Archive of events past

Fall 2019

Thursday, September 5

Welcome Back, Pardee!

Friday, September 13

Human Rights Activism and Scholarship: Exploring the Relationship
Ken Roth, Human Rights Activist

Sunday, September 15

Conference: Religion & the Strange

Monday, September 23

A Reading & Conversation with Scholastique Mukasonga
Scholastique Mukasonga, Writer

Friday, September 27

Muslim Communities in Europe and North America: Contemporary Developments and Challenges
Jonathon Laurence, Professor of Political Science, Morrissey College of Arts and Sciences Boston College

Spring 2019

January 25

Tortured Readings: Hermeneutics and the Authorization of State Violence
Alexandra Zirkle, Post-Doctoral Associate, Elie Wiesel Center for Jewish Studies

January 29

A New Religious Call for the Elimination of Nuclear Weapons
James Carroll, Author Columnist

February 13

Pizza & Politics: Constructing Religion in Context: Contributions From a Lived Religion
Nancy Ammerman, Sociologist

February 20

Writing in Contemporary Francophone Africa
Boubacar Boris Diop, Writer

February 21

‘Moving on’: Reconstruction and reconciliation in post-genocide Rwanda
Anne Kubai, Researcher, Department of Theology, Church and Mission studies; World Christianity and Interreligious Studies, Uppsala University

February 22

An experiment in post conflict social reconstruction: Lessons from Rwanda
Anne Kubai, Researcher, Department of Theology, Church and Mission studies; World Christianity and Interreligious Studies, Uppsala University

February 28

Humility and Narcissim: Implications for the church and public square

March 1

Petitions against Refugees: A Theological Response to South Koreans’ Hostile Reaction to Yemeni Refugee Applicants
Hyunwoo Koo, PhD Student, School of Theology

March 5

International Criminal Justice in Crisis
Phil Clark and Nicola Palmer, SOAS London, King’s College, London

March 8

The Religious Quest for ‘Restoration’ and the Matter of Religious Constancy and Variability: A Comparison of Two Theoretical Approaches in Contemporary Islamic Thought.
Abaas Yunus, Masters Student, Pardee School

March 28

Threats to Democracy: Ethical Responses and Local Action

March 29
Drone Warfare: Religious Responses to Technological Advancement of Violence
Judith Oleson, Co-Director, Program on Religion and Conflict Transformation, School of Theology

April 3

Ethics and Society in Nigeria: Identity, History, and Political Theory
Nimi Wariboko, Walter G. Muelder Professor of Social Ethics

April 5-6

Conference: Finding Religion

April 11

Transitional Justice and Peacebuilding in post-2003 Iraq
Shamiran Mako

April 12

Shaping Mission and Longing for Peace in a Contentious Context: A Study of Prebysterian Mission in Darian, 1905-1930
Lingshu Liu, Masters Student, School of Theology

April 17
Research in Comparative Politics Workshop: Guadalupe Tunon
Guadalupe Tuñón of Harvard University

April 19

The Power of the Faithful: Religion and Mass Atrocity Prevention
Kate Temoney, Assistant Professor, Religion, Montclair State University

April 23

Performance of Injustice: The politics of truth, justice, and reconciliation in Kenya
Gabrielle Lynch, Professor of Comparative Politics, University of Warwick, UK

April 25

Religious Rigidity and Responsiveness: Impact on Democratic Deliberation

April 26

Sarajevo and Suživot—a model for living together across religions and cultures
Thomas Reid, Masters Student, School of Theology

May 1

Pizza & Politics
Adam Seligman

May 3

Martin Luther on Religion and Violence in the Disputation on the Right of Resistance to the Emperor 
Christopher Brown, Associate Professor of Church History, Boston University School of Theology

Fall 2018

August 30

APSA Religion and Politics Meeting & Reception

September 1

APSA Dinner

September 7

Govern Them with Moral Force by Ritual: The Confusian Prescription for Achieving Peace among the Warring States
Brother Lawrence A. Whitney, LC, University Chaplain & PhD Candidate, School of Theology

September 21

Neither Sunni or Shi’i, but surely ‘other’: Indonesia’s lovers of the ahl al-bayt
Chiara Formichi, Associate Professor in Southeast Asian Studies, Cornell University

October 4

Re-reading Bonhoeffer in History
Victoria Barnett, Director, Holocaust Memorial Museum Programs on Ethics, Religion, and the Holocaust

October 5

Destabilizing Encounters: New Historical Research on Religious Minorities during the Holocaust
Victoria Barnett, Director, Holocaust Memorial Museum Programs on Ethics, Religion, and the Holocaust

October 24

Documentary Screening: “What is Democracy?”

October 25

Seeking a Holy Death: The Meteoric Rise of Mexican Folk Saint, Santa Muerte
Andrew Chesnut, Professor of Religious Studies, Virginia Commonwealth University

October 26

Protestant Atonement as a Practice of Citizenship: How Muslim Belonging in Germany is Dependent on the Figure of the Jew
Sultan Doughan, Visiting Scholar, Elie Wiesel Center for Judaic Studies

November 1

The Justice Facade: Trials of Transition in Cambodia
Alex Hinton, Distinguished Professor of Anthropology, Director of the Center for the Study of Genocide and Human Rights, and UNESCO Chair on Genocide Prevention, Rutgers University

November 2

What makes a man start fires?”
Alex Hinton, Distinguished Professor of Anthropology, Director of the Center for the Study of Genocide and Human Rights, and UNESCO Chair on Genocide Prevention, Rutgers University

November 16

Precolonial Ethnic Violence: The Case of Hindu-Muslim Conflict in India
Ajay Verghese, Assistant Professor of Political Science, University of California, Riverside

November 30

Negation and Affirmation, Judgement and Grace: A  Political Theology of Reconciliation from Karl Barth’s The Christian Life
Joe Kauslick, PhD Student, School of Theology

December 7

Pizza & Politics

December 7

Dying in the Age of Thoughtlessness: Genocide, Terror, and the Lost Peace
Douglas Irvin-Erickson, Assistant Professor, School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution, George Mason University

December 14

Food From Peace: Religious Promise and Practice
Ellen Messer, Visiting Professor, Metropolitan College

Spring 2018

January 26 

The Ultimate Concern of Liberal Modernity Perils of Conflict and Promise of Collaboration
Brother Lawrence A. Whitney, LC, University Chaplain & PhD Candidate, School of Theology

February 2 

Wishing/Vowing: Agentive Stance-Taking in Han-Buddhist Temple Spheres 
Yang Shen, PhD Student in Religion and Society, Anthropology

February 9

Oppositional Art: Chinese Christian Propaganda Posters 
Daryl Ireland, Center for Global Christianity and Mission, School of Theology

February 23 

Raisin’ Hell: Narrative Constructions of a Useful Enemy in Religious Right Fundraising Mailers 
Chad Moore, PhD Student in Religion and Society, Graduate Division of Religious Studies

March 2

Story-telling and Place-making in the Zongo Religious Imagination: Negotiating Belonging in Nima-Accra, Ghana 
Emily A. Williamson, PhD Student in Anthropology

March 23 

Pulling Apart: Universalism and Particularism in Modern Jewish Ethics
Michael Zank, Professor of Religious Studies

April 6 

Blessing America First: Religion, Foreign Policy, and the Trump Transition 
David Buckley, Department of Political Science
University of Louisville

April 13 

The Role of Religion and Women Leadership in Peace Building: A Study of war Torn Liberia
Suegatha Kai-Rennie, Masters student in Global Development Policy

May 4 

Playing Language Games: Linguistic Philosophy, Politics, Religion, and Peace 
Barbod Salimi, School of Theology

Fall 2017

September 7

CURA Relaunch
10 Lenox Street

September 14

Diplomats and the Divine: The challenges and opportunities of mixing religion and foreign policy
Peter Mandaville, Ph.D,
Professor of International Affairs, Schar School of Policy and Government, George Mason University
10 Lenox Street

October 6

Disengaged Buddhism
Amod Lele, Lecturer in Philosophy, Visiting Researcher in the Centre for the Study of Asia, and Senior Educational Technologist in the Office of Digital Learning and Innovation at Boston University
10 Lenox Street

October 13

Moving Beyond the ‘Two Faces’ of Interfaith Engagement
Tanya B. Schwarz, Ph.D, Visiting Assistant Professor, Department of Global Politics and Societies, Hollins University
10 Lenox Street

October 27

Taking Advantage of Democratic Space? Church Advocacy on Emerging Development Issues in Ghana
Amy S. Patterson, Carl Biehl Professor of International Affairs, University of the South

November 2

Pizza & Politics

November 3

Democratization, Religious Actors, and Political Influence: A Comparison of Christian Councils in Ghana and South Africa
Tracy Kuperus, Associate Professor, International Development Studies,
Calvin College

November 17

The Transnational Life of Reformed Presbyterianism in Chinamerica
Youngguang “Max” Xue, School of Theology, Boston University

December 1

Confucianism, Gapponshugi and the Spirit of Japanese Capitalism
Bin Song, PhD Candidate of Religious Studies Boston University

December 5

The Protestant Origins of Wilsonianism
Jeremy Menchik, Assistant Professor, Pardee School

December 8

The Narrative of Islamophobia in European Media
Sana Haque, Pardee School of Global Studies

Spring 2017

Wednesday, January 25

4:00 PM | Material Religion and Indigenous Christianity in Latin America
Jennifer Scheper Hughes, Associate Professor, Department of History, University of California, Riverside
CAS B18, 725 Commonwealth Ave.

Wednesday, February 8

4:00 PM | Islam and Identity in Indonesia: The Case of  Arabic names in Java
Joel C. Kuipers
, Professor of Anthropology and International Affairs, Columbian College of Arts & Sciences
154 Bay State Rd. Eilts Room

Thursday, February 16

4:00 PM | Reframing Hospitality – a leap from law to ethics
Mona Siddiqui
, University of Edinburgh Divinity School
121 Bay State Rd.

