World Congress on Fraternalism

World Congress on Fraternalism, Social Capital, and Civil Society (WCF)

Sponsors of the World Congresses on Fraternalism: The American Public University System, Phi Sigma Omega International, Westphalia Press, Musée de la Franc-Maçonnerie (Paris), University of Houston.

LINKS:
Registration
Program
List of hotels within 300 meters of the Grand Orient

The World Congress on Fraternalism, Social Capital, and Civil Society, explores how associationalism and volunteerism have shaped democracy, politics, and history. The event, with its unique contributions on fraternalism and freemasonry, and its publishing in the Policy Studies Organization’s Ritual, Secrecy, and Civil Society journal and Westphalia Press books, is held in Paris every two years. The congress this June 2022 will be followed by the congress in June 2024. Reports on ongoing research bridging the two congresses are most welcome.

Subjects have included labor and agricultural movements like the Knights of Labor and National Grange, Freemasonry, Eastern Star and Amaranth, Rotary, college and honor sororities and fraternities, religious groups like the Knights of Columbia, societies that expanded into insurance programs like the Woodsmen of the World, other aspects of freemasonry, clubs, lodges, labor unions, the place of ritual, ceremony and secrecy, and the implications for gender, race, religion, and political legitimacy. Equally welcome are considerations of how volunteerism in these movements contributes to democracy and political life. The conferences gain from having a variety of subjects discussed. The committee are also open to presentations of art, dance, folk music and others if related.

PSO encourages 365 day conferences, those that interact and network between actual meetings and where early postings of drafts encourage ongoing discussion. We try hard to provide continuity so those who attend can mark their calendars with confidence. Our conferences, like our journals, are central to our role in dissemination and conversation. The conference is free for both presenters and attendees, but registration is requested to plan for catering, headsets, and other conference needs. For information and registration please contact PSO Executive Director, Daniel Gutierrez, at dgutierrezs@ipsonet.org

The congress has a general interest in fraternalism and is not confined to Freemasonry, nor is it under the auspices of any lodge. Rather, it is supported by the National Library of France, the Policy Studies Organization, and the American Public University.

The logo for the WCF series will approporiately be the Masonic Symbol of Point in a Circle, represented here in the painting, The Patron Saints and the Point Within the Circle, by Roy Mandell and Margaret Schmidt (Oil on canvas, 2014. Commissioned by John Mercer Lodge in Omaha Nebraska, Master of the lodge at the time: Brother David Long)

A French blog, which conveniently translates on site into English if desired, offers an immense amount about both European and world Freemasonry, of interest to anyone following the activities of the international conferences: https://www.hiram.be/   The blog is both daily and weekly and can be received by simply signing on the subscription form.

Traditions of the Paris Congress
The WCF is the successor to conferences held years ago in Edinburgh with the help of the Grand Lodge of Scotland.  Ritual, Secrecy, and Civil Society is the official congress journal. https://www.rscsjournal.org/. The Library of Freemasonry and Ritualism is the publishing list on fraternalism and social capital of the PSO’s Westphalia Press. https://westphaliapress.org/freemasonry-and-ritual-library/and we are always interested in appropriate titles and new authors. The conference seeks to energetically encourage research and scholarship, and emblematically presents at each meeting an important  rare book  or manuscript to the collections of the Museum of Freemasonry and the Grand Orient Library, to be investigated and commented on at the next conference. as well as  discussed in the Ritual journal. 

Awards for outstanding contributions to scholarship are made at each conference: the Bartholdi Award for Distinguished Scholarship, Regulus Award for Distinguished Service to the Scholarly Community, Kilwinning Award for Lifetime Contributions to Research and Scholarship. The day before the conference opening, a by invitation workshop is held of distinguished scholars. The alternative year Washington conference has a special interest in gender issues in fraternalism, but like all PSO conferences welcomes other topics than the theme topic. The Paris conference is in 2022, 2024, 2026, 2028.  The Washington conference is in 2023, 2025, 2027. The co-chairs are Pierre Mollier, Paul Rich, and Guillermo de los Reyes. The executive director of the conference is Daniel Gutierrez.

The PSO journal Ritual, Secrecy and Civil Society is a fertile resource for those looking for research ideas, and for following up on many of the topics  discussed at the Paris and Washington PSO congresses and  in the volumes of the fraternal library of Westphalia Press. Its articles suggest many different subjects for those looking for topics to explore. See “The World Conferences on Fraternalism” (Vol. 6 No. 2, 65-68).

The Paris congresses have produced many ground-breaking papers, notably Andrew Prescott and Susan Mitchell Sommers, “The Origins of Freemasonry and the Invention of Tradition” (Vol. 7 No. 2, 1-20). One aspect of study is the influence of lodges in specific nations. As an example, Emanuela Locci, “The Impact of European Freemasonry in the Turkish Civil Society” (Vol. 4 No. 2, 45-9), Vincent Lombardo “Study on the Present Conditions of Freemasonry in the World’ (Vol. 3 No. 2, 31-57), Paul Rich “Inventing America: The Role of Freemasonry in Early Washington” (Vol. 7 No. 1, 1-14).   The possibilities of further discussions of aspects of intellectual and cultural history are numerous: for example, Thierry Zarcone, “Freemasonry and Orientalism” (Vol. 3, No. 1, 30-36); Pierre Mollier, “The Jewish and Christian Sources of the Legend of the Vault” (Vol. 8 No. 1, 1-6); Pierre-François Pinaud, “Musical Cosmopolitanism in Paris 1779-1792” (Vol. No. 1). A special entire issue on Latin America edited by Guillermo De Los Reyes is especially suggestive of fields that await exploration (Vol. 5, No. 1). Ideas for further papers and publications are warmly received.  

International Commission for Fraternalism Studies: Guillermo De Los Reyes (Conference Chair- University of Houston), Paul Rich (George Mason University), Daniel Guiterrez-Sandoval (Policy Studies Organization), Pierre Mollier (Editor, Ritual, Secrecy, and Civil Society), Alain Bauer (National Conservatory for Arts and Crafts), Brent Morris (Scottish Rite Supreme Council), Yasha Beresiner (InterCol London),  Guillermo Izabal (PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP).

Congress Chairs:

Paul J. Rich, President of the Policy Studies Organization, Westphalia Press
Pierre Mollier, Editor-in-Chief of the Ritual, Secrecy & Civil Society journal
Guillermo de los Reyes, University of Houston

Past events: