Lester R. Kurtz

Professor

Sociology: Nonviolent social movements, Gandhi, sociology of religion, Global Social Thought

Lester Kurtz is the editor of the Encyclopedia of Violence, Peace and Conflict (4 vols., Elsevier Academic) and The Warrior and the Pacifist (Routledge), co-editor of Women, War, and Violence (2 vols., Praeger), Nonviolent Social Movements (Blackwell), The Paradox of Repression and Nonviolent Movements (Syracuse U. Press), Nonviolent Conflict and Civil Resistance (Emerald), and The Web of Violence (U. of Illinois Press) as well as author of books and articles including Gods in the Global Village (Sage; Beijing University Press Chinese translation), The Politics of Heresy (U. of California Press), Evaluating Chicago Sociology (U. of Chicago Press), and The Nuclear Cage (Prentice-Hall). He is currently working on a Great Books of the Nonwestern World project that addresses the racism of our social thought. He has lectured in Europe, Asia, Africa, and North America and served as chair of the Peace Studies Association and the Peace, War, and Social Conflict Section of the American Sociological Association, which recently awarded him its Robin Williams Distinguished Career Award.

Current Research

The Encyclopedia of Violence, Peace, and Conflict, Lester R. Kurtz Editor-in-Chief. 4 volumes. Revised Third Edition. Oxford: Elsevier Academic, 2022.

Our understanding of violence, peace, and conflict is crucial to the flourishing of humanity and the world, but our scholarship tends to take place in disciplinary silos and often national boundaries. The Encyclopedia brings together a transdisciplinary and transnational collection of experts who can summarize and analyze the best scholarship from across academia around the world in about 350 articles.

Gods and Bombs: Understanding Religion, Violence, and Nonviolence, by Lester R. Kurtz.

Analyzes the conundrum of religion and violence by exploring three motifs: the warrior, the pacifist, and the nonviolent activist. Moving from the Bhagavad Gita, the Hebrew, Christian and Islamic scriptures, the history of the crusades, and the teachings of the Buddha to Mohandas K. Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. it concludes by examining the role of religious beliefs, rituals, and institutions in diffusing Gandhian nonviolent civil resistance in the past century. The ethical dilemmas of the warrior and the pacifist, which provide competing moral concepts of fighting against injustice and evil, etc., as a sacred duty, versus injunctions against harming others. Gandhi’s nonviolent civil resister fights like the warrior but avoids harming like the pacifist.

Fighting Violence, by Lester R. Kurtz.

Max Weber claims that we must wrestle with the demon of our time. For him, in Germany at the dawn of the twentieth century, it was rationality. For us, at the beginning of the twenty-first, it is violence.

Nonwestern Social Theory: An Introduction and Anthology, edited by Lester R. Kurtz

Nonwestern Social Theory is a preliminary investigation into alternatives to classical Western social theory, an exploratory examination of "The Great Books of the Nonwestern World." One major assumption underlies the organization of this course: our knowledge is so profoundly influenced by the social context in which it is constructed that our theories should not be based exclusively on Euro-American experience. The purpose of this anthology is to initiate a dialogue between Western and Nonwestern theory and to provide source materials for preliminary study.

Selected Publications

The Encyclopedia of Violence, Peace, and Conflict, Lester R. Kurtz Editor-in-Chief. 3 volumes. Revised Second Edition. Amsterdam: Elsevier. Includes an online version in Science Direct. First edition: San Diego: Academic Press, 1999. Revised 4-volume Third Edition is in progress.

The Warrior and the Pacifist: Competing Themes in Buddhism, Judaism, Islam, and Christianity, edited by Lester R. Kurtz. New York: Routledge, 2018.

The Paradox of Repression and Nonviolent Movements, edited by Lester R. Kurtz and Lee A. Smithey. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 2018.

Gods in the Global Village: The World's Religions in Sociological Perspective by Lester R. Kurtz. Fourth edition. Thousand Oaks: Pine Forge Press/Sage. Sociology for the Next Century Series. First edition, 1995. Second edition, 2008. Chinese translation: Beijing: Beijing University Press, 2010. Third edition, 2011. Fourth edition, 2015.