Thursday, March 16

4:00 PM | Christianity, Development and Modernity in Africa
Paul Gifford
, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, will be discussing his newest book, Christianity, Development, and Modernity in Africa (Oxford 2016)
232 Bay State Rd. African Studies Conference Room 505

Wednesday, March 22

4:00 PM | Social Suffering, Virtue Ethics and Moral Tragedy: The Perils of a Superstrong Black Mother
Cheryl
Mattingly, Professor of Anthropology, Department of Anthropology and the Division of Occupational Science and Therapy, University of Southern California 
232 Bay State Rd. African Studies Conference Room 505

Tuesday, March 28

6:00 PM | Making the World Think Again: Reason, Hope, and Faith in an Age of Populism
Tomáš Halík, Czech Roman Catholic priest and philosopher
BU Law School, 765 Commonwealth Ave., Barristers’ Hall

Wednesday, March 29

5:30 PM | Memory Under Construction at the National Museum of Columbia
Cristina LlerasCurator of the National Museum of Memory in Colombia
121 Bay State Road

Tuesday, April 25

12:00 PM | The Origins of the Missionary Impulse
Jeremy Menchik, Assistant Professor, Pardee School of Global Studies, Boston University
10 Lenox Street

Monday, May 15

Conference: “Charitable Faiths: NGOs and Religion in Asia”
10 Lenox Street

Fall 2016

Friday, September 9

3:30 PM | Round Table: Chinese Buddhist Charity in Comparative Perspective
Participants include faculty from Boston University (Robert Weller, Nancy Ammerman, and April Hughes) and from Renmin University, China.
121 Bay State Rd.

Saturday, September 10

Graduate Workshop: “Love Stories: Youth Aspirations & the New Ethics of Intimacy”
Nancy J. Smith-Hefner, Graduate Student Project on Global Intimacies, Department of Anthropology & CURA

Tuesday, September 13

12:30 PM | The Role of Faith Based Organizations in the Provision of Health Services in Africa
121 Bay State Rd.

Thursday, September 15

5:00 PM | “Broken Hearts/Fighting Words: US Evangelicals, Border-Crossing Affects, and the Anti-Homosexuality Law in Uganda”
Melani McAlister, Associate Professor of American Studies & International Affairs, George Washington University
Eilts Room, 154 Bay State Rd.
Graduate Talk Series on Religion and Public Policy Today

Tuesday, September 27

11:00 AM | “Muslims Talking Politics: Islam and Democracy in Practice in Northern Nigeria”
Brandon Kendhammer, Associate Professor of Political Science, Ohio University
121 Bay State Rd.

Saturday, October 8

Graduate Workshop: “Love Stories: Youth Aspirations & the New Ethics of Intimacy”
Nancy Smith-Hefner, Graduate Student Project on Global Intimacies, Department of Anthropology & CURA

Tuesday, October 18

4:00 PM |“Religion and the Making of Morality Systems”
3rd Annual Talk on Ethics and Modernity
Webb Keane, George Herbert Mead Collegiate Professor of Anthropology, University of Michigan
121 Bay State Rd.

Thursday, October 20

4:00 PM | “Sectarianism and Coexistence in the modern Middle East
Ussama S. Makdisi, Professor of History, Arab-American Educational Foundation Chair of Arab Studies, Rice University
Graduate Talk Series on Religion and Public Policy Today

Thursday, October 27

5:00 PM | “Normativity and Social Criticism in Religious Studies and the Study of Cultures”
Richard Miller, Professor of Religious Ethics, University of Chicago Divinity School
Eilts Room, 154 Bay State Rd.

Thursday, October 27 – Friday, October 28

5:00 PM | “Muslim Thought and Practice in South Asia: New Practices and Directions” Conference
Keynote Speaker:
Muhammad Qasim Zaman, Professor of Near Eastern Studies and Religion, Princeton University
121 Bay State Rd.

Saturday, October 29

9:30 AM | “Love Stories: Youth Aspirations & the New Ethics of Intimacy”
BU Graduate Student Conference, sponsored by CURA, the Henry R. Luce Foundation & the Department of Anthropology
10 Lenox St.
Attendance by Registration Only. Contact Nancy J. Smith-Hefner

Tuesday, November 15

4:30 PM | US Election: The World Reacts
Beyond the Headlines @BUPardeeSchool
121 Bay State Road
RSVP: EventsPS@bu.edu

Friday, November 18

12:00 PM  | “ISIS Crisis and the Broken Politics of  the Middle East
Nader Hashemi, Director of the Center for Middle East Studies and Associate Professor of MiddleEast and Islamic Politics at the University of Denver School of International Studies
121 Bay State Rd.
Graduate Talk Series on Religion and Public Policy Today

Thursday, December 1

4:00 PM | “Religious Extremism, the Media, & Counter-Terrorism in Xinjiang, China”
He Xinliang, member of the National People’s Consultative Congress and the National Committee on Minority and Religious Affairs.
121 Bay State Rd.

