Research Activities

Religion and Politics Seminar: Local and Global
This is open to the public.

The Seminar on Religion and Politics is an interdisciplinary collaboration between the Weatherhead Center, the Initiative on Religion in International Affairs at Harvard Kennedy School, and the Islam in the West Program of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies. The goal of the seminar is to critically explore the intersection of religion, law, and politics on the local and global levels. Its ongoing themes include the examination of political, legal, and philosophical dimensions of religion and public life: the effects of political and constitutional systems on religious liberty, the relations between religion and modernity, religion and gender equality, religion in international affairs, and the challenges of inter-religious relations.

Through a series of presentations by invited speakers in 2009–2010, the seminar will discuss the role of institutions as transmitters and mediators of philosophical ideas about religion in the public domain. The seminar is chaired by J. Bryan Hehir (Harvard Kennedy School), Ofrit Liviatan (Department of Government), Noah Feldman (Harvard Law School), Nancy Rosenblum (Department of Government), and Monica Duffy Toft (Harvard Kennedy School).

Current Academic Year

Past Seminar Schedules

Field of Interest: Comparative Politics
Seminar Chair(s)
Hehir, J. Bryan
Liviatan, Ofrit
Rosenblum, Nancy L.
Department Chair and Senator Joseph S. Clark Professor of Ethics in Politics and Government, Department of Government, Harvard University.
Toft, Monica Duffy
Feldman, Noah
Bemis Professor of International Law, Harvard Law School.; Bemis Professor of International Law, Harvard Law School.

Contact Information
Liviatan, Ofrit