ABOUT RIGG

USC is one of five universities awarded a three-year grant (2006-09) from the Henry R. Luce Initiative on Religion and International Affairs. The Luce Foundation sought to increase America's capacity for international understanding with new focus on deepening public understanding of religion as a critical but often neglected factor in policy issues throughout the world. The Foundation invited the nineteen U.S. members of the Association of Professional Schools of International Affairs (APSIA) to apply. Also receiving Luce Initiative awards were Columbia University, Georgetown University, University of Minnesota, and Syracuse University.

The RIGG project deepens partnerships between campus departments as part of USC's strategic plan in interdisciplinary and socially relevant scholarship. The RIGG partners - The School of International Relations, the Center for International Studies and the Center for Religion and Civic Culture, the Center on Public Diplomacy and the Knight Chair in Media and Religion - are working together to develop a comprehensive research and training program to prepare students for careers in which issues of religious identity and religious norms and values are likely to intervene.

Our major goal is to develop courses, sponsor seminars and conferences and support research that explore issues such as how religion serves as a mobilizing force for political activism and civic engagement in some societies and as a force for political violence in others. We will also explore how religion and religious issues shape the articulation of foreign policy goals and eventually how these factors influence the formulation and implementation of foreign policy. Finally, we will look at how religious beliefs and organizations contribute to our pursuit of world order and more normative goals of peace, social justice, economic well-being and ecological balance.

The RIGG project will be well positioned to prepare the successor generation for working and governing in a world in which religious identity and religious issues will influence participation and shape policy priorities for all nation-states. The ultimate goal is to facilitate dialogue, understanding and enhance the basis for future cooperation.

Contact Us:

Religion, Identity and Global Governance
School of International Relations
University of Southern California
3518 Trousdale Parkway
VKC 330, University Park
Los Angeles, CA 90089-0043

tel: (213) 740-7794
fax: (213) 740-5108
email: RIGG-project@usc.edu