Friday, December 9

3:00 PM | Is Taiwan Chinese? And Does it Matter?
Melissa J. Brown, PhD, Managing Editor of the Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies.
232 Bay State Road, African Studies Seminar Room 505

Tuesday, December 13

12:00 PM | Can we hope for a better society? Religions and Social Progress
Nancy Ammerman, Associate Dean of the Faculty for the Social Sciences, and
Grace Davie, Professor Sociology, University of Exeter

Spring 2016

Friday, January 29

5:00 PM | Battling over God’s Word: Indonesian Muslim Feminists Now
Nelly van Doorn-Harder, Department for the Study of Religions at Wake Forest College
121 Bay State Road

Monday, February 8

5:00 PM | Dreaming of the Inevitable: How money, morals and destiny come together when young Egyptians search for love and marriage

Samuli Schielke, Research Fellow Zentrum Moderner Orient
232 Bay State Road Seminar Room PLS 102
Muslim Youth Series

Monday, February 22

5:00 PM | Muslim Youth Politics and Competing Assertions of Muslim Masculinity in Urban Mali
Dorothea E. Schulz, Professor of Cultural & Social Anthropology
University of Cologne
121 Bay State Road 1st Floor
Muslim Youth Series

Monday, February 29

5:00 PM | The Isis Bandwagon: Why Domestic Terror Groups Pledge Loyalty to IsisJoel Day, Ph.D, Assistant Professor, Security Studies & Global Studies
University of Massachusetts Lowell
121 Bay State Road

Thursday, March 17

5:00 PM | Can We Be Both Modern and Virtuous?
James Laidlaw, Professor of Social Anthropology, University of Cambridge
Pardee-CURA Lecture in Religion, Ethics, and Modernity
121 Bay State Road

Monday, April 11

4:00 PM | Governing the Family through Religion in Post-Kemalist Turkey
Hikmet Kocamaner, Post-Doctoral Fellow and Cultural Anthropologist
Brandeis University
121 Bay State Rd.
Co-sponsored with the Institute for the Study of Muslim Societies & Civilizations

Thurday, April 14
4:00 PM | Pentacostalism and the African Spirit World: Continuity or Discontinuity?Allan Anderson, Professor of Mission and Pentecostal Studies, University of Birmingham
School of Theology, B23-24
CURA Co-Sponsorship

Monday, April 25
6:00 PM | Muslim-American-Fashion: Modesty, Identity, and Public Perception
GSU Metcalf Hall
775 Commonwealth Ave., 2nd Floor
CURA Co-Sponsorship

Friday, June 24

3:00 PM | Research Workshop on Religion in Contemporary China
Pardee School Faculty Discussion with Chinese Researchers from the Shanghai Law Society and Shanghai Association of Religious Studies Institute of Religious Studies

Fall 2015

Tuesday, September 22
5:00 PM | Religions, Peace and Conflict: The Contributions of Interreligious Dialogue
121 Bay State Rd. Dean’s Conference Room (1st Floor)

Thursday, October 15
4:00 PM | Religious Zionism between Extremism and Dialogue
Shlomo Fischer PhD, School of Education, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
121 Bay State Rd. 1st Floor

Thursday, October 15
7:00 PM | Why Hasn’t Religion Died Out?
Peter Berger & Ross Douthat
Co-sponsored with the Veritas Forum and the Templeton Foundation
Program Information

Tuesday, October 20

4:00 PM | Indonesia: Democracy and Tolerance in Indonesia
Alissa WahidNational Head ∙ Gusdurian Network Indonesia
154 Bay State Road Eilts Room

Wednesday, October 21
5:00 PM  | What is the Matter with Transcendence? Finding a Place for Religion in the New Anthropology and Sociology of Ethics
Joel Robbins, Division of Social Anthropology, University of Cambridge
Fifth Annual Peter L. Berger Lecture in Sociology and Anthropology of Religion
121 Bay State Rd. Dean’s Conference Room 1st Floor

Thursday, October 29
5:00 PM | Connections that Matter: Youth, Class, and Social Capital in Urban Egypt
Farhan Ghannan, Professor of Anthropology, Swarthmore College
Muslim Youth Series
121 Bay State Road 1st Floor

Monday, November 2
5:00 PM | Frontiers of Fear
Ariane Chebel D’Appollonia on The Refugee Crisis in the EU and its Implications
Thomas Volk on Islam and Muslim Life in Germany: Current Developments and Future Challenges
121 Bay State Road 1st Floor

Monday, November 9

12:15 PM | Asian Women in Public Life
film screening and discussion with Shahla Haeri, Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology
121 Bay State Road

Monday, November 16
12:00 PM | The Moral Case for Saving the Planet
International Education Week

Tuesday, November 17

5:00 PM  | Diasporic Imaginations: The Political Mobilization of the Syrian-Lebanese Community in Brazil and the Syrian Civil War
Paulo Pinto, Professor of Anthropology, Universidade Federal Fluminense, Brazil
121 Bay State Road

Monday, December 7

5:00 PM | The End of Dating: Romance and Courtship among Muslim Javanese Youth
Nancy J. Smith Hefner, Department of Anthropology, Boston University
Muslim Youth Series

Spring 2015

Friday, February 13
4:00 PM  |  Multiculturalism in India: An Exception?
Dr. Rochana Bajpai, Senior Lecturer in Politics in the Department of Politics and International Studies at SOAS University of London
121 Bay State Road, Pardee School Conference Room (1st Floor)

Friday, February 20
12:00 PM  |  Religion and the State: Cooperation and Conflict in Russia and China
Karrie J. Koesel, Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science, University of Oregon

Monday, February 23
4:00 PM  |  Marriage to Minor Girls: Intercourse, desire, and the female body in Islamic Law
Saadia Yacoob, Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow in Religion, William College

Tuesday, February 24
4:00 PM  | Jesuit Encounters with the Religious “Other” and the Formation of a Global System of Religious Pluralism
Jose Casanova will give the Fourth Annual Peter L. Berger Lecture in the Sociology and Anthropology of Religion
School of Theology B19, 745 Commonwealth Ave.

