About the organization

About the Organization

The research unit Parables as Persuasive Narratives, funded by the Academy of Finland, was the main organizer of the conference. The research unit scrutinizes, among others, the rhetoric, argumentation, emotions, and tradition history of the parables.

For more on the research unit: https://uefconnect.uef.fi/en/group/parables-as-persuasive-narratives/

The East Meets West Conference series is organized by the School of Theology at the University of Eastern Finland (UEF), where Orthodox and Western theology are taught and researched not just side by side, but together in a creative and critical manner.

The East Meets West Conference offers a platform for new and innovative research on issues related to different conceptualizations of Eastern and Western religious traditions. East meets West is, thus, not just about Christianity and its contact and borderlines. It is a wider concept under which religions and their connections with the diversity of life can be studied. The focus is in the particularities of East and West connections in varieties of their encounters. These encounters take place in the fields of culture, society, doctrine, migration, education, politics, and their interactions.

The East Meets West Conference is conducted in close cooperation with the UEF Borders, Mobilities and Cultural Encounters (BOMOCULT) research community.

As a part of the Conference, The School of Theology has started a new blog on ‘East Meets West’ in August 2021. It is also be a place for interaction on the theme.