Research Portfolio Post #2

Meeting 1 with Professor Mohammed Abu-Nimer

9/5/19

Duration: 25 minutes

The meeting opened with introductions and quick discussion about Professor Mohammed Abu-Nimer’s work involving peacebuilding and religion. He explained his interests in religion and peace occurred after 9/11 and the United States faced a rise in islamophobia. We then moved into speaking about the Olson Scholars Program and the interest of my research question: religion and conflict. My main goal for this meeting was to receive recommendations on ways to create a more concentrated research question and places to find more reading material.

With the concern of specifying my concentration within the research, Professor Mohammed Abu-Nimer first recommended that I pick a specific region of the world to focus on, or to look at specific case studies of religion and conflict. He explained that the role of religion greatly differs depending on the region being studied, so it would be necessary to confine my research to a particular area. He also proposed that I ask the three following questions to begin the research. First, what motivates people to become religious peacemakers? Second, what challenges do these religious peacemakers face. And third, how do the religious peacemakers develop different theology to practice peace rather than conflict? These three questions will help guide my research in the preliminary stages. He then gave me examples of puzzles that he finds interesting domestically. For example, how do religious leaders in the US respond to US domestic policy against immigrants, racism, or any alienating of certain populations? What do the religious elite have to say about this? And finally, is there a joint platform where religious leaders are able to discuss policies? To conclude the meeting, he recommended that I read three books revolving around the topic of religion and conflict.

Moving forward with this topic, I plan on reading the books Professor Mohammed Abu-Nimer recommended. I plan to use these books as a guide to gain a better perspective of religion and conflict and see possible research question routes. I plan to  choose a region of the world to study and learn more about specific cases in those regions.

One thought to “Research Portfolio Post #2”

  1. Overall it sounds like you had a productive and thought-provoking meeting with your faculty mentor. What specific books did Prof. Abu-Nimer suggest that you investigate? I look forward to seeing how the research develops!

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