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"
April 7, 2010
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.)Religious Studies Student Association
Faculty Luncheon with Professor James Treat on Wednesday, December 2 from 12:00-1:30pm in the Lucy Ellis Lounge of the Foreign Languages Building.Prof. Treat's upcoming Spring 2010 Topics course, "Indigenous Ecologies," and the research that he is currently working on will be discussed.
2010 Spring Lecture
Gene Outka
Dwight Professor of Philosophy and Christian Ethics and Professor of Religious Studies, Yale UniversityProfessor, Yale Divinity School
"Religion and Violence: What Do We Say Now?"
March 10, 2010 at 7:30pm
Location To Be Announced
International Symposium on Islam, Salvation, and the Fate of Others
Featuring Asma Afsaruddin, William Chittick, Farid Esack, Marcia Hermansen, Gary Carl (Muhammad) Legenhausen, Yasir Qadhi, Tariq Ramadan, Sajjad Rizvi, and Reza Shah-KazemiApril 16-17, 2010
Location To Be Announced
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 BOOKS FROM 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