World Religions Experience Day 2025
About
The UQ World Religions Experience Day will be held at St Lucia Campus on Wednesday, 23 July 2025. Due to high demand, we are excited to offer an identical experience day on Thursday, 24 July 2025.
Year 11 secondary school students from across South East Queensland are invited to the St Lucia campus for a day of discovery. Students attend a number of sessions throughout the day that cover topics such as Islam and Society, Science and Religion, Hinduism, Spirituality in the Everyday and Galileo and the Church.
The World Religions Experience Day grants students the opportunity to:
- experience a day at the St Lucia campus of The University of Queensland
- hear from world-leading scholars
- learn about specific religions, and the place of religion in the contemporary world
- participate in a Q&A session
Event Details
Date: Wednesday 23 July, 2025 [FULL] or Thursday 24 July, 2025
Time: 9:30am - 2:00pm
Location: UQ St Lucia (View Map)
Register
Program
9:30am: Arrivals and welcome
10-10:45am : Session block 1
10:45-11:10am: Morning Tea
11:15am-12pm: Session block 2 (repeated sessions from block 1)
12pm - 12:45pm: Lunch
12:55pm - 2pm: Panel session
2pm: Finish
Session descriptions and links to SoR unit*
Session: Islam and Society
Presented by Dr Ryan Williams
- Description: How do Muslims connect to the Islam of the past? What does Islam mean for Muslims in a Muslim-minority country like Australia? This session will explore the texts, rituals, and ethics that connect Muslims in Australian society.
- SoR Unit Themes: Sacred texts and religious writings; Religion and ritual; Religious ethics
Session: Science & Religion Conflict
Presented by Associate Professor Tom Aechtner
- Description: Are religion and science in conflict? This session explores answers to that controversial question, and it explores religion-science relationships throughout history to the present-day.
- SoR Unit Themes: Sacred texts and religious writings; Religious ethics
Session: Hinduism: Sacred Texts
Presented by Associate Professor Adam Bowles
- Description: This session will explore the sacred texts in the Hindu tradition. Why have some texts been elevated over others? Does Hinduism have ‘a sacred text’?
- SoR Unit Themes: Sacred texts and religious writings; Religion, rights and the nation-state
Session: Abraham Joshua Heschel and the Meaning of the Sabbath in 20th-century America
Presented by Dr James A.T. Lancaster
- Description: This presentation will explore how Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, an émigré from Nazi Germany, rethought the importance of Shabbat to Jewish people living in the context of post-war America.
- SoR Unit Themes: Sacred texts and religious writings; Religious ethics
*2024 sessions, please note these may change for 2025.
Contact
Please contact engagement@hass.uq.edu.au for enquiries.
Kindly be aware that this event is exclusively for Year 11 high school students.