Welcome to the Department of Religion

2010 THULIN LECTURE
Dr. Sabina Alkire
Director, Oxford Poverty & Human Development Initiative (OPHI)
University of Oxford
"How an Adequate Notion of Human Flourishing Challenges Economics"
Wednesday, April 7, 2010 at 8:00pm
Knight Auditorium at the Spurlock Museum (600 S. Gregory St., Urbana)
Dr. Sabina Alkire grew up in Champaign, Illinois and was educated at the University of Illinois and at Magdalen College, University of Oxford, where she was a Rhodes Scholar. At Oxford she completed masters degrees in Theology and in Economics for Development, and a doctorate in Economics. She coordinated the Culture and Poverty Learning and Research Initiative at the World Bank, served as Research Writer for the Commission on Human Security at the United Nations, and was a research associate at the Global Equity Initiative at Harvard University. She now directs the Oxford Poverty & Human Development Initiative, a research center within the University of Oxford that was launched in 2007. She is the author of Valuing Freedoms: Sen’s Capability Approach and Poverty Reduction (Oxford University Press, 2002) and numerous publications that focus on Amartya Sen’s corpus of writings, dimensions of human development, and multidimensional measures of poverty and well-being.
OTHER UPCOMING EVENTS
(Click on the first line of the event listing for more information, if available.)2010 Spring Lecture
Gene Outka
Gene Outka
Professor, Yale Divinity School
"Religion and Violence: What Do We Say Now?"
Wednesday, March 10, 2010 at 7:30pm
Location To Be Announced
International Symposium on Rethinking the Boundaries Between Religion and Culture in Premodern Japan: Religious Practitioners, Aristocrats, and the Transformation of Japanese Literature
Featuring Keynote Speakers Susan Blakeley Klein (University of California, Irvine) and Nemoto Seiji (University of Tsukuba)Thursday-Friday, March 18-19, 2010
Levis Faculty Center (919 W. Illinois St., Urbana)
International Symposium on Islam, Salvation, and the Fate of Others
Featuring Asma Afsaruddin, Patrice Brodeur, William Chittick, Farid Esack, David M. Freidenreich, Marcia Hermansen, Amir Hussain, Muqtedar Khan, Jerusha Lamptey, Bruce Lawrence, Gary Carl (Muhammad) Legenhausen, Daniel A. Madigan, Yasir Qadhi, Tariq Ramadan, A. Kevin Reinhart, and Sajjad RizviFriday-Saturday, April 16-17, 2010
I Hotel and Conference Center (1900 S. First St., Champaign)
Chakravarthi Ram-Prasad
Professor of Comparative Religion and Philosophy and Associate Dean for Research, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Lancaster University"A Hindu Perspective on Religious Diversity and on the Metaphysics of the Self"
Tuesday, April 27, 2010 at 4:00pm
2090B Foreign Languages Building
Chakravarthi Ram-Prasad
Professor of Comparative Religion and Philosophy and Associate Dean for Research, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Lancaster University"Reading Ecological Responses Through Religious Traditions: Challenges and Responses in Hinduism and Buddhism"
Wednesday, April 28, 2010 at 4:00pm
Location To Be Announced
Work in Progress Series
Professor Andy Orta
Anthropology, U of I "Vulgar citizenship: local Christianity and the repertoires of neoliberalism"
Friday, April 30, 2010 at Noon
Lucy Ellis Lounge, Foreign Languages Building (Behind Elevators, 1st Floor)
DEPARTMENTAL NEWS
(Click on the headline to read the full story.)We congratulate Professor Valerie Hoffman on her selection as a 2009 Carnegie Scholar! Her project, “Islamic Sectarianism Reconsidered: Ibadi Islam in the Modern Age,” explores the impact of globalization on Ibadism, a marginalized strand of Islam distinct from the two dominant branches, Sunni and Shiite. Read an article about her award in the Illini News Bureau, and the announcement of the 2009 Carnegie Scholars from the Carnegie Corporation.
Professor Wayne Pitard receives Alumni Discretionary Award and becomes NCSA/UIUC Faculty Fellow.
U. of I., USC students collaborating on unique archaeology project
NEW AND RECENT BOOKS FROM DEPARTMENT OF RELIGION FACULTY
A warm word of welcome! We invite you to explore our web site and to learn about our programs of study, courses, public events, faculty, and much more besides.
Students in our courses learn about the history, concepts, beliefs, practices, rituals, artifacts, and so on, of traditions such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Daoism, Confucianism, Shinto, Judaism, Christianity and Islam, and the tradition of the ancient Hebrews.
Our students are expected to understand how these religious traditions reflect the social contexts in which they emerged, and in turn how the traditions affect and transform the societies in which they flourish. And our students are required to acquire and to deploy the methods of many humanistic and social science disciplines in the course of their studies.
Whether for good or for ill, religion will have a central place in human affairs for the foreseeable future. Public expressions of religious identity will continue to serve as a way to give voice to ethnic and cultural differences. The world's religions show no signs of blending into one super-religion. Nor is religion going to yield to science. Instead religious differences, struggles among religious groups, and the involvement of religious identities, allegiances, and perspectives in all aspects of human affairs probably will persist into the distant future. For these and many other reasons the rigorous study of religion will remain as important as it has ever been.
Needless to say, the academic study of religion does not aim to promote (or to challenge) any particular perspective on religious matters. Drawing upon many methodologies it engages in the bold and challenging project of attempting to understand religion objectively and in all of its dimensions.
Robert McKim
Head