(Re)Thinking the Role of Religion in Social and Humanitarian Action

Preaching in a Transnational Approach Middle East (19th-21st centuries)

18.06.2026 – 19.06.2026

Tillion room, 7th floor

Programm

Program ⇒ PDF

 

18th June 2026

8:45 am. – 9:10 am. – Welcome of Participants

9:10 am. – 9:30 am. – Introduction and Conceptual Framework

by Annalaura Turiano (IREMAM, CNRS, amU, ANR PredicMO) and Esther Moeller (Marburg

University)

9:30 am. – 11:00 am. – Panel 1 – Spiritual Engagement and Economic Rationales: The

Entangled Dynamics of Welfare and Preaching

Chair: Nazan Maksudyan (Centre Marc Bloch)

9:30 am. – 10:15 am. – Gabriel Doyle (Koç University Research Center for Anatolian

Civilizations and the Istanbul Research Institute)

“Not a single penny of my lottery earnings is present inside this mosque”: Islamic Morality

and Urban Patronage in 1960s Istanbul

10:15 am. – 11:00 am. – Tea Pitiurishvili (Tbilisi State University)

Seeking the Path: Ne’matullahia Order’s One Branch from Traditional Mysticism to a

Socially Engaged Form of Sufism

11:00 am. – 11:30 am. – Coffee break

11:30 am. – 1:00 pm. – Panel 2 – The Moral Politics of Humanitarianism

Chair: Giulia Scalettaris (Centre Marc Bloch)

11:30 am. – 12:15 pm. – Carla Tiefenbacher (University of Köln)

“May God reward us for our efforts”: Voluntourism, Humanitarian Crises, and How to

Preach Catholicism in the Spanish-Moroccan Borderlands

12:15 pm. – 1:00 pm. – Estella Carpi (University College London)

The Moral Politics of Faith-Inspired Humanitarianism in Lebanon

1:00 pm. – 2:00 pm. – Lunch

2:00 pm. – 3:30 pm. – Panel 3 – Faith-Based Humanitarianism and Soft Power

Chair: Karène Sanchez Summerer (University of Groningen)

2:00 pm. – 2:45 pm. – Natalia Liviero (Florida International University)

Faith-Based Development and Humanitarian Aid in the Middle East: A Case Study of Caritas

Jordan and Caritas Lebanon

2:45 pm. – 3:30 pm. – William Guerraiche (Abrahamic Family House, Abu Dhabi)

The Emirates: The Religious Dimension of Humanitarian Aid

3:30 pm. – 4:00 pm. – Coffee break

4:00 pm. – 5:30 pm. – Panel 4 – Moral Grammars, Religious Norms

Chair: Norig Neveu (IREMAM, CNRS, amU)

4:00 pm. – 4:45 pm. Marie Kortam (Beyond Compliance Consortium – University of

York & War Child Alliance)

Religious Norms, Shari’a, and the Moral Regulation of Harm in Humanitarian Crisis

Settings

4:45 pm. – 5:30 pm. – Sebastian Willert (Leibniz Institute for Jewish History and

Culture)

Of Jewish Sanctuary and Scholarship: Preaching as a Catalyst for Academic

Humanitarianism in Palestine, 1933–1945

5:30 pm. – 6:00 pm. – Final discussion

7:00 pm. – Dinner at Restaurant Lungomare (Krausenstraße 11, Berlin)

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19th June 2026

9:00 am. – 10:30 am. – Panel 5 – Patterns of “Preaching Development”

Chair: Annalaura Turiano (IREMAM, CNRS, amU, ANR PredicMO)

9:00 am. – 9:45 am. – Zeaad Yaghi (American University of Beirut)

The Rise and Fall of Le Plan Vert: On French-Catholic State Planning and Agricultural

Development in Postcolonial Rural Lebanon 1959–1970

9:45 am. – 10:30 am. – Mara Leichtman (Michigan State University)

Preaching Kuwaiti Shi‘i Islamic Humanitarianism in East Africa

10:30 am. – 11:00 am. – Coffee break

11:00 am. – 1:15 pm. – Panel 6 – Discursive Registers: Between Reformism and Moral

Rhetorics

Chair: Malak Labib (Centre Marc Bloch, Fellow of the Gerda Henkel Foundation)

11:00 am. – 11:45 am. – Seda Altuğ (University of Boğazıcı)

Many Ways of Preaching in French-Syria: Appeals of Dominican Missionaries and

Entreaties of Locals (1936–1946)

11:45 am. – 12:30 pm. – Foued Ghorbali (Gafsa University)

Prêcher en aidant: pratiques socio-humanitaires, autorité religieuse et circulations

transnationales en Tunisie contemporaine

12:30 pm. – 1:15 pm. – Marie Levant (Ifpo, Forum Basiliense Resident Fellow at the

University of Basel)

Transnational Catholic Aid to Palestinian Refugees in Lebanon (1948–1958): Moral Norms,

Ecclesial Imperatives, and Pastoral Preaching

1:15 pm. – 2:00 pm. – Lunch

2:00 pm. – 3:00 pm. – Review of the Second Day and Publication Prospects