Monday, March 16
4:00 PM  | Crones, Slaves, and the Caliph’s Daughter: The Complexities of Gender in the Pre-modern Muslim Legal Texts
Marion Holmes Katz, Professor of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies, New York University

Monday, March 30
4:00 PM | The New Arab Man: Emergent Masculinities, Technologies, and Islam in the Middle East
Marcia C. Inhorn, PhD, MPH
Professor of Anthropology and International Relations at the Council on Middle East Studies at Yale University
121 Bay State Rd. Pardee School Conference Room (1st Floor)

Monday, April 6
4:00 PM | Pious Fashion: Women’s Ethical Negotiations of Aesthetic Authorities in Tehran
Elizabeth M. Bucar
Associate Professor of Religious Studies, Northeastern University
121 Bay State Rd. Pardee School Conference Room (1st Floor)

Friday, April 10
9:00 AM – 5:00 PM  | The Two Pluralisms: Toward a Paradigm on Modernity & Religion
Sargent 101, 635 Commonwealth Ave.

Tuesday, April 21 – Thursday, April 23
Religious Change and Gender Relations in Southeast Asia: What the Policy Community Needs to Know
Conference on International Research with the Indonesian Consortium for Religious Studies
Berkley Center, Georgetown University, Washington DC
Event Website

Fall 2014

Friday, October 10 & Saturday, October 11
Conference  | The Hospital: On the Interface between Secularity and Religion
Organized by Peter L. Berger and Jonathan B. Imber, Wellesley College

Thursday, October 16
4:00 PM  |  Whither and Whence the Anthropology of Christianity? A Brief Report on the State of the Field
Brian Howell, Professor in the Department of Anthropology, Wheaton College
121 Bay State Road, Dean’s Conference Room (1st Floor)

Wednesday, October 22
4:00 PM  |  Beyond the Minority Question: Founding Violence and Popular Sovereignty in Turkey
Kabir Tambar, Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthropology, Stanford University
121 Bay State Road, Pardee School Conference Room (1st Floor)

Friday, November 14
4:00 PM  |  Democratizing Shari’a: The Regulation and Application of Muslim Family Laws in Israel, India, and Greece
Yüksel Sezgin, Assistant Professor of Comparative Politics and Law at Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, Syracuse University
121 Bay State Road, Pardee School Conference Room (1st Floor)

Spring 2014

Thursday, January 30
5:00 PM  |  Reconciliation in Politics: How Religion is Reshaping the Global Conversation About Justice
Daniel Philpott, Political Science and Peace Studies, University of Notre Dame
Summary of Seminar

Monday, February 10
3:00  | 
International Relations & Religion MA Thesis Workshop
Louise Klann, Mary Kate Long, and Matisse Reischl for Social Science and Religion Network

Wednesday, February 12
5:00 PM  | Why God talks back so loudly now: anthropological reflections on the American charismatic evangelical experience in belief
Tanya M. Luhrmann will give the Third Annual Peter L. Berger Lecture in the Sociology and  Anthropology of  Religion. Boston University School of Theology B-19

Wednesday, February 26
4:00 PM  |  On the ‘Subject’ of Medical Anthropology: Subjectivity, Violence and Haunting in Indonesia
Professor Byron Good, Harvard University
Department of Anthropology Seminar Room, 232 Bay State Rd.

Monday, March 3
4:00 PM  |  Pentecostalism and Politics in Brazil: An Emerging Player in an Emerging Power
Paul Freston, Professor and Chair of Religion and Politics in the Global Context at Wilfred Laurier University

Wednesday, March 5
4:00 PM  | Eating an Elephant, Imagining a Community: Culinary Nationalism and the Memory of the Senses
Dr. Mary Steedy, Department of Anthropology, Harvard University
Anthropology Seminar Room, 232 Bay State Rd.

Thursday, March 20
4:00 PM  |  Sectarianism in the Middle East
Dr. Toby Matthiesen, Abdullah al-Mubarak Research Fellow in Islamic & Middle Eastern Studies, Pembroke College

Monday, March 31st
3:30 PM  |  The Cold War End to Global Ecumenism in the US
Ada Focer, PhD student in the BU Graduate Division of Religious Studies

Wednesday, April 2
4:00 PM  | Aceh’s Women Warriors: Narratives on Defending Children, Homes, Community
Mary Jo Delvecchio-Good, Harvard University
Anthropology Seminar Room, 232 Bay State Rd.

Thursday, April 10
4:00 PM  | International Religious Freedom and the Politics of Religious Difference
Elizabeth Shakman Hurd, Associate Professor of Political Science at Northwestern University

Wednesday, April 16
4:00 PM  |  How liberal can France be? Islam, politics and public order
John R. Bowen, Dunbar-Van Cleve Professor in Arts & Sciences, Washington University of St. Louis
Department of Anthropology Seminar Room, 232 Bay State Rd.

