracts (max 300 words) should be submitted by E-mail to giorgio.scalici@uniroma1.it
Papers will be considered for an edited book for the Death and Culture book series at Bristol University Press or a special issue for SMSR (Studi e Materiali di Storia delle Religioni) religious studies journal.
