Alfred C. Stepan, Director of CDTR

Alfred Stepan is the Wallace Sayre Professor of Government at Columbia University, Chair of the Center for the Study of Democracy, Toleration, and Religion, Co-Chair of the Institute for Religion, Culture, and Public Life, a Fellow of the British Academy, and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. His teaching and research interests include comparative politics, theories of democratic transitions, federalism, the world’s religious systems, and democracy. He has published Arguing Comparative Politics (Oxford, 2001) and Politics of Democratic Transition and Consolidation: Southern Europe, South America, and Post-Communist Europe with J.J. Linz (Johns Hopkins, 1996). His most recent books are Democracies in Danger, Alfred Stepan ed. (Johns Hopkins, 2009) and Crafting State-Nations: India and Other Multinational Democracies (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2011).

Other publications include:  “The Rise of the “State-Nation” (with Juan J. Linz and Yogendra Yaday, in Journal of Democracy,2010);  “Multiple Secularisms of Modern Democratic and Non-Democratic Regimes” (in Rethinking Secularism, 2010); “Federalism, Multi-National Societies, and Negotiating a Democratic ‘State Nation’” A Theoretical Framework, the Indian Model and a Tamil Case Study” (in Democracy and Diversity: India and the American experience, 2007);  “Rituals of Respect: Sufis and Secularists in Senegal” (in Religion and the Global Politics of Human Rights 2009);  “Comparative Theory and Political Practice: Do We Need a ‘State Nation’ Model as Well as a ‘Nation State’ Model?”(in Government and Opposition Lead article, Winter 2008);  “The US Federal Model and Multinational Societies: Some Problems for Democratic Theory and Practice” (in Multinational State-Building: Considering and Continuing the Work of Juan Linz, 2008); “Arab, Not Muslim, Exceptionalism” (with Graeme Robertson in Journal of Democracy, 2004); “Religion, Democracy and the ‘Twin Tolerations’” (in Journal of Democracy, 2000).

Karen Barkey, Co-Director of CDTR; Principal Investigator, "Choreography of Sacred Sites"

Karen Barkey is Professor of Sociology and History at Columbia University. Her main fields are Historical and Political Sociology. She studies Empires/Imperial Organization; Politics and Religion; Religious and Ethnic Toleration; The Politics of Sacred Sites. Her research focuses primarily on the Ottoman Empire, and recently on comparisons between Ottoman, Habsburg and Roman empires.  Her first book, Bandits and Bureaucrats: The Ottoman Route to State Centralization (Cornell University Press, 1994), studies Ottoman strategies of control. It won the Allan Sharlin Memorial Award for outstanding book of the year in Social Science History, 1995 Social Science History Association. Her recent book, Empire of Difference: The Ottomans in Comparative Perspective (Cambridge University Press, 2008), is a comparative study of imperial organization and diversity. It won two awards: Barrington Moore Award: best book in the area of comparative/historical sociology 2009 American Sociological Association and the J. David Greenstone Award for the best book in politics and history 2009, American Political Science Association.

Her other publications include: "Analytic Historical Sociology" (in The Oxford Handbook of Analytic Sociology, eds. Peter Bearman and Peter Hedstrom, 2008); "Islam and Toleration: Studying the Ottoman Imperial Model” (in International Journal of Politics, Culture and Society, 2007); "Hegemonic Rise and Decline in Comparative Perspective: Lessons from the Early 20th Century" ( in Hegemonic Declines: Past and Present eds., Jonathan Friedman and Christopher Chase-Dunn, 2004); After Empire: Multiethnic Societies and Nation-Building: The Soviet Union, and the Russian, Habsburg and Ottoman Empires (editor, with with Mark von Hagen, 1997).