Thursday, April 17
3:30 PM  |  Character and Citizenship Education in Islamic Secondary Schools in the US
Munirah Alaboudi, Amna al-Eisaei, Dr. Katherine Moran, and Rukhsana Nazir, Boston University School of Education

Wednesday, April 30
4:00 PM  |  Shari’a and Social Engineering in Aceh, Indonesia
R. Michael Feener, Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Visiting Professor of Islamic Studies (FAS) at Harvard Divinity School
Department of Anthropology Seminar Room, 232 Bay State Rd.

Friday, May 2
9:30 AM  |  Workshop on sexual and gender based violence and Syrian refugees
Institute for the Study of Muslim Societies and Civilizations, the Institute for Iraqi Studies, and the Boston Consortium on Arab Region Studies

Monday, May 5
3:30 PM Relational Spirituality and Intercultural Competence: Barriers and Pathways to Mature Alterity
Steve Sandage, Boston University School of Theology, Albert and Jessie Danielsen, Professor of Pastoral Psychology and Theology

Fall 2013

Friday, September 27
4:00 PM  |  Book Launch: Symbolic Power, Politics, and Intellectuals: The Political Sociology of Pierre Bourdieu with Assistant Professor David L. Swartz, Department of Sociology

Monday, October 7
3:30 PM  |  Studying Lived Religion: Challenges and Prospects
hosted by the Social Science and Religion Network and featuring Dr. Nancy Ammerman, Department of Sociology.

Thursday, October 10
5:00 PM  |  On the Immanence of Ethics
Michael Lambek, Professor of Anthropology & Canada Research Chair, University of Toronto
Summary of Seminar

Wednesday, October 16
4:00 PM  | 
The Muslim Brotherhood: Evolution of an Islamist Movement
Carrie Rosefsky Wickham, Associate Professor of Political Science, Emory University
Summary of Seminar

Thursday & Friday, October 17-18
8:30 AM-4:00 PM  |  Formulas of Peace: The Political Management of Pluralism

Friday, October 18
1:30 PM  | Issues in World Christianity
World Christianity Forum
9th floor, Photonics Center

Monday, October 28
3:30 PM  | 
Conversion at Camp Meetings
hosted by the Social Science and Religion Network and featuring Sarah Mount Elewononi, School of Theology.

Monday, November 18
3:30 PM  |  After Secularization: Third Generation Research on Religion and Politics
Professor Jeremy Menchik, hosted by the Social Science and Religion Network

Friday, December 6
5:00 PM  | 
Shaming the State: Subjectivity and Islamic Ethics in Indonesia’s Pornography Debate
Dr. James Hoesterey, Assistant Professor in the Department of Religion at Emory University
Summary of Seminar

Monday, December 9
3:30 PM  |  Professor Charles Glenn: Works in Progress, hosted by the Social Science and Religion Network

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Spring 2013

Thursday, January 24
4:00 PM  |  Hanging a Sheep’s Head and Selling Dog Meat: Religion and Governance in China
Robert Weller, Boston University
Cosponsored by the Department of Anthropology and the BU Center for the Study of Asia

Thursday, February 7
4:00 PM  |  Contentious Politics, Discursive Realities, and Sectarian Mobilization During Egypt’s Transnational Period
Martin Rowe, Sociology PhD Student, Social Science and Religion Network Lecture

Thursday, February 14
4:00 PM  |  Beautiful Bodies, Prosperous Lives and Global Identities: The Rise of New Goddess Cults in Thailand
Rachelle Scott, University of Tennessee, Knoxville
Consponsored by the African Studies Center and the Department of Anthropology

Thursday, February 28
4:00 PM  |  Religious Groups and Political Parties: Interaction in Contemporary Sub-Saharan Africa
Rachel Riedl, Northwestern University, Metanexus Lecture Series on Religion, Democracy, and Economy
Cosponsored by the African Studies Center

Tuesday, March 5
4:00 PM  |  When Islam Moves in: Space, Grounded Politics, and Past-Present (Super-) Diversities in a Copenhagen Neighborhood
Garbi Schmidt, Roskilde University
Cosponsored by the Department of Anthropology

Thursday, March 7
4:00 PM  |  Social Science and Religion Network Lecture
Chelsea Strayer, Anthropology PhD Student

Friday & Saturday, March 8-9
Shari’a and Islamic Ethics in Transitions: The Place of Islamic Law, New Public Ethics, and Secularity in the Transformation of Contemporary Muslim Politics and Culture Workshop

Tuesday, March 19
5:00 PM  |  The Challenges of Religious Pluralism in a Changing Europe: Draft Summary of the Main Findings of the Religare Project
Marie-Claire Foblets, Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology
Luce Series on Civic Culture and Citizenship
Consponsored by the Department of Anthropology

Thursday, March 28
5:00 PM  |  The Politics of Halal in Not-So-Halal Malaysian Politics: A Commentary
Shamsul A.B.