Women, War and Violence: Typography, Resistance and Hope, edited by Mariam M. Kurtz and Lester R. Kurtz. 2 volumes. Santa Barbara: Praeger.

Nonviolent Civil Resistance, edited by Sharon Erickson Nepstad and Lester R. Kurtz. Research in Social Movements, Conflicts and Change Volume 34. Emerald Group Publishing. Paperback edition, 2015.

Nonviolent Social Movements: A Geographical Approach, edited by Stephen Zunes, Lester R. Kurtz, and Sarah Beth Asher. Cambridge, MA: Blackwell Publishers.

Third World Peace Perspectives, Lester R. Kurtz and Shu-Ju Ada Cheng, Guest Editors. Peace Review: A Transnational Quarterly 10:1 (1998)

The Web of Violence: From Interpersonal to Global, edited by Jennifer Turpin and Lester R. Kurtz. Champaign-Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1997.

The Nuclear Cage: A Sociology of the Arms Race by Lester R. Kurtz. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1988.

The Politics of Heresy: The Modernist Crisis in Roman Catholicism by Lester R. Kurtz. Berkeley, Los Angeles, and London: University of California Press, 1986.

Evaluating Chicago Sociology: A Guide to the Literature with an Annotated Bibliography, by Lester R. Kurtz. Foreword by Morris Janowitz. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, Heritage of Sociology Series, 1984. Paperback edition, 1986.

Expanded Publication List

2012 "Abdul Ghaffar Khan's Nonviolent Jihad" Peace Review 23.2 (2011): 245-251.

2008 “Barack Obama and the Movement for Change.” Ahimsa Nonviolence IV (Oct.-Dec., 2008): 249-251

2007 Lester R. Kurtz and S. Jeyapragasam. “Thinking Together in South India: Confronting Violence with Religious Resources – II.” Ahimsa Nonviolence III (Mar.-April).

2007 Lester R. Kurtz and S. Jeyapragasam. “Thinking Together in South India: Confronting Violence with Religious Resources – I.” Ahimsa Nonviolence III (Jan.-Feb.): 51-58.

2006 “Gandhi’s Paradox” Manushi: An International Journal of Women and Society 152 (2006): 19-26. Reprinted in Ahimsa Nonviolence 2 (April-May)

2006 “The Truth about Truth Force.” Ahimsa Nonviolence II (Nov.-Dec., 2006): 529.

2005 “Dalai Lama Darshan” Ahimsa Nonviolence 1 (September-October 2005):

2005 "Gülen's Paradox: Combining Commitment and Tolerance." Muslim World 95 (July, 2005): 373-384.

2005 Lester R. Kurtz and Mariam Ramadhani Kurtz, “Solving the Qur’anic Paradox.” Ahimsa Nonviolence 1 (July-August 2005): 350-358.

2005 “From Heresies to Holy Wars: Toward a Theory of Religious Conflict” Ahimsa Nonviolence 1 (March-April 2005): 143-157.

2005 “Rethinking Power: Its Sources and Our Options.” Ahimsa Nonviolence 1 (January-February 2005): 9-15

2005 “Karma as Social Theory.” Ahimsa Nonviolence I (Nov.-Dec., 2005): 547-551).

2003 Lee Smithey and Lester R. Kurtz, “Parading Persuasion: Transforming Conflict in Northern Ireland.” Research in Social Movements, Conflicts and Change 24: 319-359. Amsterdam: JAI Elsevier Science, 2003.

2001 “Natural-born Activist: Hildegard Goss-Mayr.” Peace Review 13 (3) 2001: 457-461.

1998 Shu-Ju Ada Cheng and Lester Kurtz, “Third World Voices Redefining Peace.” Peace Review: A Transnational Quarterly 10:1 (1998): 5-11.

1997 “Gandhi’s Legacies.” Journal of Peace and Gandhian Studies 2 (Summer, 1997).

1994 "The Geometry of Deterrence." Peace Review: A Transnational Quarterly 6 (Summer, 1994): 187-214.

1992 "Nonviolent War: An Idea Whose Time Has Come?" Gandhi Marg 14 (October-December, 1992): 450-462.

