The Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs seeks a more just and peaceful world by deepening knowledge and solving problems at the intersection of religion and global affairs through research, teaching, and engaging multiple publics.
A comprehensive examination of religion and norms is critical to address complex global challenges.
The open engagement of religious and cultural traditions with one another can promote peace.
How do religious communities contribute—both positively and less so—to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic? Since March 2020, the Religious Responses to COVID-19 project, led by Senior Fellow Katherine Marshall, has addressed this critical question through groundbreaking research, commentary, and dialogue involving faith actors and development leaders.
Read more about the Religious Responses to COVID-19 project.
To facilitate dialogue between faith and development during the COVID-19 pandemic, Marshall co-developed the “Faith and COVID-19 Vaccines Analysis Matrix,” as part of the Religious Responses to COVID-19 project. The analysis guide received coverage in national outlets, including Religion News Service, and is overviewed in a Devex piece co-authored by Marshall.
The Catholic Church and the Global COVID-19 Crisis Slider
In August 2020, Senior Fellow Rev. Drew Christiansen, S.J., published A World Free from Nuclear Weapons: The Vatican Conference on Disarmament. The volume—a collection of essays from global luminaries, including Pope Francis—was launched at a high-profile Vatican event.
Watch the launch event video.
Read coverage of the launch event.
The center welcomed prominent Church leaders to discuss Catholic engagement on issues of global concern. In March, Rev. Antonio Spadaro, S.J., editor-in-chief of the Jesuit periodical La Civiltà Cattolica, spoke on Pope Francis’ historic visit to Iraq, a significant moment for Muslim-Christian understanding.
Nuclear policy and interreligious dialogue are just two of the many areas—from global health to social solidarity—where Berkley Center faculty have provided critical insight into the Catholic Church’s role in creating a more sustainable post-pandemic world.
Read a profile of our work on the Catholic Church in the pandemic.
Center faculty and a range of external scholars and practitioners explored the complex ways in which religion interfaces with U.S. policy after 2020.
Faculty joined other thought leaders for public dialogue on faith and the future of U.S. policy on issues ranging from refugee resettlement to Vatican diplomacy.
Our fellows engaged with organizations and media outlets around the globe to share their expertise and reflections on religion and U.S. politics.
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Legal scholar Melissa Rogers and Senior Research Fellow E.J. Dionne, Jr., offered recommendations on how the new U.S. presidential administration should approach religion, law, and public policy at an October 21 panel co-sponsored by the Berkley Center and the Brookings Institution.
On December 7, the center hosted a panel discussion focused on community-level responses to U.S. refugee resettlement, exploring policy priorities as the Biden administration prepared to take office the next month. The event built on ongoing center research on Religion and the Crisis of Displaced Persons.
The Berkley Center convened an April 15 panel to explore challenges in the theory and practice of human rights in U.S. foreign policy in light of the new administration. The event served to launch a new Berkley Center project on Rethinking Religion and Human Rights.
On October 7, the center brought together a panel of leading Black clergy to explore anti-racism in the election cycle. Panelists considered how they were preparing their congregations for the election and its aftermath, providing pastoral and theological insight into the fight for racial justice.
International Religious Freedom – What are the key challenges and opportunities President Biden faces when it comes to religious freedom in U.S. foreign policy? Is it desirable or possible to better integrate freedom of religion or belief in the broader U.S. human rights agenda? If so, how?
U.S. Engagement with Global Muslim Communities – Where is priority action needed by the Biden administration when it comes to U.S. outreach to Muslim-majority states around the world? How can the new administration work to repair mistrust of the United States in the Middle East and beyond?
Joe Biden and Catholicism in U.S. Politics – What are some of the biggest challenges and opportunities when it comes to Catholic engagement in U.S. policy at the start of the Biden administration? How does Catholic moral theology intersect with Biden policy concerns, ranging from multilateralism to racial justice?
