Maxwell receives grant for program on international relations, religion

Maxwell receives grant for program on international relations, religionAugust 11, 2006SU News ServicesSUnews@syr.edu

The Maxwell School has received a major new grant to create an interdisciplinary initiative on “Religion, the Media and International Relations.” The $370,000, three-year support from the Henry Luce Foundation has been awarded in connection with the foundation’s new Henry R. Luce Initiative on Religion and International Affairs.

A new academic program will be developed in collaboration with the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications and the Department of Religion in The College of Arts and Sciences. The goal is to provide graduate students in the fields of international relations and public administration — who will become tomorrow’s leaders and diplomats — with a more critical understanding of the interaction among religion, the media and international relations, as well as an understanding of how that interaction influences policy, leadership, decision making and problem solving.

The funding from the Luce Foundation will support curriculum and new course development, pilot testing of materials and faculty workshops. The project will be administered by the Maxwell School’s Executive Education Program and will be implemented by scholars from all three faculties. Political science professor Mehrzad Boroujerdi, who also directs SU’s Middle Eastern Studies Program, will serve as the lead program coordinator, working in close coordination with Tazim Kassam, professor and chair of the Department of Religion, and R. Gustav Niebuhr, who holds a joint appointment in the Newhouse School and The College of Arts and Sciences.

The Henry Luce Foundation was established in 1936 by the late Henry R. Luce, co-founder and editor-in-chief of Time Inc., to honor his parents, who were missionary educators in China. A new initiative on religion and international affairs was launched last year.