1984 Robert Benford and Lester Kurtz, "Performing the Nuclear Ceremony: The Arms Race as a Ritual." Journal for the Applied Behavioral Sciences (December, 1987): 463-482. (An earlier version was delivered at the American Sociological Association, San Antonio, 1984.)

1985 Stephen Lyng and Lester Kurtz, "Bureaucratic Insurgency: The Vatican and the Crisis of Modernism." Social Forces 63 (June, 1985): 901-922. (Lead article.)

1982 "Robert E. Park's 'Notes on the Origins of the Society for Social Research,' with an Introduction by Lester R. Kurtz." Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences 18 (October, 1982: 332-340).

1983 "The Politics of Heresy." The American Journal of Sociology88 (May, 1983): 1085-1115. (Lead article. An earlier version was delivered at the American Sociological Association, Toronto, 1981.)

1979 "Freedom and Domination: The Garden of Eden and the Social Order." Social Forces 58 (December, 1979): 443-464. (An earlier version was delivered at the American Sociological Association, Chicago, 1977).

Chapters in Books

2018 Lee A Smithey and Lester R. Kurtz, “Culture and Repression Management.” Pp. 164-184 in The Paradox of Repression and Nonviolent Movements, edited by Lester R. Kurtz and Lee A. Smithey. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press.

2018 Lee A Smithey and Lester R. Kurtz, “Introduction: Nonviolent Strategy and Repression Management.” Pp. 1-25 in The Paradox of Repression and Nonviolent Movements, edited by Lester R. Kurtz and Lee A. Smithey. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press.

2018 Lee A Smithey and Lester R. Kurtz, “’Smart’ Repression.” Pp. 185-214 in The Paradox of Repression and Nonviolent Movements, edited by Lester R. Kurtz and Lee A. Smithey. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press.

2018 Lee A Smithey and Lester R. Kurtz, “Rethinking Repression: Where Do We Go from Here?” Pp. 300-320 in The Paradox of Repression and Nonviolent Movements, edited by Lester R. Kurtz and Lee A. Smithey. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press.

2015 Mariam M. Kurtz and Lester R. Kurtz, “Introduction” In Women, War and Violence: Typography, Resistance and Hope, edited by Mariam M. Kurtz and Lester R. Kurtz. 2 volumes. Santa Barbara: Praeger.

2015 “Fighting Violence against Women” In Women, War and Violence: Typography, Resistance and Hope, edited by Mariam M. Kurtz and Lester R. Kurtz. 2 volumes. Santa Barbara: Praeger.

2013 Mark Jacobs and Lester R. Kurtz, “Sociology of Culture.” In The Handbook of Sociology and Human Rights, edited by D. L. Brunsma, K. Lyall Smith, and B. Gran. Paradigm.

2012 Ritzer, George, and Lester R. Kurtz. “Religion and Education.” In Introduction to Sociology, by George Ritzer. Los Angeles: Sage.

2003 Goran, Kelly, and Lester R. Kurtz. “Love Your Enemies? Mainline Protestantism and U.S. Foreign Policy.” In The Quiet Hand of God, Robert Wuthnow and John Evan, eds. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003.

1999 Stephen Zunes, Lester R. Kurtz, and Sarah Beth Asher, “Introduction.” Pp. 1-5 in Nonviolent Social Movements, edited by Stephen Zunes, Lester R. Kurtz, and Sarah Beth Asher. Cambridge: Blackwell Publishers, 1999.

1999 Stephen Zunes, and Lester R. Kurtz. “Conclusion.” Pp. 302-322 in Nonviolent Social Movements, edited by Stephen Zunes, Lester R. Kurtz, and Sarah Beth Asher. Cambridge: Blackwell Publishers, 1999.

