Peter van der Veer is director of the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity at Göttingen. His work focuses on religion and nationalism. Specifically, he is interested in a syntagmatic structure linking four concepts – religion, magic, secularity, and spirituality – and how they’ve emerged entangled in global colonial encounters between East and West. He also works on issues of refugees and religion, in addition to other modern global encounters, primarily between Asia and Europe. This conversation builds on four others in the ongoing Global Religious and Secular Dynamic Discussion Series.