UPCOMING EVENTS
February 13, 2012
Equality, Freedom, & Religion
February 15, 2012
Education and Social Justice International Summer Research Fellowships 2011 Report Launch and 2012 Call for Applications
March 1, 2012
Religious Freedom: Why Now? Defending an Embattled Human Right
April 11, 2012
Religious Freedom and Equality: Emerging Conflicts in North America and Europe
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RELATED PROGRAM
Religion and Ethics in World Politics
Globalization and the resurgence of religion in public life have brought faith and values into politics in new ways, in the United States and around the world. The program examines the political an...
RELATED PROJECT
The Berkley Center Lectures
The Berkley Center Lectures bring global thought leaders to campus for presentations on cutting-edge topics at the intersection of religion, culture and politics. The formal program is flanked by i...RELATED SUB-PROJECT
Hans Joas on Universal Human Rights, October 2009
Hans Joas, University of Chicago and University of ErfurtWhat are the origins of the idea of universal human rights? How can those rights be best understood - and realized - into...
RECENT MEDIA
CENTER NEWS
February 8, 2012Presidential Candidate Rick Santorum Signs Religious Freedom Pledge Drafted by RFP Director Tom Farr
February 8, 2012
Jose Casanova Giving Ensign Lecture at Yale
February 7, 2012
Katherine Marshall at the UN for World Interfaith Harmony Week
February 6, 2012
Fitchburg State University Invites RFP Scholar Monica Duffy Toft for International Studies Speaker Series
February 3, 2012
Katherine Marshall Blogs: Women at Risk in an Unequal World
February 2, 2012
Research on Forgiveness Begins in Uganda for RFP Scholar Daniel Philpott
February 1, 2012
Call for Applications: Education and Social Justice International Summer Research Fellowships 2012
February 1, 2012
Catholic News Agency Quotes RFP Director Tom Farr on the Obama Administration's Stance Towards Religious Freedom
January 30, 2012
Taking Women and Religion Seriously: Intersecting Paths
January 27, 2012
Between Culture and Religion: The Case of Female Genital Cutting
January 23, 2012
RFP Scholar Will Inboden on the Obama Administration and Religious Freedom
January 10, 2012
Silenced: How Apostasy and Blasphemy Codes are Choking Freedom Worldwide
January 9, 2012
RFP Director Tom Farr Quoted in The Globe and Mail Editorial
October 27, 2009
2009 Berkley Center Lectures with Hans Joas: Violence and the Origins of Human Rights
Current debates about human rights obscure their origins in the experience of violence. The affirmation of the universal value of human dignity is not only part of the history of ideas, but it also links back to violent and traumatic collective experiences such as slavery and the Holocaust. In this first Berkley Center lecture, Hans Joas traced the history of violence in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) and other important documents, and discussed the conditions for the successful transformation of experiences of violence into universalist value commitments. The abolition of slavery served as an illustration.
Featuring
Hans Joas
Hans Joas is a leading social theorist and professor of sociology at the University of Chicago, where he also belongs to the Committee on Social Thought, and at the University of Erfurt, Germany, where he directs the Max Weber Center for Advanced Cultural and Social Studies. Joas has made many seminal contributions to the history and development of social theory and our understanding of pragmatism, democracy, religion, violence, and human values. Among his major books are The Creativity of Action (1996), The Genesis of Values (2000), War and Modernity (2003), Do We Need Religion? (2004), and Social Theory (with W. Knoebl) (2009). The recipient of many awards and fellowships, Joas serves as Vice-President of the International Sociological Association.
