Dr Patrice Brodeur (PC 79-81) is currently the Canada Research Chair in Islam, Pluralism and Globalisation at the University of Montreal. He is also a member of the Pearson College Board of Trustees.

 

As well as earning his PhD from Harvard in the Scientific Study of Religions, Patrice holds an MA from McGill University, and a BA from McGill University and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Patrice also spent a year as a Rotary International Scholar at the University of Jordan. He was the Director of Seminarians Interacting, an inter-religious programme and later Dean of Religious and Spiritual Life at Connecticut College.

 

Through his experience at UWC Patrice became interested in global realities and being a “global citizen”. This has led to some of his current work researching and publishing on the concept of identity within global time and space, both academically and at a grassroots level.

 

Patrice has worked at the Guerrand-Hermès Foundation for Peace, an international foundation that promotes peace education, inter-religious dialogue and sustainable development in different parts of the world. He has also served as an advisor to the International Council of Christians and Jews.

 

Some of Patrice’s research includes peace building and the management of diversity through inter-worldview dialogue. He is developing a theory on multiple identities and power dynamics that seeks to explain conflict and help provide avenues for more equitable transformations and solutions. This research builds on and contributes to conflict prevention and peace building. Among other things, he is developing a theory of "shared academic space" where different religious communities share the same physical space.

 

Patrice has published a number of articles, including The Changing Nature of Islamic Studies and American Religious History in The Muslim World, and A Historical Survey and Introduction to the Guidelines for an Inter-faith Celebration in the Journal of Ecumenical Studies.

 

Patrice hopes to develop a theory of the applied academic study of religion, including the role played by the multi-sector, inter-religious dialogue for peace. He believes that the role and dynamics of contemporary Abrahamic religious actors and their institutional networks need to be more widely understood due to their key roles in affecting the levels of insecurity and exclusions that drive the current increase in militarization and warfare accompanying the war on terrorism.