Lila Abu-Lughod, Principal Investigator, "Who's Afraid Of Shari'a Law? Religious Law, Secular Reform and Global Debate on Muslim Women's Rights"

Lila Abu-Lughod, Joseph L. Buttenwieser Professor of Social Science, directs the Center for the Critical Analysis of Social Difference at Columbia University and teaches anthropology and gender studies. Her courses focus on gender politics and nationalism in the Muslim world, and on liberalism, culture, and the politics of human and women's rights. A leading voice in debates about gender, Islam, and global policy, her books and articles have been translated into 13 languages. She is the author of three ethnographies based on research in Egypt:Veiled Sentiments:Honor and Poetry in a Bedouin Society (1986/2000), Writing Women’s Worlds: Bedouin Stories (1993/2008) and Dramas of Nationhood: The Politics of Television in Egypt (2005). Her recent publications include:Nakba: Palestine, 1948, and the Claims of Memory (editor, with Ahmad H. Sa’di, 2007); “Local Contexts of Islamism in Popular Media,” International Institute for the Study of Islam in the Modern World (2006); Remaking Women: Feminism and Modernity in the Middle East (1998).

Elazar Barkan, Principal Investigator, "Choreography of Sacred Sites"

Elazar Barkan is Professor of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University, Director of its Human Rights Concentration, and Director of the University’s Institute for the Study of Human Rights.  He was founding Director of the Institute for Historical Justice and Reconciliation (IHJR).   His research focuses on human rights, historical redress, and reconciliation.  Professor Barkan’s recent books include, The Rites of Return: The Failure of Minority Repatriation (with Howard Adelman, Columbia University Press 2010); The Guilt of Nations: Restitution and Negotiating Historical Injustices (2000); Claiming the Stones/Naming the Bones: Cultural Property and the Negotiation of National and Ethnic Identity, (an edited volume with Ronald Bush, Getty, 2003); Taking Wrongs Seriously: Apologies and Reconciliation (an edited volume with Alexander Karn, Stanford University Press, 2006); and Shared History - Divided Memory. Jews and Others in Soviet Occupied Poland, 1939-1941, (edited with Elizabeth A. Cole, and Kai Struve, 2008).  A recent pertinent article: “Historians and Historical Reconciliation,” (AHR Forum)  American Historical Review, (October 2009).

Akeel Bilgrami, Principal Investigator, "Toleration - The Secular Age Beyond Latin Christendom"

Akeel Bilgrami is the Johnsonian Professor of Philosophy, Director of the Heyman Center for the Humanities, and a member of the Committee on Global Thought at Columbia University. His research is focused on Philosophy of Mind and Language, and on Political Philosophy and Moral Psychology. In the former, he has published a book in 1992 called Belief and Meaning (Blackwell) and another book published in 2006 called Self Knowledge and Resentment (Harvard University Press). In the latter, his collection of essays called Politics and The Moral Psychology of Identity is forthcoming from Harvard University Press.

Other publications include:

Politics and The Moral Psychology of Identity (2007); “Identity, Relativism and the State” (in Essays on Identity ed. Catherine Montefiore, 2006);  “Political Pluralism and the Modern State” (in Making a Difference, 2006);  “Gandhi, Newton, and the Enlightenment” (in Social Scientist 2006);  “Occidentalism, the Very Idea: An Essay on Enlightenment and Enchantment” (in Critical Inquiry, 2006); “Secularism and Relativism” (in Critical Secularism, 2004); “The Clash within Civilizations” (in Daedalus, 2003); “The Secular Ideal: Reason, History and the Archimedean Ideal" (in Economic and Political Weekly 1994);  “What Is a Muslim? Fundamental Commitment and Cultural Identity” in Critical Inquiry, Vol. 18, No. 4 (Summer, 1992), pp. 821- 842.

Sudipta Kaviraj, Principal Investigator, "Toleration - The Secular Age Beyond Latin Christendom"

Sudipta Kaviraj is Professor of South Asian Politics and Department Chair in the Department of Middle Eastern and Asian Languages and Cultures at Columbia University. His research focuses on 19th-20th century Indian political thought, on modern Indian literature and cultural production, and on historical sociology of the Indian state. He is the author of numerous books on South Asian society and culture, including Politics in India (Oxford University Press, 1999); Civil Society: History and Possibilities (Cambridge University Press, 2001) and his most recent work, The Imaginary Institution of India (Columbia University Press, 2010).

