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Sunday, June 05, 2022

Congress on Fraternalism, Freemasonry, and History Opens Friday in Paris

by Christopher Hodapp

by Christopher Hodapp

The 8th Congress on Fraternalism, Freemasonry, and History opens this Friday in Paris at the Grand Orient de France and the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris.

This year's theme is "Are the Ancient Landmarks Ancient?."

Convened by the journal, Ritual, Secrecy, and Civil Society, in cooperation with the French national library, the Bibliothèque Nationale, and the Musée de la Franc-Maçonnerie (Museum of French Freemasonry), this event explores how associations and volunteerism have shaped democracy, politics, and history. The conference alternates each year between Paris and Washington, D.C.



This international event attracts the top scholars around the world in the field of not just Freemasonry, but of fraternalism of all kinds. It is a part of the Policy Studies Organization's support of research into associations, civility, and the role of non governmental organizations in democracy.

Presenters this year include: Paul Rich, Pierrre Mollier, Arturo De Hoyos, Joseph Wages, Andrew Prescott, Susan Mitchell, John Belton, Arved Hübler, Eric Saunier, Russ Charvonia, Stéphane Brunel, and many more. (See the complete program HERE.) Because presentations may be made in English or French, simultaneous translations from French-English, English-French are offered for most sessions.

These ongoing international conferences have been spearheaded and supported by Brother Paul Rich for over a decade now, and he has been a champion of promoting and pursuing Masonic scholarship on a worldwide basis. A shocking number of U.S. Masons are unaware of his role in this pursuit, as well as his own scholarship, and that is a downright shame. On top of his many accomplishments and honors in the academic world, he is the publisher of numerous books about Freemasonry (among others) through Westphalia Press. These conferences are organized, in part through his organization, the Policy Studies Organization.

In conjunction with Paul, Brother Pierre Mollier in France is one of the top Masonic historians in the world. Among his many accomplishments, he is the director of the Grand Orient de France's incredible Museum of Freemasonry in Paris (Musée dé Franc-Maçonnerie). If you don't know his name or reputation, you need to.

The World Conference on Fraternalism, Social Capital, and Civil Society explores how associations and volunteerism have shaped democracy, politics, and history. The conferences are held alternatively in Paris (2022, 2024) and in Washington (2023, 2025). The Washington conferences are held at the historic Quaker Meeting House.

Registration for this weekend's evet has been officially closed, as they have reached full capacity. However, videos from the conference will be made available online soon.

To see videos of previous Conferences and presentations, CLICK HERE.

3 comments:

  1. The confrence has been a huge success with many excellent and game changing papers were submitted.

    ReplyDelete
  2. This year they also added Spanish and German I believe.

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  3. Chris is very nice but the fact is that these large scale events and publishing programs depend on the work of many, many people. Eleven countries were represented and there were 49 major papers, and indeed could have been many more if we had the time. it is gratifying to see professors and scholars from the academic community mixing with Masonic researchers.

    ReplyDelete

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