Switzerland - The Graduate Institute, Geneva

INSTITUTE ON CULTURE, RELIGION AND WORLD AFFAIRS,
BOSTON UNIVERSITY
Address
Institute on Culture, Religion and World Affairs,
10 Lenox Street, Brookline, MA 02446 USA
Phone 617-353-9050
Fax 617-353-6408
Web www.bu.edu/cura
E-Mail isec@bu.edu
Category Research and Knowledge
MISSION STATEMENT
CURA is a center for research, publication and education on one of the most strategic questions in the contemporary world: How
does culture (in the sense of beliefs, values and lifestyles) affect economic and political developments world-wide? Since, in most of
the world, religion is at the core of culture, CURA has paid special attention to the role of religion in world affairs. While CURA’s
agenda is of obvious academic interest, it touches increasingly on practical policy concerns. Thus CURA has sought to communicate
its findings to government, the business community and the media.
Founding year 1985.
Examples of activities include:
BACKGROUND AND ACTIVITIES
� Civil Democratic Islam: Prospects, Comparisons, and Policies for a Changing Muslim World
� Orthodox Christianity in American Public Life: The Challenges and Opportunities of Religious Pluralism in the 21st Century
� Orthodox Christianity and the Construction of Civil Society and Democracy in Russia
� Engaged Religions and the Public Good in Chinese Societies
Since its inception CURA has conducted research projects on every continent except Australia. Some of these were pioneering and
have become major points of research, such as those by David Martin (London School of Economics) on the explosion of
Protestantism in Latin America and by Gordon Redding (then at the University of Honkong) on the culture of Overseas Chinese
entrepreneurs.
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
Berger, P. L. and S. P. Huntington (2002). Many Globalizations: Cultural Diversity In the Contemporary World. Oxford, Oxford
University Press.
Glenn, C. (2000). The Ambiguous Embrace: Government and Faith-based Schools and Social Services. Princeton, Princeton University
Press.
Hefner, R. (2004). Remaking Muslim Politics: Pluralism, Contestation, Democratization. Princeton, Princeton University Press.
Lännström, A. (2003). Promise and Peril: The Paradox of Religion as Resource and Threat. Notre Dame, University of Notre Dame
Press.