Center for Religion & Civic Culture

The Center for Religion and Civic Culture supports interdisciplinary scholarship by sponsoring working groups, co-sponsoring events, and providing research grants for faculty and graduate students.

The CRCC Interdisciplinary Research Group, chaired by Professor Lisa Bitel, oversees many of these activities. The group works to advance religion-related scholarship by USC faculty and graduate students. The group supports a cadre of scholars at the forefront of their respective disciplines who are producing incisive research on religion.

The center also supports interdisciplinary research through the Pentecostal and Charismatic Research Initiative, which involves sociologists, anthropologists, political scientists, historians, and others in a global research effort in 21 countries.

In the past, CRCC has participated in efforts such as Timur Kuran's Institute for Economic Research on Civilizations, which supported a working group and an international conference. In addition, CRCC was a partner in the Religion, Identity, and Global Governance initiative to develop curricula to strengthen the public understanding of religion's impact on world affairs.