Atheist Identities - Spaces and Social Contexts

Lori G. Beaman, Ph.D. is the Canada Research Chair in the Contextualization of Religion in a Diverse Canada and Professor in the Department of Classics and Religious Studies at the University of Ottawa. She is principal investigator of a 37 member international research team whose focus is religion and diversity (religionanddiversity.ca). Steven Tomlins is a Ph.D. Candidate at the University of Ottawa in Religious Studies. His current research deals with atheist communities in a religiously diverse Canada, and how the frameworks (official and practical) of ‘multiculturalism’ relate to atheism. Besides atheism, Tomlins is also interested in religious diversity in Canada, and the intersection of blasphemy laws and freedom of expression in the West. His publications include: “A Snake in the Temple: Lucian of Samosata’s Alexander as a Challenge to the New Atheists’ Enlightenment Narrative” (Ottawa Journal of Religious Studies), “Oh, the Irony!?: Studying Atheism in Religious Studies” (Nonreligion and Secularity Research Network), and “The Freedom to Offend? How the ‘Mohammad Cartoon Controversy’ has Influenced Public Debate on Canada’s Hate Speech Regulation” (Journal of Church and State).

• Introduction, S. Tomlins and L. G. Beaman.- The Church on the Margins: The Religious Context of the New Atheism, W. A. Stahl.- Freedom of and Freedom from Religion: Atheist Involvement in Legal Cases, L.G. Beaman.- Atheism vs. Humanism: Ideological Tensions and Identity Dynamics, S. LeDrew.- The Cultural, the Nominal, and the Secular: The Social Reality of Religious Identity among Sri Lankan Tamil Youth in Canada, Amarasingam.- Secularist Rituals in the US: Solidarity and Legitimization, R. Cimino, C. Smith.- Believing to Belong: Non-religious Belief as a Path to Inclusion, S.C. Bullivant.- A Common Godlessness:  A Snapshot of a Canadian University Atheist Club, Why its Members Joined, and What that Community Means to Them, S. Tomlins.- From Atheist to Spiritual but not Religious: A Punctuated Continuum of Identities among the Second Generation of post-1970 Immigrants in Canada, P. Beyer.- Living Non-religious Identity in London, L. Mumford.- Without God yet not Without Nuance:A Qualitative Study of Atheism and Non-religion among Scottish University Students, C.R. Cotter.- Who Are the “New Atheists”? R.T. Cragun.

“The purpose of Atheist Identities to explore how people construct atheist or nonreligious identities, and how these relate to their societal and institutional interactions. Its intended audiences are scholars and the public who are interested in the varieties of ‘North Atlantic’ atheist experiences and how they are shaped or expressed in ‘local, national, and international settings’ … .” (Benjamin B. Devan, Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, Vol. 55 (2), 2016)