March 18-19, 2005

A Conference of the Program in Religion, Conflict, and Peacebuilding Sponsored by the Joan B. Kroc Institute of International Peace Studies University of Notre Dame

Hesburgh Center for International Studies (Room C-103)

Conference Theme

The increasing prominence of religious leaders, institutions, ideologies and worldviews in the public sphere plays an important role in the formation of national identity and the building of democratic institutions in emerging democratic societies. This conference focuses on the impact of public religion on peacebuilding efforts in Jerusalem, Indonesia, and Kashmir. Under what conditions does public religion contribute to peace, and under what conditions does it contribute to violence? In particular, what are the social conditions, personal characteristics, and tools that effective religious peacebuilders have developed to promote inter-religious dialogue and cooperation for peace and justice? In responding to these questions, we wish to compare and contrast the relationships among religion, democratization, and peacebuilding, with implications for questions of policy and security.

Conference Schedule

Friday, March 18

9 a.m. - 9:30 a.m. Welcome and Introduction by Scott Appleby

9:30 a.m. – Noon Kashmir panel
Chair: Cynthia Mahmood
Panelist One: Rekha Chawdhary
Panelist Two: Haley Duschinski
Panelist Three: Ravina Aggarwal

Noon – 2 p.m. Lunch (Morris Inn)

3 p.m. (note change from 2 p.m.) Jerusalem panel
Chair: A. Rashied Omar
Panelist One: Marc Gopin
Panelist Two: Yousef Al-Herimi
Panelist Three: Patrice Brodeur

6 p.m. Dinner for conference participants (Greenfields)

Saturday, March 19

9:30 a.m. – noon Indonesia panel
Chair: Jennifer Connolly
Panelist One: Jennifer Connolly
Panelist Two: Robert Hefner
Panelist Three: Mark Woodward

Noon – 1:30 p.m. Lunch (Morris Inn)

1:30 p.m. – 3:30 p.m. Roundtable discussion
Chair: Scott Appleby
Participant One: Urvashi Butalia
Participant Two: Fred Dallmayr
Participant Three: David Smock

3:30 p.m. Conference adjourns

CONFERENCE PRESENTERS

RAVINA AGGARWAL is an associate professor in anthropology at Smith College. She is the author of Beyond Lines of Control: Performance and Politics on the Disputed Borders of Ladakh, India (Duke University Press, 2004), an ethnographic analysis of how the conflict in Kashmir has affected Buddhist and Muslim communities in the Ladakh region. She also edited Into the High Ranges: The Penguin Anthology of Mountain Writing (Penguin, 2002) and translated Forsaking Paradise: Stories from Ladakh by Abdul Ghani Sheikh (Katha Press, 2001).

YOUSEF Al-HERIMI is a Kroc Alumni (’92). He teaches Islam, world civilization, and logical thinking at Al-Quds University and works with the Issam Sartawi Center for Peace Studies, which he directed from 1998-2002. He also teaches religion at Bethlehem University. His work in promoting Jewish-Christian-Muslim relations throughout the area was featured in a report titled Healing the Holy Land: Interreligious Peacebuilding in Israel/Palestine by Yehezkel Landau (United States Institute of Peace, September 2003).

SCOTT APPLEBY is a professor of history and the John M. Regan, Jr., Director of the Kroc Institute at the University of Notre Dame. He is the co-editor with Martin Marty of the five-volume Fundamentalisms Project and author of The Ambivalence of the Sacred: Religion, Violence and Reconciliation (Rowman & Littlefield, 2000).

PATRICE BRODEUR is a Rockefeller Visiting Fellow 2004-5 at the Kroc Institute. He has recently been appointed Canada Research Chair on Islam, Pluralism, and Globalization at the University of Montreal. He is developing a website for curriculum development on Inter-religious Dialogue and Conflict Resolution. In addition, he is completing a book titled Contemporary Arab Muslim Perceptions of Religious Others and recently finished co-editing Building the Interfaith Youth Movement (AltaMira Press, 2005).

URVASHI BUTALIA is co-founder of Kali for Women, India's first publishing house set up in 1984 to increase the body of knowledge on women in the Third World. She has recently launched a new venture, Zubaan, which is an imprint of Kali. She holds the position of reader at the College of Vocational Studies at the University of Delhi. She has edited and written many books, including The Other Side of Silence: Voices from the Partition of India, and Women and the Hindu Right (Duke University Press, 2000) and with Tanika Sarkar, Women and Right Wing Movements: Indian Experience (Zed books, 1996).

