Annual Report 2010 - 2011 About the Berkley Center
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Annual Report 2010 - 2011 ABOUT THE BERKLEY CENTER The Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs at Georgetown University, created within the Office of the President in 2006, is dedicated to the interdisciplinary study of religion, ethics, and public life. Through research, teaching, and service, the Center explores global challenges of democracy and human rights; economic and social development; international diplomacy; and interreligious understanding. Two premises guide the Center’s work: that a deep examination of faith and values is critical to address these challenges, and that the open engagement of religious and cultural traditions with one another can promote peace. The rapid growth of the Center has been made possible through the generosity of William R. Berkley, a member of the University Board of Directors, and other members of the Georgetown community. “The Berkley Center is critical to Georgetown’s efforts to advance dialogue and understanding across the world’s countries, cultures, and religious traditions.” Dr. John J. DeGioia GEorgEtowN UNIVERSITY PRESIDENT CONTENTS 1 | FROM THE DIRECTOR 4 2 | STUDENT ENGAGEMENT 5 The Doyle Engaging Difference Initiative 6 3 | STraTEGIC PARTNERS 8 4 | KNOWLEDGE RESOUrcES 9 5 | PROGraMS 10 Religion and Ethics in World Politics 10 Globalization, Religions, and the Secular 12 Religion, Conflict, and Peace 14 The Church and Interreligious Dialogue 16 Law, Religion, and Values 18 Religion and Global Development 20 Religion and U.S. Foreign Policy 22 Religious Freedom Project 24 6 | STAFF & CAMPUS PARTNERS 26 2010 - 2011 ANNUAL REPORT 3 FROM THE DIRECTOR The Student Dimension “What do you teach?” As of this year, we can answer this in some new ways. Our faculty have always taught a wide variety of courses for Georgetown students. In 2010-11 we pursued three innovations. A Certificate. In January 2011, the Center announced an undergraduate certificate on Religion, Ethics, and World Affairs, to be offered through the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service. The certificate, the equivalent of a minor, gives students an opportunity to take courses at the intersection of religion, politics, and society that culminate with a capstone seminar. The certificate grows out of collaboration between the Center and the SFS, supported by a grant from the Luce Foundation. Collaborative Courses. With the support of the Doyle Engaging Tolerance Initiative, we created a new course model this past year. Collaborative, four-credit seminars give students an opportunity to cooperate as a group, with a faculty member, in the conduct of original research and the production of a report for publication. Two courses in Spring 2011 addressed “Business, Values, and Law” and “The Future of Track-Two Diplomacy.” Summer Research Fellowships. In Summer 2010, the Center launched a new summer fellowship program that supports student-led research on education and social justice around the world. Hosted by Jesuit institutions, the students conduct interviews and gather evidence about innovative anti-poverty efforts. On their return they publish a report under faculty supervision. A first set of fellows conducted research in Chile, Kenya, and the Philippines. Through our courses and these programs, the Center is exploring new forms of teaching and learning, both inside and outside the classroom. Students also work with faculty across the Center’s program areas and in the production of publications and on-line resources. You can read more about our student programs and other Center activities in the pages that follow. Other important milestones in 2010-11 included: the inauguration of a multiyear Religious Freedom Project in collaboration with the Templeton Foundation; the completion of a series of six global workshops on religion and development, supported by the Luce Foundation; a series of short courses for military officers on religion and world affairs, also supported by Luce; ongoing collaboration with the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Building Bridges seminar, a high level Christian-Muslim dialogue; and the third in a series of dialogues with Chinese government officials about religion and world affairs. Thomas Banchoff BERKLEY CENTER DIREctor 4 BERKLEY CENTER FOR RELIGION, PEACE & WORLD AFFAIRS AT GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY 2 | STUDENT ENGAGEMENT Religion, Ethics, and World Affairs Certificate Starting in Fall 2011, the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service will offer a certificate on Religion, Ethics, and World Affairs in collaboration with the Berkley Center. The attacks of September 11, 2001 and the struggle against international terrorism, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Muslim-Hindu tensions