CSSR Global South Research Hub Talk

Ethics of Belonging: Education, Religion, and Politics in Manado, Indonesia

Friday, March 21, 2025 12:00 PM to 1:30 PM EDT
Horizon Hall, #6325

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The Global South Research Hub presents a public lecture

Ethics of Belonging: Education, Religion, and Politics in Manado, Indonesia

Dr. Erica M. Larson, National University of Singapore

Location (In person): Horizon Hall Room 6325, 4475 Aquia Creek Lane, Fairfax, VA 22030

Location (Online): RSVP above to receive the Zoom meeting information.


Abstract

Ethics of Belonging investigates the dynamics of ethical deliberation about religious coexistence in Manado, Indonesia, in the Protestant-majority province of North Sulawesi. Schools are understood as central sites for exchange about the ethics and politics of belonging in the nation. From a focus on multiple schools, each with a distinct method of addressing diversity and a particular understanding of the relationship between religious and civic values, two primary contested frames for belonging emerge in tension with one another. On the one hand, “aspirational coexistence” recognizes a common goal of working toward religious harmony and inclusive belonging. On the other hand, “majoritarian coexistence,” in which the legitimacy of religious minorities is understood as guaranteed exclusively by the goodwill of the Christian majority, also emerges in discourses and practices of coexistence. These two agonistic frames of coexistence stem from both a real pride at having staved off ethno-religious violence that plagued surrounding regions at the turn of the twenty-first century, as well as a concern about whether the area will maintain a Christian majority in the future. The focus on educational institutions provides a connection between interpersonal and public ethical deliberation, elucidating how ethical frameworks for approaching religious difference are channeled and negotiated through educational institutions and link up to the broader political context.


About the Speaker

Dr. Erica M. Larson is a Research Fellow in the Religion and Globalisation Cluster at the Asia Research Institute, NUS. She holds a PhD in Cultural Anthropology from Boston University, USA. Her research interests include education, religion, ethics, and politics in Indonesia and Southeast Asia more broadly. She has examined how education becomes an arena of deliberation about the ethics and politics of plural coexistence through ethnographic research in North Sulawesi, Indonesia. Her current research focuses on Indonesian university students active in religious organizations and their attitudes and beliefs about corruption as a lens on normative state-society relations and notions of ethics, piety, and responsibility.


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Light refreshments and tea will be provided for in-person attendees.

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