UNESCO religious chair at Monash a Southern Hemisphere first

MELBOURNE: 17th March 2005 -- In a first for the Southern Hemisphere, a UNESCO Chair in Intercultural and Interreligious Relations - Asia Pacific has been established at Monash University within the School of Political and Social Inquiry. School Head, Professor Gary Bouma, who took up the Chair in November, says it will facilitate the academic study of intercultural and interreligious relations in the Asia Pacific region with a view to influencing social policy.

"The management of religious diversity in the Asia Pacific region has been one of the central issues in post-World War Two diplomacy, state building and conflict resolution," Professor Bouma said. "While many thought the rise of secular societies would bring an end to religiously focused, defined or motivated conflict, the direct opposite has been the case.

"The creative and positive management of religious diversity is even more an issue today than it was in the 20th century. And while the Asia Pacific region provides many models of managing intercultural and interreligious relations peacefully and productively, there remain instances where this is not the case."

Professor Bouma said the objectives of the UNESCO chair were to:

• conduct and collect scholarly research on the management of intercultural and religious diversity and the role of religion and religious figures in conflicts in the Asia Pacific region;
• publish research findings to promote scholarly understanding of intercultural and interreligious relations and shape government policy on managing religious diversity and conflict associated with religion; and
• maintain an active and current database on the role of religion and religious figures in promoting conflict and peace in the region.

"The beneficiaries will include students who will have improved access to research about these matters and professional policy makers who will have an improved information base to help shape their decisions," he said.

Professor Bouma, an Anglican priest, has devoted his professional research career to the sociology of religion, focussing for the past 20 years on the issues of religious plurality, the settlement of religious groups and the management of religious diversity. He is Deputy Chair of the World Conference on Religion and Peace -- Australia, a member of the Governing Board of the Asian Conference on Religion and Peace, and Chair of the Christian Research Association -- an ecumenical body providing social science analyses of the religious and spiritual life of Australia and the surrounding region.

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