News

Save the Date! Final Fall BrownBag on December 10th.

By Lucas Nathaniel Manley
November 20th, 2014 in Uncategorized.

We will be holding an IRRN Brown Bag-lite on Wednesday, December 10th from 12-1pm in the Judaic Studies Library (147 Bay State Rd.). This will be a dual  discussion on religious freedom, as well as an end-of-semester celebration. We’ll only be tackling a few (much) lighter articles:

Saba Mahmood - Religious Freedom, Minority Rights, and Geopolitics

Beth Shakman Hurd - International Religious Freedom will Only Embolden ISIS

Daniel Philpott: Religious Freedom Advocates Resemble ISIS? Really?

Jacques Berlinerblau: The Crisis in Secular Studies

Pizza will be provided as usual, but I encourage everyone to bring some holiday (or non-holiday) snacks as well. So no excuses – free food, interesting people, and who doesn’t like discussing freedom? I hope to see you there!

Save the Date! Next BrownBag on November 14th.

By Lucas Nathaniel Manley
October 31st, 2014 in Uncategorized.

We'll meet on Friday, November 14th from 12-1 pm at the Jewish Studies Library (147 Bay State Rd, second floor). Pizza as usual, provided by the IR department.

This month we'll be reading chapters from Yuksel Sezgin's Human Rights under State-Enforced Religious Family Laws in Israel, Egypt and India in preparation for his lecture later that afternoon at 4pm at 121 Bay State Rd., first floor lecture room. I recommend Chapters 1, 4, and 6; however, if you’re feeling ambitious, Chapter 5 is also interesting for comparison, even though he won’t be specifically addressing Egypt in his talk.

I hope to see you all there and happy reading!

Save the Date! Next BrownBag on October 24th.

By Lucas Nathaniel Manley
October 9th, 2014 in Uncategorized.

We'll meet on Friday, October 24th from 12-1 pm at the Jewish Studies Library (147 Bay State Rd, second floor). Pizza as usual, provided by the IR department.

This month we'll be reading Chapters 1, 4, and 8 from The Muslim Brotherhood by Carrie Rosefsky Wickham and Chapter 6 from Temptations of Power: Islamists and Illiberal Democracy in a New Middle East by Shadi Hamid.

I hope to see you all there and happy reading!

Save the date! April 2 Brownbag on Chinese Political Thought

By Mary Kate Long
March 19th, 2014 in Uncategorized.

Welcome back from Spring Break! The next Brownbag will be on Wednesday, April 2 from 1-2 pm.

As usual, we'll be at the Jewish Studies Library (147 Bay State Rd, second floor). Pizza provided by the IR department!

This month we’ll be reading two articles from Leigh Jenco, Associate Professor of Political Theory at the London School of Economics. Jenco works on comparative political theory and Chinese political thought. PDFs of the articles are available for download. Just click on the following links:

Remember to RSVP to longmk@bu.edu if you plan to join us for lunch and discussion. Thank you!

"Culture as History: Envisioning change across and beyond "eastern" and "western" civilizations in the May Fourth era"

"Theorists and Actors: Zhang Shizhao on "self-awareness" as political action

Bernard Faure Readings Posted for Feb. 27

By Mary Kate Long
February 18th, 2014 in Uncategorized.

Hi all,

Here are the readings from Bernard Faure's Double Exposure: Cutting Across Buddhist and Western Discourses, for the upcoming Brownbag on Thursday, February 27. We'll meet from 12:00-1:00pm at the Judaic Studies Library (147 Bay State Rd, second floor). Pizza lunch provided!

Don't forget to RSVP to longmk@bu.edu.

Prologue & Chapter 1: Do We Know What Buddhism is?

Chapter 4: A Hybrid Teaching

Chapter 7: Twofold Truth

Notes

Save the Date! Next Brownbag on February 27

By Mary Kate Long
February 17th, 2014 in Uncategorized.

Note that this month we're meeting on a Thursday and not a Wednesday as we have previously.

