Dear All,
I am pleased to announce that our last General Assembly will be held in Thessaloniki from 26 to 28 June 2009. The conference title is “Teaching about Religion and State interaction in Europe. Challenges and Perspectives.”
The General Assembly is one of the main activities during the last year of our project. This intensive meeting will be implemented with the parallel run of a conference, teaching material presentations and round tables.
The scientific interest will focus on contemporary European Studies on Religion and State from a comparative and interdisciplinary point of view and will include different academic, scientific and cultural approaches on the relevant issues. The main aim of this initiative is on the one hand to analyse and document all the new approaches and proposals in our field of interest and on the other to integrate the work that has been carried out so far. It is self-evident how important for our project and also how crucial this meeting is concerning the final products of our project. The dynamic and the potential of this academic network will be documented and presented in an edition, a few months before the end of the project life -time.
Therefore, I am pleased to invite you to actively participate in this meeting and share with us all your expertise with a paper in the plenary sessions and keynote interventions in the round tables. Your contribution will be integrated into the three major topics of our programme:
- Religious teaching or teaching about religions in Europe? New perspectives for the tertiary education.
- Cultural and religious diversity in a pluralistic socio-political European environment: The role of universities in facing the challenges of intolerance, racism and xenophobia.
- International synergies. Challenge and necessity in a global framework.
Participation (covered by our budget) and presentation of papers in the workshop sessions are open to scholars who belong to institutions of EuReSIS Net from disciplines of legal, theological, social and pedagogical studies. It is also open to scholars from other institutions, but those need to cover their expenses themselves.
More specifically, our budget covers all required expenses i.e. tickets (air, train, taxi -only from the hotel to airport and vice versa in case public transport is not easily accessible) as well as accommodation and meals in Thessaloniki. According to the usual practice, participants will initially pay themselves for their tickets and as soon as they return home, they will send us by mail receipts, tickets, boarding cards etc. in order to be reimbursed. Only tickets booked in economy class are reimbursable. Moreover, it is recommended that the ticket cost be kept around 400 euro. If the cost is much higher, please contact the coordinator before booking.
Please kindly note that each institution may send one participant, not necessarily the contact person. More than one participant can be accepted after agreement with the coordinator.
Early registration by email is necessary as well as immediate booking of flight tickets. 
You can download the Registration form here and send it back by email, fax or post using the contact information from this link. The program will be sent over the next few days.
I look forward to seeing you all in Thessaloniki.
Best Regards
Nikos Maghioros
EuReSIS Net Coordinator