in South Asia, protests by Buddhist monks in Burma–these and other global issues have a strong faith-related dimension. They also intersect with long-running ethical questions in international relations, including just war, social justice, and human rights. The certificate, the equivalent of a minor, will give students an opportunity to explore these issues across three thematic areas: Faith and Ethics in International Relations; Religion and Politics in Comparative Perspective; and Religion in History and Culture. It will culminate in a capstone seminar organized around student research and an annual spring colloquium. Education and Social Justice Project In early 2010 the Berkley Center collaborated with the Center for Social Justice Research, Teaching and Service and with Rodney Jacob (B ‘86), a member of the Board of Regents, to create the Education and Social Justice Project to engage students and build knowledge about the deep connections between global challenges of poverty and education. Only through better access to education will the world’s poor be able to seize opportunities in an increasingly global economy. While policy analysts have documented the widespread failure of governments to meet this imperative, we still know relatively little about successful local efforts to advance economic and social development through education. The project provides students with summer research fellowships to travel abroad and conduct in-depth examinations of innovative initiatives, with a focus on the work of Jesuit secondary and post-secondary institutions. Under faculty supervision, the students gather information through interviews, analyze best practices, and share their reports and conclusions with a wider global audience. In the program’s first year, three students were hosted by St. Aloysius Gonzaga School in Nairobi, Kenya; Ateneo de Manila University in Manila, Philippines; and the Universidad Alberto Hurtado in Santiago, Chile. Their report brings together the main results of the field work, including background and analysis of each of the initiatives and excerpts from extended interviews with educators and activists in each country. 2010 - 2011 ANNUAL REPORT 5 STUDENT ENGAGEMENT The Doyle Engaging Difference Initiative Engagement with cultural and religious diversity is a centerpiece of the Georgetown educational experience. Since 2006, the Center has developed three undergraduate programs that promote this engagement, both inside and outside the classroom. The Undergraduate Fellows Seminars brings faculty and students together for joint D.C.- based research projects that explore the broader political and policy implications of cultural and religious diversity. The Junior Year Abroad Network links students studying abroad and their encounters with cultures around the world back to the Georgetown community. And the Undergraduate Learning and Interreligious Understanding program tracks the knowledge and attitudes of students around interfaith and intercultural issues over the course of their Georgetown careers. Since 2009, these three programs have been part of the Doyle Engaging Difference Initiative, a campus-wide collaboration between the Berkley Center, the Center for New Designs in Learning and Scholarship (CNDLS), and Georgetown College, designed to promote tolerance and intellectual engagement with diversity in the curriculum and in co-curricular activities. The Initiative is made possible through the generosity of William J. Doyle (C’72), a member of the Georgetown University Board of Directors. Undergraduate Fellows Seminars The Undergraduate Fellows Program combines a four-credit seminar with a collaborative research project that addresses issues at the intersection of religion, culture, society, and politics. Along with the in-depth reading, writing, and dialogue typical of an upper-level seminar, student fellows conduct original research and formulate policy recommendations culminating in a written report. In Spring 2011, the Berkley Center hosted two Undergraduate Fellows Seminars: Business, Values, and Law: Forging a New Dialogue, Professor Michael Kessler This seminar investigated the duties of businesses and their leaders toward the social good, the moral framework of economic activity, and the role of government and law in regulating business and financial transactions. The Future of Track-Two Diplomacy, Professor Eric Patterson This seminar explored whether and how the United States can more effectively engage civil society abroad to advance foreign policy goals, using society-centered “track-two diplomacy.” 6 BERKLEY CENTER FOR RELIGION, PEACE & WORLD AFFAIRS AT GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY Junior Year Abroad Network About half of Georgetown undergraduates spend their junior year studying abroad in universities around the world and immersing themselves in local cultures. But too often