• About the Center
• Research Areas
• Project Management and Development
• Current Projects
• Center Calendar
• Publications
• Photographic Exhibits
• Resources
  • Religion and Public Life Seminar
  • Video
  • California Religious Demographics

Current Projects

American Muslim Civic Leadership Institute

The American Muslim Civic Leadership Institute (AMCLI) is housed at the University of Southern California's Center for Religion and Civic Culture (CRCC), and works in partnership with the Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim Christian Understanding (ACMCU) at Georgetown University. AMCLI aims to identify a critical mass of unique emerging Muslim civic leaders in America, contribute to building their capacity as leaders, and create a unique space wherein they can identify ways to leverage their own work as well as identify opportunities to work collaboratively, when appropriate, to address issues of common concern. The institute will also make a historic breakthrough in intra-Muslim relations by bringing together representatives from different segments of the Muslim community in America. Through their interaction and collective experience, the institute will encourage collaboration across communities and allow for unique relationship and community-building. Visit the AMCLI website.

Building NGO and University Partnerships in Kenya

With funding from the Higher Education Department and USAID, CRCC is participating in a 3-year pilot project to establish the University-NGO Coalition-Building Initiative (UNCBI). The initiative seeks to develop and strengthen the research capacity of university faculty, NGO professionals and community leaders working with vulnerable children in Nairobi and Eldoret, Kenya. The project trains university faculty, advanced students, research assistants, NGO professionals and community leaders to build their capacity to conduct research, develop research proposals, evaluate on-going projects, and use relevant data to design and improve interventions in response to the increasing numbers of street-living and other vulnerable children. This project involves Nancy Lutkehaus (Principal Investigator), Grace Dyrness, Eliz Sanasarian, and Kristin M. Ferguson.

Center for Muslim-Jewish Engagement

In partnership with Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, the Omar Ibn Al Khattab Foundation, CRCC has established the Center for Muslim-Jewish Engagement (CMJE). CMJE is a community resource for training in inter-religious outreach, an online resource center for materials on Jewish-Muslim relations, and an academic think-tank. Learn more at the CMJE website.

Civic Role of Religion

A constant theme in CRCC's ongoing research is the analysis of the civic role of religion, particularly in Los Angeles. With funding from the John Randolph and Dora Haynes Foundation, CRCC has launched a research project on the civic role of religion following the 1992 Los Angeles riots. The project will explore the fates of interfaith and inter-ethnic groups that formed after the events of April 1992 and seek to discover the legacies of these organizations and networks.

Film Screenings and Lectures

CRCC and partner organizations host numerous film screenings, lectures, and roundtables on critical issues. We have presented events with the partnership of these organizations: Center for Active Learning in International Studies, Jesse M. Unruh Institute of Politics, Knight Chair in Media and Religion of the Annenberg School for Communication, Pacific Council on International Policy, Peace and Conflict Studies at the USC School of International Relations, USC Provost Initiative on Immigration and Integration, USC School of Cinematic Arts, and Visions and Voices: The USC Arts and Humanities Initiative.

Global Pentecostalism

The John Templeton Foundation awarded the Center a grant to create, host and manage the follow up for an international conference on Pentecostalism. The conference took place at USC October 5-7th, 2006 and featured leading scholars in the field of Pentecostal studies. Two books based on the presentations is in process. Video archives of the lectures and information on the conference are archived at www.usc.edu/pentecostalism

Institute for Economic Research on Civilizations

Timur Kuran,CRCC senior fellow and Professor of Economics and Political Science and Gorter Family Chair in Islamic Studies, Duke University, received a multi-year grant to create the Institute for Economic Research on Civilizations (IERC). IERC is housed within and managed by the Center for Religion and Civic Culture. While at USC, Prof. Kuran created a large multi-university working group, hosted approximately 15-25 lecturers per year and held its first annual conference in Feb. 2007 entitled “The Economic Performance of Civilizations: Roles of Culture, Religion, and the Law” featuring fifteen paper presenters and eight respondents. Visit the project website: www.usc.edu/ierc.

