Inter-Faith Relations

About

This is an in-depth academic course addressing inter-faith relations from different disciplinary perspectives. Fully taught by recognised University of Cambridge experts in religious studies, the course is ideal for students, practitioners and faith leaders, as well as for the curious learners interested in inter-faith relations.

Participants will be offered to a mixture of lectures, seminar discussions, interactive workshops and immersive exercises on a range of topics, from ethnographies of religion to the intersections of inter-faith relations with ecology, magic, violence, heritage, conflict resolution, migration, gender, religious conversion, astrobiology, poetry, law, empathy, martyrdom, archives, temporality, syncretism and more!

Participants will also have a chance to engage in the Cambridge tradition of Scriptural Reasoning, visit a virtual photographic exhibition of Shared Sacred Landscapes, attend a film screening, participate in poetry and autoethnographic writing workshops, try out their own talents for visual research and create their own inter-faith archive! Each day will include about five hours of teaching time, punctuated by two breaks for lunch and coffee, and followed by an optional informal saloon.

Cambridge Inter-Faith Programme (CIP) is a University of Cambridge Research Centre within the Faculty of Divinity. We hold a unique research and teaching expertise in the field of inter-faith relations, traversing disciplinary boundaries and a wide range of research geographies across the world. Read more about us on our website. Your teaching team will include experts in astrobiology, Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, inter-faith relations, Islam, Judaism, magic, religious conversion, Roma cosmologies and Zoroastrianism, from the perspectives of natural and social sciences, and the humanities.

Course leader

Dr Safet HadžiMuhamedović, Professor Esra Özyürek, Dr Justin Meggitt, Dr Daniel Weiss

Target group

No prior subject knowledge is required, but you are expected to have a strong interest in the field of inter-faith studies. A diversity of opinions and experiences is expected and encouraged. You may be a student, a researcher, a practitioner, a faith leader, or a curious learner looking to understand inter-faith relations from different perspectives.

We welcome applicants without any discrimination based on ability, class, sex, gender identity or expression, sexuality, ethnicity, race, national origin or religion. We also welcome applicants of different ages, although you will need to be 18 or older when the Summer School starts (9 August 2021). To be able to fully benefit from the course, you should be able to read and discuss complex academic texts in English.

Course aim

Learning outcomes:

- demonstrate familiarity and critical engagement with different theoretical and practical approaches to interfaith relations;

- understand the benefits and limits of historical, anthropological, philosophical, theological and visual methods in the study of inter-faith relations;

- gain practical experience in archival, visual and auto-ethnographic research;

- locate connections between your studies/work and scholarship on inter-faith relations;

- have a grasp of scriptural reasoning and engage in critical, comparative reading of scriptures;

- be able to discuss the relations between religious plurality, politics and subjectivity;

- develop an awareness of historical and contemporary inter-faith relations and challenges;

- gain expertise to be academic researchers, teachers, activists, religious leaders, writers, artists, public speakers, event organisers or consultants in the field.

Fee info