On the Silk Road in Asia

What can the fabled Silk Road – the vast and varied trade route that bound East Asia and Europe for centuries – teach us about globalization and how religions and cultures affect communities? What are some implications of China’s “One Belt, One Road” modern initiative to re-make the Silk Road in the 21st century?

Dr. David Damrel, Professor of Religion at USC Upstate, served as a Fulbright Scholar in Sri Lanka, a predominately Buddhist country near India and an emerging stop on the “new” Silk Road. His lecture addresses these questions as he shares lived experiences impacted by the horrific Easter 2019 attacks that shattered the religiously diverse communities across the island nation. Due to safety concerns, the US Department of State relocated Dr. Damrel and his family to Central Asia. He finished his Fulbright teaching experience in Uzbekistan, a modern and predominately Muslim nation that straddles the original Silk Road. In this talk, Dr. Damrel will reflect on the place of religion in the modern world at a time when people, ideas, and religions meet and mix on a scale and pace unprecedented in human history. This event is co-sponsored by the Fulbright Association South Carolina Chapter, the Center for International Studies at USC Upstate, the College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences and the Department of History, Political Science, Philosophy and American Studies.