Research Areas
Islam and GovernanceResearcher: Professor M. Steven Fish, Political Science
Looking at controversial issues such as the rule of law, women's rights, and religious observance, this project seeks to explain differences in governance within the Islamic world, as well as between the Islamic world and elsewhere.
Researcher: Assistant Professor Ron Hassner, Political Science
Researchers are investigating the many ways that religious leaders either restrain or encourage conflict, and probe the significance that particular religious beliefs play in motivating combatants. The main goal of the project is to determine the nuanced role that religious beliefs, texts, practices, symbols, and social structures play in fomenting or impeding violence.
Religion in America
RPGP Research Fellow Lynne Gerber
RPGP provides a forum for lively discussion and nuanced research on the role of religion in America. Our fall 2008 lecture series explored the diversity of the contemporary American religious experience, from Korean-American evangelicals, to the Nation of Islam, to the history of American Buddhism.
Non-Western ChristianityRPGP Research Fellows Jon Chow and Ajit Abraham
By studying the political influence of Catholics in the Philippines, and liberation theology in India, RPGP scholars explore the relationship between religion, globalization, and emerging decentralized and culturally-malleable versions of faith.
State Failure and Intervention
RPGP Research Fellow Ben Oppenheim
The erosion and reconstruction of effective governing authorities is one of the most critical humanitarian and development challenges of the early 21st century. To address these challenges, RPGP is hosting a series of events in 2008-2009 on the quandaries of state failure and international intervention.