REKHA CHOWDHARY is professor of politics at the University of Jammu. She has written extensively on Kashmir and leads the new Centre for Strategic and Regional Studies in Jammu. A well-known scholar of politics in Jammu and Kashmir, she is currently a Fulbright fellow based in Washington, DC.

JENNIFER CONNOLLY is a Rockefeller Visiting Fellow 2004-5 at the Kroc Institute. She received her Ph.D. in anthropology from the New School for Social Research in New York in 2004. She has been the recipient of a number of awards and grants, including a Fulbright fellowship, a Wenner-Gren fieldwork grant, a Sumitro Fellowship, and the Stanley Diamond Memorial Award in the Social Sciences. She is revising her dissertation, "Becoming Christian and Dayak: A Study of Christian Conversion Among Dayaks in East Kalimantan, Indonesia," for publication. She is working on a second project on the role of religion in achieving democratic ideals of civility and tolerance in East Kalimantan.

FRED DALLMAYR is the Packey J. Dee Professor of Political Science, University of Notre Dame. In addition to his many articles, he has written 14 books, including Achieving Our World: Toward A Global and Plural Democracy (Rowman & Littlefield, 2001); Dialogue Among Civilizations: Some Exemplary Voices (Palgrave/St. Martin’s Press, 2002); Beyond Orientalism: Essays on Cross-cultural Encounter (Rowman & Littlefield, l996); and Alternative Visions: Paths in The Global Village (Rowman & Littlefield, l998).

HALEY DUSCHINSKI is a Rockefeller Visiting Fellow 2004-5 at the Kroc Institute. She received her Ph.D. in social anthropology from Harvard University in 2004. She is revising her dissertation into a book manuscript titled Inconstant Homelands: Violence, Storytelling, and Community Politics among Kashmiri Hindu Migrants and co-editing a volume with Cynthia Mahmood on ethnographies of violence in Kashmir.

MARC GOPIN is James H. Laue Professor and director of the Center for World Religions, Diplomacy and Conflict Resolution at George Mason University. He is the author of Between Eden and Armageddon: The Future of World Religions, Violence and Peacemaking (Oxford University Press, 2000), Holy War, Holy Peace (Oxford University Press, 2002), and Healing the Heart of Conflict: Eight Steps to Making Peace with Yourself and Others (Rodale Press, 2004).

ROBERT W. HEFNER is Professor of Anthropology and Director of the Program on Islam and Civil Society at the Institute on Culture, Religion, and World Affairs at Boston University. He is directing a project for the Pew Charitable Trusts and the Institute on Culture, Religion, and World Affairs on "Madrasas, Modernity, and the Future of Muslim Higher Education," and is the editor for the sixth volume of the New Cambridge History of Islam, Muslims and Modernity: Society and Culture since 1800. He has written or edited a dozen books, the most recent of which are Civil Islam: Muslims and Democratization in Indonesia (Princeton 2000) and, as editor, Remaking Muslim Politics: Pluralism, Contestation, Democratization (Princeton 2005).

CYNTHIA MAHMOOD is an associate professor of anthropology and director of graduate studies at the Kroc Institute at the University of Notre Dame. She directs a book series on The Ethnography of Political Violence and is author of Fighting for Faith and Nation: Dialogues with Sikh Militants (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1996).

A. RASHIED OMAR is coordinator of the Kroc Institute’s Program in Religion, Conflict and Peacebuilding and a doctoral candidate at the University of Cape Town specializing in religion and violence. He has served as an imam at a mosque in South Africa and is a trustee of the Parliament of the World’s Religions.

DAVID R. SMOCK is director of the Religion and Peacemaking Initiative at the United States Institute of Peace. Formerly director of the Institute's Grant Program, he is the editor of Interfaith Dialogue and Peacebuilding, and Religious Perspectives on War (all USIP Press, 2002). He received a Ph.D. in anthropology from Cornell University and an M.Div. from New York Theological Seminary.

MARK WOODWARD is a professor of religious studies at Arizona State University. He has edited an introductory textbook for use in world religions courses. Specializing in religion and modernization, he has frequently written on the topic of Islam and democracy in Indonesia. His books include Islam in Java: Normative Piety and Mysticism in the Sultanate of Yogyakarta (University of Arizona Press, 1989) and the co-authored State Failure, Phase Four Reports (SAIC McLean).

All conference sessions are free and open to the public. Information regarding accommodations is available by contacting:
A. Rashied Omar- PRCP Coordinator
Phone: (574) 631-7740;
Fax: (574) 631-6973
Email: Omar.1@nd.edu)

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