Component Leader: Alfred Stepan  

In addition to mainstreaming religion into SIPA’s core courses, this initiative created two new courses devoted exclusively to religion and international affairs. The Project Director, Alfred Stepan, teaches a new seminar on “Democracy, the World’s Religious Systems and Problems of the Twin Tolerations.” He also convenes a new “Practicum on Religion and International Affairs”, a special course in which major public figures or practitioners in the field of religion and world affairs are invited to the University for a four-day visit to work with the faculty and students involved with the Luce project. In this four-day period, each guest is engaged in four things: first, give a university-wide public lecture; second, meet with the students in Stepan’s Practicum for a discussion of the issues presented in the guests’ lecture; third, meet with students who are writing on the speaker and her/his works; fourth, join some of the key faculty involved in the Luce project for an informal discussion and lunch.

The focus of the Practicum will shift each year. In academic year 2006/2007, the theme is “Democratic Voices in the World’s Religions: Islam”.

In addition to the new courses, the Religion and Democracy Initiative involves new student/faculty research projects. Each year, we design projects concerning religion and international affairs for joint faculty/student research, for a total of five research projects over three years.