On 27/28 September 19, the conference "Sexuality, Gender and Religion in Contemporary Discourses - Theology, Society and Education" took place at the Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen. Eleven academics from different disciplines dealt with the topic from their respective perspectives. The interdisciplinary orientation met with an extremely positive response from the approximately 80 participants.

Dipl.-Soz.päd. Meral Renz gave an insight into sexual education work with Muslim youth, pointed out critical problem areas and explained how such situations can be countered with an adequate attitude.

Dr. Alexandra Wörn dealt with the topic of women and power in Protestantism and explored the question of what reasons there were and are for male-coded power structures in the church, such as non-theological factors.

Jun.-Prof. Dr. Fahimah Ulfat presented current empirical studies on the attitudes of Muslim youth and young adults, worked out the challenges for Islamic religious education on this basis and finally formulated suggestions for religious education work.

Leyla Jagiella drew attention to historical and contemporary examples of dealing with non-binary gender identities in Muslim contexts and showed how, among other things, colonialism introduced bisexuality into Muslim thinking. She also addressed different challenges for Muslims in Iran, Pakistan and Germany.

Odette Yilmaz and Frederike Güler presented the work and position of the Liberal-Islamischer Bund e.V., especially in relation to homosexuality, highlighted existing problems in the Muslim community and referred to numerous initiatives that advocate for LGBTQI* rights from a Muslim perspective.

Saboura Naqshband focused on experiences of discrimination and racism for queer Muslim women or for Muslim women of colour, which she examined from an intersectional perspective. She gave insights into her work as an empowerment trainer.

Jun.-Prof. Dr. Ursula Offenberger dealt with bisexuality as an institution naturalised by religion from a sociological perspective. She showed how research methodology can be used to examine biographical knowledge about gender in religious communities in religiously formatted occasions.

Dr. Ali Ghandour illustrated how pronounced sexual and erotic motifs were in Muslim poetry, for example, and thus made it clear that, historically, sexuality was not a taboo subject in Muslim contexts, as is often assumed today. His lecture also dealt with the transformations that have taken place in Muslim-influenced societies in recent centuries.

Prof. Dr. Michael Schüssler impressively explained the Catholic sexuality dispositive, which is reflected in a theological sexual morality that fails today in the reality of people's lives.

Finally, Dr. Mithu M. Sanyal dealt with the consequences of colonialism and its impact on concrete ideas of sexuality. In particular, she dealt with processes and ideas in India and Hinduism.

The conference met with great interest among the 80 participants. The importance of the topic was also reflected in the diversity among the guests. Teachers, professors, social pedagogues and numerous students from different disciplines attended the conference and enriched it with their questions and discussions.

We thank the speakers who enriched us with their contributions to the conference. We thank the participants who gave us new food for thought with their impulses and questions. We thank our team, Erkan Binici, Dunja Mdakka and Yahya Lange, without whose excellent organisation the planning and implementation of the conferences would not have been possible. And we thank the Fritz Thyssen Foundation, the Tübingen School of Education and the Universitätsbund for sponsoring the conference. A conference volume with the contributions of the speakers is in preparation and is expected to be published in 2020.

The conference was organised by Jun.-Prof. Dr. Fahimah Ulfat, University of Tübingen, and Dr. Ali Ghandour, University of Münster.

You can find the flyer for the conference here and the video recording here.

On 8/9 March 2022, a conference on the further development of religious education was held at the University of Tübingen under the direction of Prof. Dr. Reinhold Boschki, Prof. Dr. Friedrich Schweitzer and Prof. Dr. Fahimah Ulfat.

Far-reaching changes in society, but also in schools, make it necessary to rethink sustainable religious education. Due to migration and flight, internationalisation and globalisation, the religious situation in Germany has changed rapidly and permanently. Unlike in the 20th century, there are no longer simply two large denominations facing each other, but the presence of different religions has become an obvious prerequisite, especially in the field of education. At the same time, there is also a growing proportion of people who do not feel they belong to any particular religion or religious community.
Almost 30 years ago, the state of Baden-Württemberg was the first federal state to officially allow confessional - Protestant-Catholic - cooperation in religious education. That was a courageous step at the time. Today, further steps must follow - towards interreligious cooperation. But this is not just about adapting to the changed social conditions. Especially in Tübingen, where a campus of religions is being built, new potentials of interreligious dialogue can be made fruitful. The form of cooperation in the sense of strengthening common ground - doing justice to differences can also be applied to the interreligious field.
Interreligious cooperation in religious education gives rise to important research tasks, which are being dealt with in Tübingen in a research association founded specifically for this purpose, which is also designed to be interreligious and cooperative. This research network is unique in Germany and includes the three chairs or religious education departments of the Faculties of Protestant Theology and Catholic Theology as well as that of the Center for Islamic Theology. The association has the task of supporting and qualitatively developing interreligious work in all fields of religious education practice, especially in the area of schools, but also beyond. Its work relates to the three areas of science, practice and the public. In the area of science, the task is to develop forms of interreligious cooperation between Catholic, Islamic and Protestant educational offers within and outside of schools and to accompany them scientifically. In the area of practice, the aim is to establish a link between inter-religious cooperation in training for religious education and cooperation in schools. In the area of publicity, public events, study days and conferences of a professional nature are held.
The aim of the conference is to explore the possibilities of interreligious cooperation in religious education at the level of justification, the legal level, the pedagogical level and the level of religious education. In addition, representatives from politics, the churches, Judaism and Islam will contribute their views on the topic. The question will be explored as to what experiences have been and are being made with confessional cooperation in various German federal states, but also in Austria and Switzerland. The most important question of the conference is whether inter-religious cooperation is a possibility to further develop religious education in the face of social transformation and to make it fit for the future.

The event attracts great interest nationwide. Approximately 200 participants from all over Germany are attending. The conference is jointly organised by the Tübingen religious education departments: Prof. Dr. Reinhold Boschki (Catholic religious education), Prof. Dr. Friedrich Schweitzer (Protestant religious education), Prof. Dr. Fahimah Ulfat (Islamic religious education).

You can find the flyer for the conference here.

On 21/22 September 2022, a conference on interreligious learning in daycare centres was held at the University of Tübingen under the direction of Prof. Dr. Reinhold Boschki, Prof. Dr. Friedrich Schweitzer and Prof. Dr. Fahimah Ulfat.

This event will focus on the question of religious sponsorship of day care facilities for children. In particular, facilities with interreligious sponsorship and facilities with non-Christian sponsorship will be presented. Some of these facilities can already look back on a long period of successful work, others are still in the phase of establishment or concept development. In this respect, the event offers opportunities to exchange experiences and perspectives.

However, there are also many institutions in Christian, Protestant or Catholic sponsorship that have been working intensively on interreligious learning for a long time. In this respect, too, it is worthwhile to exchange experiences and perspectives in order to understand the connection between interreligious learning and sponsorship more precisely. How does interreligious learning in an interreligious day care centre differ from interreligious learning in a Catholic or Protestant institution?

Other questions that are closely related to interreligious tasks in religious education concern, on the one hand, cooperation with parents and, on the other, the training of professionals. Both questions have not yet received the attention in religious education that they should. Studies on religious education with a focus on cooperation with parents are not yet available. Also, the discussion on the religious education training of educational professionals from the perspective of inter-religious learning is still in its infancy.

You will find the programme here.