Politics of Religious Freedom: Contested Norms and Local Practices

Professor Elizabeth Shakman Hurd (Northwestern, co-PI), Professor Saba Mahmood (University of California, Berkeley, co-PI), Professor Winnifred Sullivan (SUNY-Buffalo Law), and Professor Peter Danchin (University of Maryland Law) have received a grant from the Henry R. Luce Initiative on Religion and International Affairs for a new project entitled “Politics of Religious Freedom: Contested Norms and Local Practices.” This three-year project (2011-2014) will be jointly based at the University of California, Berkeley and Northwestern University's Buffett Center for International and Comparative Studies and will be affiliated with SUNY-Buffalo Law and University of Maryland Law.

“Politics of Religious Freedom” is an ambitious project that proposes to study how religious freedom is being transformed through legal and political contestations in the United States, the Middle East, South Asia, and the European Union. Departing from the assumption that there is a single and stable conception of religious liberty, enshrined in international law, the United Nations protocols and national constitutions, this project undertakes a comparative study of the multiple historical trajectories, concepts, and practices now organized under the rubric of religious freedom.

“Politics of Religious Freedom” will bring together academics, key human rights and civil society organizations, along with jurists and policy makers who have helped to reshape the debate on religious freedom in the United States, the European Union, India, Egypt, and South Africa. Based on workshops held among participants from these regions alongside the core research team, the project plans the following publications: (a) a co-authored handbook to be used by legal practitioners and civil society organizations; (b) translations of, and commentaries on, key legal cases involving religious freedom from India, Egypt, and South Africa; (c) key papers from project workshops (to be held in Venice, Bombay, and Cairo) and proceedings of the capstone conference in special issues of journals in the fields of anthropology, international law, religion, and international relations. Finally, the project also entails a pedagogical component that includes: (a) developing undergraduate and graduate syllabi on the comparative history of religious freedom globally; and (b) support four graduate students (over a period of two years) to serve as interns in two legal aid organizations in Egypt and India with whom the research team will be collaborating.

The project team has organized a public discussion series on the Social Science Research Council blog The Immanent Frame in which scholars from different fields consider the multiple histories and genealogies of religious freedom.

Project website: http://iiss.berkeley.edu/politics-of-religious-freedom.

Professor Elizabeth Shakman Hurd website.