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Founded in 1974 by faculty from departments and programs across campus, the Comparative Religion Program today continues its tradition of interdisciplinary instruction. Its teaching faculty are pulled from such programs and departments as Sociology, Classics, History, Near East Languages and Civilization, Anthropology, Comparative Literature, as well as from the School of Law and other professional schools on campus.
The Program is virtually unique in the United States in that it is located within a school of international studies giving students access to resources from every region of the world. The Program's faculty have earned both local and national recognition for their distinguished record of education, scholarship, and public service.
The Program's goal is to provide the university community with opportunities to reflect on the complex role religion has played throughout history. Through its continuing presentation of public lectures, symposia, and conferences, the Program seeks to explore the impact of religion on human security, democracy, and on politics, economics, and pressing social issues of contemporary life. For more about the Luce Foundation symposium, faculty and graduate student news, and on- and off-campus events, please check the web-site http://jsis.washington.edu/religion/humsec/.
James K. Wellman, Jr.
Chair, Comparative Religion Program
EVENTS
JAN. 14, 2009
"Contemporary Threats to Religious Liberty in the U.S." (Luce Lecture)
Kane 220 @ 7:30 PM
Prof. Anthony Gill (Political Science Dept., UW)
Co-sponsored by the Center for Global Studies.
The First Amendment of the US Constitution declares that "Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof..." While much of the debate over religious freedom has focused on whether prayer in school or Christmas trees on city hall lawns constitute "establishment," governments have increasingly used property rights regulations and zoning laws to inhibit the construction and expansion of houses of worship. Professor Gill examines why this trend has increased in recent years. His talk will situate the issue in historical and cross-national perspective. Sponsors: Comparative Religion Program and The Center for Global Studies. Contact information. 206 543 4835.
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JAN.14, 2008
"Online Buddhist Community, Authority and Identity: a case study on how the process of spiritualizing technology impact religious identity and authority in a Buddhist Web forum."
Mary Gates Hall 241 @ 4 PM
Lecturer Laura Busch (UW Dept. of Communications)
Center for Information and Society GUEST LECTURE SERIES
First lecture in a series. Format includes presentation by a UW researcher accompanied by two panel members from other disciplines. This study analyzes the Buddhist message forum E-sangha, to determine how this forum’s founder and moderators ‘spiritualized the Internet’. This study demonstrates how narratives of a religious community provide Web producers and forum moderators an opportunity to frame Web environments as sacred community spaces thus determining who takes part in the community.
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JAN. 20, 2009
"Islam in Europe: Integration and Radicalization, Two Faces of the Same Coin?"
Henry Art Gallery Auditorium @ 2:30 - 3:45 PM
Prof. Olivier Roy, École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, French National Centre for Scientific Research
Co-sponsors: The Center for West European Studies Politics and Society Colloquium, the Middle East Center and the Comparative Religion Program
Olivier Roy is a political scientist and scholar of Persian language and civilization. During 2008-09, he will be a Visiting Professor at UC Berkeley’s Political Science Department. Professor Roy was a consultant to UNOCA (United Nations Office of the Coordinator for Afghanistan) in 1988; in the same year he organized and accompanied a special UN team to Afghanistan. In 1993, he was special envoy for the OSCE in Tajikistan and in the following year became head of OSCE’s Mission for Tajikistan. He has acted as a part-time consultant to the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs since 1984. He has written extensively on Afghanistan, Iran, former Soviet Central Asia, the Middle East, political Islam and Muslims in Europe. His books include: "Islam and Resistance in Afghanistan"; "The Failure of Political Islam"; "Les illusions du 11 septembre"; "L’islam mondialisé"; "Globalized Islam"; and (with G. Holoch) "Secularism Confronts Islam" . Professor Roy received his PhD in Political Science in 1996 from the Institut d’Études Politiques de Paris (IEP/Sciences Po).
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JAN. 20 , 2009
History Lecture Series: "The Vatican in the 20th Century: 1914-1939—Benedict XV and Pius XI"
Kane Hall Room 130 @ 7 PM , UW Seattle Campus
Tickets required. Online RSVP www.washington.edu
Phone RSVP 1-800-AUW-ALUM or (206) 543-0540
Host(s) The UW Alumni Association and the UW College of Arts & Sciences
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JAN. 27, 2009
"Anti-Semitism - An Eternal Hatred?"
