History and Mission

Fostering Religious Pluralism and Tolerance

The Boniuk Institute for the Study and Advancement of Religious Tolerance was founded in 2013 with a generous gift from Houston philanthropists Dr. Milton and Laurie Boniuk. The Institute is an expansion of the Boniuk Center that was established at Rice University in 2004 with an initial gift from the Boniuks and with a charge to study and advance religious tolerance through research, education, community engagement and the arts. In 2023, under new university leadership, the Boniuk Institute received an expanded charge--to become a premier interdisciplinary research and scholarly institute with a charge to study and advance religious tolerance on a global level through research, education, and community engagement.

The institute's past directors have included philosopher Donald L. Morrison and sociologist Elaine Howard Ecklund (as co-directors) and historian Paula Sanders. The institute's current director (since 2022) is Elaine Howard Ecklund, Herbert S. Autrey Chair in Social Sciences and a professor of sociology at Rice University.

The Boniuk Institute is a premier interdisciplinary research and scholarly institute, with an aim to understand the conditions that lead to religious conflict, tolerance, and pluralism, and then helping people apply its findings in their lives and communities.

The Boniuk Institute discovers new knowledge by conducting and sponsoring original research and scholarship, convening leading experts from different disciplines to work together, and then disseminating findings to promote meaningful change.