Institute for Religion, Culture, and Public Life

A discussion with Gérard Araud, Ambassador of France to the United Nations, on the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons as a new resolution on the Iranian crisis is under discussion at the United Nations. Moderated by Richard Bulliet, Professor of Middle East and Asian Languages and Cultures at Columbia University.

To RSVP: mj2412@columbia.edu

Co-sponsored by the Columbia-Paris Alliance Program; the Center for the Study of Democracy, Toleration, and Religion (CDTR); the Middle East Institute (MEI); the School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) and the UN Studies Program.

A discussion and screening of “Heaven’s Taxi” and “Iran Zendan”, two feature films that address the political situation and treatment of prisoners in Iran since the 2009 presidential election.  Panelists include Daryush Shokof, Hasan Demicri, Taies Farzan, Vadim Glowna, Bahman Maghsoudlou, Mahnaz Talebitari, and Daryoush Zandi.

Sponsored by the Center for the Study of Human Rights (CSHR).  Co-sponsored by the Human Rights Working Group at SIPA, the Human Rights Concentration at SIPA and the Center for the Study of Democracy, Toleration, and Religion (CDTR).

A discussion of human-rights report by the Cairo Institute of Human Rights (CIHRS) and its implications for U.S. policy, with remarks from Bahey Eldin Hassan (General Director, Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies), Jeremie Smith (Director, Geneva Office of the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies), Radwan Ziadeh (Founding Director, Damascus Center for Human Rights Studies).

In 2009, human rights in the Arab world have significantly deteriorated, prompting CIHRS to refer to the region as a “bastion of impunity.” The report points to increased suppression of political dissent and raises concerns about religious freedom, the deteriorating status of religious minorities and the tendency of regimes to align themselves with radical Islamists.

Sponsored by the Center for the Study of Human Rights (CSHR) and co-sponsored by the Center for the Study of Democracy, Toleration, and Religion (CDTR).

A conversation with GEORGE RUPP, president of the International Rescue Committee and former president of Columbia University as well as author of Globlization Challenged: Conviction, Conflict, Community (2006). Moderated by Mark C. Taylor, Chair of the Department of Religion.

Co-sponsored with Center for the Study of Democracy, Toleration and Religion (CDTR).

A discussion with FATMA GOCEK, Associate Professor of Sociology and Women’s Studies at University of Michigan and author of Social Constructions of Nationalism in the Middle East (2002) and Rise of the Bourgeoisie, Demise of Empire: Ottoman Westernization and Social Change (1996).

Religion, Ethnicity and Politics Lecture Series co-sponsored by Center for the Study of Democracy, Toleration and Religion (CDTR) and Institute for Social and Economic Research and Policy (ISERP).

A discussion with Emily Bech, current PhD in Political Science, Columbia University. Moderated by Jack Snyder, The Robert and Renée Belfer Professor of International Relationsm, and Alfred Stepan, Wallace S. Sayre Professor of Government.

PhD Thesis Series on Religion and Politics co-sponsored with Center for the Study of Democracy, Toleration and Religion (CDTR).

A screening of A Man Escaped (1956) and discussion with Joshua Dubler, Society of Fellows.

A film series co-sponsored with the Religion Departments of Columbia University and Barnard College.

A discussion with JULIANE HAMMER, Assistant Professor of Islamic Studies at George Mason University and author of Palestinians Born in Exile: Diaspora and the Search for a Homeland (2005).

Religion, Ethnicity and Politics Lecture Series co-sponsored by Center for the Study of Democracy, Toleration and Religion (CDTR) and Institute for Social and Economic Research and Policy (ISERP).

A discussion with Iren Ozgur, 2009 PhD in Political Science at Oxford University. Moderated by Karen Barkey, Professor of Sociology.

PhD Thesis Series on Religion and Politics co-sponsored with Center for the Study of Democracy, Toleration and Religion (CDTR).

A discussion with MICHAEL BUEHLER, Postdoctoral Fellow in Modern Southeast Asian Studies 2008-10 at the Weatherhead East Asian Institute. Moderated by Alfred Stepan, Wallace S. Sayre Professor of Government.

Religion, Ethnicity and Politics Lecture Series co-sponsored by Center for the Study of Democracy, Toleration and Religion (CDTR) and Institute for Social and Economic Research and Policy (ISERP).

A discussion with Ajay Chaudhary, current PhD in Middle East and Asian Languages and Cultures, Columbia University. Moderated by Sudipta Kaviraj, Professor of Middle East and Asian Languages and Cultures.

PhD Thesis Series on Religion and Politics co-sponsored with Center for the Study of Democracy, Toleration and Religion (CDTR).

A screening of The Green Pastures (1936) and discussion with Josef Sorett, Professor of Religion.

A film series co-sponsored with the Religion Departments of Columbia University and Barnard College.

A discussion with Haroon Moghul, current PhD in Middle East and Asian Languages and Cultures, Columbia University. Moderated by Sudipta Kaviraj, Professor of Middle East and Asian Languages and Cultures and Bachir Souleymane Diagne, Professor of French and Romance Philology

PhD Thesis Series on Religion and Politics co-sponsored with Center for the Study of Democracy, Toleration and Religion (CDTR).

