The Pluralism Project at Harvard University
Dr. Patrice BrodeurMontreal University
Montreal, Canada
Montreal, Canada
Religion, Islam and Pluralism
Dr. Patrice Brodeur, who has been involved with the Pluralism Project since the early 1990s and an affiliate since 1999, is now the Canada Research Chair on Islam, Pluralism, and Globalization at the University of Montreal. His work currently includes helping in the development of a program in Québec on how to how to teach about religion, ethics, and culture in primary and high schools. In November of 2007 he will be holding a conference with multi-sectoral input on this issue.
His international research on Islam and Pluralism uses current technology to develop extensive communication between teams of researchers in multiple countries. These small interdisciplinary teams in each of the majority Muslim countries will study the intersection of Islam, pluralism, and globalization. The teams of researchers will produce knowledge grounded in their specific locations. The internet and video conferencing will provide communication, enabling an approximation of human interaction among people who live in different settings. Each team will include members trained in a range of academic disciplines, including Islamic studies, sociology, political science, anthropology, and history, to look historically and contemporarily at the challenges, successes, and pitfalls of management of a diversity of identities. Countries to be studied include Morocco, Egypt, Lebanon, Iran, Turkey, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Indonesia, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates, all of which have at least some degree of religious pluralism.
Dr. Brodeur has received a USIP 2005 grant with Dr. Merdjanova to map and evaluate inter-religious dialogue programs in the Balkans between 1990 and 2006. The need is to develop tools for evaluating inter-religious work in its own terms. Precisely because there was little inter-religious activity during the communist/socialist period and a rapid infusion of foreign funds in response to wars in the early 1990s, the Balkans is a laboratory for exploring the impact of inter-religious dialogue. The research shall be published in a book, expected to be available in the spring of 2008.
Patrice’s work includes workshops on multiple identities, from an Inter-World View perspective. We are all human first, with a hierarchy of identities, which may include the complexities of a variety of statuses: majority/minority, visible/invisible, and changing/unchanging. Various group identity interests compete rather than cooperate. The task is to rethink towards the goal of complementarity and to consider larger collective interests as humans, including the survival of the human race.
In collaboration with the Center for World Religions, Diplomacy, and Conflict Resolution at George Mason University in Washington, DC, Dr. Brodeur is working on a preliminary mapping of peace building efforts. Dr. Brodeur previously directed the Pluralism Project at Connecticut College that mapped the religious diversity of New London, Connecticut. His extensive research and work with students culminated in presentations to local civic officials and at the American Academy of Religion.