About the network


The Race, Religion, Secularism Network (RRS) was launched in 2018 by scholars based in the Netherlands, at Radboud University—which hosts the RRC project—and the University of Amsterdam, which hosts the EnGendering Europe’s Muslim Question project, headed by Sarah Bracke. The RRS network consists of a group of scholars - -at different stages in their careers, at different universities around the world -- who are interested in the (often obscured) historical entanglement between race and religion,and  its relation to secularism and its contemporary manifestations. The network includes scholars from various disciplinary perspectives, including anthropology, sociology, philosophy, political theory, cultural studies, religious studies and theology. 

The primary purpose of the network is to bring these scholars into conversation with each other. Hosting in-person meetings and workshops, we aim to showcase the work of researchers in the network and provide them with the opportunity to relate their research to other dimensions of the entangled relationship between race, religion and secularism. Affiliated researchers engage with and/or participate in increasingly more widespread efforts that criticize the dominance of secularism in Europe. The discourse of secularism is often used for political projects that exclude Europe’s Others. Moreover, secularism has played and still plays a crucial role in the constitution and persistent obscuring of the intersections between race and religion (most significantly, the sustained production of alterity in terms of deviance from Western Christianity). 

Another purpose for the network is to share knowledge on these topics with a wider audience by means of lectures and conferences. 

This network also serves to help those those looking for expertise on a particular topic related to race, religion and/or secularism to come into contact with scholars. 

For those intersted in joining the network, please contact us by e-mail.