1999 Turpin, Jennifer, and Lester R. Kurtz. "Violence: The Micro-Macro Link." in Violence and Its Alternatives: An Interdisciplinary Reader, edited by Nancy S Lind, Manfred B Steger. St. Martin’s Palgrave, 1999. Reprinted from Chapter 1 in The Web of Violence,

1999 Lee Smithey and Lester R. Kurtz, “We Have Bare Hands: Nonviolent Social Movements in the Soviet Bloc.” Pp. 96-124 in Nonviolent Social Movements, edited by Stephen Zunes, Lester R. Kurtz, and Sarah Beth Asher. Cambridge: Blackwell Publishers, 1999.

1997 Turpin, Jennifer, and Lester R. Kurtz. "Violence: The Micro-Macro Link." Chapter 1 in The Web of Violence, J. Turpin and Kurtz, eds. Champaign-Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1997.

1997 Kurtz, Lester R., and Jennifer Turpin. "Untangling the Web of Violence." Chapter 11 in The Web of Violence, J. Turpin and Kurtz, eds. Champaign-Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1997.

1993 "Religion and Violence: Escaping the Cage." In Communalism: The Crisis in India and The Way Out, edited by S. Jeyapragasm. Madurai, India: The Valliamal Institute, 1993.

1993 "War and Peace on the Sociological Agenda." Pp. 61-98 in Sociology and Its Publics: The Forms and Fates of Disciplinary Organization, edited by Terence C. Halliday and Morris Janowitz. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993.

1989 With Robert Benford, "Performing the Nuclear Ceremony: The Arms Race as a Ritual." Pp. 69-88 in The Shuddering Dawn, edited by Edward Linenthal and Ira Chernus, State University of New York Press, 1989. (Revised version of the article in Journal for the Applied Behavioral and Social Sciences.)

1988 With John Dillard, and Robert D. Benford. 1988. "Reciprocity, Bureaucracy, and Ritual." Pp. 55-76 in The Nuclear Cage, by Lester R. Kurtz. Englewood Cliffs, N. J.: Prentice-Hall.

1988 With Jennifer E. Turpin. 1988. "The Social Psychology of Warfare." Pp. 77-89 in The Nuclear Cage, by Lester R. Kurtz. Englewood Cliffs, N. J.: Prentice-Hall.

1986 With Joe R. Feagin, "Problems of the Nuclear Age: Nuclear Power and Nuclear War." Chapter 11 in Social Problems, by Joe R. Feagin. (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, Second Edition, 1986).

Online Articles

2012 Lester R. Kurtz, “Bhutan calling for a mindful revolution at the United Nations. Waging Nonviolence, 12 May 2012. Available at http://wagingnonviolence.org/2012/05/bhutan-calls-for-a-mindful-revolution-at-the-united-nations/.

2012 Lester R. Kurtz, “Mobilizing Nonviolent Resistance, Shifting Economic Paradigms” prepared for the High-Level Meeting on Happiness and Well-being, United Nations, New York, April, 2012. Available online at

2011 Maciej Bartkowski and Lester R. Kurtz. "Egypt: how to negotiate the transition. Lessons from Poland and China" OpenDemocracy (2011). Available at http://www.opendemocracy.net/maciej-bartkowski-lester-r-kurtz/egypt-how-to-negotiate-transition-lessons-from-poland-and-china?referer=http%3A%2F%2Fworks.bepress.com%2Flester_kurtz%2F34%2F

2011 Lester R. Kurtz, “A Glimpse of Goffman.” The Goffman Archives, Remembering Goffman. Posted 9 February 2012 at http://cdclv.unlv.edu/archives/interactionism/goffman/kurtz_11.html.

2010 "The Mothers of the Disappeared: Challenging the Junta in Argentina (1977-1983)" International Center on Nonviolent Conflict (2010). Available at https://www.nonviolent-conflict.org/mothers-disappeared-challenging-junta-argentina-1977-1983/

2010 "The Anti-Apartheid Struggle in South Africa (1912-1992)"International Center on Nonviolent Conflict Website (2010). Available at https://www.nonviolent-conflict.org/anti-apartheid-struggle-south-africa-1912-1992/

2010 "Otpor and the struggle for democracy in Serbia (1998-2000)" International Center on Nonviolent Conflict (2010). https://www.nonviolent-conflict.org/otpor-struggle-democracy-serbia-1998-2000/

2009 Lester R. Kurtz. "The Khudai Khidmatgar (Servants of God) Movement: Badshah Khan and the Northwest Frontier in British India (1933-1937)"International Center on Nonviolent Conflict (2009). Available at https://www.nonviolent-conflict.org/khudai-khidmatgar-servants-god-movement-badshah-khan-northwest-frontier-british-india-1933-1937/

2009 "The Indian Independence Struggle (1930-1931)"International Center on Nonviolent Conflict (2009). Available at https://www.nonviolent-conflict.org/indian-independence-struggle-1930-1931/.

