Center for the Study of Religion, Culture, and Society strengthens partnership with university in India 

The University of Madras’s Department of Christian Studies and Elon University’s Center for the Study of Religion, Culture, and Society strengthened their academic partnership this spring by signing a new five-year memorandum of understanding.

Coordinated by Assistant Professor James Ponniah at Madras and Professor Brian Pennington at Elon University, the agreement fosters collaborative research, student support, and faculty scholarship. It builds on the foundation laid by a previous 2017-2020 agreement disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The new MOU advances objectives of Elon University’s Multifaith Strategic Plan and the Boldly Elon plan by opening new opportunities for multifaith education and intercultural learning.

The University of Madras is located in Chennai, the sixth largest city in India and the capital of the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Under the previous MOU, Madras faculty had served as local lecturers for Elon’s “India’s Identities” Winter Term course in Chennai, offered guest lectures at Elon, and advised Elon’s Periclean Sri Lanka initiative.

The university has also supported undergraduate research by Elon University students in India and served as the affiliating institution for Elon student and faculty Fulbright recipients.

Pennington and Elon University Professor Amy Allocco have contributed to the partnership by lecturing at the University of Madras students multiple times, mentoring its PhD students, and serving as external readers on PhD thesis committees.

A grant proposal under the prior MOU was a public health initiative developed in partnership with a tribal community in South India. Led by Amanda Tapler and Pratheep Paranthaman, the project was designed to generate student research opportunities. Disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic halted its progress.

Both institutions are interested in revisiting the project under the new MOU.

With Pennington and Ponniah leading the efforts, the renewed partnership will expand collaborative interdisciplinary research, open up new travel and study opportunities for Elon University students, and foster ongoing global academic engagement.

To inaugurate the new agreement, the Center for the Study of Religion, Culture, and Society co-sponsored a March 11-12 conference at the University of Madras in Chennai. With the theme “Religion and Cities,” the conference explored the dynamic relationship between religion and urban spaces, examining how religious practices shape city life and how urban environments, in turn, influence religious traditions.

The event featured participants and presenters from India, the United States, and Canada who offered diverse insights into the intersections of faith, culture, and city life across different global contexts. Assistant Professor Waseem bin Kasim in the Department of History and Geography participated in the conference along with Allocco and Pennington.

The University of Madras was founded in 1857. Its original buildings are among the finest examples of Indo-Saracenic architecture in the world, and its iconic campus buildings stand across the street from the bustling public beachfront and the Bay of Bengal. It has 73 academic departments and offers several different degrees in the study of religion.