Hefner Delivers Gordon College’s Annual Franz Lecture
On April 7, 2022, Robert Hefner, Professor of Anthropology and of International Relations at the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University, delivered the 28th annual Franz Lecture at Gordon College. The presentation was sponsored by the Division of Social Science, and the Departments of Political Science, Philosophy, and History at Gordon College.
The division of Social Sciences’ annual lecture series honors David L. Franz, Gordon History professor emeritus. Lectures in this series span the disciplines and feature speakers from around the world.
Hefner’s lecture, titled “A Common Crisis of Public Ethics? Citizenship and Pluralism in Muslim and Western Nations,” drew on his and others’ research on civic education and citizenship in modern democracies, both in the West and Muslim-majority settings. His core thesis is that some measure of “operating consensus” on both citizenship and civic education is vital for an open and effective democracy; however, this requirement has been made increasingly difficult by two contemporary trends: the growing ethico-religious plurality found in late-modern societies, and the rise of new social media that algorithm-ize and segmentarize social differences for the purpose of private commercial and political gain.
Hefner suggests that, although these trends make achieving an operating consensus of our public ethical priorities more challenging, they also make it clearer that struggles over public ethics and common values lie at the heart of modern politics and citizenship. This is as true in Muslim-majority lands as it is in the democratic West. The challenge, he argues, also underscores the importance of reviving public commitments to character education and doing so in a way that pushes back against political entrepreneurs promoting identity politics in the name of religion.
A recording of the lecture can be read below.
Robert Hefner has directed 19 research projects and organized 18 international conferences, and authored or edited nineteen books. He is the former president of the Association for Asian Studies. At CURA, he directed the program on Islam and civil society since 1991; coordinated interdisciplinary research and public policy programs on religion, pluralism, and world affairs; and is currently involved in two research projects: “The New Western Plurality and Civic Coexistence: Muslims, Catholics, and Secularists in North America and Western Europe”; and “Sharia Transitions: Islamic Law and Ethical Plurality in the Contemporary World.” Read more about Professor Hefner on his faculty profile.