2009 "Chile: Struggle against a military dictator (1985-1988"International Center on Nonviolent Conflict (2009). https://www.nonviolent-conflict.org/chile-struggle-military-dictator-1985-1988/.

2008 "Czechoslovakia’s Velvet Revolution (1989)" International Center on Nonviolent Conflict (2009). Available at http://www.nonviolent-conflict.org/index.php/movements-and-campaigns/movements-and-campaigns-summaries?sobi2Task=sobi2Details&sobi2Id=18

Encyclopedia Articles

2013 Mark Jacobs and Lester R. Kurtz. “Sociology of Culture” In The Handbook of Sociology and Human Rights, edited by David L. Brunsma, Keri Iyall Smith, and Brian Gran. Boulder: Paradigm Press.

2013 “Mahatma Gandhi.” Blackwell Encyclopedia of Social Movements, edited by David Snow. Oxford: Blackwell.

2010 “Peaceful Relationships.” Pp. 378-382 in The Oxford International Encyclopedia of Peace. Nigel Young, Editor. Oxford University Press.

2008 “Preface to the Second Edition.” In The Encyclopedia of Violence , Peace, and Conflict, Lester R. Kurtz Editor-in-Chief. 2^nd edition. 3 volumes. Amsterdam: Elsevier.

2008 “Gandhi’s Legacies” In The Encyclopedia of Violence , Peace, and Conflict, Lester R. Kurtz Editor-in-Chief. 2^nd edition. 3 volumes. Amsterdam: Elsevier.

2008 Anita Komanduri and Lester R. Kurtz, “Sustainable Development,” Pp. 2019-2017 in The Encyclopedia of Violence , Peace, and Conflict, Lester R. Kurtz Editor-in-Chief. 3 volumes. 2^nd edition. Amsterdam: Elsevier.

2004 Grussendorf, Jeannie, and Lester R. Kurtz. “Economics of Peace Agreements.” Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems. Paris: UNESCO, 2004.

2000 Kurtz, Lester R., and Mariam M. Kurtz. 2000. Encyclopedia of Nationalism, ed. Alexander J. Motyl. San Diego: Academic Press. The following articles:

“Afghanistan, Nationalism in”

“American Revolution”

“Arafat, Yasir”

“Bangladeshi Nationalism”

“Cambodian Nationalism”

“El Salvador, Nationalism in”

“Filippino Nationalism”

“Gandhi, Mohandas”

“Indonesian Nationalism”

“Jefferson, Thomas”

“Jinnah, Muhammad Ali”

“Manifest Destiny”

“Monroe Doctrine”

“New Zealand, Nationalism in”

“Nicaraguan Nationalism”

“Nigerian Nationalism”

“Pakastani Nationalism”

“Palestinian Nationalism”

“Polish Nationalism”

“Roosevelt, Franklin D.”

“South African Nationalism”

“Tibetan Nationalism”

“Turkish Nationalism”

“Washington, George”

“Wilson, Woodrow”

“Zionism”

1999 Kurtz, Lester R. “Preface.” In The Encyclopedia of Violence , Peace, and Conflict, Lester R. Kurtz Editor-in-Chief. 3 volumes. San Diego: Academic Press, 1999.

1999 Kurtz, Lester R. “War.” In the Encyclopedia of Religion and Politics, edited by Robert Wuthnow. Washington, DC: Congressional Quarterly, 1999. Available online 6 March 2006 at http://www.cqpress.com/context/articles/epr_War.html.