A discussion with AHMET KURU, Assistant Professor of Political Science at San Diego State University and author of Secularism and State Policies toward Religion: The United States, France, and Turkey.

Religion, Ethnicity and Politics Lecture Series co-sponsored by Center for the Study of Democracy, Toleration and Religion (CDTR) and Institute for Social and Economic Research and Policy (ISERP).

A graduate conference on how new media technologies have transformed the way people imagine and communicate with the divine.

Keynote speakers include BERNARD STIEGLER, Director of the Department of Cultural Development at Centre Georges-Pompidou, MARK C. TAYLOR, Chair of Religion at Columbia University, BRIAN LARKIN, Professor of Anthropology at Columbia University, and SAMUEL WEBER, Professor of German at Northwestern University.

Co-sponsored with Religion Graduate Students Association at Columbia University.

A conference on the challenges faced by Muslim immigrants and their children in the process of integration in France and the United States.

Organized by Ousmane Kane (SIPA, Columbia) and Khadija Mohsen Finan (Science Po, Paris) with Souleymane Bachir Diagne, Malika Zeghal, Rosemary Hicks, Mohamed Nimeir, Solenne Jouaneau, Ahmet Kuru, Louise Cainkar, Valerie Amiraux, Simona Tersigni, Ousmane Kane, Aminah Mohammed Arif, Hisham Aidi, Robert Lieberman, Mucahit Bilici, Mahamet Timera and Samim Akgonul.

Co-sponsored with Columbia University Seminar for the Study of Contemporary Africa; School of International & Public Affairs (SIPA); Center for the Study of Democracy, Toleration, & Religion (CDTR); Department of Religion at Barnard College; Institute for Religion, Culture, & Public Life (IRCPL); Middle East Institute; Institute of African Studies; Maison Française; The European Institute; Department of French & Romance Philology; Migration Working Group.

A conversation and book signing with NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF, two-time Pulitzer Prize winner and columnist for the New York Times. He is co-author of the recent bestseller Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide (2009), copies of which will be on sale.

Co-sponsored with Columbia Journalism School and the Center for the Study of Democracy, Toleration and Religion (CDTR).

A screening of My Father, My Lord (2007) and a discussion with Uri Cohen, Professor of Middle East and Asian Languages and Cultures.

A film series co-sponsored with the Religion Departments of Columbia University and Barnard College.

A discussion with Aqil Shah, current PhD in Political Science at Columbia University and Harvard Society of Fellows 2010-2012. Moderated by Jack Snyder, The Robert and Renée Belfer Professor of International Relations, and Alfred Stepan, Wallace S. Sayre Professor of Government.

PhD Thesis Series on Religion and Politics co-sponsored with Center for the Study of Democracy, Toleration and Religion (CDTR).

A discussion with OUSMANE KANE, Associate Professor of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University.

Religion, Ethnicity and Politics Lecture Series co-sponsored by Center for the Study of Democracy, Toleration and Religion (CDTR) and Institute for Social and Economic Research and Policy (ISERP).

A symposium on Jews and Native Americans, two peoples made into Others by Christian Euro-America in fascinatingly similar yet different ways: as remnants of primitivity, as tribal peoples, as enduring threats and unassimilable enemies, and as romanticized traditionals possessing the solution to the ills of modernity.

Organized by Jonathan Schorsch (Columbia) with Jonathan Boyarin (North Carolina), Chris Bracken (Alberta), Sarah Philips Casteel (Carleton), Christian Cwik (Cologne), Gelya Frank (Southern California), Jennifer Glaser (Cincinnati), James Hatley (Salisbury), Nimachia Hernandez (Harvard Divinity), Stephen Katz (Indiana), David Koffman (NYU), Jack Kugelmass (Florida-Gainesville), Rebecca Margolis (Ottawa), Alan Mintz (JTS), Akim Reinhardt (Towson), Michael Rom (Toronto), Rachel Rubinstein (Hampshire), Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi (Naropa Institute), Sara Sutler-Cohen (Bellevue Community), Octaviana Trujillo (Northern Arizona) and Gerald Vizenor (New Mexico).

Co-sponsored with the Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies.

A lecture by NIRAJA GOPAL JAYAL, Visiting Professor at Princeton University and Professor at the Centre for the Study of Law and Governance, Jawaharlal Nehru University. She is author of Democracy and the State: Welfare, Secularism and Development in Contemporary India (1999) and director of the Ford Foundation project Dialogue on Democracy and Pluralism in South Asia.

The Annual Mary Keating Das Lecture co-sponsored with the South Asia Institute and Center for the Study of Democracy, Toleration and Religion (CDTR).

A talk by YOGENDRA YADAV, a Senior Fellow at the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS) and Co-Director of Lokniti, a research programme on comparative democracy. His research interests include modern Indian political thought and Indian socialism.

Co-sponsored with the South Asia Institute and Center for the Study of Democracy, Toleration and Religion (CDTR).

A discussion with Tabinda Khan, current PhD Political Science at Columbia University. Moderator to be announced.

PhD Thesis Series on Religion and Politics co-sponsored with Center for the Study of Democracy, Toleration and Religion (CDTR).