Faiths & Globalisation Initiative

Launched in 2008, the Faith and Globalisation Initiative (FGI) programme fills the vacuum of knowledge surrounding the role of religion in the modern world. It prepares the current and next generation of leaders by providing policy advice, research and analysis.

Building religious literacy and leadership

The core component of FGI is a worldwide network of leading research universities that help analyse the impact of religion in a globalised world. The Initiative overcomes ignorance and prejudice by using facts, data and evidence to fill the void in education surrounding the role of religion.

The programme is at the forefront of providing the knowledge and expertise central to helping current and future leaders. The Initiative provides these individuals with an understanding of religious motivations and addresses the causes of religious tension and conflict in an informed and thoughtful way.

Understanding the impact of religious faith

We want current and future leaders to understand and speak credibly about faith and its impact in the modern world. We believe that universities and the research they produce are central to helping us achieve this.

The Initiative includes a multi-disciplinary, cross-departmental course including joint teaching between institutions that incorporates video-conferencing and an online community, public lectures, research, campus activities, policy events and a dynamic, interactive website.

Policy in the public sphere

The Initiative creates forums for those outside higher education, where the strength of each idea can be contested in public. The Initiative encourages dialogue through discourse and debates in workshops and conferences.

The motivations and actions of those of faith, for good or ill, are confronted and debated on the grounds of politics, economics and security and alongside religion and theology.

Innovative resources for the wider public

We are developing a way to bring all of the statistical data about religion together in one place as an online resource. This is the first time this data has been aggregated and it will be a free resource for all to use. This will be a powerful tool that allows users to examine information, trends and analysis about religion alongside socioeconomic and demographic statistics, as well as political factors.

We do not limit the work to higher education. Our professional training course for diplomatic personnel is designed in conjunction with our universities and offered to diplomatic personnel worldwide. It will help them develop the practical skills to engage with difficult issues at the intersection of faith and globalisation.

Our network

FGI is a global network of leading universities seeking to expand their research and teaching in the field of religion and globalisation. Lead members of this network are:

• McGill University, Canada
• National University of Singapore
• Peking University, China
• Tecnológico de Monterrey, Mexico
• Fourah Bay College, Sierra Leone
• University of Western Australia
• Yale University, USA
• University of Hong Kong
• American University in Kosovo
• University of Pristina, Kosovo
• Philippines Consortium
• Banaras Hindu University

These institutions of higher learning actively promote research on faith and globalisation and host conferences and events which will spread this research to the wider public. A network of associate universities support the lead universities in this work.