Events

This conference is organized by the Asia Research Institute at the National University of Singapore, with support from the Henry Luce Foundation for the project on ‘Religion and NGOs in Asia’.

Religion has been profoundly reconfigured in the age of development. The past half-century has witnessed broad transformations in the understandings and experiences of ‘religion’ across traditions in communities in many parts of the world. This interdisciplinary conference will explore contemporary entanglements of religion and development with particular attention to their relevance for social, political and economic reconfigurations of ideas and institutions at both the regional and global levels. The conversations at the event will explore some these transformations along the course of deepening entanglements of religious ideas and institutions with the sphere of ‘development’. Papers will pursue case studies and critical conceptual reflections from diverse religious traditions across Asia and beyond. We aim to examine the specific ways in which ‘religion’ and ‘development’ interact and mutually inform each other. We will also use the opportunity of this event to push beyond established instrumentalist approaches toward a more conceptual level of interpretation that facilitates better understanding of the implications of contemporary entanglements across diverse discourses and experiences of religion and development.

This conference will be the capstone event for our work at ARI on Religion and Development over the past decade – bringing together present and past members of our team in conversation with some of the world’s leading scholars in the field to both take stock of the work done to date, and to chart new ways forward for understanding contemporary entanglements of religion and development.

REGISTRATION

Admission is free, and seats are available on a first come, first served basis. We would greatly appreciate if you click on the “Register” button above to RSVP.

CONVENORS

R. Michael Feener
Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies, Faculty of History, University of Oxford, UK
E | michael.feener@history.ox.ac.uk

Philip Fountain
Religious Studies, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand
E | philip.fountain@vuw.ac.nz