13 Nov A Sociotheological Approach to Understanding Religious Violence
Mona Sheikh (Danish Institute of International Studies)
Mark Juergensmeyer (UCSB Orfalea Center)
Tuesday, November 13, 2012 / 12:00 PM
McCune Conference Room, 6020 HSSB
How do scholars make sense of acts of violence–even terrorism–that are undertaken not just for strategic political gain but to make a symbolic statement on behalf of a religious world view? Two scholars who have interviewed scores of violent activists reflect on the methodological approaches involved in their research. Mona Sheikh has interviewed leaders of the Pakistani Taliban and Mark Juergensmeyer has interviewed activists from a variety of religious backgrounds for his books on religious violence. Together they have coined the name for a cross-disciplinary analytic approach that they call “sociotheology,” taking seriously both the humanistic perspective of the subject’s religious world views and the social scientific analyses of their social contexts and impact.
Sponsored by Orfalea Center for Global & International Studies and the IHC series Fallout: In the Aftermath of War.