Events

Organized by the Centre for Asian Legal Studies, National University of Singapore, in collaboration with the Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore.

MODERATOR

Dr Dian Shah, Faculty of Law, National University of Singapore

ABSTRACT

Based on the book Regulating Religion in Asia, edited by Jaclyn L. Neo, Arif A. Jamal and Daniel P.S. Goh, the panel will present an Asian perspective of how law regulates religion, and how religion responds to such regulations, exploring the complex relationship between law and religion.

Purchase the book here (discount flyer attached).

ABOUT THE SPEAKERS

Kenneth Dean is Raffles Professor of Humanities and Head, Chinese Studies Department, at National University of Singapore (NUS). He is Research Cluster Leader for Religion and Globalisation at the Asia Research Institute, NUS. His recent publications include Epigraphical Materials on the History of Religion in Fujian: Zhangzhou Region, Fuzhou 2019, Secularism in South, East, and Southeast Asia, NY: Palgrave, (2018) coedited with Peter van der Veer, and Chinese Epigraphy of Singapore: 1819-1911 (2 vols.), Singapore: NUS Press (2017), co-edited with Dr Hue Guan Thye. He has also launched the Singapore Historical GIS (SHGIS) and Singapore Biographical Database (SBDB) databases.

Mona Oraby is Assistant Professor of Law, Jurisprudence, and Social Thought at Amherst College. Her research focuses on membership and belonging at the intersection of administrative law, religion, and politics. She is the editor of the Social Science Research Council’s The Immanent Frame, a forum for interdisciplinary exchange on secularism, religion, and the public sphere. She also serves as a steering committee member of the Secularism and Secularity Unit of the American Academy of Religion. Her editorial board memberships include Arab Law Quarterly and Middle East Law and Governance. She is completing her first book, How Will We Know Who We Are? Devotion to the Administrative State.

Vineeta Sinha is Professor and Head of the Department of Sociology at National University of Singapore. Her research interests include Hindu religiosity in the diaspora, intersections of religion, commodification and consumption processes, interface of religion and materiality, religion-state encounters in colonial and post-colonial moments, formation of concepts and categories in the social sciences, Eurocentric and Androcentric critique of classical sociological theory, pedagogy and innovating alternative teaching practices. Besides numerous publications, she is also Associate Editor of The Sociological Quarterly, Editorial Board Member of American Ethnologist and Co-Editor of the Routledge International Library of Sociology.

ABOUT THE BOOK EDITORS

Jaclyn L. Neo is Associate Professor and Director of the Centre for Asian Legal Studies (CALS) at the Faculty of Law, National University of Singapore. Her research specialization is in comparative constitutional law. She is an elected council member of International Society for Public Law (ICON-S) and the co-founder of the Singapore Chapter of ICON-S. She currently serves on the Singapore Law Society’s Public and International Law Committee and the Singapore Academy of Law’s Law Reform Committee, and was recently appointed Professorial Fellow to the AGC Academy.

Arif A. Jamal is Associate Professor and Deputy Director of the Centre for Asian Legal Studies (CALS) at the Faculty of Law, National University of Singapore, and co-Editor-in-Chief of Asian Journal of Comparative Law. Arif’s research and teaching interests include law and religion, law in Muslim contexts, and legal and  political theory. He has held visiting appointments with the law schools of the University of Trento, Tel Aviv University and City University of Hong Kong and has been a visiting researcher with the Islamic Legal Studies Program at Harvard Law School.

Daniel P.S. Goh is Associate Professor and Deputy Head of the Department of Sociology at National University of Singapore. He specializes in comparative-historical sociology and studies state formation, race and multiculturalism, urbanisms, and religion. His edited books include Race and Multiculturalism in Malaysia and Singapore (Routledge, 2009), Worlding Multiculturalisms: The Politics of Inter-Asian Dwelling (Routledge, 2015), Precarious Belongings: Affect and Nationalism in Asia (Rowman & Littlefield, 2017), Urban Asias: Essays on Futurity Past and Present (JOVIS Verlag, 2018), and Regulating Religion in Asia (Cambridge, 2019). He is currently co-Principal Investigator of the Social Science Research project, Christianity in Urban Centres of Southeast Asia.

ABOUT THE VIRTUAL ROUNDTABLES ON ASIAN LAW

The Virtual Roundtables on Asian Law is an online series by the Centre for Asian Legal Studies (CALS). It brings together legal experts to share critical perspectives on topical issues on law in Asia. This series is open to academics, public officers, members of civil society, and legal practitioners from anywhere in the world who are interested in gaining deeper knowledge of Asian approaches to various legal issues. For more updates on upcoming sessions, check back here, like us on Facebook, and follow us on Twitter. For video recordings of previous roundtables, like and subscribe to the CALS YouTube channel.

REGISTRATION

Please click here to register for the event.