Other publications include:

Politics in India (editor, 2000); “Religion and Identity in India” (in Ethnic and Racial Studies, 1997);The Unhappy Consciousness: Bankimchandra Chattopadhyay and the Formation of Nationalist Discourse in India (1995)

Jack Snyder, Principal Investigator, "Religion and Human Rights Pragmatism"

Jack Snyder is the Robert and Renée Belfer Professor of International Relations in the political science department and in the Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies at Columbia University. He has written articles on such topics as democratization and war, imperial overstretch, war crimes tribunals versus amnesties as strategies for preventing atrocities, international relations theory after September 11, and anarchy and culture. His books include Electing to Fight:  Why Emerging Democracies Go to War (MIT Press, 2005), co-authored with Edward D. Mansfield; From Voting to Violence: Democratization and Nationalist Conflict (Norton Books, 2000); and Myths of Empire:  Domestic Politics and International Ambition. (Cornell University Press, 1991) His commentaries on current public issues such as the promotion of democracy abroad have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The International Herald Tribune, and on National Public Radio.

His other publications include: “Pathways to War in Democratic Transitions” ( with Edward D. Masfield, in International Organization 2009); “The Cost of Empty Threats: A Penny, Not a Pound” (with Erica Borghard 2009);   “Expediency of the Angels.” (with Suzanne Katzenstein, in The National Interest, 2009) pp. 58-65,).“Free Hand Abroad, Divide and Rule at Home.” (with Robert Y. Shapiro and Yaeli Bloch-Elkon, in World Politics, 2009); “Should All Nations Be Encouraged to Promote Democratization?” (with Edward Mansfield, in Controversies in Globalization, 2009);  “Imperial Myths and Threat Inflation.” (in American Foreign Policy and the Politics of Fear:  Threat Inflation since 9/11, 2009); Civil Wars, Insecurity, and Intervention (co-editor with Barbara Walter, 1999); The Ideology of the Offensive: Military Decision Making and the Disasters of 1914 (1984).

Mark Taylor, Principal Investigator, "Media and Network Outreach"

Mark Taylor is the Chair of the Department of Religion at Columbia University and the Co-Director of the Institute for Religion, Culture, and Public Life. His many works include Crisis on Campus: A Bold Plan for Reforming Our Colleges and Universities (Random House, forthcoming); After God (University of Chicago Press, 2007); Mystic Bones (University of Chicago Press, 2007) and Confidence Games: Money and Markets in a World Without Redemption (University of Chicago Press, 2006). In addition to his writing, Taylor has produced a CD-ROM, Motel Real: Las Vegas, Nevada, and has had an art exhibition accompanying his book, Grave Matters, at the Mass Moca. He also contributes to the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and other periodicals.

His other publications include: Field Notes from Elsewhere: Reflections on Dying and Living (2009); The Moment of Complexity: Emerging Network Culture (2001); About Religion: Economies of Faith in Virtual Culture (1999; Critical Terms for Religious Studies (1998).

Sudhir Venkatesh, Principal Investigator, "Religious Minorities at Risk"

Sudhir Venkatesh is William B. Ransford Professor of Sociology at Columbia University. Venkatesh is an ethnographic researcher on urban neighborhoods in the United States and France. He authored American Project: The Rise and Fall of a Modern Ghetto (Harvard University Press, 2002) and Off the Books: The Underground Economy of the Urban Poor (Harvard University Press, 2006).

He is also the co-editor, with Ronald Kassimir, of Youth, Globalization and the Law (2007).

His most recent work, Gang Leader for a Day (Penguin, 2008), received a Best Book award from The Economist, and is currently being translated into eight languages.