Scholars at the Peripheries Research Group
INVITATION – “Scholars at the Peripheries”
Following Pope Francis´ words at the 75th General Assembly of the United Nations on 25th September 2020 I would like to invite you to join this group of scholars at the peripheries and borders of this globalised and unequal world of the Pandemic and Post-Pandemic. Our aim is to gather 1,000 scholars for our weekly Friday meetings 10am and 5pm UK.
We are currently preparing our annual conference: 3-6 August 2021 online. The general theme will be “Scholarship of the Peripheries, Voices of Dreams: Voices in Solidarity with the Marginalised”.
Those organising the August 2021 conference include Dr Ann Simpson (Scotland), Professor Graham McGeoch (Brazil), Dr Calida Chu (Hong Kong) and Carolina Sanz (Mexico).
On 25th September 2020, Pope Francis outlined the choices of a post-pandemic arguing that his option was ´the consolidation of multilateralism as the expression of a renewed sense of global co-responsibility, a solidarity grounded in justice and the attainment of peace and unity within the human family´.[1] Such option for multilateralism connected very clearly with the options for peace and universal responsibility outlined by the XIV Dalai Lama, and dismissed an emphasis on self-sufficiency, nationalism, protectionism, individualism and isolation´.[2]
Please join us weekly by requesting membership of this global group of scholars and sending me an email or communicating via WhatsApp ([email protected]). We believe that scholars can make a difference in fostering inclusion by sharing their projects together with those who usually do not have access to international connections. From theologians to scholars of music, indigenous historians and economists I invite you to join our emerging group and to share with us your scholarship and the challenges and dreams you share geographically and internationally.
We particularly invite women scholars from the Global South and at the moment the majority of our members are women.
Professor Mario I. Aguilar
Coordinator of Scholars at the Peripheries
Director of the Centre for the Study of Religion and Politics (CSRP)
University of St. Andrews, Scotland, U.K.
[1] Pope Francis, ´Address of His Holiness Pope Francis to the Seventy-fifth Meeting of the General Assembly of the United Nations´ 25 September 2020. Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2020.
[2] Pope Francis, ´Address of His Holiness Pope Francis to the Seventy-fifth Meeting of the General Assembly of the United Nations´ 25 September 2020. On the XIV Dalai Lama´s sense of universal responsibility, see Mario I. Aguilar, The 14th Dalai Lama: Peacekeeping and Universal Responsibility. London and New York: Routledge, 2021.