Round 3 Award Recipients

With the rise of social media platforms like Google and Twitter, researchers have a new source of public opinion data that are user-driven, time-sensitive, possibly less subject to social desirability biases than surveys and are cheap and easy to obtain. Though studies using these methods are beginning to appear across the social science literature, many questions remain about whether this is a passing social science fad or if such data can improve upon traditional surveys. This study will develop and attempt to validate at least 30 cross-national social media measures of religion, morality, and deviance against existing data from the World Values Survey, Pew, and the International Social Survey Program. Based on the data we will develop at least one peer-reviewed publication demonstrating the validity of similar measures and instructing their use for other researchers, make the entire dataset available for public use, and develop a grant proposal for additional funding.

This project examines conflicting narratives on religion and tolerance in Indonesia—a country known for both its long-standing tolerant interpretation of Islam as well as rising tides of radicalism. We argue that the relationship between religion and violence is conditional on a critical distinction in transnational and local types of Islam. Using a survey in Java, we test hypotheses that focus on how religion type impacts perceptions of group size, threat perception, and attitudes on violence toward out-groups.

We will carry out three studies in India and the United States that investigate what adherents of Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam teach adolescents about the right way to treat people of other faiths, paying special attention to attitudes toward Muslims. First, we will collect questionnaire data from Hindu, Buddhist, and Muslim religious school instructors in India, as well as Christian and Muslim religious school instructors in the U.S. Second, we will collect focused discussion group data from parents whose children attend these schools. Third, we will survey members of all four religious groups across both countries via the internet, in order to confirm that our earlier findings are societally relevant. Overall, we intend to shed light on how human relations are socialized within these religious groups, paving the way for future interventions aimed at reducing between-group bias.

This study examines how international religious non-governmental organizations (IRNGOs) pursue the seeming non-political goals of educational training, health services, and humanitarian aid in North Korea. As Western-based, and largely evangelical, Christian organizations, these IRGNOS walk a thin political tightrope, as they negotiate between western governments and donors and North Korean regime officials and local community members. This study explores how four IRNGOs activate transnational religious resources and practices to form and reproduce civil society relationships in historically closed North Korea.

The Global Youth Development Network (GYDN) will prepare collaborations to study the link between religiosity and philanthropy across cultures for youth in a range of ages and life stages (between the ages of 13 to 30 years old, adolescence to emerging adulthood). As youth progress toward adulthood, the project team is first curious how religious, spiritual, and moral values are established and developed across cultural contexts. Second, the project team is also interested in understanding how youth establish and develop philanthropic values and practices differently across cultural contexts. Third, the project team is interested in the development of and connection between religiosity and philanthropy, within and across cultural contexts.

In 2016, Rodrigo Duterte ran for President of the Philippines on a “tough on crime” platform, warning he would ratchet up the “war on drugs” and kill 100,000 criminals if elected. After a resounding victory, he reiterated his commitment to the strategy during his inauguration speech by telling the Filipino people, “If you know of any addicts, go ahead and kill them yourself.” In the first six months of Duterte’s presidency, 7,025 Filipinos, (34 a day) suspected of using or selling drugs were killed by the police or vigilante groups. Though overwhelmingly Christian, the Philippines appears to be divided on Duterte’s policies. The question that interests our research team is, how do practicing Catholics and Protestants both resist and rationalize state-inspired violence in Duterte’s Philippines?

Our collaborative research project examines the local meaning and practice of Islam among the Chilean Muslim community of Santiago, Chile, and its relationship to Argentine Muslim institutions. Specifically, it considers how the institutionalization of Islam in Chile reflects transnational links to Argentine institutions and how transmission between these communities relates to the development of a universal Islam.

This research project focuses on Tuvalu as a pilot study for a larger comparative research study in the PICs on how the changing place and structure of religion is impacting on policing that will examine the following specific research questions: 1) How is religion mobilized in mandated and discretionary policing practices? 2) What motivations and rationalizations surround the use of religion in policing practices? 3) How is the use of religion in policing practices perceived by police, religious institutions, chiefly authorities and the state?

This project examines how globalization shapes religious stability and change among citizens of the UAE. We adopt a mixed-methods approach, comprising qualitative interviews and an experiment. We will first build a network of local citizen collaborators, and engage their participation to conduct focus groups with young adults and parents about their religiosity and inter-generational religious transmission. Second, we will conduct a lab experiment to test whether exposure to consumerist practices and values influences religious priorities. This two-pronged approach will help us identify mechanisms through which rapid globalization shapes religious stability and change.