Ongoing Research Projects
International Reseach Projects
Canadian Research Projects
Canadian Pentecostal Research Network
The Canadian Pentecostal Research Network (CPRN) at Trinity Western University is a resource for the study of Pentecostalism in Canada and throughout the world. CPRN is a loosely connected network of scholars who study Pentecostalism from a variety of disciplines including sociology, theology, religious studies, cultural studies, anthropology, and history. This website contains a variety of resources for students and researchers who want to study the movement in its many forms.
The Ethnicity and Democratic Governance Project
Hosted at Queen's University, the Ethnicity and Democratic Governance Project is an international Canadian-based 5-year SSHRC major collaborative research initiative studying one of the most complex and challenging issues of the world today governing ethnic diversity. Through an intensive consultation process involving internationally-based university researchers, students, policy makers, partner organizations and citizens, the project aims to arrive at innovative academic analysis but also practical tools and strategies that citizens and governments can learn from as they work through their own ethno-cultural conflicts and tensions.
Terra Ferma
The purpose of this project is to help keep the interaction among the various religions, both in and outside the academia, as wholesome as possible by identifying and collecting instances of such misrepresentation and bringing them to light, before they pollute the atmosphere in which the various religions of the world are interacting.
International Research Projects
The Impact of Religion - Challenges for Society, Law and Democracy
The Linneaus Research Programme The Impact of Religion, a Centre of Excellence at Uppsala University 2008-2018, runs for ten years and consists of more than 40 researchers from 6 faculties at Uppsala University. It is supported by The Swedish Research Council (Vetenskapsrådet) and Uppsala University.
The Impact of Religion programme is concerned with the economic, social, political, legal and – above all – religious changes that are taking place in Sweden and the Nordic countries at the beginning of the 21st century.
Politics of Religious Freedom: Contested Norms & Local Practices
“Politics of Religious Freedom” is an ambitious project that proposes to study how religious freedom is being transformed through legal and political contestations in the United States, the Middle East, South Asia, and the European Union. Departing from the assumption that there is a single and stable conception of religious liberty, enshrined in international law, the United Nations protocols and national constitutions, this project undertakes a comparative study of the multiple historical trajectories, concepts, and practices now organized under the rubric of religious freedom.
Funded by Henry R. Luce Initiative on Religion and International Affairs, the Politics of Religious Freedom project will bring together academics, key human rights and civil society organizations, along with jurists and policy makers who have helped to reshape the debate on religious freedom in the United States, the European Union, India, Egypt, and South Africa. Based on workshops held among participants from these regions alongside the core research team, the project plans the following publications: (a) a co-authored handbook to be used by legal practitioners and civil society organizations; (b) translations of, and commentaries on, key legal cases involving religious freedom from India, Egypt, and South Africa; (c) key papers from project workshops (to be held in Venice, Bombay, and Cairo) and proceedings of the capstone conference in special issues of journals in the fields of anthropology, international law, religion, and international relations. Finally, the project also entails a pedagogical component that includes: (a) developing undergraduate and graduate syllabi on the comparative history of religious freedom globally; and (b) support four graduate students (over a period of two years) to serve as interns in two legal aid organizations in Egypt and India with whom the research team will be collaborating.
The project team includes:
Professor Saba Mahmood (University of California, Berkeley, co-PI)
Professor Elizabeth Shakman Hurd (Northwestern University, co-PI)
Professor Winnifred Sullivan (SUNY-Buffalo Law)
Professor Peter Danchin (University of Maryland Law)
This three-year project (2011-2014) will be jointly based at the University of California, Berkeley and Northwestern University and will be affiliated with SUNY-Buffalo Law and University of Maryland Law.
Religion in the Public Sphere (NOREL)
A major trend in the Nordic countries during the past 20 years is that religion has become more visible, and perhaps more significant, in the public sphere. The NOREL project (2009-2013) compares religious changes during the past twenty years in Denmark, Finland, Norway, Iceland, and Sweden. NOREL is a NORDCORP project (Nordic Collaborative Research Project) awarded by Joint Committee for Nordic Research Councils for the Humanities and the Social sciences (NOS-HS).
The Religious Studies Project: Podcasts and Resources on the Contemporary Social-Scientific Study of Religion
The Religious Studies Project, in association with the British Association for the Study of Religions and with some support from the University of Edinburgh, launched in January 2012. This is a website and podcasting project, featuring a weekly audio interview (of around 30 minutes) with leading scholars of Religious Studies (RS) and related fields. So far, these have featured James Cox, Armin Geertz, Carole Cusack, Donald Wiebe and Graham Harvey speaking on topical issues, novel approaches and important scholars and methodologies of Religious Studies in the 21st Century. Future interviews include Grace Davie, Jay Demerath, Callum Brown, Linda Woodhead and many more.
In addition, the website also features weekly articles from postgraduate students and other scholars on the themes of the interview that week, in addition to other useful resources and articles relevant to teachers and students of religion in the modern world.
Religion and Society Research Programme
The Religion and Society Research Programme is a collaborative venture between the AHRC and the ESRC. Together these research councils have contributed £12.3m to fund research of the highest quality on the interrelationships between religion and society. The Programme aims to foster collaborative research across the arts, humanities and social sciences; to build capacity in the study of religion; to engage interested parties beyond the academy; to further understanding of religion in a complex world. The programme started in January 2007 and will end in December 2012.
Religion Youth and Sexuality
The project has four primary aims :
- To explore the constructions and management strategies undertaken by religious / spiritual young adults (aged 18-25) from diverse faith backgrounds (namely Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Sikh, Jewish, and Buddhist) concerning their sexual identities, values, and choices
- To examine the significant social, cultural, and political factors that inform the above-mentioned processes
- To study how these religious / spiritual young adults manage their religious, sexual, and gender identities
- To generate rich qualitative and quantitative data that will contribute new knowledge to academic and policy debates on religion, youth, sexuality, and gender
States of Devotion
An interactive forum for news, analysis and opinion-making about religion and politics in the Americas. The blog is part of a three-year initiative on ‘Religion and Politics in the Americas’ funded by the Henry Luce Foundation that aims to promote transnational interdisciplinary research and dialogue between scholars of religion and politics in the Americas. Program activities include lectures, courses, performances, a flagship conference and policy roundtables in the United States, Mexico, Chile, Brazil and Canada.
Tolerance, Pluralism and Social Cohesion: Responding to the Challenges of the 21st Century in Europe (ACCEPT)
ACCEPT is concerned with the increasing cultural diversity that characterises European societies and the ways in which it is possible to enhance societal cohesion while respecting ethnic, religious and cultural plurality. ACCEPT debates the principles, practices, and institutional arrangements that are needed to promote tolerance and acceptance of cultural differences.