Professor Alidadi and the Max Planck Institute ​

PictureSt. Joseph Professional Building, Houston, Texas. (Photo: K. Alidadi, 2017)
 Prof. Katayoun Alidadi, a new Assistant Professor of Legal Studies at Bryant University, was a postdoctoral research fellow at the Max Planck institute for Social Anthropology (‘Law & Anthropology’ Department) In Germany from April 2015 to July 2017. During that time, her work focused on the theme of religious diversity, accommodation and participation in Europe and North America. She is very grateful for her time at the Institute, which is one of the world’s leading centers for research in socio-cultural anthropology and a most inspiring and stimulating place to work, visit, or attend conferences. In particular, the postdoctoral fellowship allowed her to expand her thematic and methodological expertise as she continues to search for answers and insights in current and emerging topics of law and society.

While at the Max Planck Institute, Prof. Alidadi studied an oft overlooked ideological minority in the United States – she focused on the use and nonuse of legal tools and legal protection by atheists, humanists and other non-believers living in the American ‘Bible belt’, specifically, an organized secular community in Houston, Texas. She conducted fieldwork from December 2015 to March 2016 in this ‘community grounded in reason rather than revelation, celebrating the human experience as opposed to any deity’. While her research focused on only one such organized secular community – the first well-known organization of its kind and one which has become a ‘model’ for formally established secular-humanist organizations – such social capital-building communities of nonbelievers have sprung up in other cities throughout the United States in recent years. The community’s model itself draws heavily on the organizational principles of US Protestant churches, but maintains distinct features and has sparked considerable public and media interest. In fact, at the time of writing about a dozen other groups in various US and Canadian cities have set up or are in the process of setting up similar gatherings based on the community’s model.
 
Through her fieldwork Alidadi was able to grasp the perspectives of American ‘nones’ (atheists, humanists, agnostics, and religious unaffiliated) on a number of topics of American law and politics, as well as their (non) use of legal protection when faced with discriminatory treatment in the workplace. She presented her findings at the annual conference of the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion (SSSR) in Atlanta, Georgia in October 2016 and contributed to a collective journal article, ‘Which law for which religion? Ethnographic enquiries into the limits of state law vis-à-vis lived religion’ (Rechtsphilosophie v.3, 2016).

Why law and anthropology? 

“The benefits of an empirically enriched approach to questions of religious diversity and the law cannot be overstated. In the diverse reality of today, if we want to understand minorities (let alone accept and accommodate) we cannot turn a blind eye to other people’s stories, perspectives, relationships and values. In the past, social anthropological inquiries were initiated in exotic locales but this methodology and approach is now more and more applied to locales closer to home, offering concepts and frameworks (e.g. legal pluralism) which are highly constructive when exploring and analyzing such situations. Considering and reconsidering positions, interests, laws and rights with the curiosity which has been paramount in the social anthropological success-story could at times offer ways out of deadlock debates and hard-fraught dilemma’s related to law, religion, cultural diversity and society.”

More on the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology

The Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology is one of the world’s leading centers for research in socio-cultural anthropology. It was established in 1999 in Halle/Saale, Germany (about two hours away from Berlin) and in 2012 the Department of Law & Anthropology was created to offer a much-needed forum for interdisciplinary and innovative work done by both anthropologists and legal scholars. Fieldwork is an essential part of almost all projects.
 
The Institute, which is currently home to some 180 researchers from across Europe and the world, sponsors fully-funded doctoral research projects and offer post-doctoral positions to promising scholars. It also offers short-term research visits and hosts a large variety of talks, symposia and conferences each year.
 
For more information on the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, the Law & Anthropology Department, and its researchers, see the recent published report on the activities during 2014-2016:

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