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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
LUCE LECTURES ON RELIGION & U.S. PRESIDENTIAL POLITICS
OCTOBER 9, 2008, Kane Hall 120, 7:30 PM
Prof. David Domke, University of Washington
“Religious Politics in America: Why the 2008 Presidential Election May Change Everything for Everyone”
David Domke, recognized as the Washington State Professor of the Year (2006) and recipient of the Award for Outstanding Achievement in Research, Teaching, and Public Service (2006) as well as the Distinguished Teaching Award in 2002, is professor of Communications at the University of Washington. He received his Ph.D in Mass Communication from University of Minnesota. Domke studies political elites and news media, individual values and cognition, and social change, with particular interest in the dynamics of post-9/11 America. His book, “The God Strategy” is a sobering look at just how deeply imbedded religion has become in the contemporary American political psyche. Domke (and co-author Coe) demonstrate how the union of government and religion tends to degrade the integrity of both.
OCTOBER 27, 2008, Kane 120 @ 7:30 PM
Prof. Vali Nasr, The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University
“Shi’I Politics in the Middle East”
Iranian-American academic and scholar, Nasr is an expert in contemporary Middle Eastern affairs and Islam and politics. In January, 2006, Nasr was named the Adjunct Senior Fellow for Middle Eastern Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. He is also a Senior Fellow with The Dubai Initiative, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. He was named Carnegie Scholar in 2006. His father, Seyyed Hossein Nasr, is an Islamic philosopher, historian of science, and a University Professor of Islamic Studies at George Washington University. Nasr is the author of The Shia Revival, The Islamic Leviathan, Democracy in Iran, and Mawdudi and the Making of Islamic Revivalism. His work on the role of states in Islamization and the evolution new democratic ideas in the Muslim world presented new analysis. He has been engaged in debates in the Muslim world on Islam and democracy and on the accommodation modernity. His most influential work has been on the importance of sectarian identity in Middle East politics and the growing importance of Shia politics following the Iraq war, which he was one of the first to identify.
OCTOBER 28, 2008, Kane 120 @ 7:30 PM
Prof. Hubert Locke, University of Washington
“The African American Church and Presidential Politics”
Prof. Locke came to the University of Washington in 1976 as Professor of Public Affairs and Associate Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. In 1977 he was appointed Vice Provost for Academic Affairs and, in 1982, became Dean of the Evans School. The destruction of the European Jews; justice in American society; and research and writing on the criminal justice system have been the main themes that Prof. Locke has explored throughout his career. He is a member of The National Council on Crime and Delinquency, the Museum of History and Industry, the Disciples Seminary Foundation and the Washington State Commission on Judicial Conduct.He is author and editor of several books and numerous chapters in publications dealing with race, criminal justice, religion and public policy.
OCTOBER 31, 2008, Kane 120 @ 7:30 PM
Juan Cole, University of Michigan
"Iraq and the U.S. Presidential Election"
Juan R. I. Cole is Richard P. Mitchell Distinguished University Professor of History at the University of Michigan. He has written extensively about Egypt, Iran, Iraq, and South Asia. He has given numerous media and press interviews on the War on Terrorism since September 11, 2001, as well as concerning the Iraq War and the building conflict with Iran from 2003. A regular columnist at Salon.com, he continues to study and write about contemporary Islamic movements, mainstream and radical, Sunni and Salafi or Shi`ite. Cole commands Arabic, Persian and Urdu and reads some Turkish, knows both Middle Eastern and South Asian Islam, and lived in a number of places in the Muslim world for extended periods of time. For three decades his work has placed the relationship of the West and the Muslim world in historical context, and his most recent book is Napoleon's Egypt: Invading the Middle East (Palgrave Macmillan, 2007). He also writes on current events, and his articles on contemporary Sunni radicalism include "Muslim Religious Extremism in Egypt" and "The Taliban, Women, and the Hegelian Private Sphere.".
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LUCE LECTURES 2009
MARCH 17, 2009 (details to come)
Prof. Mark Lilla, Columbia University
“History of the Great Separation: Church and State”
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.
May 7, 2009 (details to come)
Prof. Christine Fair, Senior Political Scientist at the RAND Corporation
“Pakistani Attitudes Towards Militancy In and Beyond Pakistan”
Bio: 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.
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Registration is kindly appreciated for the Luce Lecture Series on Religion and the US Presidential Election. To register please click here:
https://catalysttools.washington.edu/webq/survey/lpaxton/59060
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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