Summary: We are requesting funding to support a series of events, aimed at expanding the network activities of MENA S&R. During 2023-2024, we will organise an international hybrid workshop, an onsite tour, a virtual seminar series, a student writing essay prize and a writing retreat. Inspired by recent studies of non-Christian contexts in the study of science and religion, our initiative brings together early career and senior scholars to reflect upon the ways the increase of research in non-Christian religious contexts has changed research methods and agendas. Through a series of think tank meetings and collaborative writing projects, this year we will reflect on the connections between pioneering scholarship on science and religion and recent works in non-Christain contexts, working together to articulate the potential impacts of non-Christian scholarship on main themes in the study of science and religion. In its initial stage (July 2021 – June 2023), MENA S&R

Summary: We are requesting funding from INSBS to support an innovative study examining how religious groups legitimize science by themselves, and for themselves. Whereas most scholarship on religion and science focuses on perceived theological ‘tensions’ between science and religion, we develop a nuanced and bottom-up understanding of the ways religion and science are negotiated and legitimized in everyday life. As a case study, we examine the pioneering publication of Niflaot (Hebrew: ‘Wonders of the World’), the first ‘kosher’ Haredi magazine, launched in March 2021. Even though Haredi Jews have tended to have an ambivalent stance towards science, COVID-19  has introduced a renewed interest and growing acknowledgement of the importance of science education. To study this watershed moment in Haredi relationality to science, we combine content analysis and interviews with Niflaot’s editorial staff, public relations team and magazine consumers, to capture the ways scientific knowledge is tailored for religious publics. We