The increasing fragility of the global order raised the salience of the Berkley Center’s work over the 2022-2023 academic year. As the COVID-19 pandemic and its terrible human cost receded from memory, new crises—including the Russian war against Ukraine, civil wars in Africa and the Middle East, growing refugee flows, and frequent extreme weather events—heightened the visibility of global challenges involving religion, peace, and world affairs. Over the course of the 2022-2023 academic year, the center’s research, teaching, and outreach programs kept pace with international events, bringing faculty, students, and partners together around mounting challenges in a divided world.
Highlights include:
- The continued success of the Culture of Encounter Project, including global student dialogue programs around the idea and practice of human fraternity and global citizenship.
- A major conference on “War in Ukraine” featuring the Ukrainian ambassador to the United States and panels on the diplomatic and religious dimensions of the conflict.
- The inaugural cohort of the Women in Faith Leadership Fellowship program, an ambitious effort to amplify the visibility, vitality, and voice of Catholic sisters in Africa responding to complex challenges.
- Several events and the launch of a digital campaign to further interfaith dialogue on critical global issues, including combating antisemitism, peacebuilding and development, human dignity, and more.
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