Parrington Forum, UW Seattle Campus @ 12:30 PM
Steven Beller, independent scholar, Washington, DC
Co-sponsored by the Jewish Studies Program, the Center for Global Studies and the Center for West European Studies
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JAN. 27, 2009
History Lecture Series: "The Vatican in the 20th Century: 1939-1958—Pius XII"
Kane Hall Room 130 @ 7 PM UW Seattle Campus
Tickets required. Online RSVP www.washington.edu
Phone RSVP 1-800-AUW-ALUM or (206) 543-0540
Host(s) The UW Alumni Association and the UW College of Arts & Sciences
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FEB. 3, 2009
"Has Biblical Research Killed the Bible?"
Kane Hall, Room 120, UW Seattle campus @ 6:30 PM
Prof. James Kugel, Director, Institute for the History of the Jewish Bible, Bar Ilan, Israel
http://www.jameskugel.com/
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FEB. 3, 2009
History Lecture Series: The Vatican in the 20th Century: 1958-1978—John XXIII and Paul VI
Kane Hall Room 130 @ 7 PM, UW Seattle Campus
Tickets required. Online RSVP www.washington.edu…
Phone RSVP 1-800-AUW-ALUM or (206) 543-0540
Host(s) UW Alumni Association and the College of Arts & Sciences
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FEB. 17, 2009
History Lecture Series: The Vatican in the 20th Century: 2005 to the Present—Benedict XVI
Kane Hall Room 130 @ 7 PM, UW Seattle Campus
Tickets required. Online RSVP www.washington.edu
Phone RSVP 1-800-AUW-ALUM or (206) 543-0540
Host(s) UW Alumni Association and the College of Arts & Sciences
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MARCH 17, 2009
“History of the Great Separation: Church and State” (Luce Lecture)
Henry Art Gallery Auditorium @ 7:30 PM
Prof. Mark Lilla, Columbia University
Public Luce Lectures in Global Religion and Human Security (details to be determined)
Mark Lilla was trained at the University of Michigan and Harvard University, where he received his PhD in 1990. He has held positions at New York University, Oxford University (visitor), and most recently in the Committee on Social Thought at the University of Chicago. His work ranges widely in the history of ideas, though his central concerns have been the relation between religion and politics and the legacy of the modern Western enlightenment. His books include G.B. Vico: The Making of an Anti-Modern (1993), The Reckless Mind: Intellectuals in Politics (2001), and, most recently, The Stillborn God: Religion, Politics, and the Modern West (2007). His current research focuses on the religious concepts of conversion and innocence. A frequent contributor to the New York Review of Books, the New Republic, and the New York Times, he lectures widely and has delivered the Weizmann Memorial Lecture in Israel and the Carlyle Lectures at Oxford University. Co-sponsored by the Center for Global Studies.
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The Luce Symposium in Global Religions and Human Security
May 6, 7, 8, 2009
Co-sponsors: the Comparative Religion Program and The Center for Global Studies.
May 6, 2009 - Luce Public Lecture
“Pakistani Attitudes Towards Militancy In and Beyond Pakistan”
Kane 220@ 7:30 PM
Prof. Christine Fair, Senior Political Scientist at the RAND Corporation
Fair earned a B.S. in Biological Chemistry in 1991, an M.A. from the Harris School of Public Policy as well as an M.A in South Asian Languages and Civilizations in 1997. In 2004, she received a Ph.D. in South Asian Languages and Civilizations. She has extensive experience in the areas of military manpower as well as issues pertaining to women and children. She is fluent in Urdu, Hindi, Punjabi, and Persian. Much of her research concerns security competition between India and Pakistan, analyses of the causes of terrorism, and U.S. strategic relations with India and Pakistan. She has conducted an examination of political Islam and its recent developments in Pakistan and Iran; and a comparative study of urban terrorism and state responses in Sri Lanka, Pakistan, and India.
May 7, 2009 - Luce Public Lecture
"After Fukuyama and Huntington: Prospects for American Power"
Kane 220@ 7:30 PM
Mr. Walter Russell Mead, Henry A. Kissinger Senior Fellow for U.S. Foreign Policy, Council on Foreign Relations; Distinguished Visiting Fellow in Grant Strategy, Yale University.
Mr. Mead will discuss the intersection of religion and American power - how it colors the way America engages with the world and the role it will play in the future of American grand strategy. Luce Public Lectures in Global Religion and Human Security,
Would you like to join the the CRP mailing list for updates on recent news and program events? If so please send an email with your name, address, and return email address to Loryn Paxton, Program Coordinator.
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