Religion & Spirituality
Interreligious Encounters and Creative Practice
This event is organised by the School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape at Newcastle University, Religions for Peace UK and The University of Edinburgh (Social Anthropology & Alwaleed Centre) and seeks to strengthen bridges between:
The event will feature an exhibition of creative practice outputs responding to the them and panel discussion [3-4 people per panel] on emerging themes. In this context, focus will be on the ways in which creative practice includes different modes of making, documenting, interpreting, teaching and developing history; those that challenge an objectivity and linearity, but open us up to the role of the imagination.
The symposium is organised by Dr Christos Kakalis (SAPL), Dr George Tsourous (SAPL) and Dr Giulia Liberatore (Social Anthropology and Islamic & Middle Eastern Studies, The University of Edinburgh).
This event is kindly funded by Religions for Peace UK, part of the international Religions for Peace Movement which has over 90 affiliated national bodies. Their initiatives identify with the UN Sustainable Development Goals in order to weave peaceful coexistence amongst local, regional and local faith actors.
More Information you will find: Religious Encounters and Creative Practice | School of Architecture, Planning & Landscape | Newcastle University
PROVISIONAL PROGRAMME
MONDAY 19th January 2026
1:30pm Registration
(Informatics Forum, University of Edinburgh)
2pm Introductions (Informatics Forum)
Christos Kakalis (Newcastle University), George Tsourous, Giulia Liberatore (University of Edinburgh), Cinde Lee (RfPUK)
2:30pm Film Screening (Informatics Forum)
Laura Cuch, Spiritual Flavours, followed by a Q & A.
3:30-5pm
Exhibition Opening:
(The Chaplaincy Centre)
Light Reception in the Chaplaincy Centre
TUESDAY 20th January 2026
9:00-12:00, Live Drawing Performance (G.07 Informatics Forum)
Matilde Toma: Live Drawing Performance for three hours in G.07 (Informatics Forum)
10am- 12 noon (Informatics Forum)
Panel 1: Making Suburban Faith
Presentations [20 mins each & Q& A]
Katy Beinart. The Fabric of Faith
Laura Cuch. Spiritual Flavours
David Gilbert & Ali Mangeras.
LUNCH 1-2pm
2-3:30pm (Informatics Forum)
Panel 2: Learning through Making
Presentations [20 mins each & Q& A]
Giulia Liberatore (University of Edinburgh) & Kate Stanworth. Islamic Traces [GL4]
Rosa Lin, Nikoleta Tsiama, George Tsourous, Christos Kakalis title
Maggie Roe, Sacred Spaces, Sacred Stories: Collaborative Creative Practices in the Sundarbans
Coffee break
4-5:30pm (Informatics Forum)
Panel 3: Thinking Bodies
Presentations: [20 mins each & Q& A]
Sabina Sallis. Dance of Commoning: Embodying Composition of Vitalities and Analogies
Matilde Tomat. Drawing Encounters
Gabrielle Heller. Solitude
Dinner 7pm
WEDNESDAY 21st January 2026
10-11:30am (Informatics Forum)
Panel 4: Mediating Encounters
Presentations [20 mins each & Q& A]
Milja Radovic. Cinematic Spaces of Memory
R. Santhosh. Title [TBC]
Marcel de Medeiros Reis. Sounds and the divine: mediation, connection and artistic practices in a carioca favela
Coffee break
12-1:30pm (Informatics Forum)
Panel 5: Shaping Encounters
Presentations [20 mins each & Q& A]
Birgit Meyer, Dynamics of urban-religious world making in Madina, Accra
Joseph Fifi Fosu-Ankrah. Religious Images, Lorry Parks, and the Dynamics of Coexistence: A Social History of Urban Encounters, Ecological Discourses, and Interreligious World-Making in Madina, Accra (2000s–Present)
Frederico Dinis. Performing Memory, Shaping Belonging: Site-Specific Art in Religious Contexts
Lunch 1:30-2:30pm
2:30-4pm
Panel 6: Placing Encounters (Informatics Forum)
Presentations [20 mins each & Q& A]:
Susanna Trutta. Religious encounters in shared spaces: the case of the St. Georgis Eritrean orthodox community and the St. Paul congregation in Berlin, Germany
Way Weng Hew. Cosmopolitan Islam and Its Limits: Chinese-style mosques in Malaysia and Indonesia
Isabelle Christine Samma de Castron. From social threat to tourist attraction: the mosque Omar Ibn Al-Khattab in Foz do Iguaçu, Brazil
4-5pm Closing Remarks (Informatics Forum)
Christos Kakalis (Newcastle University), George Tsourous, Giulia Liberatore (University of Edinburgh), Cinde Lee (RfPUK)
