Berkley Center

Dr. C. Colt Anderson is a church historian and theologian at Fordham University's Graduate School of Religion and Religious Education. His research focuses on the intersection between three areas of concern: the communication of the Gospel, how to reform the church, and the importance of an eschatological perspective for Christian life.

Judd Birdsall is assistant professor of the practice in the Department of Theology and Religious Studies at Georgetown University, where he is also a senior fellow at the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs and the project director of the Transatlantic Policy Network on Religion and Diplomacy (TPNRD). In addition, he is a senior advisor religion and inclusive societies at the United States Institute of Peace. From 2011 to 2020 Birdsall was based at Cambridge University, where he earned his Ph.D., founded a research center on religion and international studies, and served as an affiliated lecturer in the Department of Politics and International Studies. Prior to his time at Cambridge, he served in the U.S. State Department’s Office of International Religious Freedom and on the Secretary of State’s Policy Planning Staff. Birdsall is the editor of Religion & Diplomacy, and his work has appeared in the Washington Post, Foreign Policy, Guardian, Huffington Post, Christianity Today, and Religion & Politics. He is also a senior editor and a frequent contributor at the Review of Faith & International Affairs.

Jocelyne Cesari holds the Chair of Religion and Politics and is director of research at the Edward Cadbury Centre for the Public Understanding of Religion at the University of Birmingham, United Kingdom; she is a senior fellow at the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs at Georgetown University, where she previously was an associate professor of the practice of religion, peace, and conflict resolution in the Department of Government. She is the T. J. Dermot Dunphy Visiting Professor of Religion, Violence, and Peacebuilding at Harvard Divinity School. Former president of the European Academy of Religion, her work on religion, political violence, and conflict resolution has garnered recognition and awards from numerous international organizations such as the Carnegie Council for Ethics and International Affairs and the Royal Society for Arts in the United Kingdom. She is a Professorial Fellow at Australian Catholic University's Institute for Religion, Politics and Society. She teaches on contemporary Islam and politics at Harvard Divinity School and directs the Islam in the West program. Cesari is a member of the Working Group on Displaced Persons and Hospitality to the Stranger, part of the Culture of Encounter Project.

Tobias Cremer is a junior research fellow in the Religion and the Frontier Challenges program at Pembroke College Oxford. He was a visiting research fellow at the Berkley Center from October 2019 to January 2020. Cremer previously was a McCloy Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School, where he received an MPP. He also holds a B.A. from Sciences Po Paris, and an M.Phil. and Ph.D. from Cambridge University. He is the assistant editor for the Transatlantic Policy Network on Religion and Diplomacy.

David Elcott is Henry and Marilyn Taub Professor of Practice in Public Service and Leadership and the director of the advocacy and political action specialization at New York University's Wagner School of Public Service. His work has focused on civic obligation, community building, and interfaith and ethnic activism. He is the author of Faith, Nationalism, and the Future of Liberal Democracy (2021).