Partnership with Luce and ICRS-Yogyakarta for Project on Religion and Public Policy in Southeast Asia
With funding from the Henry Luce Foundation, CURA joined with the Indonesian Consortium for Religious Studies (ICRS) at Gadjah Mada University in Indonesia to organize the first international conference in a three year project on how states and societies are responding to religious change in eight Southeast Asian Countries: Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Myanmar, Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam, and the Philippines. The ICRS heads the project, and has brought together research teams in each of the Southeast Asian countries. CURA is coordinating the U.S.-based wing of the project, focusing on how U.S. policy analysts and think tanks perceive and respond to religious change in the Southeast Asian region. Next year’s conference will be held in Washington DC; the 2016 conference will take place in Bangkok, Thailand. This year’s conference included visits from ministers in Indonesia’s Ministry of Religion as well as the U.S. Embassy. It also featured a speech on the challenge of pluralism from the much-respected Sultan of Yogyakarta, as well as a two-hour appearance on a nationally-broadcast Indonesian talk show.
