Events > Fall 2009
Culture, Identity and Politics
Monday, September 28, 2009 6:30-8pm
International Affairs Building, Room 1501
420 W. 118th St.
A discussion with Charles Taylor, Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at
McGill University and winner of the 2007 Templeton Prize and the 2008
Kyoto Prize, Alan Montefiore, Emeritus Fellow at Balliol College,
Oxford, and Emmanuel Picavet, Professor of Political Philosophy,
University of Paris.
Co-sponsored by Institute for Religion, Culture, and Public Life, the Committee on Global Thought, and the Alliance Program
James Traub: Religion, Politics and Journalism
Tuesday, October 6, 2009 6:30-8pm
Lecture Hall, Journalism Building, 3rd Floor
2950 Broadway
A conversation with James Traub, who writes on politics and
international affairs for The New York Times Magazine and has also
written for The New Yorker, The Atlantic Monthly and National Review.
Co-sponsored with Columbia Journalism School and the Institute for Religion, Culture, and Public Life.
Caste and Contemporary India: A conference on B.R. Ambedkar
Friday-Saturday, October 16-17, 2009 9am-5pm
International Affairs Building, Room 1501
420 W. 118th St.
A conference in honor of B.R. Ambedkar, chief architect of the Indian constitution and Columbia alumnus. Participants include President Lee C. Bollinger; Vice President Nicholas B. Dirks; Gnana Alyosius; Masood Alam Falahi; Marc Galanter; Gopal Guru; Rajkumar Hans; Christophe Jaffrelot; Pratap Mehta; Smita Narula; Balmurli Natrajan; Gyan Pandey; Sudha Rani; Anupama Rao; Nat Roberts; Palanimuthu Sivakami; Jebaroja Singh; Anand Teltumbde; Gauri Viswanthan.
Co-sponsored with Center for Human Rights and Documentation; Center for the Study of Ethnicity and Race; Department of Middle East and Asian Languages and Culture; Institute for Social and Economic Research; Institute for Religion, Culture and Public Life. Made possible by additional funding from the Dr. Ambedkar International Mission (AIM) Inc. U.S.A.; Provost's Office of Columbia University; Taraknath Das Foundation; and the US Department of Education.
Jon Meacham: Religion, Politics and Journalism
Wednesday, October 28, 2009 6:30-8pm
Lecture Hall, Journalism Building, 3rd Floor
2950 Broadway
A conversation with Jon Meacham, the editor of Newsweek magazine and
author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning biography American Lion: Andrew
Jackson in the White House as well as American Gospel: God, the
Founding Fathers, and the Making of a Nation.
Co-sponsored with Columbia Journalism School and the Institute for Religion, Culture, and Public Life.
Trends in Latin American Religions: New Analyses of Pentecostalism and
Charismatics
Friday, November 6, 2009 4:30 - 6:00 pm
International Affairs Building, Room 801
A discussion led by Marta Lagos, director of the Latin Barometer in
Santiago, Chile, Margaret Crahan, Senior Adjunct Visiting Researcher, Institute of Latin American
Studies, Columbia University, and Alfred Stepan, Wallace S. Sayre Professor of
Government at Columbia University. Participants also include John
Burdick (Syracuse University), Timothy Steigenga (Florida Atlantic University),
David Smilde (University of Georgia), Alejandro Natal
(Interdisciplinary Program for Third Sector Studies, El Colegio
Mexiquense, Mexico), Diana Lima (Instituto Universitário de Pesquisa
do Rio de Janeiro).
Co-sponsored with the Institute for Latin American Studies and the Institute for Religion, Culture, and Public Life.
Charles Taylor: Can Human Action Be Explained?
Tuesday 10 November, 2009 6:15-8:15pm
Davis Auditorium, Schapiro Center
530 W. 120th St.
A lecture by Charles Taylor, Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at
McGill University and winner of the 2007 Templeton Prize and the 2008
Kyoto Prize.
Co-sponsored by the the Institute for Religion, Culture, and Public
Life, and the Committee on Global Thought
Secularism in Contemporary India
Monday, November 13, 2009 12-2:30pm
Room TBD
A discussion with Christophe Jaffrelot, Alliance Visiting Professor
(Sciences Po-CERI, Paris), Thomas Blom Hansen, Professor of
Anthropology at the University of Amsterdam, and Rajeev Bhargava,
Professor of Political Science at the University of Delhi and Director
of the Center for the Study of Developing Societies.
Co-sponsored with the Alliance Program, the South Asia Institute and
the Department of Middle East and Asian Languages and Cultures.
Religion, Conflict and Accommodation in India
Tuesday-Wednesday, November 17-18, 2009 9am-5pm
Common Room, Second Floor
Heyman Center for the Humanities
A workshop on the role of religion in Indian society since the 16th
century, its impact on political power, and how it affected the
dynamics of both conflict and accommodation. Discussion will focus on
exchanges between Buddhists and conventional Vedic religion in ancient
India, and between Saivas, Vaisnavas and Jains in ancient and medieval
South India.
Organized by Sudipta Kaviraj, Professor of Middle East and Asian
Languages and Cultures, and Rajeev Bhargava, Director of the Centre
for Studies in Developing Societies (Delhi).
David Shipley: Religion, Politics and Journalism
Wednesday, December 2, 2009 6:30-8pm
Lecture Hall, Journalism Building, 3rd Floor
2950 Broadway
A conversation with David Shipley, deputy editorial page editor and
op-ed editor at The New York Times. He also had served in the Clinton
Administration as Special Assistant to the President and Senior
Presidential Speechwriter and had been the executive editor of The New
Republic Magazine. Moderated by Mark C. Taylor, Chair of the
Department of Religion.
Co-sponsored with Columbia Journalism School and the Institute for Religion, Culture, and Public Life.