The Center for the Study of Democracy, Toleration, and Religion (CDTR) conducts research and training on the interfaces of and tensions between religion, toleration, and democracy in the world.

CDTR Events

Featured Events

Saudi Arabia and the Arab Spring Uprisings
February 9, 5:45 pm
MOVED TO 1501 IAB, REGISTRATION RE-OPENED

Bernard Haykel (Princeton)

Register here

CDTR is proud to host Bernard Haykel, Professor of Near Eastern Studies
Director, The Transregional Institute at Princeton University and author of Revival and Reform in Islam.

Saudi Arabia's leaders have claimed that their regime is immune to the revolutionary changes associated with the Arab Spring uprisings. The Saudis have been quite actively engaged with these events and in complicated ways, domestically as well as regionally. They have encouraged some of the uprisings and attempted to clamp down on others. Haykel will explore Saudi Arabia's policies in response to the Arab Spring, which include enforcing religious sanctions against public demonstrations within the Kingdom, increasing various domestic subsidies in an effort to co-opt potential dissent, stabilizing the monarchy in Bahrain and stewarding a new government into power in Yemen.

Further Events

Senegal’s Elections
Monday, February 13, 2012, 4:00 - 6:00 pm
1501 International Affairs Building

A discussion with: Bachir Souleymane Diagne, Etienne Smith, Alfred Stepan, and Alioune Badara Diop (a political scientist from Senegal). Moderated by Mamadou Diouf

Followed by a film screening from 6:15 to 7:30 of "Democracy in Dakar," which looks at the involvement of the youth and rap singers in the elections in 2007.

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Reinventing citizenship and political leadership. The role of civil society and social movements in consolidating democracy in Senegal
Tuesday, February 14, 4 -6pm
Knox Hall, Room 208

A lecture by Professor Alioune Badara Diop, a political scientist from Senegal. Moderated by Professor Ousmane Kane, associate professor of international and public affairs at SIPA at Columbia University.

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Mobilities and Immobilities: Reflections of Fieldwork in Palestine
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
4:30 - 6 pm

Knox Hall, Room 509

A public talk by Distinguished Scholar Glenn Bowman, Senior Lecturer in Social Anthropology at the University of Kent and Distinguished Scholar in Residence at the Institute for Religion, Culture, and Public Life.

His talk is part of an ongoing conversation that has been taking place in the Religion and Mobility Faculty Seminar, organized by Karen Barkey, Professor of Sociology and History, and Valentina Izmirlieva, Professor of Slavic Languages, and sponsored by the IRCPL.

Co-sponsored by CDTR, IRCPL and the Institute for Middle Eastern Studies.

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Muslims’ Support for Democracy in Post-Communist Albania:
The Role of Sources, Threats and Ideas
Thursday, February 23

2:00 - 4:00 pm (rescheduled from January 25)
International Affairs Building, Room 1215

Speaker: Arolda Elbassani, CDTR Visiting Researcher, PHD in Social and Political Sciences from the European University Institute, Florence

Discussant: Karen Barkey, Co-Director of CDTR, Professor of Sociology, Columbia University

The fall of communism provided space for the rebirth of Islam in Albania. Their particular strands of belief and practice are both liberal, tolerant, pro-democratic and pro-European. Elbassani will explore the factors in Albania that induce Muslim actors to articulate and practice moderate forms of Islam, and will explain Albanian Muslims’ broad support for democracy. Although small, the Albanian Muslim case adds important comparative dimensions to the study of Islam and democracy in the world.

For more information, and a complete listing of our upcoming events, please see the events page or call 212-854-7813.