Third Symposium: Religion and World Politics: Connecting Theory with Practice
The symposium “Religion and Global Politics across Disciplines and Publics” marks the conclusion of the Ansari Institute’s 2025–2026 Global Fellows program. The event features keynote speaker Dr. Erin K. Wilson, recipient of the 2026 Ansari Institute Book Prize for her book Religion and World Politics: Connecting Theory with Practice. Wilson contends that the definitions and descriptions of religion which are operative in policy circles and in media are inadequate and misleading, because they fail to incorporate groundbreaking insights from the critical study of religion. The conference also highlights six postdoctoral fellows who spent the academic year working with senior faculty mentors to critique their manuscript projects across thirteen online seminars.
The symposium identified new insights and arguments developed in these studies, focusing, inter alia, on how transnational religions and local faith communities sustain themselves and thrive or retreat within various democratic and autocratic political contexts; the impact of government repression on religious practice and public presences; how states partner with (and sometimes instrumentalize) religions; and, what case studies of religious violence, religious conflict management and faith-based diplomacy tell us about the ubiquitous and ambivalent roles religions play in society, culture and politics.
Though informed by the research and scholarship of the Global Fellows and their mentors, this was not a book workshop, but rather a series of panels designed to stimulate rigorous debate and discussion with the assembled audience.