The Faith and Culture Series invites contemporary writers to Georgetown to reflect on their work in the context of the engagement of faith with culture. This year, the series sponsored a panel on “Fratelli Tutti: Social Solidarity from Several Points of View,” which included public intellectuals Pankaj Mishra, Marilynne Robinson, and Michael J. Sandel. It also brought Rev. James Martin, S.J., into conversation with Senior Fellow Paul Elie, moderator of the series.
This year, Elie joined two acclaimed author-activists to discuss how writing influences their engagement with global issues: Ambassador Samantha Power and environmentalist Bill McKibben. Power reflected on her journey from journalist to government official, the focus of her memoir, The Education of an Idealist (2019). McKibben considered the future of climate change, as discussed in his book Falter: Has the Human Game Begun to Play Itself Out? (2019).
Read event coverage of the conversations with Power and with McKibben.
The American Pilgrimage Project (APP), a Georgetown collaboration with StoryCorps led by Elie, invites Americans of diverse backgrounds to sit together and talk to each other one-to-one about the role their religious beliefs have played at crucial moments in their lives. This year, Elie convened APP participants for a live event focused on race and Islamophobia. Panelists considered the issues they discussed in their StoryCorps conversations and pointed them toward the present.
From July 1, 2020 to June 30, 2021, the center hosted events that ranged from book talks and panel discussions to multi-day, international conferences.
Over the last year, the virtual format of our events allowed center programming to engage a wider audience than ever before.
Our library of over 1,000 event videos from the last 15 years continued to garner attention, with a notable spike in views during the pandemic.
Religion in Foreign Policy Video Player
The Geopolitics of Religious Soft Power (GRSP) project, a collaboration with the Brookings Institution led by Senior Research Fellow Peter Mandaville and made possible with support from the Carnegie Corporation of New York, represents a multi-year, cross-disciplinary effort to systematically study the use of religion in foreign affairs. This year, the project launched Religion in Foreign Policy: A Comparative Series, which included events such as this panel on the rise of “moderate Islam” in the foreign policy of various states in the Middle East and North Africa.
With the collapse of Yugoslavia in the early 1990s and the resulting ethno-religious conflict in Bosnia, Saudi Arabia’s humanitarian relief and assistance were important sources of external support for Muslims in Bosnia. This panel discussed Islam in Bosnia After Communism: The Saudi Connection (2021), a documentary film produced by the GRSP project which explores the legacy of Saudi promotion of Salafi Islam in Bosnia.
Recent efforts to incorporate Buddhism into Chinese foreign policy build on decades of collaboration between the Communist Party of China and Buddhist clerics through the state religious system. This panel discussed the efficacy of Beijing’s promotion of Chinese Buddhism in countries of strategic interest, drawing from a policy brief on “The Chinese State’s Global Promotion of Buddhism” published by the GRSP project.
Since the 2014 election of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Indian soft power has increasingly incorporated a religious bent, privileging Hinduism and, to a lesser extent, Buddhism. This panel discussed the history and future of religious soft power in India, drawing from a policy brief on “The Possibilities and Limits of India’s New Religious Soft Power” published by the GRSP project.
In January 2021, the center welcomed Judd Birdsall as a senior research fellow. Birdsall is the project director of the Transatlantic Policy Network on Religion and Diplomacy (TPNRD), a forum of diplomats from North America and Europe who collaborate on religion-related policy issues. TPNRD is now housed at the Berkley Center, funded by a generous three-year grant from the Henry Luce Foundation.
Our primary activities revolve around a core set of faculty members whose research agendas drive all other center activities, from teaching and student programs to public outreach. Faculty programs do not merely manifest in the form of publications and a few public events, but connect to a vast set of global networks that shape academia, national and international policymaking, and public opinion.
Center senior fellows authored commentary pieces placed in the New Yorker, the Washington Post, America, and Devex, among other outlets.
Senior fellows published several research articles and book chapters in edited volumes.
