CURA Receives Luce Foundation Grant
The Institute on Culture, Religion and World Affairs (CURA), an affiliated center of the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston, was recently awarded a grant by the Henry Luce Foundation.
“We at CURA are very grateful for the generous support that the Luce Foundation has provided to our research over the years. This new project builds on the important work Bob Hefner has been conducting in Indonesia for several decades,” said CURA Director Timothy Longman. “Hefner’s research is not only significant for its scholarly contributions but also for its practical real-world applications in exploring religious diversity and democracy in the world’s largest Muslim country.”
The three-year grant, worth $335,000, was awarded by the Initiative on Religion in International Affairs at the Luce Foundation for a CURA project entitled “Indonesian Pluralisms: A Documentary and Multimedia Project on Islam, Democracy and Civic Co-Existence.” The grant application process was led by Robert Hefner, Professor of Anthropology and International Relations at the Pardee School.
“The project is designed to create six documentary films and two books — one to accompany the films, and the other for the policy community — on the question of Islam, democracy, and pluralist citizenship in Indonesia,” Hefner said.
From the executive summary for the project:
With its population of 260 million people, Indonesia is the largest Muslim-majority society in the world. It is also the third largest democracy. Building on research collaboration conducted by the PIs during 2014-2017, this project will create documentary film and print publications for education on Indonesia, so as to highlight the best practices of civic pluralism in the country – as well as the challenges these practices yet face. The project links policy-, journalism-, and education-relevant research to the creation of multi-media products for audiences and analysts in Indonesia and in the United States. The project will create six documentary films, as well as on-line and print products (including two books) to introduce democracy and plurality in Indonesia to educators, journalists, and policy analysts.
The Initiative on Religion in International Affairs at the Luce Foundation aims to provide intellectual leadership, develop new paradigms for research and teaching, create new resources and networks, and enhance public understanding of and discussion about religion in the international sphere. The initiative supports projects that draw on scholarly expertise to foster and disseminate more nuanced, contextualized and dynamic understandings of religion in global public life, politics and policy.
The Henry Luce Foundation seeks to bring important ideas to the center of American life, strengthen international understanding, and foster innovation and leadership in academic, policy, religious and art communities.