AUSTRIA

Markus Glatz-Schmallegger, a theologian at the Catholic Social Academy of Austria, is currently working towards his doctorate on the relationship between churches and civil society in Austria today (with a special focus on the contributions of the Catholic and Protestant churches in political engagement for the common good).

Following his participation in this Institute, Markus plans to offer a seminar series on religious pluralism and public presence for key personalities in Austrian adult education, at Austrian universities as well as in the media. Specifically, the seminar series will address the following themes: a) religious pluralism -- the present and possible future dynamics (factors, facts, challenges); b) how religious pluralism is received in the public (media, institutions, political debate); and c) initiatives for action on different levels (churches, education, media, and politics).

BANGLADESH

Kazi Nurul Islam currently holds the position of Professor and Chairman in the Department of World Religions at Dhaka University. He received his Ph.D. in Indian philosophy from Banaras Hindu University and has done research in many other countries including Japan and U.K. In 2001, Islam received the Ambassador for Peace Award from the Inter-Religious and International Federation for World Peace.

Kazi founded the Department of World Religions at Dhaka University. This is the first department of its kind at any educational institution in Bangladesh. He has a vision that his department will train enlightened soldiers who will fight against religious fanaticism and fundamentalism, not with weapons of war, but with their unbiased and objective knowledge of world religions. He dreams of turning the newly established department into an international center of excellence for world peace.

BRAZIL

Carlos Gohn is a full-time professor in the Department of Germanic Languages, School of Letters, Federal University of Minas Gerais in Belo Horizonte, Brazil. His academic background includes various disciplines such as comparative literature, indology, and translation studies and he has regularly taught courses on topics related to sacred texts such as the Bible, the Koran, and the Bhagavad-Gita. Carlos has worked extensively with graduate students on issues that deal with cultural aspects in teaching and learning of languages and the influence of religion in the formation of a society.

Carlos is presently acting as deputy coordinator of the curriculum modernization program at UFMG's School of Letters. In the new system, he will be in a position to help actively foster American Studies at that institution, both by offering graduate and undergraduate courses and supporting American Studies initiatives by other professors on the team.

Patrick Adeso is a Catholic priest and a senior lecturer in the Faculty of Theology, Catholic University of Central Africa. He began his University teaching career in 1987 at the Catholic Major Seminary in Bambui, Cameroon, where he taught Bible, theology, and philosophy of religion for four years. In 1988, he joined the Catholic University of Central Africa, where he teaches several courses classified under two broad categories: Bible studies and hermeneutics.

Patrick is a liberal Catholic cleric, highly committed to promoting inter-religious dialogue. He wishes to participate in the Summer Institute in order to deepen his knowledge of the various religions in the U.S., and how they work ecumenically for world peace. He believes that African countries could use the U.S. model of peaceful religious co-existence to resolve its many conflicts. He is in a position to impart the knowledge he will gain on U.S. religious pluralism throughout Africa because the Central African University where he teaches has a regional focus, receiving students from all over the continent. Upon his return from the U.S., he intends to expand American Studies in his institution through the development of new courses on Religious Pluralism and introduction of American textbooks in the curriculum.

CZECH REPUBLIC

Milos Mrazek is a young lecturer and researcher in the field of philosophy and religion. He is widely engaged in public debates about the topic and often appears on Czech TV, Czech radio and publishes columns in daily newspapers. Milos has been teaching at a secondary educational institution but recently appointed as a lecturer in contemporary religion at the Theological Faculty of Charles University in Prague. In teaching younger students, Milos seeks to raise their awareness of religious freedom, freedom of speech, and at the same time, addresses all the dangers connected with cults and alternative religious movements.

Milos hopes to use his experience in the U.S. to deepen his experience, thus enabling him to contribute to expanding the study of contemporary religion at the Theological Faculty.

DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO

Felix Ulombe Kaputu teaches in the English Department at the University of Lubumbashi. Among the courses he teaches are literary criticism, including criticism of religious works, a general course in religion and philosophy, African-American literature and mythology. Felix is also part of a working group charged with opening a Faculty of Religion at the University in the near future.

In the past, the University of Lubumbashi had a strong American Studies element in the English Department. However, due to the political conflict that began in the early 1990s, the university has been cut off from any substantial contact with the American academic community for the better part of a decade. Felix intends to increase the content devoted to elements of American Religion in his current courses and to develop specific courses on the role of religion in the U.S.

EGYPT

Gharib Khalil is a lecturer in the Department of Islamic Studies, Faculty of Languages and Translation, Al Azhar University. Currently he is preparing his dissertation entitled, "The Contemporary Image of Non-Muslims about Islam and Muslims, Bases and Reverberations: A Case Study of the States and Britain." He currently teaches an annual course, Islamic Seminars,which includes issues about women in Islam, parent-child relationships in Islam, and the relationship between Islam and other religions.

