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Release date: 2-Jun-05 Religion Center to Merge With Law and Religion Program
Contact: Emory University's Center for the Interdisciplinary Study of Religion (CISR) is merging with its Law and Religion Program, effective Sept. 1. The new entity will be called the Center for the Study of Law and Religion. The new center explores the intersection of religious traditions and their influence on law, politics and society. Included among its teaching, research and public education will be: • four joint-degree programs and 18 cross-listed courses in the law, theology and graduate schools with both master's- and doctoral-level studies in various specialties • ongoing research projects in Christian, Jewish and Islamic legal studies; religion and human rights; law, morality and constitutionalism; sex, marriage and family; the child in law, religion and society; affordable housing and community development, and related themes • faculty and student fellowships for Emory and visiting scholars • four book series, an op-ed series, and new scholarly articles and books by participating Emory faculty • public conferences and forums highlighting center research findings The new center also is adding a public policy component, focusing on religious liberty, marriage and family law, international human rights, and housing and local government law. "The merger allows us to refine our focus and offerings and increase the visibility of our work at a time when the great challenges and collisions of law and religion are front and center in the minds of the public," says John Witte Jr., who is Jonas Robitscher Professor of Law at Emory Law School and served as director of both the CISR and Law and Religion Program. Acclaimed as "the model center" by The Pew Charitable Trusts, the CISR was the fourth of 10 centers of interdisciplinary religious scholarship funded by Pew in 2000. Emory's five-year, $3.2 million grant was seed money to establish a center designed to provide intellectual space and programming for faculty and students. The former CISR has attracted leading scholars to serve as project directors, including Martin Marty, Fairfax M. Cone Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus at the University of Chicago, and Don S. Browning, Alexander Campbell Professor of Ethics and the Social Sciences Emeritus at the University of Chicago. In addition, the center has hosted a major international conference and 25 public forums, while more than two dozen CISR senior fellows are publishing 59 new volumes. The Law and Religion Program, founded in 1982, is widely regarded as a leading research center in the field. Its projects have involved more than 2,500 international scholars, and its publications have had a shaping influence on issues as diverse as religious liberty in post-Soviet Russia, women's rights to land in sub-Saharan Africa, the rights and limits of evangelization in Latin American, and housing and homelessness policies in several U.S. cities. A number of the program's core faculty--Frank S. Alexander, Abdullahi An-Na'im, Harold J. Berman, Michael J. Broyde, Martha Albertson Fineman, Brooks Holifield, Timothy P. Jackson, Luke Timothy Johnson, Mark D. Jordan, Laurie Patton, Michael J. Perry, Steven M. Tipton, Johan van der Vyver and Witte--have lectured and led research projects on all continents. Law professor Frank Alexander founded the Law and Religion Program in 1982 with then-Emory President James T. Laney, a noted theologian, ethicist and former ambassador to South Korea. Alexander will serve with Witte as the new center's co-director. "In the 1960s, 70s and 80s, law schools generally were not open to discussion of law and religion except in the area of First Amendment and narrow church-state issues," says Alexander. "The result was a shallow jurisprudence and shallow historical perspective in legal education. Our program has made possible for law schools across the country to acknowledge that scholarly inquiry into matters of law and religion is indeed scholarship of the first order. We turned the tide." Originally intended as a joint degree program for law and theology students, the Law and Religion Program grew to encompass more than a dozen domestic and international research projects, several major international conferences and public forum sponsorships, four book series and a visiting fellows program. Students from four Emory schools took joint degrees and up to 14 program-sponsored courses. Fifty-seven Emory faculty from 20 fields of study participated in the program's work, publishing to date more than 300 volumes. Among the program's major benefactors are The Pew Charitable Trusts, the Ford Foundation, the Lilly Endowment, Inc., the Steinhardt Foundation, the Fannie Mae Foundation, L.I.S.C., the Stern Foundation, the Alonzo L. McDonald Family Agape Foundation, and the Chicago law firm of Hoogendoorn, Miller, Davids, Godfrey & Milligan. During the last four years, the CISR and Law and Religion Program have collaborated on several research projects and forums and have shared faculty, staff, students and in the case of Witte--a director. "We have been working with overlapping staff," says Witte. "The natural next step is to consolidate our successful efforts." To showcase the merger, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and renowned church historian Martin E. Marty will present keynote addresses at a public event, "What's Wrong With Rights for Children?" Oct. 20-21, 2005 at Emory Law School. For more information on the conference, go to http://www.law.emory.edu/cisr or call 404-712-8710. ### Emory University is known for its demanding academics, outstanding undergraduate college of arts and sciences, highly ranked professional schools and state-of-the-art research facilities. For nearly two decades Emory has been named one of the country's top 25 national universities by U.S. News & World Report. In addition to its nine schools, the university encompasses The Carter Center, Yerkes National Primate Research Center and Emory Healthcare, the state's largest and most comprehensive health care system. Subscribe to News@Emory RSS feeds for automatic updates of the latest news at Emory. |
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