Doctoral Dissertation Research: Why Media Collaboration Flourishes Despite Interreligious Conflict

长期以来，科学家们一直试图了解在不同群体的宗教信仰高度不同的背景下，产生相互宽容和理解所必需的条件。在这些争论中，有一派认为某些类型的宗教互动可能会引发冲突，另一派则认为某些宗教倾向于更具可塑性，并从一系列不同的世俗和宗教实践中吸收思想。人们经常声称，某些宗教使其信徒不太愿意与宗教以外的人合作。这项研究训练一名研究生如何进行严格的实证实地调查，研究了一个案例，在这个案例中，来自历史上彼此冲突的宗教的个人合作制作以文化和宗教差异为主要主题的媒体。该项目询问了什么样的环境和关系导致了这些类型的合作。布莱恩·史密森先生在杜克大学查尔斯·皮奥特博士的指导下，将研究人类用来克服宗教和国际紧张局势以完成合作努力的策略。他将通过探索巴林和尼日利亚边境的媒体制作来进行调查。这是一个研究这个问题的理想环境，原因如下：在相对较小的地理空间内存在巨大的文化和宗教差异，因为参与者信奉三种不同的宗教；参与者的媒体专业知识差异很大，这表明合作媒体生产是自愿的，而不是由共同的经济或后勤利益驱动的。该项目将测试社会科学中的理论，这些理论认为宗教互动必然会导致宗教冲突或宗教杂交。将使用经典的民族志数据收集方法，包括参与观察和与媒体制作中的各种利益相关者的访谈。本项目将探讨国家身份、宗教信仰和职业声望在宗教态度和社区概念的谈判中所起的作用，以及媒体制作的方法允许媒体对宗教内容、图像和美学进行更广泛的辩论。这项研究的结果有望使政策制定者受益，因为他们正在努力应对本国日益加剧的宗教紧张局势，并担心宗教间的冲突可能会跨越国界。

Scientists have long tried to understand the conditions that are necessary to produce mutual tolerance and understanding within contexts where different groups of people practice highly varied religions. Within these debates, there is a school of thought that suggests that certain kinds of religious interactions are likely to give rise to conflict, and there is another that suggests that some religions tend to be more malleable and adopt ideas from a range of different secular and religious practices. It is often claimed that there are certain religions make their practitioners less inclined to cooperate with individuals outside their religion. This research, which trains a graduate student in how to conduct rigorous empirical fieldwork, examines a case where individuals from religions that have historically been in conflict with one another engage collaboratively to produce media in which cultural and religious differences are a major theme. The project asks what circumstances and relationships give rise to these kinds of collaboration. Mr. Brian Smithson under the supervision of Dr. Charles Piot of Duke University will investigate the strategies human beings use to overcome religious and international tensions in order to accomplish collaborative endeavors. He will pursue this inquiry by exploring media production along the border of Bénin and Nigeria. This is an ideal context within which to investigate this question for several reasons: there are vast cultural and religious differences within a relatively small geographic space, as participants practice three different religions; the participants are highly variable in their media expertise, suggesting that collaborative media production is voluntaristic, rather than driven by mutual economic or logistical benefit. The project will test theories in the social sciences that assume that religious interactions necessarily give rise to religious clashes or religious hybridization. Classic ethnographic data collection methods, including participant observation and interviews with various stakeholders in media production will be used. This project will explore what roles national identity, religious affiliation, and professional prestige play in negotiations over religious attitudes and conceptions of community, as well as what methods of media production allow for a broader debate about religious content, iconography, and aesthetics in media. The findings of this study promise to benefit policymakers as they struggle with increasing religious tensions in their countries and fears that inter-religious strife may spill across borders.