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A. Sophie Lauwers

Postdoctoral researcher

Bio


A. Sophie Lauwers is a political philosopher working on secularism, Christian privilege, racial and religious inequality, nationalism and multiculturalism. She obtained her PhD at the University of Aberdeen, as part of the interdisciplinary Marie Skłodowska-Curie POLITICO project. Her thesis investigated how current regimes of political secularism contribute to secular and Christian hegemony in contemporary Europe, and proposed a new model of political secularism. Sophie also worked as a Teaching Fellow in Philosophy at the University of Aberdeen, where she taught, among others, a course on 'Race, Religion and Secularism'. 

As of January 2024, Sophie is a postdoctoral researcher at the Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies at KU Leuven. Her research continues to focus on political secularism, for example in relation to the topics of epistemic injustice in democratic deliberation and questions of race and religion in national culture. 

Projects


Political Secularism and the Christian Question

Political Secularism and the Christian Question

Researchers: A. Sophie Lauwers

In her PhD project, Anna Sophie Lauwers investigates to which extent political secularism in Europe is still influenced by its Christian past, and whether it contributes to a (secular) Christian hegemony at the expense of religious and racial minorities. She focuses primarily on the work of Gil Anidjar and Charles Taylor, bridging debates in critical secularism studies and normative political philosophy.

Publications


Journal article

Who belongs to the “historic nation”? Fictive ethnicity and (iI)liberal uses of religious heritage
By A. Sophie Lauwers
March 2024
Ethnic and Racial Studies


Article

Religion, secularity, culture? Investigating Christian privilege in Western Europe
By A. Sophie Lauwers
June 2022
Ethnicities


Journal article

Is Islamophobia (Always) Racism?
By A. Sophie Lauwers
December 2019
Critical Philosophy of Race

A. Sophie Lauwers

Postdoctoral researcher

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