The Social Scientific Study of Religion in China

Summer Institutes 2006

July 10-22, 2006

Renmin University of China, Beijing

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The third Summer Institute for the Social Scientific Study of Religion was held on July 9-20, 2006 at Renmin University of China, Beijing.  More than 60 faculty members, graduate students and undergraduate students from over 20 provinces participated in it.

The major lecturers were Byron Johnson (first week) and R. Stephen Warner (second week):   

Byron Johnson is Professor Sociology and Co-director (along with Rodney Stark) of Baylor Institute for Studies of Religion. He formerly directed the Center for Research on Religion and Urban Civil Society (CRRUCS) at the University of Pennsylvania.  He is a Senior Fellow at the Witherspoon Institute in Princeton, New Jersey, and most recently taught in the Politics Department at Princeton University.  Professor Johnson's research focuses on quantifying the effectiveness of faith-based organizations to confront various social problems. Recent publications have examined the efficacy of the "faith factor" in reducing crime and delinquency among at-risk youth in urban communities, and several studies examining the impact of faith-based programs on recidivism reduction and prisoner reentry.

R. Stephen Warner is Professor of Sociology at the University of Illinois at Chicago and a Fellow of the Theology, Ethics, and Human Sciences Center of Chicago Theological Seminary. Having earned his Ph.D. at the University of California at Berkeley in 1972, Warner was elected president of the Association for the Sociology of Religion in 1995, the Religion Section of the American Sociological Association in 2002, and the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion in 2005. He has held Guggenheim and National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowships, and his research has been supported by the Lilly Endowment and the Pew Charitable Trusts.

During the Summer Institute, Dr. Johnson and Dr. Warner were interviewed by Chinese Nationalities Newspaper respectively.

Dr. Johnson: 一个全新的宗教学进路 (July 18, 2006)

Dr. Warner: 希望中国学者研究出更适用于中国的理论和范式 (July 25, 2006)

In addition, Professor Graeme Lang, City University of Hong Kong, gave two lectures, and Professor Hei-yuan Chiu, Academia Sinica in Taipei gave one lecture.

          

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