Nasr Book Prize Symposium
The Ansari Institute's Randa and Sherif Nasr Book Prize on Religion & the World highlights the work of scholars who reimagine the connection of religion and global affairs. Each year the prize, funded thanks to the generosity of Drs. Sherif Nasr and Randa Nasr, co-founders of siParidigm Diagnostic Informatics in Pine Brook, N.J., recognizes the winning author with a significant cash award. An annual symposium highlighting the year’s award-winning book facilitates important multifaith dialogue among scholars.
The Ansari Institute believes that recognition of a major book in this form will enhance the importance of the institute as a place for changing the conversation about religion. A symposium around each year’s award-winning book will generate new knowledge—indeed, perhaps even a new subfield—in which ancient wisdom, as transmitted to us in the form of the major religious and philosophical traditions of the world, can inform and even transform current debates.
The award is substantively well aligned with the Ansari Institute’s strategic plan. It will serve as an example of what the late scholar Rabbi Jonathan Sacks once described as religion’s capacity “to be a source of systemic and structural good in a manner that is relevant to global affairs.” Beyond the recognition and generation of scholarship, the award ceremony and symposium helps the Ansari Institute build a community of like-minded scholars that includes members of diverse faith traditions and commitments. Over time, the annual book award symposium reflects a “fellowship of faiths,” as envisioned in the Ansari Institute’s strategic plan.
Inaugural Symposium - Sand Talk: How Indigenous Thinking Can Save the World
The Ansari Institute held the inaugural Nasr Book Prize Symposium Oct. 2-3, 2022 on the campus of the University of Notre Dame. We were delighted to honor Dr. Tyson Yunkaporta, an Indigenous Australian scholar and the author of Sand Talk: How Indigenous Thinking Can Save the World. Dr. Yunkaporta's book, which earned widespread acclaim, raised important questions and brought Indigenous ways of knowing to the critical examination of global systems. We discussed this important work with symposium contributors representing diverse religious and secular traditions
Second Symposium - Cathonomics: How Catholic Tradition Can Create a More Just Economy
On February 15, 2024 the Ansari Institute for Global Engagement with Religion will honor Dr. Anthony Annett, author of Cathonomics: How Catholic Tradition Can Create a More Just Economy. The book links Catholic social thought and economic insights, addressing global inequality through a new paradigm that prioritizes the common good rather than economic gain for an elite few. The Symposium will include scholars from different faith traditions to respond to the provocative ideas in Cathonomics through the lens of their own scholarly interest and faith traditions. These are organized in a series of panels. Learn more here.