Keynote Speakers - Interreligious Relations in the 21st Century: A Post-Parliament Reflection

Paul Knitter is the Paul Tillich Professor of Theology, World Religions, and Culture at Union Theological Seminary, New York.  Previously, for some 30 years, he taught theology at Xavier University in Cincinnati, OH. He received a Licentiate in theology from the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome (1966) and a doctorate from the University of Marburg, Germany (1972) Most of his research and publications have dealt with religious pluralism and interreligious dialogue.  Since his ground-breaking 1985 book, No Other Name?, he has been exploring how the religious communities of the world can cooperate in promoting human and ecological well-being. This is the topic of: One Earth Many Religions:Multifaith Dialogue and Global Responsibility (1995) and Jesus and the Other Names: Christian Mission and Global Responsibility (1996)  In 2002, he published a critical survey of Christian approaches to other religions: Introducing Theologies of Religions (2002), and in 2005 he edited The Myth of Religious Superiority: A Multifaith Exploration.

From 1986-2004, Knitter was on the Board of Directors for CRISPAZ (Christians for Peace in El Salvador).   He is also on the Board of Trustees for the International, Interreligious Peace Council, formed after the 1993 World Parliament of Religions, to promote interreligious peace-making projects.

Gary D Bouma is Emeritus Professor of Sociology and UNESCO Chair in Intercultural and Interreligious Relations – Asia Pacific at Monash University and Chair of Board of Directors for The Parliament of the World’s Religions 2009. He is Associate Priest in the Anglican Parish of St John’s East Malvern. His research in the sociology of religion examines the management of religious diversity in plural multicultural societies, postmodernity as a context for doing theology, religion and terror, inter-cultural communication, religion and public policy, women and religious minorities, and gender factors in clergy careers. Recent books include: Australian Soul: Religion and Spirituality in the Twenty-First Century (Cambridge University Press) and Democracy in Islam (Routledge) and Religious Diversity in Southeast Asia and the Pacific Island: National Case Studies (Springer) in press.

Katherine Marshall

Katherine Marshall is a Senior Fellow at the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs, where she leads the Center's Program on Religion and Global Development. After a long career in the development field, including several leadership positions at the World Bank, Marshall moved to Georgetown in 2006, where she also serves as a Visiting Associate Professor in the Department of Government. She helped to create and now serves as the Executive Director of the World Faiths Development Dialogue.

Aunty Joy Murphy-Wandin

Aunty Joy Murphy-Wandin is a strong and respected Wurundjeri Elder who was born on her traditional country and still lives there today. Aunty Joy is the great-great niece of William Barak, who is known as one of the leaders of Coranderrk.

Aunty Joy has received an honorary Professor of Swinburne University. She is also Chairperson of the Australian Indigenous Consultative Assembly and has held executive positions in different departments of Government. Aunty Joy has been involved in Aboriginal issues for the past 30 years, she is a Trustee of the National Gallery of Victoria and a member of the Equal Opportunity Commission.

Mary Evelyn Tucker is a Senior Lecturer and Senior Scholar at Yale University where she has appointments in the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies as well as the Divinity School and the Department of Religious Studies. She is a co-founder and co-director with John Grim of the Forum on Religion and Ecology. Together they organized a series of ten conferences on World Religions and Ecology at the Center for the Study of World Religions at Harvard Divinity School. They are series editors for 
the ten volumes from the conferences distributed by Harvard University Press. She is also Research Associate at the Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies at Harvard and a member of the Interfaith Partnership for the Environment at the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). She served on the International Earth Charter Drafting Committee from 1997-2000 and is a member of the Earth Charter International Council. B.A. Trinity College, M.A. SUNY Fredonia, M.A. Fordham University, PhD Columbia University.

John Grim is currently a Senior Lecturer and Research Scholar at Yale University teaching courses that draw students from the School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, Yale Divinity School, the Department of Religious Studies, the Institution for Social and Policy Studies, and Yale College. His courses at Yale include: American Indian Religions and Ecology, Indigenous Religions and Ecology, and World Religions and Ecology: the Abrahamic Religions. With Mary Evelyn Tucker he is the Environmental Ethicist-in-Residence at Yale's Interdisciplinary Center for Bioethics. He is Coordinator of the Forum on Religion and Ecology with Mary Evelyn Tucker, and with her editor of the 10 volume series, “World Religions and Ecology,” from Harvard Divinity School's Center for the Study of World Religions published by Harvard University Press. In that series he edited Indigenous Traditions and Ecology: The Interbeing of Cosmology and Community (Harvard, 2001). He has been a Professor of R eligion at Bucknell University, and at Sarah Lawrence College where he taught courses in Native American and Indigenous religions, World Religions, and Religion and Ecology. His published works include: The Shaman: Patterns of Religious Healing Among the Ojibway Indians (University of Oklahoma Press, 1983) and an edited volume with Mary Evelyn Tucker entitled Worldviews and Ecology (Orbis, 1994, 5th printing 2000), and a Daedalus volume (2001) entitled, Religion and Ecology: Can the Climate Change? John is also President of the American Teilhard Association.

Rachel Woodlock, M.Islam.Std., is a doctoral candidate in the School of Political and Social Inquiry, Monash University, studying issues surrounding the social inclusion of Muslim Australians. Rachel is supervised by Professor Emeritus Gary D. Bouma FAICD, Professor Greg Barton and Dr Pete Lentini.

Rachel’s other research interests include conversion, religious pluralism, Muslim feminism, and heterodox Islamic religious movements. Her most recent publication is the chapter "Islamic Beliefs and Practices" in the Encyclopedia of Religion in Australia, edited by James Jupp (Port Melbourne, Vic: Cambridge University Press, forthcoming).

During 2007 and 2008 she completed two research projects sponsored by the Department of Immigration and Citizenship, one looking at the hopes and aspirations of Muslim Australians in Sydney, the other mapping political attitudes among Muslims in Melbourne. She also writes for the Faith column of the Sunday Age.

What to do in Melbourne:
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Where is the conference?
Monash University, Caulfield Campus,
Building H, Room H1.16
www.monash.edu.au/campuses/caulfield


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