Jean Ehret is the founding director of the Luxembourg School of Religion & Society and its Professor of Theology and Spirituality. In the past years he has developed an international network of cooperation partners, including research universities (Torino, Potsdam, and Tübingen as “Exzellenzuniversität”) as well as Catholic (Trier and the Jesuit Faculties of Paris, as well as the Collège des Bernardins), Protestant (VU Amsterdam), Jewish (Institut d’études universitaires juives Elie Wiesel, School of Jewish Theology Potsdam), and Muslim (Zentrum für islamische Theologie at the Tübingen University) institutions. Prof. Ehret is the head of three research projects: the first on religious epistemology (in cooperation with Prof. Christoph Theobald from Centre Sèvres in Paris), the second on the critical edition and commentary of the literary works of Elie Wiesel (with the Universities of Tübingen and Potsdam, and the Institut Elie Wiesel), and the third is Trust & Society – The Global Network on Trust...
About us
Trust is an essential factor in establishing, maintaining, and developing interpersonal relationships and communities. Breakdowns in trust, breaches of trust, and misplaced trust lie at the heart of many of the global challenges faced by humanity today. It is essential to tackle the global erosion of trust by bringing together different disciplines, shared experiences, and ideas from across disciplines and cultures. That is why we created Trust & Society — The Global Network on Trust.
Who are we?
We created Trust & Society – The Global Network on Trust (T&S) as an international research hub for critical trust studies with the intent of bridging the gap between cutting-edge trust research and real-world applications. T&S fosters interdisciplinary and intercultural exchange between researchers, practitioners, critical thinkers, thought leaders, and policymakers from diverse and complementary disciplines and cultural settings. Members and contributors are active professionals committed to transdisciplinary experimentation, building trust-driven projects, and developing public policies informed by trust. T&S brings its members together, leveraging their experiences, skills, and expertise to collectively share and map best practices and theories to address the contemporary societal challenges related to trust and trust-building. This enables us to develop a tightly-nit network where everyone contributes new ideas, tools and policy advice for building trust effectively and informed by best practices within research fields and professional sectors. At the core of our activities are T&S Labs, or Thematic Working Groups, which offer spaces for experimentation and discussion between communities of researchers and practitioners on specific topics around trust and society.
T&S is a project of the Luxembourg School of Religion & Society. Established in 2015 as a research and higher education institution in Luxembourg, the Luxembourg School of Religion & Society (LSRS) brings together scholars and doctoral students from various academic disciplines, nationalities, and religious and non-religious affiliations. Its mission is to expand our understanding of the study and practice of religion and its impact on society, becoming a hub for interreligious dialogue. As an affiliated institute (“An-Institut”) of the University of Bonn, one of the 11 Universities of Excellence in Germany, the LSRS is dedicated to research and teaching focused on European and global challenges impacting societies, nations, and religious communities. The LSRS plays a pivotal role in fostering social cohesion within the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg and internationally by encouraging intercultural dialogue and academic reflection through critical contributions from a breadth of religious traditions.
Our Activities
Our activities focus on talks and public events, international conferences, and T&S Labs (Thematic Working Groups). Together, they foster connectivity among the research community, professionals from public and private sectors, and the broader policymaking arena. Our activities further our goal of creating new forms of understanding, researching and practicing trust. They result from T&S research projects which identify thematic areas or topics of interest to develop, reflect on the interpretations made by participants, capture knowledge created through action, focus on problem-solving solutions, and evaluate their implementation and reception.
We are committed to ensuring that T&S activities reflect our mission of enhancing the geographical, disciplinary, and professional diversity of trust research.
Our Mission
We are a platform and a vector for sharing, inspiring, experimenting, generating knowledge and dialogue on trust between disciplines and groups that do not normally talk to each other. This allows us to work towards understanding trust in all its dimensions, to address today’s – and tomorrow’s – key societal challenges.
The Global Network on Trust
T&S strives to build connections across all continents.
- nationalities 10
- members 5
- Research shared 6
- tools 6
Our Coordination Team
-
-
- Dr. Matthew Pawlak
- Academic Network Leader
- leader@trustandsociety.net
- +352 43 60 51 388
Matthew Pawlak is the Academic Network Leader of Trust and Society – The Global Network on Trust. He is responsible for working with Prof. Ehret and the rest of the T&S coordination team to define and implement T&S’ vision, strategy, and goals as well as building relationships and collaborations with trust researchers, practitioners, and networks. He holds a PhD in Theology and Religious Studies from the University of Cambridge and is the author of the award-winning book Sarcasm in Paul’s Letters (Cambridge University Press, 2023).
-
- Ms. Charlene Schuessler, MBA
- Project Administration
- office@trustandsociety.net
- +352 43 60 51 304
My professional focus has been based on international exchange, higher education, conference organization and cross cultural integration; which currently all contribute greatly to this administrative role within Trust & Society - The Global Network on Trust. Throughout my career many facets on the scope of Global Leadership have been covered; including Project Management, Team Management, Global Mobility, and Intercultural Consultancy. Particularly in the field of higher education, my roles include Adjunct Professorship, SHU Department of Global Affairs, Student Exchange Coordinator, conference organization, information panel speaking, network marketing, admissions, recruiting, and research team administration. The US Embassy in Luxembourg, Department of Education, and Luxembourg Ministry of Research and Higher Education, also selected me as the grant recipient and country advisor with EducationUSA Luxembourg.