Jocelyne Cesari and Rev. Drew Christiansen, S.J., each published an edited volume this past year.
The center released over a dozen reports, policy briefs, and white papers from July 1, 2020 to June 30, 2021.
The COVID-19 pandemic—which has limited social interaction while simultaneously raising major societal and economic challenges—introduces a number of critical questions on theories of modern secularization and global religious revival. Jośe Casanova, acclaimed sociologist of religion, explored the interface of these competing theories as part of the Global Religious and Secular Dynamics Discussion Series, a 12-event series which brought him into conversation with prominent intellectuals such as Nilüfer Göle, Hans Joas, and Charles Taylor.
The Berkley Center offers a number of ways for students to get involved, including conducting research through our global fellowship programs, taking courses through our minor, working as student assistants at the center, and participating in experiential learning through the Doyle Engaging Difference Program.
Our approach to student programs at the Berkley Center is grounded in the Jesuit value of caring for the whole person (cura personalis), a central tenet of the Georgetown University education. Our programs are animated by the center’s mission of bringing together scholars, practitioners, policymakers, and students to seek a more just and peaceful world by deepening knowledge and solving problems at the intersection of religion and global affairs.
Our student offerings are also deeply informed by the Doyle Engaging Difference Program’s mission to equip students and faculty with the skills necessary to thoughtfully engage matters of difference in integrated spaces of teaching and learning, in and outside the classroom. As campus collaborators on the Doyle Program, the Berkley Center seeks to implement this vision through guided academic and professional mentorship and extended learning opportunities that transcend the classroom, helping students connect their Georgetown experiences to local and global communities.
Show evidence of global awareness, particularly interreligious and intercultural competencies, by engaging in discourse and practice on matters of political, religious, social, economic, and racial differences.
Demonstrate analytical skills and the ability to clearly articulate complex issues in research and digital scholarship.
Illustrate interdisciplinary knowledge integration and intellectual curiosity in traditional and experiential learning spaces.
Center faculty taught courses across the Georgetown campus, from the College and the School of Foreign Service to Georgetown Law.
This year, the center supported Doyle Seminars on a wide range of subjects—from Dante in popular culture to Black churches and ecumenism.
Over summer 2020, fellows conducted research on Jesuit educational initiatives in Nepal, Peru, and the United States.
The Doyle Global Dialogue provides a platform for Georgetown students to reflect on interreligious and intercultural engagement while studying abroad.
Student assistants are integral to the work of the center, where they contribute to faculty research projects and support communications and outreach efforts.
Teaching in the Pandemic Slider
The COVID-19 pandemic presents major challenges to undergraduate learning, especially for first-year students. In fall 2020, three Berkley Center faculty helped new students build the intellectual skills and community necessary to thrive at Georgetown by teaching first-year seminars that tackled tough questions ranging from the search for self to the international response to COVID-19.
In response to the pandemic, the Berkley Center developed a curated collection of 12 curricular modules that draw on open-access articles and multimedia sources to support online learning in higher education. Each curricular module provides enough material for an undergraduate-level class session, featuring audiovisual material packaged with commentary and discussion questions.
Performing Migration, a Doyle Seminar taught by Devika Ranjan (SFS’17) in spring 2021, explored the social and political issues of modern migration through the lens of performance studies. By combining reflective discussion with creative projects at the intersection of performance and ethnography, the course allowed students to gain a deeper understanding of how to ethically and creatively tell the migration stories of historically excluded people.
Reflections on Doyle Seminars Slider
In a world where borders are highly securitized, migration is much easier for some. This course intends to think about migration from the perspective of the migrant and the performances that the migrant has to do to try to surmount those barriers—from visa interviews to airport screenings.
Devika Ranjan, Department of Performing Arts
It was really challenging and engaging to talk about the politics of performance and the power dynamics of telling stories that are not your own. Telling stories that are not your own is going to become inevitable, so how do we do it ethically?
