Faculty Research Database

The UVA Initiative on Religion, Politics and Conflict, an interdisciplinary initiative funded by the Center for Global Inquiry and Innovation at the University of Virginia, seeks to address the causes of religion-related violence that are rapidly increasing around the globe. Directed by Peter Ochs, the Edgar M. Bronfman Professor of Modern Judaic Studies at UVA, this new initiative seeks to better understand religion-related violence and to develop methods and instruments for peace-building initiatives.

In order to cultivate this new area of research, teaching and engaged learning at UVA, the Initiative on Religion, Politics and Conflict has formed a university-wide network of researchers whose work addresses issues related to preventing religion-related violence. The faculty committee is co-chaired by Milton Vickerman, Professor of Sociology, and Peter Furia, Lecturer in Politics. The faculty committee will nurture UVA research on topics related to religion, politics and conflict that generate both advanced research and engaged learning opportunities for students. In its initial year, the Initiative is supporting an ethnolinguistic analysis of religious groups in South Asia and North America. Drawing on the expertise of UVA’s scholars of religion, politics, sociology, systems analysis, data science and ethnography, this research project seeks to analyze how religious groups use value language during periods of stress or conflict.

In the coming years, the Initiative plans to support research on refugees and conflicts surrounding access to sacred sites. In addition to Ochs, the Initiative is led by Assistant Director Jonathan Teubner, Associate Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture at UVA and the Fernand Braudel Fellow at the Laboratoire d’’excellence - – Religions et Sociétés dans le Monde Méditerranéen at the University of Paris IV – Sorbonne.

Faculty Research Data Base: The UVA Initiative on Religion, Politics and Conflicts hopes to generate new faculty research clusters and configurations in order to better address the issue of religion-related violence in the 21st century. The Initiative is actively seeking grants to support research on religion, politics and conflict. Because the turn-around times for some research grants are often very tight, we would like to develop a database of faculty members across the schools and departments of UVA who would be willing to partner with other UVA faculty on research grant applications or to join existing projects.

Interested faculty members need not work directly in the intersection of religion, politics and conflict but may offer expertise in any of the sub-disciplines that contribute to new directions in the study of religion, politics, and conflict. Relevant fields include history, politics, religious studies, anthropology, sociology, economics, law, medicine/nursing, business, statistics, systems analysis and data science. The Initiative is also interested to hear from faculty members regarding other fields that can contribute to this emerging research area at UVA.

To be included in the data base, faculty are invited to email the Director and Assistant Director: pochs@virginia.edu, jdt3f@eservices.virginia.edu.