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The Comparative 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.
We draw faculty from departments and programs across campus in a long-standing tradition of interdisciplinary instruction. Faculty from Sociology, Classics, History, Near East Languages and Civilization, Anthropology, Comparative Literature, and the School of Law invigorate the program providing vitality and topical focus.
The Program's goal is to provide the university community with opportunities to reflect on the role religion has played throughout history. Public lectures, symposia, and conferences that focus on religion on human security, democracy, and other pressing social issues of contemporary life provide ample opportunities for this. Most recently, the Program convened its second symposium on Religion and Security, a two-year project supported by the Luce Foundation and the Jackson School's Center for Global Studies http://jsis.washington.edu/religion/humsec/.
However, the heart of the Program is - and has always been - our committed, nationally recognized faculty and our gifted students. This spring we extend congratulations to Heidi Pauwels who will be promoted to full Professor and, for forth-coming publication of new books, to Professors Martin S. Jaffee "The End of Jewish Radar: Snapshots of a Post-Ethnic American Judaism)", Jonathan Brown ("Hadith: An Introduction"), and to Arzoo Osanloo, ("The Politics of Women's Rights").
We are also delighted that Comparative Religion majors Rachel Tweet and Miloud Tais have been invited to join Phi Beta Kappa. This year the Eugene and Marilyn Domoto Webb Scholarships were made to Sasha Prevost who has been admitted to Harvard University's M.Div program with a full scholarship and to Alex Kocar who has been accepted to Princeton University's Religion Department and awarded a full stipend through the Program for the study of the Ancient World as well as a fellowship through the Hellenic program. The fellowship is the Stanley J. Seeger fellowship and is for five years of study.
For information on graduate student applications please contact Ms. Paula Milligan in Graduate Advising and to find out more about undergraduate courses, Ms. Linda Iltis. both have offices on the first floor of Thomson Hall.
James K. Wellman, Jr.
Chair, Comparative Religion Program
NEWS & EVENTS
Wednesday, May 12
Congratulations to Martin Jaffee! iUniverse publishers announces publication of his book " The End of Jewish Radar: Snapshots of a Post-Ethnic American Judaism." The book is available as an E-book and in Perfect Bound Softcover. For more information: http://www.iuniverse.com/Bookstore/BookDetail.aspx?BookId=SKU-000115763
Tuesday, May 11
We are delighted to congratulate Comparative Religion majors, Rachel Tweet and Miloud Tais for being invited to join Phi Beta Kappa in the 2008-2009 academic year. The invitation to join Phi Beta Kappa is based upon the students’ excellent academic record and interest in the liberal arts. The initiation ceremony for new members will be held on Thursday, June 11, 2009 at 7:30 PM in the Henry Auditorium, preceded by bell ringing on Red Square at 6:30pm.
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PAST EVENTS
Wednesday May 6, 2009
“Pakistani Attitudes Towards Militancy In and Beyond Pakistan”
7:30 PM
Kane 220
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. For the flyer please click here.
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Thursday May 7, 2009
"After Fukuyama and Huntington: Prospects for American Power"
7:30 PM
Kane 220
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. To hear an interview with Mr. Mead, use this link: http://www.cfr.org/publication/14555/religion_and_foreign_policy_conference_call_with_walter_russell_mead.htmlLuce Public Lectures in Global Religion and Human Security. For flyer, please click here.
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PAST EVENTS
Monday, March 30
University of Washington Professor David Domke will speak about how religion has changed the news at the 37th annual First Amendment Forum Friday at St. Cloud State University, Minnesota tonight. Domke has written two books about religion in American politics. After Domke’s talk, a panel of reporters will discuss news and religious issues they have covered, and several religious leaders will offer their reactions.
Domke wrote “The God Strategy: How Religion Became a Weapon in American Politics”.
Panelists will be Allie Shah, a reporter at the Star Tribune in Minneapolis who is Muslim and has won awards for her cultural sensitivity in reporting; Ambar Espinoza, a Minnesota Public Radio reporter based in Collegeville who covers Latino and Muslim communities; David Unze, St. Cloud Times reporter who covered both the pedophile priest scandal and the St. Cloud State Oratorio tour to Holocaust sites in France and Germany last summer.
*****
Monday, March 30
Comparative Religion Program graduate student, Alex Kocar, has been accepted to Princeton University's Religion Department - specifically its Religions in Antiquity sub-division. He has been awarded a full stipend through the Program for the study of the Ancient World as well as a fellowship through the Hellenic program. The fellowship is the Stanley J. Seeger fellowship and is for five years of study.
Wednesday, April 8
Former UW Comparative Rellgion graduate student, Lucas John Mix, speaks about his book, "Life in Space: Astrobiology for Everyone" , Elliott Bay Book Company, 7:30 PM
For more: http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog/MIXLIF.html And the review in the Seattle Times:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/books/2008786225_br01astrobiology. Details on the bookstore at http://www.elliottbaybook.com/
Mix received his Ph.D. in biology from Harvard and now teaches courses on science and religion while working as a priest in the Episcopal Church.
*****
May 6, 7, 8, 2009
The Luce Symposium in Global Religions and Human Security
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,
*****
PAST 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.
****
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
***
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
****
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
***
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/
****
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
***
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
****
MARCH 17, 2009 Postponed
“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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| Comparative Religion | |
| University of Washington | |
| Box 353650 | |
| Seattle, WA 98195 | |
| (206) 543-4835 office | |
| (206) 685-0668 fax |
| Graduate Advising | |
| ► | milligan@u.washington.edu |