We'll meet on Thursday, February 27 from 12-1 pm at the Jewish Studies Library (147 Bay State Rd, second floor). Pizza as usual, provided by the IR department.

This month we'll be reading Chapters 1, 4 and 7 from Bernard Faure's Double Exposure: Cutting Across Buddhist and Western Discourses (2004). PDFs of the reading will be posted here soon.

Hope to see you there! Stay warm!

Link to Daniel Philpott Readings

By Mary Kate Long
January 16th, 2014 in Uncategorized.

The reading for our next meeting on Wednesday, January 29 is  available for download as a PDF . We are reading Chapters 1-4 of Daniel Philpott's book Just and Unjust Peace: An Ethic of Political Reconciliation (2012). The reading is  70 pages, and discussion will be guided by IRRN MA students Matisse Reischl and Louise Klann.

The following day, Philpott is presenting at an event sponsored by CURA and the Department of International Relations. This is a fantastic opportunity to extend our discussion with questions to the author. Please join us for both events!

Click to download Chapters 1-4 of the Philpott.

See you on the 29th! As always, we will be at the Judaic Studies Library (147 Bay State Rd) from 12-1, enjoying pizza from Otto's. Please RSVP to longmk@bu.edu if you plan to attend the Brownbag on the 29th.

philpottcura

 

Save the Date! First 2014 Brownbag on January 29

By Mary Kate Long
January 15th, 2014 in Uncategorized.

Hello all, and welcome back to BU! Here's to Spring!

I'm writing to invite all of you to our first Brownbag of 2014. It will be on Wednesday, January 29 from 12:00-1:00pm in the Judaic Studies Library at 147 Bay State Road. Pizza from Otto's, courtesy of the IR Department, will be served!

Since Daniel Philpott, from the Department of Political Science at the University of Notre Dame, is giving a lecture at CURA on the following day, we thought it appropriate to start off our discussions with some of his work on religion, reconciliation and justice. IRRN MA students Matisse Reischl and Louise Klann will lead the discussion. Readings will be posted here in a few days.

If you know you are interested and able to attend, please RSVP as soon as you can to longmk@bu.edu. Also, feel free to send this invite around to anyone who may be interested in joining.

Looking forward to seeing you all and welcoming new faces too. Stay warm and be well.

 

Links to Charles Taylor Readings

By Mary Kate Long
November 4th, 2013 in Uncategorized.

For those planning to join us for the next Brownbag, where we'll discuss 4 sections of Charles Taylor's massive A Secular Age, the readings are here! They are available for download as PDFs. The files here are not entire chapters, only the sections that we'll focus on for the Brownbag.

Remember that our next meeting is Wednesday, November 20 in the Judaic Studies Library (147 Bay State Rd). We will meet from 1:00 to 2:00pm, and it will be our last meeting of the fall semester.

We'll be discussing Taylor's work in context with our last conversation about Talal Asad's Formations of the Secular. Students MK Long and David Warren will help get things started with a few questions. Join us for pizza and fun, productive conversation.

Introduction, pp. 1-22

Chapter 1, pp. 25-54

Chapter 12, pp. 423-459

Chapter 14, pp. 505-535

Save the Date! Next Brown Bag Wednesday, Nov. 20 at 1:00pm

By Mary Kate Long
October 23rd, 2013 in Uncategorized.

Thank you to everyone who attended our second Brownbag today! It was wonderful to have a big group spanning several different departments sharing ideas and responses to Talal Asad's Formations of the Secular.

To extend our conversation on Asad toward some of his conversation partners, we decided that for our next meeting, we will read some of Charles Taylor's A Secular Age. More information to come, on which chapters to focus on. For now, mark your calendars for our next meeting on Wednesday, November 20 in the Judaic Studies Library. We will meet from 1:00 to 2:00. It will be our last meeting of the fall semester.

Thanks again for coming, and remember to encourage anyone else who you think may be interested to join us next time.