Rice sociologist featured at prestigious Gifford Lectures in Scotland

Elaine Howard Ecklund (Photo by Karl Ecklund)

Elaine Howard Ecklund, founding director of Rice University’s Religion and Public Life Program and the Herbert S. Autrey Chair in Social Sciences, gave a talk May 29 as part of the annual Gifford Lectures at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. Her presentation, “Science and Religion in Global Public Life,” focused on the need for social sciences in understanding and navigating the relationship between science and religion. Established in 1888, the Gifford Lectures are among the most prestigious honors in Scottish academia. Their purpose is to promote and diffuse the study of natural theology in the widest sense of the term.