Amina Sadurel (SFS’22)
Religion, Ethics, and World Affairs Minor Video Player
The Religion, Ethics, and World Affairs (REWA) program offers a minor for Georgetown Main Campus undergraduate students administered through the Berkley Center. The REWA minor gives students an opportunity to explore the role of faith and values across topic areas including international relations, comparative politics, and history and cultures. The Virtual Spring 2021 REWA Student Symposium ran from April 19 to 23 and culminated in a virtual discussion between students, faculty, and staff.
In 2020-2021, 11 students participated in the Doyle Global Dialogue (DGD), a peer-to-peer conversation among students studying internationally. This year, DGD participants explored the challenges and possibilities of intercultural exchange during the pandemic, and the global diversity of the cohort allowed for rich reflection across lines of difference. Read about their experiences by clicking on each highlighted country.
This map displays the countries of origin for members of the 2020-2021 DGD cohort, which included 10 students studying at the Qatar campus and one international student based at the DC campus.
DGD Student Reflections Slider
Home Country: Uzbekistan
School: Georgetown University in Qatar
“The contribution of other DGD participants to the fruitful discussions was vital in terms of its impact on the formation of my cultural understanding. As I reflect on the past four months, I had a great opportunity to learn more about intercultural and interracial differences while exploring the experiences of DGD participants and my own.”
Home Country: Pakistan
School: Georgetown University in Qatar
“The experience of living as a Pakistani in Qatar has taught me that religious differences do not only manifest in the practice of different religions but are also heavily affected by the history and dominant ideology of each place, even in the everyday practices of the same religion.”
Home Country: Egypt
School: Georgetown University in Qatar
“When I started the Doyle Global Dialogue program, what I thought of as norms were mainly vague concepts and ideas from both Egypt and Qatar, considering I was raised in both countries…What I used to consider ‘different’—and how that slowly changed into the acceptance of differences—became clearer to me.”
Pulitzer Center International Reporting Collaboration Slider
Taha Kaleem (SFS’22) has been selected as the Berkley Center-Pulitzer Center international reporting fellow for summer 2021. His project will explore Sufi shrines as sites of interfaith peacebuilding in Kashmir.
As part of our partnership with the Pulitzer Center, we jointly host events featuring Pulitzer Center journalists. In spring 2021, journalist and Pulitzer grantee Kalpana Jain joined historian John Fea to discuss the global relationship between media, religion, and populism. The public event complemented a closed-door session with journalists and scholars who explored religion and populism in comparative perspective.
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G’22
Nepal
Tierra Hatfield (G’22), working with Rohil Kulkarni (SFS’21), examined the educational impact of COVID-19 on the Partnership in Education (PiE) program at St. Xavier’s College in Kathmandu, Nepal. Their research observations focus on socioeconomic hardships, especially the lack of access to online connectivity, and how the PiE program sought to address the digital divide.
SFS’21
Nepal
Rohil Kulkarni (SFS’21), working with Tierra Hatfield (G’22), examined the educational impact of COVID-19 on the Partnership in Education (PiE) program at St. Xavier’s College in Kathmandu, Nepal. Their research observations focus on socioeconomic hardships, especially the lack of access to online connectivity, and how the PiE program sought to address the digital divide.
C’21
Peru
Amber Stanford (C’21) partnered with the University of Antonio Ruiz de Montoya (La Ruiz) in Lima, Peru, to explore how the COVID-19 pandemic impacts students, faculty, staff, and the larger community. Her aim is to better understand how La Ruiz is responding to this global health crisis and what effects those choices are having on the university and its community.
C’21
United States
Gabby Villadolid (C’21) worked with her high school alma mater, St. Ignatius College Preparatory School in San Francisco, California, looking at their Magis Center for Equity and Inclusion. Her hope is that this research can assist the Magis Center, along with other Jesuit service-related bodies, in centering racial justice in their programming.
