Apr Public Meeting: Communities Without Churches
In April we are excited to spotlight Minnesota Atheists’ President Stephanie Zvan giving, for the first time in the United States, her presentation “Communities Without Churches: What Fandom Can Teach Organized Atheism.”
When people leave religion, they often leave behind a religious community. The secular movement has sometimes struggled to build new communities for them. Science fiction and fantasy fandom has been creating largely godless communities for decades. What lessons should we take from them?
Stephanie is an accomplished writer, speaker, educator, interviewer, and organizer. In addition to being the President of Minnesota Atheists, she is on the board of Secular Woman. She helped run three regional conferences for Minnesota Atheists and co-founded Secular Women Work with Monette Richards. Secular Women Work has Kickstarted and run two conferences to date and organizes workshops for Skepticon. She’s also helped run online conferences for Freethought Blogs and The Orbit.
Stephanie speaks on science, skepticism, and community in a number of venues, including science fiction and fantasy conventions. She participated in SkepchickCon, the skeptic track at CONvergence, from inception to end and hosted conversations on communicating science and critical thinking at the ScienceOnline unconference. She’s presented talks and workshops at skeptic and atheist conferences in the U.S. and Canada. She’s interviewed guests for Atheists Talk radio and television and The Humanist Hour podcast.
Sunday, April 24, 2022
1:00–1:15 p.m.: Zoom opens to work out any issues
1:15–1:45 p.m.: Business Meeting and board elections
1:45–2:00 p.m.: Break
2:00–3:30 p.m.: Program
