Hefner Attends G20’s International Summit of Religious Leaders
From November 2-3, 2022, Robert Hefner, Professor of Anthropology and of International Relations at Boston University’s Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies and Director of the School’s Center for the Study of Asia, attended the G20 Religion Forum (R20) in Nusa Dua, Bali, Indonesia.
The R20 Forum is a special sub-meeting within the general G20 forum, also known as the “International Summit of Religious Leaders.” The summit’s purpose this year was said to be, “Revealing Nurturing Religion as a Source of Global Solutions: An International Movement for Shared Moral and Spiritual Values.” The forum brought together some 220 religious leaders and policy analysts from all faith traditions and more than sixty countries.
Hefner attended at the official invitation of KH Yahya Cholil Staquf, the executive director of Nahdlatul Ulama (NU). NU was the host and organizer of the R20 along with the Ministry of Religious Affairs of the Republic of Indonesia. Hefner participated in the plenary sessions drafting R20 documents. On the last night of the conference, he also gave a keynote dinner presentation titled “Indonesia, the R20, and the Role of Religion in Global Well-being.”
For further details on R20, visit the forum’s website.
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.