Internet Mission Photography Archive

With funding from the Getty Grant Program, CRCC, the USC Archival Research Center, and six international missions repositories, have created a database called the Internet Missionary Photography Archive.

Jewish Community Organizing to Save Darfur

The USC Casden Institute for the Study of the Jewish Role in American Life funded a faculty research grant to study the Jewish role in organizing and raising awareness about the situation in Darfur.

Passing the Mantle Clergy and Lay Leadership Institute

The Center received a two-year grant from The James Irvine Foundation to develop a training institute for African-American Christian clergy and lay leaders. The program began in December 2005 and the first group of 35 fellows completed the program in 2006. A second cohort completed the program in August 2007. The James Irvine Foundation has renewed the program for three additional years and a new cohort completed a residential program in August 2008. The program is directed by Rev. Cecil L Murray with the support of Rev. Mark Whitlock (former Executive Director of FAME Renaissance Center) and Rev. Eugene Williams (Executive Director of Regional Congregations and Neighborhood Organizations). Read more.

Religion, Identity, and Global Governance Program

CRCC is a partner on this grant awarded to the USC School of International Relations. The focus is to develop courses that address the role of religion in international relations. USC is one of five universities awarded a three-year grant (2006-09) from the Henry R. Luce Initiative on Religion and International Affairs. The major goal is to develop courses, sponsor seminars and conferences and support research that explore issues such as how religion serves as a mobilizing force for political activism and civic engagement in some societies and as a force for political violence in others. The project explores how religion and religious issues shape the articulation of foreign policy goals and eventually how these factors influence the formulation and implementation of foreign policy. Finally, the project examines how religious beliefs and organizations contribute to our pursuit of world order and more normative goals of peace, social justice, economic well-being and ecological balance.

Signature Seminar

Each year the Center for Religion and Civic Culture offers an interdisciplinary seminar for faculty and graduate students from USC and local institutions. This year's seminar is directed by Paul Lichterman, associate professor of Sociology, and Diane Winston, holder of the Knight Chair in Media and Religion. To learn more about the seminar, visit the website.

Survivors of the Rwandan Genocide

Donald Miller and Lorna Miller launched an oral history project with orphans and widows of the genocide in Rwanda. Funding from Howard and Roberta Ahmanson and the Ahmanson Foundation allowed CRCC to publish a photo essay, “Orphans of the Rwanda Genocide,” and launch an exhibit of photographs by Jerry Berndt that includes informational panels from the Survivors Fund, UK. The exhibit “Orphans of the Rwanda Genocide” was co-curated by the California African American Museum (CAAM) and was on display at the museum from August 2006 through March 2007. The exhibit is on display through October 10, 2008 at the Cathedral of Our Lady of Angels. Visit CRCC’s Photographic Exhibit section for additional information.

Transmission of Religion Across Generations

The John Templeton Foundation awarded the Center a multi-year grant to expand the work of Vern Bengtson’s Longitudinal Study of Generations. This grant will provide funding for the LSOG to be mined for data related to religion and families as well as conduct interviews with families in the study to explore issues of religion, transmission and generations.

Vietnamese Immigrant Congregations in California

Funding from the National Science Foundation allows Professor Janet Hoskins to examine the dynamic relationship between the struggle of Vietnamese “indigenous religions” to establish themselves in the U.S. and the politics of ethnic enclaves, “faith-based” resettlement assistance, “model minority” stereotypes, and the re-establishment of ties with Vietnam for many overseas congregations separated from religious centers in the homeland for over 20 years. It also addresses the significance of religious belief, “conversion” and “re-conversion” during the transitional refugee years, and debates about whether new immigrants are “assimilated” into the American mainstream or develop new strategies to conserve their distinctive values within the framework of a “successful adaptation” in this new socio-economic context.