Advancing Religious Pluralism

Spring 2024
By Tracey Rhoades

The Boniuk Institute for the Study and Advancement of Religious Tolerance experienced major growth in 2022. Founded in 2013 with a gift from Houston philanthropists Milton and Laurie Boniuk, the institute received an expanded mandate to become a premier interdisciplinary research and scholarly institute focusing on religious pluralism and tolerance as well as conflict and violence. Sociologist Elaine Howard Ecklund, the Herbert S. Autrey Chair in Social Sciences, took the helm as director, and Rice moved its Religion and Public Life Program, which facilitates cutting-edge research on religion to “build common ground for the common good,” under the institute’s purview.

Research on the topics of religious pluralism, tolerance, violence and discrimination has never been more needed.

In its current form, the institute discovers new knowledge through original research, convenes thought leaders across disciplines and sectors, and disseminates that knowledge among local, national and global communities in order to promote meaningful change.

Today, Ecklund says she is honored to “lead the institute in an expansion of its research at a time when research on the topics of religious pluralism, tolerance, violence and discrimination has never been more needed.”

A selection of the Boniuk Institute’s current programs and initiatives:

• Conducting global research to analyze and understand how the conditions and consequences of religious tolerance, understanding and pluralism shape and are shaped by interactions, practices, policies, discourse and trends at each level of society around the world.
   
• Mapping the civic capacity of Houston’s religious communities to discover how religious communities approach inequality and how they see religious pluralism and tolerance as relevant to their work.
   
• Developing new interdisciplinary research centers to be launched this summer and fall, with collaborative agreements with additional Rice programs.
   
• Organizing an annual scholarly gathering to spur interdisciplinary efforts and energize the intellectual climate around issues of religious pluralism.
   
• Presenting an annual Senior Scholar Award honoring excellence in public scholarship on religious pluralism and tolerance and/or work to combat religious conflict and discrimination.
   
• Organizing the Reading Religion Graduate Salon to explore current and relevant books on issues related to religious pluralism, violence and discrimination, as well as religion in the public sphere from different disciplinary perspectives.
   
• Providing opportunities for academic and professional growth for graduate and undergraduate research scholars and postdoctoral fellows in all aspects of the research and outreach process.
   
• Providing continuing education to secondary social studies educators and student-facing professionals through educator professional development religious literacy workshops.

Learn more at boniuk.rice.edu.