Gharib hopes that participation in this institute will enable him to examine religious pluralism in the U.S. as well as give him a realistic view of religious beliefs, practices, and ideology in American life.

GEORGIA

Zaza Piralishvili currently holds the position of Head of Civic and Political Relations Office at the State Chancellery of Georgia. His academic background includes philosophy and religion as well as physical science. Zaza works jointly at Georgia's main university, Tbilisi State, and in the executive branch of the Georgian government.

In his upcoming visit to the U.S., Zaza is keenly interested in exploring American religious pluralism and the legal and social frameworks that protect American religious diversity. The American experience holds a lot of potential for comparison to the present situation in Georgia, in which many new religious sects are emerging within a social scene that has been dominated primarily by traditional religions (i.e. Christianity, Judaism, and Islam).

INDONESIA

Chaider Bamualim is a lecturer in the History of Islamic Civilization in Indonesia, Islamic State University. Along with this, he also holds the following positions: head of the Center for Language and Culture and managing editor of Kultur, a magazine of Islamic cultures. The classes he currently offers are entitled Culture and Civilization, History of Islamic Civilization in Indonesia,and Civic Education. All the courses have a significant amount of American content and rely upon American textbooks and other resources.

The Center for Language and Culture that Chaider heads has been very influential in hosting major seminars and international conferences. Last year, under his leadership, the Center arranged an international conference on Islam and the West, which attracted leading scholars from the U.S., the Netherlands, Germany, Malaysia, and the Middle East.

NIGERIA

Musa Gaiya is Professor of Church History, Department of Religious Studies at the University of Jos. The University of Jos has solid American Studies Programs. Despite many obstacles, the University, through the work of scholars like Musa, has continued to demonstrate genuine interest in American Studies and in public diplomacy activities on campus.

Musa is interested in learning, first-hand, the ways in which the U.S. deals with religious diversity and tolerance. Since the introduction of democratic rule in 1999, Nigeria has experienced many religious disturbances in several cities including Jos. Musa has an interest in expanding his knowledge to help promote religious harmony.

M. Modassir Ali currently is a researcher and lecturer in the Department of Comparative Religion at the International Islamic University in Islamabad. His master's thesis, "The Concept of Revelation and Prophethood in Hinduism: A Critical Islamic View", demonstrates his commitment to the comparative project. When Modassir joined the university, the comparative religion course tilted heavily towards teaching Christianity and Judaism. Modassir has tried to pluralize this approach by introducing course modules on other religions, such as Hinduism and Buddhism. Modassir's institute is associated with advising the government in religious matters.

Modassir's current interests include looking into the recent rise of the Christian right in the United States, especially during 1999 and 2000. He also hopes to conduct research on liberation theology and its effects on the Christian community of Pakistan.

PHILIPPINES

Istvan Peter is University Professor in the Faculty of Reformed Theological Studies. The Reformed Church, in which Istvan is a practicing minister and theologian, is relatively small, numbering slightly less than one million in a population of 22 million. Moreover, the church members are almost entirely Hungarian, a minority ethnic group.

Istvan has been primarily interested in the sociology of the church (the link between society and church, state and church). In addition, inter-ethnic and inter-confessional relations are some of his key interests.

SLOVAK REPUBLIC

Radovan Cikes is deputy director of the Church Section at the Ministry of Culture of the SLovak Republic of Bratislava. He has a background in Political Sciences. Rado has prepared a series of specialized courses in State-Church relations (past, present and future) for the Faculties of Arts and Theology at Comenius University. As the coordinator and co-author of the initial report of the Slovak Republic to the UN's International convention on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, he has had a chance to advance Slovakia's point of view before the UN Human Rights Commission.

Rado would like to use his experience in the Institute to look at church-state issues and religious freedom in the context of the United States.

SPAIN

Oscar Celador Angón is a professor in the Public Law Department at Universidad Carlos III in Madrid. He has done extensive research on topics involving church-state relations relating to U.S. Law as well as religion in the U.S. Oscar regularly teaches the required law school core course, Church and State Relations,as well as an elective course, Civil Ecclesiastic Law, both of which have considerable U.S.-based content.

Oscar wants to deepen his first hand knowledge of the U.S., since he uses the American legal system as an example of secularism and collaboration between church and state in a democratic and pluralistic society. Additionally, he is the director of both the Legal Problems in Comparative Law course and the Religion and Matrimony course, a postgraduate annual course.