Sponsored by the Luce Foundation
The Luce Foundation’s Henry R. Luce Initiative on Religion and International Affairs has awarded the University of Washington's Comparative Religion Program and Center for Global Studies in the Jackson School of International Studies one of its prestigious "Religion and International Affairs" grants. The UW's is one of just a handful of International Schools to receive a grant and the first large grant ($300,000) for a religious studies program.
The UW's proposal on “Religion and Human Security” was based on the observation that religious non-state actors now often compete with states in their impact on human welfare. In some cases, the effect is benign. Religious groups provide essential services that corrupted and undemocratic states are unwilling or unable to provide. In other cases, the effect is detrimental to states’ capacity to exercise their legitimate powers. States, in effect, become hostage to grassroots movements and their priorities. We argue that in the contemporary world, one cannot effectively engage in humanitarian actions unless one understands the role that religious non-state actors provide in supplanting, supplementing, or contesting how states negotiate the welfare of their populations.
This grant underlines how important the role of religion is to global stability and positions the UW as the future authority on Religion and Human Security.
Although the proceedings of the symposium held May 8, 9, 2008 will not be available either in printed or in electronic format, a published volume is being planned. Information on this volume will be posted here as soon as possible but probably not before next year. The symposium that will take place in May 2009 will be open to the public. This web site will have the most up-to-date information.
We are pleased to announce the participants for the Religion and Human Security Symposium:
Karen Bhangoo, George Mason University
Shane Barter, University of British Columbia
Sara Curran, University of Washington
Richard Fox, University of Chicago
Gladys Ganiel, Trinity College, Dublin
Jaye Houston, Claremont Graduate University
Sulayman Khalaf, University of Bahrain
Lucian Leustean, Aston University, UK
Chuck McDaniel, Baylor University
Daniel Metraux, Mary Baldwin College
Emily Morrison, University of Washington
Sipra Mukherjee. Bhairab Ganguly College, Kolkata
Ranjana Mukhopadhyaya, Nagoya City University. Japan
Rowena Robinson, Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay
Sayres Rudy, Hampshire College
Yuksel Sezgin, University of Washington
Murat Somer, Koc University, Istanbul
James Tiburcio, University of Brasilia
Berna Turam, Hampshire College
Amy Underkofler, University of Washington
This year, a prestigious two-year grant from the Henry Luce Foundation allows us to invite C. Christine Fair from the US Institute of Peace to assist with the coordination of a major symposium on the topic of Religion and Human Security. Fair is a senior research associate at the United States Institute of Peace ’s Center for Conflict Analysis and Prevention where she specializes in South Asian political and military affairs.