Foreign Scholars Attend UC Santa Barbara Summer Institute to Learn About Religious Diversity in the United States

American studies scholars from around the world are at UC Santa Barbara this summer studying the religious diversity of the United States and finding out first hand how people with widely differing beliefs can coexist.

The program that brought them here, now in its third year, is titled "Religion in the United States: Pluralism and Public Presence" and was developed by UCSB's Department of Religious Studies. It is one of eight university programs around the country funded by the U.S. Department of State's Fulbright American Studies Institute, which seeks to bring foreign scholars to the United States to learn about various aspects of American life. UCSB's Walter H. Capps Center for the Study of Ethics, Religion, and Public Life assists in sponsoring the Institute.

"Religious pluralism is increasingly a global challenge and we are delighted that Fulbright has funded us for a third year," said Institute Academic Director Wade Clark Roof, chair of the Department of Religious Studies. He added that the visiting scholar-students "are finding out how Americans of different faiths get along with one another."

Institute participants are scholars from universities in 17 countries: Algeria, Bulgaria, Egypt, Estonia, Ethiopia, France, Georgia, Indonesia, Jordan, Macedonia, Montenegro, Romania, Taiwan, Turkey, Uganda, Ukraine, and Venezuela.

The Institute began June 23 and runs through Aug. 3 and includes field trips to Los Angeles (July 9-11), Salt Lake City (July 22, 23), Atlanta (July 25-28), and Washington, D.C. (July 30-Aug. 2).

Key focus will be a timely look at how people of different faiths can get along and work toward common goals in a single society.

"We also want to look at how religion can contribute to a civil society," Roof said. "And we want to look at how religion can contribute to democratic ideals, such as respect for others, freedom and equality, all of which have their roots in religious traditions."

Other topics covered will include the history of religion in the U.S., the demography and sociology of religion, religion and politics, religion and the media, and religion and film.

The field trips are designed to help the scholars understand the breadth of religious diversity in the U.S. Depending upon how one counts splinter groups, between 200 and 2,000 religions are practiced in this country, Roof said.

"Not only do the participants learn about the U.S., but the faculty and students at UCSB have the unique opportunity to glimpse a bit of culture from 18 distinct nations," said project director Holly Grether, a graduate student in the Department of Religious Studies. "It is amazing to experience the coming together of some of the world's best religious studies scholars."

Roof said he felt the 2002 and 2003 programs were beneficial to both guests and hosts and he hopes to have similar success this year.

"I hope our scholars will have learned about religion in the United States and that we will have learned a great deal from them," Roof said. " And I hope that we will have all developed a great deal of respect for one another."