SOAS Research Online

Abstract

This experimental panel invites the audience to engage with visual research of interfaith relations and shared religious environments by producing collaborative ‘chain poems’ to be used as prompts in the Q&A with the researchers. 'An Interfaith Picture is Worth a Thousand Words' is organised as part of Cambridge Festival 2021. Panellists Dr Marlene Schäfers, University of Cambridge Dr Reza Masoudi, SOAS University of London Dr Safet HadžiMuhamedović, University of Cambridge Dr Sami Everett, University of Cambridge Samuel Tettner, University of Manchester Professor Tom Selwyn, SOAS University of London Rituals, language, architecture and everyday landscapes across the world continue to be shaped by dynamic relationships between people of different beliefs. In various forms, interfaith connections are everywhere! Yet, they are also frequently contested and disrupted by political actors. This experimental panel engages some emerging academic questions on interfaith environments through visual research. Each of the six contributors showcases a single photograph from their own research archives and provides a 1,000-words-long explanation of how the image speaks to some aspect of interfaith relations. Before we proceed to their explanation, however, we test the adage that ‘a picture is worth a thousand words’. All of the participants in the audience are invited to analyse each image for a minute and write some words of association on the virtual whiteboard. These words form six different ‘chain poems’ on inter-faith relations. The panel is organised by Dr Safet HadžiMuhamedović, Research Associate in Inter-Faith Relations at the University of Cambridge, as part of the project 'Shared Sacred Landscapes: Interfaith Dialogues in Cambridge', supported by the Public Engagement Starter Fund, University of Cambridge. For more information about the project, visit https://www.sharedsacred.com.