Thursday, April 4
4:00 PM  |  Living Faith: Everyday Religion and Mothers in Poverty
Susan Crawford Sullivan, College of the Holy Cross
Cosponsored by the Department of Sociology

Monday, April 8
4:00 PM  |  The Korean Diaspora Project
PhD Students Hye Jin Lee, Daewon Moon, and Doug Tzan with Professor Dana Robert
Social Science and Religion Network Lecture

Friday & Saturday, April 12-13
Pluralism in the Mind and in Politics: How Individuals and Societies Cope with Deep Diversities

Thursday & Friday, April 18-19
Third Annual Luce Conference

Wednesday, April 24
3:30 PM  |  Book Launch, The World’s Religions in Figures: An Introduction to International Religious Demography
Todd Johnson and Brian Grim

Friday & Saturday, April 26-27
Religion, Social Movements, and Zones of Crisis in Latin America Conference
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Fall 2012

Thursday, September 13
4:00 PM  |  Social Science and Religion Network
Anthony Petro, Department of Religion, Boston University

Thursday, September 20
4:00 PM  |  Wars and Rumors of Wars: The New Politics of Religious Witness in Nigeria
Dr. Ruth Marshall, University of Toronto, Luce Series on Civic Culture and Citizenship
Consponsored by the African Studies Center and the Department of Anthropology

Thursday, October 4
4:00 PM  |  On Liberation: Crack, Christianity, and the Containment in Postwar Guatemala City
Kevin Lewis O’Neill, University of Toronto, Metanexus Lecture Series on Religion, Democracy, and Economy
Cosponsored by the Department of Anthropology and Latin American Studies

Thursday, October 11
4:00 PM  |  From Multiculturalism to Securitization: Educational Responses to British Islam
Julia Ipgrave, University of Warwick, Luce Series on Civic Culture and Citizenship

Thursday, October 18
4:00 PM  |  Religion and Reconciliation in Post-Apartheid South Africa
Marthe Hesslemans, Social Science and Religion Network

Thursday, November 8
Barred From the Pulpit, Absent From the Stage, and Missing in the Analysis: Why We Must Keep Women in the Foreground in Understanding GLobal Pentecostalism
Dr. Elizabeth Brusco, Pacific Lutheran University
Second Annual Peter Berger Lecture in the Comparative Study of Religion
Coponsored by the School of Theology and in association with the Departments of Anthropology and Sociology

Monday, November 12
Planning Workshop for Engaging Southeast Asia
Indonesian Consortium for Religious Studies

Monday, November 26
3:00 PM  |  South African Muslims and Democracy: Law, Religion, and Identity
Abdulkader Tayob,  University of Cape Town

Thursday, November 29
4:00 PM  |  Social Science and Religion Network
Anjulet Tucket, School of Theology, Boston University
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Summer 2012

July 2-15
Negotiating Space in Diversity: Religions and Authorities
Tenth International Summer School on Religion and Public Life
Yogyakarta and Bali, Indonesia

Spring 2012

Tuesday, January 24
4:30 PM  |  The Jurist and the Saint: Sayyida Nafisa, Biography, and the Construction of Muslim Women’s Authority
Kecia Ali, Boston University, Muslim Women and the Challenge of Authority Lecture Series

Thursday, February 16
4:30 PM  |  Disappearing Women: Hafsa Bint Sirin and the Textual Seclusion of Early Pious Sufi Women
Laury Silvers, University of Toronto, Muslim Women and the Challenge of Authority Lecture Series

Thursday, February 23
American Religion and Chinese Religion: The Promise and Pitfalls of Cultural Comparisons
Richard Madsen, University of California at San Diego, Metanexus Lecture Series

Thursday, March 1
American Grace: How Religion Unites and Divides us
Robert Putnam, Harvard University
Barrister Hall, School of Law, Boston University

Thursday, March 22
Leila Ahmed, Harvard Divinity School, Muslim Women and the Challenge of Authority Lecture Series
BU Law School, 12th Floor Lounge

Tuesday, March 27
Spiritual Capital in Practice: From Faith in Development to the Developing Faith in Contemporary Islam
Daromir Rudnyckyj, University of Victoria, Metanexus Lecture Series

Saturday, March 31
Muslim Women and the Challenge of Authority Conference
Photonics Center, 8 St, Marys Street

April 19-20
Civil Inculturation: Comparative Perspectives on Citizenship in an Age of Diversity
Second Annual Luce Conference

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Fall 2011

September 10-11
Secularism and its Adversaries Conference

Thursday, September 15
Living Text: Qur’an 4:34 and American Muslim Efforts Against Domestic Violence
Juliane Hammer, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, Muslim Women and the Challenge of Authority Lecture Series

Friday, September 23
Islamic Law and U.S. Policy Conference
Berkeley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs at Georgetown University

Tuesday, September 27
4:00 PM  |  Secular States and Religions: Comparing the United States, France, and Turkey
Ahmet Kuru, San Diego State University, Luce Seminar Series

Thursday, October 6
4:00 PM  |  Blowback of the Gods: The US Government’s Covert Use of Religion as a Tool of Foreign Policy in the Early Cold War Years and Its Consequences
James C. (Jim) Wallace

Tuesday, October 11
4:00 PM  |  Transcending Deep Religious Diversity: Democratic Accomplishments in India and Possibilities in Tunisia
Alfred Stepan, Columbia University, Luce Seminar Series

Thursday, October 13
4:30 PM  |  From Bilqis to Benazir: A Queen, A Sultan, and a Prime Minister
Shahla Haeri, Boston University, Muslim Women and the Challenge of Authority Lecture Series

Tuesday, October 18
4:00 PM  |  One Modern World For All? The View From the Vatican, with Commentary From Cairo, Tehran, and New York
Scott Appleby, Kroc Institute for Peace, University of Notre Dame, Luce Seminar Series

