Dr Kieran Flanagan (University of Bristol), School of Sociology, Politics and International Studies, Teaching Unit Organiser Senior Research Fellow in Sociology, with interface between sociology and theology (Catholic) pursued in terms of virtue ethics, ritual and visual culture. Also has interest in historical sociology in relation to nineteenth century Irish Society. Author of: Sociology in Theology: Reflexivity and Belief (2007), Seen and Unseen: Visual Culture, Sociology and Theology (2004), The Enchantment of Sociology: A Study of Theology and Culture (1996), Sociology and Liturgy: Re-presentations of the Holy (1991).
Prof. György Geréby (Central European University), Historian of Medieval and Late Antique philosophy and theology. Research interest: methodology in medieval philosophy and theology, theory of language and proof, and its applicability to conceptual analysis. An additional interest in early Christianity and the apocrypha, and political theology. Studied geophysics, philosophy, Hungarian philology and classics at ELTE. Visiting graduate student at St. Edmund Hall, Oxford, 1986–1987; Osteuropastipendiat in Fribourg (Switzerland) in 1990–1991, and British Council Research Fellow at Pembroke College, Oxford (1993). Regular positions at the Janus Pannonius University at Pécs, Hungary 1983–1991, then at ELTE, 1991–2007, and at CEU from August 2007. Former head of the Medieval Studies Department (2007–2010). Taught also at Liverpool, and as a Fulbright Teaching Scholar at Rutgers University. Guest lecturer at ELTE.
Prof. Elżbieta Hałas (University of Warsaw), Director of The Chair of Sociology of Culture in The Institute of Sociology at University of Warsaw, Member of Polish Sociological Association and of European Sociological Association. She created and edited a series of scientific journals „Studies in Sociology: Symbols, Theory and Society” published by Peter Lang Internationaler Verlag der Wissenschaften. From 1981–2003 she taught at University of Georgia (USA) as well as at Catholic University of Lublin, where since 1994 she was Director of The Faculty of Social Sciences. She is interested in theory of culture, methodology of cultural studies, sociology of culture and theory of sociology as well as sociology of a personality and sociology of religion. Elżbieta Hałas’s research interests lie broadly in: social symbolism, politics of symbolism, collective memory, social interactions and communication, involvement in social movements. Author and editor of: Symbols, Power and Politics (2002), Konwersja. Perspektywa socjologiczna (Conversion. The Sociological Perspective; 2007, II ed.), Towards the World Culture Society. Florian Znaniecki’s Culturalism (2010).
Prof. Tom Ryba (St. Thomas Aquinas Center), Adjunct Professor in the Department of Philosophy and is the Notre Dame Theologian in Residence at St. Thomas Aquinas Center at Purdue. He is the author of The Essence of Phenomenology and its Meaning for the Scientific Study of Religion (1991), the editor of The Comity of Grace and Method (2002) and has authored numerous articles on religion. His research interests lie in the phenomenology of religion, theology, and relations between science and religion. He is currently teaching Religions of the East. Author and editor of: The Essence of Phenomenology and Its Meaning for the Scientific Study of Religion (1991), The Comity and Grace of Method (2004), For Rene Girard: Essays in Friendship and Truth (2009).
Prof. Paweł Śpiewak (University of Warsaw), Chief of Faculty of History of Sociological Thought at University of Warsaw, Director of the Jewish Historical Institute, reader at the University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn. His researches are focused at general sociology, sociology of politics, history of sociological, philosophical and political thought. He popularizes western philosophy and theory of politics, especially liberal and conservative ideas. As an author and editor he published Anti-Totalitarismus. Eine polnische Debatte (2003), Midrasze: księga nad księgami (Book of books. The Midrash; 2004), Pamięć po komunizmie (Memory after Communism).