Grants and Fellowships

2017- Distinguished Research Fellow at the Institute of Nanjing Massacre History and International Peace, Nanjing, China

2014 Lester F. Ward Distinguished Contribution to Applied and Clinical Sociology Award, Association for Applied and Clinical Sociology

2005 Robin Williams Distinguished Career Award, Peace, War, and Social Conflict Section of the American Sociological Association.

Sept. 2000 National Institutes of Health, co-principal investigator with Alfred McAlister,

– May 2003 University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, “Moral Disengagement: Measurement and Modification” (NIH GRANT 1 R21 HD40067: $869,000)

1998 Ford Foundation, “Gandhian Models of Economic Development: Trade versus the Environment” [with Rennison Lalgee and S. Jeyapragasam].

1995 Academic Press grant for preparation of The Encyclopedia of Violence, Peace and Conflict.

1992- National Science Council (Republic of China), Visiting Research

1993 Professorship.

1990 Indo-U.S. Fellowship, Indo-U.S. Sub-Commission on Education and Culture,

1990 American Institute of Indian Studies Fellowship.

1989 National Science Foundation (U.S.A.) Grant for research in India

-1990

1988 Fulbright Research Fellowship Award for research in India

1987 Distinguished Book Award, Society for the Scientific Study of Religion, for The Politics of Heresy: The Modernist Crisis in Roman Catholicism

1980, 1982, 1986, 1988, 1990 University Research Institute Grants, University of Texas at Austin

1995-1996 Faculty Research Assignment, University of Texas at Austin

1979 Stouffer-Starr Dissertation Grant Award, University of Chicago

Courses Taught

Peace and Conflict Studies Sociological Theory (Western and Nonwestern)

Sociology of Comparative Religions History of Sociology

Social Change and Social Movements Religion and Violence

Sociology of Culture Gandhi

Gods and Bombs Nonviolent Social Movements

Blues, Rock and Race Social Movements and Political Protest

Education

University of Chicago Ph.D., 1980 (sociology)

Yale University, M.A.R., 1974 (religious studies)

Westmar College, B.A., 1972 (sociology and religion)

Recent Presentations

“Postpandemic Gandhi” Lecture for Mahatma Gandhi Central University of Bihar, India to celebrate the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, July 2020. Available online (with more than 5,000 views) here.

“Gandhi’s Global Legacies,” Keynote address at a joint international symposium, “Gandhi’s Global Legacies: Peacebuilding from Asia and the West” hosted by Yonsei University, George Mason University Korea, and the Indian Embassy in Seoul, South Korea, October, 2019. Available online here.

“Tapping Asian Wisdom for Peacebuilding and Resistance,” Asian Pacific Peace Research Association, Jakarta, Indonesia, April, 2019.

“Mobilizing for Happiness,” OECD World Forum, Songdo, South Korea, November, 2018. Available online at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=peiV1MDfadE&feature=share.

“The Warrior and the Pacifist are both Buddhist and Muslim,” George Mason University Korea, November, 2018. http://tinyurl.com/y6lpyw57

“The Paradox of Repression and the Promise of Nonviolent Resistance,” Thammasat University, Bangkok, Thailand, September, 2018. Online at http://tinyurl.com/y3t44kzj

“Why Nonviolent Resistance Works,” Center for Human Rights, Conflict and Peace Studies, Ramkamhaeng University, Bangkok, Thailand, September, 2018. Online at http://tinyurl.com/y32th6au

“The Warrior and Pacifist Motifs: Buddhist and Islamic Traditions,” Prince of Songkhla University, Pattani, Thailand, September, 2018. Online at http://tinyurl.com/y65gqdkb.

“Muslims’ Nonviolent Resistance,” Prince of Songkhla University, Pattani, Thailand, 22 September, 2018.

“Fighting Violence and War: Resources from Asian Civilizations.” Understanding of History and East Asia Peace Forum Nanjing, China, September, 2017.

“Rethinking Nonviolence,” with Johnny Mack, American Sociological Association, Montréal, Canada, August, 2017

“Gods and Bombs,” International Week, Vechta University, Vechta, Germany, June, 2017

Dissertations Supervised

Abdullah Al-Nassar, Conversion to Islam and Impact on Racial Identity (2021)