CHARM Partners Nova Forum: Peter Harrison symposium

Professor Peter Harrison (University of Queensland) is the leading historian of the so-called “science and religion” divide in European thought. His groundbreaking work demonstrates the inadequacy of the conflict hypothesis and considers alternatives that might replace it. His eleven books include The Bible, Protestantism, and the Rise of Natural Science (1998), The Fall of Man and the Foundations of Science (2007), Narratives of Secularization (2018), and After Science and Religion: Fresh Perspectives from Theology and Philosophy (2022). Harrison’s Gifford Lectures were published by University of Chicago Press as The Territories of Science and Religion (2015), and most recently Cambridge has published his Bampton Lectures as Some New World: Myths of Supernatural Belief in a Secular Age (2024). He has held positions at Oxford, Yale, Princeton, Chicago, and IAS.

Harrison’s current research focuses on several themes: the relationship between scientific naturalism and the “supernatural”; narratives of disenchantment in secular modernity; the relevance of Indigenous knowledges to scientific realism and pluralism; and new approaches to materiality and immateriality. Our symposium addresses these themes broadly and welcomes contributions from any period or tradition. USC participants will share research in progress and pre-circulate paper abstracts. At the conclusion of the symposium, Harrison will have the opportunity to respond in a closing roundtable. All USC faculty and graduate students are warmly invited to attend the symposium.

9:30 AM

Coffee and pastries

10:00
10:15
Moderator: David Albertson (USC Religion & Nova Forum)
Speaker 1 (30 mins paper + 15 mins Q/A): Peter Harrison (University of Queensland) Speaker 2 (30 mins paper + 15 mins Q/A): Alexandre Roberts (USC Classics) Speaker 3 (30 mins paper + 15 mins Q/A): Jessica Zu (USC Religion)

Welcome & Introductions Morning Session

Schedule

12:30 Catered lunch

1:30 Afternoon Session
Moderator: Cavan Concannon (USC Religion)
Speaker 4 (30 mins paper + 15 mins Q/A): Susanna Berger (USC Art History & Philosophy) Speaker 5 (30 mins paper + 15 mins Q/A): Fred Clark (USC Classics)
Speaker 6 (30 mins paper + 15 mins Q/A): Janet Hoskins (USC Anthropology & Religion) 3:45 Coffee break
4:00 Roundtable discussion (60 minutes maximum)