BERKLEY CENTER FOR RELIGION, PEACE, AND WORLD AFFAIRS

Contents

History

Activities

External Links

Notes

History

The 'Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs' is an interdisciplinary academic center at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. and is considered a global leader in the study of religion and world affairs. Originally conceived as part of Georgetown's "Initiative on Religion, Politics, and Peace"[1] in 2004, the Center serves to advance the interests of interreligious dialogue in the global community. The Berkley Center emerged as an indepedent organization in 2006 under a generous gift from William R. Berkley, a member of Georgetown's Board of Directors. In addition, the Center is a partner in the implementation of a two-year grant from the Henry Luce Foundation to the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service. The Luce/SFS Program on Religion and International Affairs supports a range of teaching, research, and outreach activities on two themes: "Religious Sources of Foreign Policy" and "Religion and Global Development." Today, the center is headed by Thomas Banchoff, Assistant Professor in the Department of Government at Georgetown. Katherine Marshall, former counselor to World Bank presidents James Wolfensohn and Paul Wolfowitz for issues of ethics, values, and faith, is a senior fellow at the Center, where she conducts research on the role of religion and faith-based organizations in international development.[2]

Activities

The Center has made headlines for a number of events, including hosting the controversial Muslim scholar Tariq Ramadan for a series of teleconference speeches on Islam-West relations.^[1] Additionally, the center hosts an annual conference on religious pluralism, which has led to the publication of two compilations from Oxford University Press: ''Democracy and the New Religious Pluralism'' (2007),[3] and ''Religion and the Global Politics of Human Rights'' (forthcoming).[4]
In addition to hosting live events, the Berkley Center keeps a dynamic homepage that acts as a digital resource on religion and world affairs. One intriguing feature is the Religious Perspectives database, a live matrix which allows users to compare and contrast key scriptural passages across five traditions and five themes and features background explanations written by leading Georgetown professors. Additional databases include the Faith 2008 project, which tracks leading Presidential Candidates and their discourse concerning faith.[5] The Religion and Development database monitors the intersection between faith-based organizations and development work.[6] The webpage also features a World Events database, which includes conferences, seminars, and other events on the role of religion worldwide that feature text, audio, and/or video.[7]
The Berkley Center also directs various initiatives engaging Georgetown students on issues relating to the center's mission of studying the interplay of religion and politics. Included among these is the Undergraduate Fellows Program, an annual project engaging some of Georgetown's strongest undergraduate researchers.[8] The program's first report, titled "Secular & Religious Approaches to Global Development: A Common Ground?" was released in December 2006 and is available online.[9] This year's project, entitled "US Lobbies: A Force in US Politics?" will be published in December, 2007.
Another such program is the Junior Year Abroad Network, a forum through which Georgetown students studying abroad write letters back to the university featuring their observations and analysis of religion and politics from diverse locations around the world.[10]
The Berkley Center and Georgetown University have also recently partnered with Newsweek/Washington Post on their On Faith project which tracks religious perspectives on a number of issues surrounding faith and public life.^[2] In July 2007, the Berkley Center partnered with On Faith to provide the Muslims Speak Out Forum, featuring some of the Islamic world's most influential leaders, including Ali Gomaa, Mustafa Ceric, Gus Dur, Mohammad Fadlallah and others. Non-Muslim participants include John Esposito, Kofi Annan, Jimmy Carter, Paul Heck, Jon Meacham, and Sally Quinn. ^[3]

External Links

Berkley Center Homepage
Georgetown/On Faith

Notes

1. Pamela Constable, ''Washington Post'', April 11, 2007, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/10/AR2007041001509.html.
2. Georgetown University Office of Communications, July 9, 2007, http://explore.georgetown.edu/news/?ID=25605.
3. Official News Release on PR Newswire, July 19, 2007, http://www.prnewswire.co.uk/cgi/news/release?id=203294.