LUMEN Publishes Fourth Annual Report
LUMEN has now existed for four years, and despite the pandemic, LUMEN members have continued to participate in the kind of interdisciplinary scholarly work that characterises the center, and LUMEN has successfully arranged several activities - although in mixed formats.
Four years have passed since LUMEN was given centre status at Aarhus University. This year has been extraordinary in many ways. Like everyone else, our work has been disturbed by the pandemic, and we had to cancel the Tenth Annual RefoRC Conference on Early Modern Christianity, whose main theme suited LUMEN very well: “ Reformation and Everyday Life,” planned to take place in Aarhus in May. Although we were sad to be forced to cancel this event, we are happy to have a replacement conference coming up. This time probably online: Reformation and Everyday Life, 30 May – 1 June 2021.
Despite the difficulties, 2020 was still a happy year. Two of our former junior scholars, Mattias Skat Sommer and Sasja Emile Mathiasen Stopa, gained postdoc funding of their own. Mattias Skat Sommer from the Carlsberg Foundation and Oslo University, Sasja Stopa from the Carlsberg Foundation. The Carlsberg Foundation also gave Nina Koefoed, who is a member of our steering committee, both a monograph stipend for a year and a stipend for research infrastructure, making it possible to make a prototype of our database plans.
In the autumn, we succeeded in having a couple of seminars, although they took place in a blended setup, and almost as importantly: we introduced a new concept for regular breakfast meetings where new research ideas could be presented in an informal atmosphere. We were also very happy to be able to welcome two visiting scholars who contributed in a most inspiring way to our discussions.
If Covid-19 has given us a reminder regarding scholarly work, then it is this: informal conversations among scholars are the sources of new ideas and scholarly welfare.
To see the report, please click here.