Friday, November 11
4:00 PM  |  First Annual Peter Berger Lecture and Peter Berger Celebration, David Martin to speak
School of Theology and Institute on Culture, Religion, and World Affairs, Boston University

Thursday, November 17
4:30 PM  |  Islamic Authentification and Projects of Individuality: Moderate Islamists and the Politics of the Personal in Indonesia
Nancy Smith-Hefner, Boston University, Muslim Women and the Challenge of Authority Lecture Series

Tuesday, December 6
4:00 PM  |  Politics by All Means: Violence and Democracy in India
Thomas Blom Hansen, Stanford University, Luce Seminar Series
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Summer 2011

July 4-18
A Mosaic of Margins: Ethnicity, Religion, and Belonging
Ninth International Summer School on Religion and Public Life
Sofia, Plovdiv, and the Rhodopa Mountains, Bulgaria

August 3-5
Religious Revival and Public Life in China in the Lower Yangtzi Region
Fudan University, Shanghai, China

Spring 2011

March 18-19
Second Pentecostal Conference – internationalization of our continuing project on the political and economic consequences of Christian Evangelicalism

Thursday, March 24
4:00 PM  | 
Beyond Minority Politics: American Muslims and Citizenship
IPR & CURA Lecture Series – Abdullahi Ahmed An’Na’im, Emory University

April 29-30
Bridging, Bonding, or Dividing? The Role of Religious and Ethical Education in Mediating Deeply Divided Societies
First Annual Luce Conference – A Conference on Modern Pluralism and Ethno-Religious Education.

Fall 2010

Wednesday September 15
5:00 PM  |  The Secular, Secularizations, and Secularisms
Jose Casanova, Georgetown University,  IPR & CURA Lecture Series
Boston University School of Law Barristers Hall, 765 Commonwealth Ave, First floor

Thursday October 7
4:00 PM  |  The Importance of Religious Freedom in Turkey for U.S. Strategic Interests: The Missing Dimension in Analysis of the Changing Turkey-U.S. Relationship
Elizabeth Prodromou, Department of International Relations

Wednesday October 13
5:00 PM  |  Beyond Tolerance: Islam and Pluralism
Tariq Ramadan, Oxford University IPR & CURA Lecture Series
Boston University School of Law Auditorium, 765 Commonwealth Avenue

Thursday October 28
5:00 PM  |  Tolerance, Governance, and the Islamic ‘Other’
Anver Emon, University of Toronto, Luce Seminar Series 

Tuesday November 16
4:00 PM  |  Buddhism and its Trust Networks: between Taiwan, Malaysia and the United States
C. Julia Huang National Tsing Hua University, Taiwan, Templeton Lecture Series
Co-sponsored by the BU Center for the Study of Asia, and the department of Anthropology

Tuesday November 30
5:00 PM  |  Rabbinic Conceptions of Civil Society: Problems and Possibilities
Suzanne Last Stone, Yeshiva  University, Luce Seminar Series
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Spring 2010

Tuesday, February 2
God’s Global Professionals: The Idea of the Calling among American-Educated Asian Evangelicals
Roman Williams, Department of Sociology

Tuesday, February 23
Navigating the Atlas of Global Christianity: Findings and Methodology
Todd Johnson, Director of the Center for the Study of Global Christianity at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and CURA Visiting Research Fellow,
*At the seminar, copies of the Atlas of Global Christianity will be available for purchase at a special scholar’s rate.

Tuesday, March 16
Muslim Minorities: Everyday Religious Practice in the Diaspora
Nadia Jeldtoft, Copenhagen University (BU Visiting Scholar in Sociology),

Thursday, March 25
The Religious Diversity of Scientists and Its Public Consequences
Elaine Howard Ecklund, Assistant Professor of Sociology, Rice University

Tuesday, April 6
Religion and Democracy: the Case of the English Catholic New Left
Jay Corrin, Professor of Social Science, BU College of General Studies

Tuesday, April 13
Radical Communion: Cultivating Monism Inside and Out of an American Monastery
Paula Pryce

Thursday, April 22
“Religion, Social Movements, and Progressive Reform in Latin America” mini-conference
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Fall 2009

Tuesday, September 15
Multiple Religious Modernities: Comparing Contemporary Islam and Pentecostalism
Robert W. Hefner, Director of The Institute on Culture, Religion and World Affairs at Boston University

Tuesday, September 22
Bosnians in Boston: Ethnic Identity Maintenance in a Post-Migration Setting
Kristen Lucken

Tuesday, October 6
Churches as Political Institutions: The Case of Rwanda
Tim Longman, Director African Studies Center at Boston University

Tuesday, October 13
Reading Together Across Faith Traditions
Emily Ronald

Tuesday, November 3
The Union of Their Dreams: Religious Activists, Lawyers, Students & Farmworkers in Cesar Chavez’s Farm Worker Movement
Miriam Pawel, an award-winning reporter and editor

Tuesday, November 10
Screening of the documentary film: African Christianity Rising: Stories from Zimbabwe, with filmmaker Jim Ault
In conjunction with the Center for Global Christianity & Mission

Tuesday, November 17
Forging Bonds: Kinship Networks and Religious Communities among Nigerian Immigrants in the United States
Veronica Savory McComb, American and New England Studies
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