Harold Coward
Former Director
Centre for Studies in Religion and Society
University of Victoria

Professor Harold Coward is Professor of History and Former Director, Centre for Studies in Religion and Society, University of Victoria, Canada. Dr. Coward has served as President of the Canadian Society for the Study of Religion, the Canadian Federation for the Humanities and the Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and has served as President of Academy II. He has directed humanities research centres for the past 18 years.

An internationally-known specialist in the philosophy and religion of India, Professor Coward has eighteen authored books, thirty edited books along with over a hundred chapters and articles to his credit. For the past twelve years, he has been directing interdisciplinary research teams bringing knowledge of science, social science, and the world's religions to bear on the major problems facing the world today.

Issues addressed include the Greenhouse effect; population pressure; excessive consumption, environmental degradation; the crisis in the fisheries, religious conscience, the state and the law; and a cross-cultural approach to health care ethics. In each case, an ethics analysis has been undertaken and the result developed in terms of public policy implications. One resulting book, Population, Consumption, and the Environment: Religious and Secular Responses (State University of New York Press, 1995) was nominated for the Grawemeyer Award, the Religion equivalent of the Nobel Prize. Another, Just Fish: Ethics and the Canadian Marine Fisheries has evoked articles in major newspapers such as the Vancouver Sun and the Ottawa Citizen, as well as widespread interest from decision makers in unions, management, community, provincial and federal governments.


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