Mar Grierais an Associate Professor in the Sociology Department at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), and the director of the Research Centre for the Study of Religion (ISOR). She also holds an ICREA research fellowship. Her main research expertise lies at the intersection of religion, spirituality, identity and heritage regimes in contemporary Europe. Mar’s academic background is in sociology but she has intensively engaged with other disciplinary fields during her career, especially religious studies, political science and anthropology.

Panel "Faith in Diversity": Dreaming of Conviviality: Diversity, Heritage and Affect in the Mosque-Cathedral of Cordoba

28th May 10.30 – 12.00 am | Mar Grierais

This presentation focuses on the contemporary controversies around the legal and symbolic ownership of the Mosque-Cathedral of Cordoba. The building is considered one of the most important Islamic monuments in the Western World, and it is increasingly attracting tourists longing for traces of authentic multi-religious diversity encounters. However, it works as a regular Catholic Cathedral, and the Christian character of the monument is actively emphasized by a narrative and a tourist dispositive re-affirming it. In parallel, secularists groups have claimed its public dimension, and its aim of turning it into a museum. The paper explores how different readings of the past get intertwined with current understandings (and aspirations) on the role of religion, and of religious diversity, in the present and future of Europe.