Over the course of 2021 and 2022 the Berkley Center is collaborating with three Vatican partners—the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, the Dicastery for Culture and Education, and Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue—to convene a global network around Pope Francis' concept of a "culture of encounter." Working groups made up of diverse scholars and practitioners will explore three related themes: creating a culture of encounter, forging global solidarity, and reforming global governance.
Working Group 1: Creating a Culture of Encounter
Maria Clara Bingemer is a professor at Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro (PUC). Her research focuses on systematic theology, mysticism, and in particular on Latin American and liberation theology.
Paul Elie is a senior fellow with the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs at Georgetown University in Washington, DC. His research and writing address how religious ideas are given expression in literature, the arts, music, and culture.
Cristina Lledo Gomez is the Presentation Sisters Lecturer for BBI-The Australian Institute of Theological Education in New South Wales, Australia. Her research and publications are directed toward promoting women’s spiritualities, feminist theologies, and ecotheologies.
Arinze Ifeakandu is an author and scholar born in Kano, Nigeria. An AKO Caine Prize for African Writing finalist and A Public Space Writing Fellow, he is a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and is pursuing his Ph.D. at Florida State University. His work has appeared in A Public Space, One Story, and Guernica. God’s Children Are Little Broken Things, his debut, is forthcoming in June 2022 from A Public Space Books.
Msgr. Indunil J. Kodithuwakku K. serves as secretary of the Dicastery for Interreligious Dialogue, of which he was formerly the undersecretary. Previously a professor in the Faculty of Missiology at the Pontifical Urban University, he is an ordained priest of Badulla, Sri Lanka.
Katherine Marshall is a senior fellow with the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs at Georgetown University in Washington, DC, and executive director of the World Faiths Development Dialogue. Her research and writing focus on intersections among international development, humanitarian action, and religious engagement.
Sr. Shalini Mulackal, PVBM, is a professor at Vidyajyoti College of Theology in Delhi, India. Her work focuses on women’s empowerment in church and society.
Peter Phan is the holder of the Ignacio Ellacuria Chair of Catholic Social Thought in the Department of Theology and Religious Studies, Georgetown University, Washington, DC. His research addresses patristic theology, eschatology, the history of Christian missions in Asia, and liberation, inculturation, and interreligious dialogue.
Barbara Schellhammer is a professor and head of the Center for Global Issues at the Munich School of Philosophy. Her work focuses on intercultural social transformation, cultural philosophy, and intercultural philosophy.
Working Group 2: Forging Global Solidarity
José Casanova is a senior fellow at the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs and professor emeritus at Georgetown University in Washington, DC. His work focuses on globalization, religions, and secularization.
Gemma Tulud Cruz is senior lecturer in theology at Australian Catholic University in Melbourne. Her research expertise encompasses migration, Catholic social ethics, and contextual theologies, particularly feminist, liberation, and Asian theologies.
Rev. David Hollenbach, S.J., is a professor in the Walsh School of Foreign Service and a senior fellow at the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs at Georgetown University in Washington, DC. He works on human rights, humanitarian crises, and religion in political life from the standpoint of Catholic social thought, theology, and the social sciences.
Rev. Ludovic Lado, S.J., is the director general of Centre d’Etude et de Formation pour le Développement (CEFOD) in N’Djamena, Chad. He specializes in the anthropology of religion, focusing on current trends in African Catholicism.
Sr. Evelyn Monteiro was a faculty professor of systematic theology at Jnana-Deepa (JD), Pontifical Institute of Philosophy and Religion at Pune, India, for many years and continues as a visiting professor at JD and other theological faculties. Her research addresses ecclesiology, inculturation, and contextual and liberation theologies.
Philomena Mwaura is an associate professor of philosophy and religious studies at Kenyatta University in Nairobi. Her areas of specialization are African Christianity history and theology and new religious movements.
Sylvia Cáceres is the former minister of labor and employment promotion in Peru and a member of the international committee of the International Catholic Movement for Intellectual and Cultural Affairs. She is an expert in public and social policy and labor administration.
Michael Reder holds the chair of practical philosophy with a focus on international understanding at the Munich School of Philosophy in Germany. His work is focused on practical philosophy, social and political philosophy, ethics, philosophy of religion, and global solidarity.
Constantin Sigov is a professor of philosophy and religious studies at the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy in Kiev, and he also directs the Center of European Humanities Research. His writings center on the history of philosophical and theological ideas.
Rev. Marcel Uwineza, S.J., is dean of students and a senior lecturer at Hekima University College in Nairobi. His research and teaching interests include Christian anthropology, religion, and ethics. His forthcoming books are Reconciling Memories: A Theology from Wounds and Reinventing Theology in Post-Genocide Rwanda.
Working Group 3: Reforming Global Governance
Adriana Abdenur is executive director of Plataforma CIPÓ in Rio de Janeiro. She leads projects on climate and security, environmental crime and deforestation, transnational organized crime, and peacebuilding in Latin America and the Caribbean and elsewhere in the Global South.
Ahmet Alibašić is an associate professor in the Faculty of Islamic Studies at the University of Sarejevo. His research interests include Islam in the Balkans and the West, sharia law in a secular state, and Islamic culture and civilization.
Jocelyne Cesari is a senior fellow in the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs at Georgetown University in Washington, DC, and holds the Chair of Religion and Politics at the University of Birmingham. Her work addresses Islam and politics, religion, political violence, and conflict resolution.
Rev. Drew Christiansen, S.J., is a professor in the Walsh School of Foreign Service and a senior fellow at the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs at Georgetown University in Washington, DC. His areas of research include nuclear disarmament, nonviolence and just peacemaking, Catholic social teaching, and ecumenical public advocacy.
Ismat Jahan is the permanent observer of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation to the European Union. She is a career diplomat who previously held the positions of ambassador of Bangladesh to Belgium, Luxembourg, and the European Union, and ambassador and permanent representative of Bangladesh to the United Nations.
Alessio Pecorario is the coordinator of the security task force of the Vatican COVID-19 Commission and a senior official in the Faith and Development section of the Vatican's Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development.
Julia Mourão Permoser is Elise Richter Senior Post-Doctoral Research Fellow in the Department of Political Science at the University of Innsbruck in Austria. Her research focuses on migration, citizenship, religion, the European Union, and the challenges and opportunities that pluralism poses to democratic politics.
Scott Thomas is a senior lecturer (associate professor) of international relations at the University of Bath in the United Kingdom and a contributing editor of the Review of Faith & International Affairs. His research interests include the global resurgence of religion and the transformation of international relations, as well as the impact of culture and religion on conflict, cooperation, diplomacy, peacemaking, interreligious dialogue, and economic development.
Johannes Wallacher is a professor of social sciences and economic ethics and president of the Munich School of Philosophy. His work addresses economic ethical questions of globalization, the ethics of resource management and sustainability, and the cultural dimension of economics and business.
Emily Welty is director of Peace and Justice Studies at Pace University in New York and vice moderator of the World Council of Churches Commission on International Affairs. Her work addresses humanitarianism, non-violence, reconciliation and transitional justice
