FACULTY SEMINARS
In 2008-2009 the Weatherhead Center is collaborating with the Initiative on Religion in International Affairs at Harvard Kennedy School to establish an interdisciplinary research seminar exploring the intersection of religion and politics at the local and global levels. The seminar will examine political, legal, and philosophical dimensions of religion and public life: the effects of political and constitutional systems on religious liberty, the relations between religion and modernity, religion and gender equality, religion in international affairs, and the challenges of inter-religious relations. The seminar will be chaired by J. Bryan Hehir (Harvard Kennedy School); Ofrit Liviatan (Department of Government); Martha Minow (Harvard Law School); Nancy Rosenblum (Department of Government); and Monica Duffy Toft (Harvard Kennedy School).
Fall 2009
Fall Location: Unless otherwise indicated, all sessions will be held at Belfer Center Library (Littauer 369), Harvard Kennedy School, 79 JFK Street.
September 14
Speaker: Noah Feldman, Professor of Law, Harvard Law School.
Discussant: Baber Johansen, Professor of Islamic Religious Studies, Harvard Divinity School and Acting Director of the Islamic Legal Studies at Harvard Law School.
October 5
Speaker: Monica Toft, Associate Professor of Public Policy and director of the Initiative on Religion on International Affairs, Harvard
Kennedy School.
October 19
Speaker: Jon Meacham, Editor of Newsweek.
This meeting will take place at 124 Mount Auburn St., Suite 160.
November 2
Speaker: Jocelyne Cesari, Director of Islam in the West Program, Center for Middle Eastern Studies, Harvard University
Discussant: Marie-Claire Foblets, Professor of Anthropology, Catholic University of Leuven, Faculty of Law, Belgium.
November 16
Speaker: Diana Eck, Professor of Comparative Religion and Indian Studies and Director of the Pluralism Project, Harvard University.
Spring 2009
Location: Belfer Center Library (Littauer 369), Harvard Kennedy School, 79 JFK Street.
January 26
"Public Religions Revisited: A Global Comparative Perspective"
José Casanova, Professor of Sociology at Georgetown University
Discussant: Nellie Lahoud, Fellow, Initiative of Religion in International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School
February 2
"The Evolution of the Secular State in Spain: Recent History and Current Issues"
Javier Martínez-Torrón, Professor of Law at Complutense University (Madrid)
Discussant: Ragnhild Nordas, Fellow, Initiative of Religion in International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School
March 9
"Are the Culture Wars Over? Religion, the 2008 Election and the New Quest for Community"
E.J. Dionne, Senior Fellow in Governance Studies at the Brookings Institution
Discussant: Richard Parker, Lecturer in Public Policy, Harvard Kennedy School
March 16
"Religiously Based Judgments and Religious Discourse in American Political Life"
Kent Greenawalt, University Professor, Columbia Law School
Discussant: Noah Feldman, Prof. of Law, Harvard Law School
Note: This seminar will be held in the Kalb Seminar Room, located at the Taubman Building, Room 275, Harvard Kennedy School, 79 JFK Street.
April 27
"Explaining Jihadists' Differential Use of Suicide Bombings"
Thomas Hegghammer, Fellow, Initiative on Religion in International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School
Discussant: Assaf Moghadam, Fellow, Initiative on Religion in International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School
May 11
"Religion and U.S. Foreign Policy: Understanding and Engagement with Orthodox Christianity in Russia, the Middle East, and Europe"
Elizabeth Prodromou, Assistant Prof. of International Relations, Boston University
Discussant: Monica Duffy Toft, Associate Prof. of Public Policy, Harvard Kennedy School
