Emory’s Center for the Study of Law and Religion to Host Summer Institute

From July 13 to 26, Emory University’s Center for the Study of Law and Religion will host a residential summer institute for higher education faculty on the fundamentals of law and religion for humanistic research and teaching. Each day of the institute will feature introductions to key themes in law and religion scholarship, case studies in the field, and panel discussions on texts and methods. Participants will also have the opportunity to workshop a scholarly project in progress with their peers. 

The Institute will be led by project co-leads Whittney Barth and Silas Allard of Emory University’s Center for the Study of Law and Religion, with guest faculty drawn from leading institutions in law, religious studies, and history. A full list of faculty is available here. 

For more information and application details, visit the official Institute website. 

Upcoming Panel: Displaying the 10 Commandments in Public School Classrooms

Later this month, the Mattone Center will co-host its annual symposium with the St. John’s Journal of Catholic Legal Studies. This year’s panel will address Roake v. Brumley, the 5th Circuit case on the constitutionality of displaying the Ten Commandments in public school classrooms. We’ll hear from Christopher Lund (Wayne State) and Eric Rassbach (Becket Fund). We’ll post a video of the event later.

Space is limited, but if interested, please email Center Director Mark Movsesian at mark.movsesian@stjohns.edu. Thanks!

Mattone Center to Host ICLARS Regional Conference This Weekend

This weekend at St. John’s Law, the Mattone Center will host a regional conference of the International Consortium for Law and Religion Studies (ICLARS), “Education, Religious Freedom, and State Neutrality.” The conference will gather scholars and judges from Europe and the United States. Papers from the conference will appear eventually here on the blog. From the start, the Mattone Center has had a special interest in comparative law and religion, and we’re delighted to continue the tradition in this way

I’ve attached an abbreviated conference program below.

Call for Papers: Seton Hall University School of Law

The Program on Faith, Values, and the Rule of Law (FVRoL) at Seton Hall University School of Law is requesting submissions for its inaugural academic conference to occur on February 4-5 2026 at the school’s Newark, New Jersey campus.

  • Paper Topic: The conference is seeking papers that explore the relationship between faith, values, and the rule of law, drawing on religious, theological, philosophical, and historical perspectives to address contemporary threats such as nationalism, authoritarianism, and disinformation. Submissions should offer both conceptual insights and, where possible, practical proposals for how religious and philosophical traditions can contribute to strengthening justice, dignity, and peace in a pluralistic world.
  • Paper Proposals: The deadline for paper abstracts is November 1, 2025. 
  • Paper Submission: There is no publication requirement, although FVRoL may seek a suitable venue for publication of selected papers.
  • Contact: To submit an abstract for consideration, please use this form. If you have any questions, please contact Brett Canaval, Administrative Director of the Program on Faith, Values, and the Rule of Law, at brett.canaval@shu.edu.

ICLARS Webinar Tomorrow

Tomorrow, ICLARS will host a webinar on comparative approaches to law and religion, hosted by scholar Renee Barker (University of Western Australia). Details below:

Conference in Messina on Minority Religious Groups

The summer conference season is underway! I’m looking forward to participating later this month (online) in a very interesting conference organized by Professor Adelaide Madera at the University deli Studio di Messina, “Religious Freedom of Minority Groups in Times of Ongoing Crisis.” I’ll be speaking on one of the largest “religious” groups in the US, the Nones. Details about the conference are at the announcement below:

In Search of Common Ground: An Upcoming Online Symposium

I look forward to participating, along with many friends and colleagues, in what promises to be a fascinating symposium on religion, secularism, and liberalism organized by Steven Heyman and Kathleen Brady and hosted by the Chicago-Kent Law Review: “In Search of Common Ground: Religion and Secularism in a Liberal Democratic Society.” The online symposium, scheduled for February 21, will be open to the public; the link is below. It’s a fabulous lineup of scholars and I’m very grateful to be among them:

Over the past several decades, America’s religious diversity has continued to grow rapidly, as have the percentages of Americans who either are not religious or are not affiliated with a specific religious group or denomination. At the same time, America’s deepening cultural and political divisions have often followed these expanding religious fault lines. These developments have raised new challenges for defining the relationship between law, religion, and secularism under the Religion Clauses of the First Amendment and beyond. At the Chicago-Kent Law Review’s Symposium, leading law-and-religion scholars who represent a broad spectrum of views will explore a range of doctrinal issues – such as free exercise exemptions, government expression and funding, and the meaning of religion under the First Amendment – and will discuss how people who hold very different worldviews can live together in contemporary society.

For more information, check the link above. Thanks!

Movsesian at ICLARS Next Month

I’m greatly looking forward to participating in next month’s ICLARS conference at Notre Dame Law School. I’ll be on a panel, “Status, Conduct, and Message,” along with Steven Collis of the University of Texas and Amy Sepinwall of the University of Pennsylvania. We’ll try to make sense of some of the Court’s recent religious freedom cases. Details in the conference program, below. Friends of the Mattone Center, please stop by and say hello!

Call for Papers: Australian Journal of Law & Religion

Our friends at the Australian Journal of Law and Religion have announced a call for papers for their 2024 General Issue, which will include a symposium on the rise of the Nones. Details in the link below: