Annual Report 2023-2024

External shot of Georgetown University's Healy Hall in summer

Annual Report 2023-2024

This year the Berkley Center’s work addressed ways forward in a divided world, and our research and programming explored a wide range of critical issues—from climate change and economic inequality to the refugee crisis. Scroll down or use the navigation at the top of the page to discover highlights from our research, outreach, and student programming this year.

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Mission

Through research, teaching, and outreach, the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs seeks to build understanding and promote dialogue and cooperation around issues of religion, peace, and world affairs.

Two premises guide the center's work

1
Religion is a critically important but poorly understood force in world affairs.
2
The open engagement of religious and cultural traditions with one another can promote peace.

Impact at a Glance

Events

Over the 2023-2024 year, the center organized 44 events, fostering dialogue on key issues.

256,754

Web Visits

The center's online presence grew, with over 250,000 visits to our website over the past year.

7,641

X Followers

The center's audience on X has remained strong, reflecting our reach and influence.

Berkley Forum Essays

Experts in their respective fields contributed 13 thought-provoking essays to the Berkley Forum.

REWA Minors

Since its inception, the REWA minor has attracted a steadily growing cohort of students.

Highlights

"Social Inequality as a Complex Global Challenge" event panelists in Gaston Hall

Georgetown University Global Dialogues

In a divided world in which more global dialogue is needed, less of it is taking place—a dangerous, untenable situation. During the week of April 22 to 26, 2024, the Berkley Center convened the Georgetown Global Dialogues (GGD) as a space for multisided, international conversation about the challenges facing global humanity. Georgetown University hosted leading intellectuals from the Global South on campus to engage with each other, with prominent U.S.-based thinkers, and with students, faculty, and a wider public.

Explore reflections on the GGD Forum.

Learn More

The Culture of Encounter Project

Sign in Madrid, Spain reading "Refugees Welcome"

Displaced Persons and Hospitality to the Stranger

The issue of migrants, refugees, and displaced persons more broadly provides a challenge to religious communities. The leading religious traditions uphold the value of hospitality and welcoming the stranger. Faith-based NGOs are among the most prominent advocates for migrants and refugees around the world. Over the course of the 2023-2024 academic year, this working group brought together practitioners and scholars to model and promote a culture of encounter and productive interreligious dialogue around refugees and displaced persons.

The working group is part of the Culture of Encounter Project and convened by the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs at Georgetown University.

Child Rights and Family Values

The leading religious traditions all place value on children and families. They affirm the right of every child to food, health, shelter, education, and the support of parents and communities. Given the depth of these commitments, it is not surprising that faith communities are prominent in the struggle for child rights around the world. Over the course of the 2023-2024 academic year, this working group of practitioners and scholars sought to model and promote a culture of encounter and productive interreligious dialogue around child rights.

The working group is part of the Culture of Encounter Project and convened by the Collaborative on Global Children's Issues at Georgetown University.

Catholic Church and Global Engagement

The 2023-2024 Women Faith Leadership cohort. — Women Faith Leadership Fellowship

Catholic sisters worldwide are compelling—if often largely silent and invisible—forces for change. Nowhere is this more true than in Africa, where they serve across many sectors but with a sharp focus on the most vulnerable populations in their communities, especially women and girls. Hosted by the Berkley Center, the Women Faith Leaders Fellowship (WFLF) will receive a total of $1.5 million in grants from the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to support this work. The two foundations will each provide $750,000 over the course of two years.
Learn more about the fellowship.
Read about how WFLF develops African Catholic sisters’ leadership capacities and enhances their impact on women’s empowerment and gender equity.

Rev. Aaron Wessman and Moderator Amy Uelmen — The Church’s Mission in a Polarized World: Relational Resources for the 2024 Campaign Season

What difficulties have we encountered in our work to de-escalate violent rhetoric? What are the challenges in building foundational trust across profound political differences when social, cultural, informational, and media environments do not favor this work? This program started with initial tone setters by Rev. Robert Aaron Wessman, Glenmary Home Missioners, author of *The Church’s Mission in a Polarized World* (2023). The tone setters laid out Christian resources for reducing the use of violent rhetoric, best practices for building foundational trust, and the ministry of Jesus as a model for “crossing over” for understanding and trust across deep differences.
Watch the recording.

Rev. Antonio Spadaro speaks at a podium. — The Church’s Mission in a World in Crisis

For Pope Francis, the purpose of diplomacy is to help resolve disagreements arising from the inevitability of human conflict, to foster harmony, and to move beyond violence to recover a sense of the profound unity of all reality. As a spiritual community, the Catholic Church does not take sides in wars. Nevertheless, for Francis, the Church always finds itself in the midst of battle, accompanying victims, condemning aggression, and advocating for peace. The Church is a "field hospital" in the midst of what Francis calls our "third world war fought piecemeal." What is the relationship between the Church's spiritual mission and its response to contemporary global challenges? In his lecture, Rev. Antonio Spadaro, S.J., addressed this fundamental question for the Church and the world following welcome remarks by Georgetown University President John J. DeGioia.
Watch the recording.

Parish of our lady of light and bonifacio avenue in Cainta, Philippines. — 500 Years of Christianity in the Philippines and the Global Filipin@: Postcolonial Perspectives

*500 Years of Christianity and the Global Filipino/a: Postcolonial Perspectives* (2024) brings together global voices examining Christianity in the Philippines through a postcolonial theological lens that suggests the desire to go beyond the colonial in all its contemporary manifestations.
This book launch event featured chapter authors Prof. Lily Mendoza, Dr. Jamina Vesta Jugo, and Prof. James Perkinson. Filipin@ elders Prof. Christina Astorga and Rev. Eleazar S. Fernandez and co-editors Agnes Brazal and Maria Marilou Ibita also joined the conversation. Dr. Cristina Lledo Gomez moderated the discussion, which builds on the February 2022 event "500 Years of Christianity and the Global Filipin@: Postcolonial Perspectives." Berkley Center Faculty Fellow Prof. Leo Lefebure introduced the event.
Watch the webinar.

Women walking on path in Mapai, Mozambique. — Sant'Egidio's Dream: How a People's Movement Is Meeting the Challenge of AIDS in Africa and Shaping the Future of Global Health

In 2002, the Community of Sant'Egidio, a Rome-based Catholic NGO, took a fresh approach to the care of people with AIDS in Mozambique. The forthcoming book, *Sant'Egidio's Dream* (May 2024), tells the story of the program, which is now present in 10 countries, has seen patients in 8 million visits to 50 clinics, and has trained 15,000 health care volunteers; through it, 200,000 babies born to mothers who are HIV+ are free of the virus.
This event featured author Roberto Morozzo della Rocca, a professor of modern history at the University of Roma Tre; Mario Marazziti, a former Italian parliamentarian who has taken key roles in Sant'Egidio's humanitarian efforts worldwide; and Katherine Marshall, a Berkley Center senior fellow whose decades of experience in development work in Africa has led to regular and fruitful encounters with Sant'Egidio. Berkley Center Senior Fellow Paul Elie, who wrote the book's afterword, moderated the conversation.
Watch the recording.

Faculty Publications

Asian Pacific Catholicism and Globalization: Historical Perspectives and Contemporary Challenges

Co-edited by Berkley Center Senior Fellow José Casanova and Faculty Fellow Peter Phan and published by Georgetown University Press in 2023, this volume shows how the development of Catholicism in Asia relates to three historical phases of globalization, from the early modern period to the present. The book approaches complex historical processes of globalization as the historical contexts within which religious, political, and societal actors shaped different outcomes over time. An international team of scholars contributed chapters focused on the major countries of the region: China, Japan, South Korea, the Philippines, Vietnam, India, and Australia.

Human Rights in a Divided World: Catholicism as a Living Tradition

This new book by Berkley Center Senior Fellow David Hollenbach, S.J, published in 2024 by Georgetown University Press, offers a comprehensive analysis of challenges to human rights in our contemporary world and of resources within the Catholic ethics tradition for addressing them. The volume combines theoretical and historical discussion with an in-depth analysis of key human rights issues today, including religious freedom, the rights of refugees, economic rights, and the rights of women.

Events

Total Events

From July 1, 2023, to June 30, 2024, the center hosted events that ranged from book talks and panel discussions to multi-day, international conferences.

383,531

YouTube Views

Our library of over 1,500 event videos from the past 18 years continued to garner attention.

Religion and Contemporary Global Issues

On the Significance of Religion for the Sustainable Development Goals

Dr. Christine Schliesser's book, On the Significance of Religion for the Sustainable Development Goals: An Introduction (2023), opens up a sequence of innovative inquiries into the impact of religion in current global challenges. This webinar considered questions addressed by the book, including: What role does religion play in poverty and poverty alleviation? How does religion inspire people in combating gender inequality? What is religion’s role in fuelling conflict, and which resources can religion offer for peace and reconciliation?

Tolerance and Respect: Educational Paths in Indonesia

This event examined key lessons from a Cross-Cultural Religious Literacy Program that serves primary and secondary school teachers from across Indonesia. It featured a discussion on how these insights could inform broader G20 and ASEAN conversations about educational initiatives that promote global citizenship, with a particular emphasis on religious literacy. Panelists also explored how the program findings might be applied to other global issues that involve interfaith leaders and faith-based organizations.

Towards an International Peace Conference in the Aftermath of the Israel-Hamas War

In this webinar, Hebrew University professor Arie Kacowicz discussed his January 2024 paper in which he examines the possible role and functions that an International Peace Conference might fulfill in granting domestic and international legitimacy and the drawing of a coherent road map leading to de-escalation, stabilization, demilitarization, reconstruction, and governance of the Gaza Strip in the immediate term.

Read Kacowicz’s paper.

Catholic Sisters Working To Eradicate Human Trafficking

As part of Catholic Sisters Week in March 2024, this panel discussion explored the complex issue of human trafficking, discussing its root causes, common misconceptions, and the economic, social, and policy factors that enable it. Panelists highlighted the role of faith, particularly Catholic social teaching, in addressing trafficking, and shared how their ministries and communities support survivors and work to prevent exploitation.

A Conversation with Biographer Jonathan Eig

This Faith and Culture Series event featured acclaimed biographer Jonathan Eig, whose biography of Martin Luther King Jr., King: A Life (2023), won the 2024 Pulitzer Prize for biography. Eig discussed the book and his journey as a writer in conversation with Paul Elie, author and senior fellow at the Berkley Center.

Politics, Media, and Social Cohesion in Bangladesh: Challenges and Pathways

Religion plays a prominent role in the public sphere of Bangladesh, reflecting its rich cultural heritage and historical background. This seminar, co-sponsored by the Berkley Center and World Faiths Development Dialogue, examined how the platforms of different political parties are both influenced by and contribute to religious beliefs and approaches. It also explored the role of political parties in fostering social cohesion, the mainstream media's role in addressing religion, and the challenges and opportunities of building an inclusive society in the digital age.

Believers and Our Ethics in the Public Square: Christian and Muslim Perspectives

This opening session of the twenty-second Building Bridges Seminar provided an overview to the seminar’s theme of “Believers and Our Ethics in the Public Square: Christian and Muslim Perspectives.” Throughout the week this international circle of scholars engaged in dialogical close reading of Muslim and Christian texts on the relation between law/ethics and scripture and tradition, the role of reason and experience in identifying the good to be sought, and speaking and acting convincingly in the public square.

Religion and Human Rights

Panelists speak at the event "Catholic Responses to Forced Displacement" — Responses to Forced Displacement: Taking Action on Catholic Social Teaching — Ukraine as One Case in Point

Presently over 100 million people have fled their homes because of conflict, persecution, and violence, and forced displacement seems to have become a permanent feature of our global landscape. Monsignor Robert J. Vitillo is secretary general of the International Catholic Migration Commission. A trained social worker, Msgr. Vitillo has years of experience working with refugees, including positions with Catholic Charities, Caritas Internationalis, and the United Nations. Vitillo currently chairs a Working Group of Global Catholic Humanitarian agencies responding to Ukraine. This event discussed what Catholic social teaching means for responding to refugees and other displaced people, with a particular focus on Ukraine. Berkley Center Senior Fellow Rev. David Hollenbach, S.J., who is also Pedro Arrupe Professor in the School of Foreign Service (SFS), moderated the discussion. The event was introduced by Elizabeth Ferris, director of the SFS Institute for the Study of International Migration.
Read coverage of the event.

Image of panelists from the webinar "Is Religious Freedom Under Threat in Ukraine?" — Is Religious Freedom Under Threat in Ukraine?

The war of aggression of the Russian Federation on Ukraine, which has received the vocal support of the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC), led the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP) to announce in its May 2022 Synod that it was officially severing its ties with the Moscow Patriarchate. Recent probes by the Ukrainian government towards the UOC have exposed the still-existing ties between the UOC and the ROC and the collaboration of some members of the UOC hierarchy and clergy with the occupying Russian forces. Those efforts have also raised questions about the threats which these government actions may pose to religious freedom and to the established patterns of religious pluralism in Ukraine. Eric Patterson, a Berkley Center research fellow and president of the Religious Freedom Institute, moderated the expert panel discussion.
Watch the webinar.

Speakers at the "Justice in Housing" event. — Justice in Housing

U.S. President Joe Biden pledged to pursue a comprehensive plan to end homelessness and his administration has made affordable housing a top priority, proposing measures to ease rental prices and improve financing opportunities for home construction and purchases. Underlying these policy proposals is the commitment to a fundamental principle, as articulated by U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Marcia L. Fudge, that “Justice in housing is everyone realizing the fundamental truth: housing is a human right.” In this event, HUD Deputy Secretary Adrianne Todman expanded on the administration’s work for making that vision a reality. Deputy Secretary Todman delivered brief remarks and then joined Professor Elisa Massimino in a conversation.
Watch the discussion.
Read coverage of the event.

Research

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.

Op-Eds

Center senior fellows and senior research fellows authored commentary pieces placed in the New Yorker, the Washington Post, and La Civiltà Cattolica among other outlets.

Articles or Book Chapters

Senior fellows and senior research fellows published several research articles and book chapters in edited volumes.

Books

Senior fellows and senior research fellows published books on topics ranging from the use of religion in foreign policy to the role of faith-based organizations in building social solidarity in Africa and Latin America.

Reports

The center released several reports, policy briefs, working papers, and white papers from July 1, 2023 to June 30, 2024.

Faculty Scholarship

Julia Watts Belser

Berkley Center Senior Research Fellow

Department of Theology and Religious Studies

Loving Our Own Bones: Disability Wisdom and the Spiritual Subversiveness of Knowing Ourselves Whole

This 2023 book from Beacon Press—written by Berkley Center Senior Research Fellow Julia Watts Belser—examines the origins of cultural attitudes about disability. Drawing on sacred literature, the work integrates perspectives from disabled, feminist, Black, and queer thinkers, as well as Belser’s own experiences as a queer disabled Jewish feminist.

Peter Phan

Berkley Center Senior Faculty Fellow

Department of Theology and Religious Studies

Christian Perspectives on Transforming Interreligious Encounter: Essays in Honor of Leo D. Lefebure

This 2024 volume from Rowman & Littlefield, edited by Faculty Fellow Peter Phan and Anh Q. Tran, features essays written in honor of theologian Leo D. Lefebure (also a Berkley Center faculty fellow), recognizing his influential contributions to interreligious dialogue. They underscore the urgency of such dialogue for contemporary society, aiming to foster interfaith understanding, justice, and peace.

Debora Tonelli

Berkley Center Research Fellow

Exiting Violence: The Role of Religion

In the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, where violence has scarred countless lives, the interplay between religion, politics, and conflict remains a complex web. This 2024 volume from De Gruter—edited by Research Fellow Debora Tonelli and Gerard Mannion (a former Berkley Center senior research fellow)—offers a nuanced and thought-provoking exploration of the multifaceted role religion plays in the human struggle for peace and justice.

Religion and World Affairs

Transatlantic Policy Network on Religion & Diplomacy

In recognition of religion’s ongoing geopolitical relevance, many foreign ministries become more attentive to religion—establishing new units or envoy positions focused on analyzing religious dynamics and engaging religious groups around the world. TPNRD is a forum of diplomats from Europe and North America who have engagement with religious and faith-based groups in their portfolios, coordinated by project director Judd Birdsall. TPNRD meets regularly, hosts briefings, commissions policy reports, manages the Religion & Diplomacy website, and pursues collaboration through working groups focused on the geopolitics of religion, religious literacy training, conflict and peacebuilding, and the fostering of inclusive societies.

Learn more about the project.

Read policy briefs on religious diplomacy in India and twenty-first-century global Orthodox Christianity.

Gradac, 13th Century Serbian Orthodox Monastery

The Geopolitics of Religion and Culture in the Western Balkans: A Thematic Series

This thematic series, which grew out of a partnership between the Berkley Center’s Geopolitics of Religious Soft Power project and the United States Institute of Peace, explores the motivations, effectiveness, and impact of various geopolitical actors attempting to influence local, regional, and international affairs in the Western Balkans. The contributors address a wide range of themes: external religious influences on the Balkans, post-war religiosity and Middle Eastern influences in the Balkans, interreligious relations in the region, and politics of the Russian Orthodox Church and its transnational manifestations. Cumulatively they present a portrait of the complex and increasingly volatile intermingling of religion, culture, and politics in a geopolitical hotspot.

Learn more about the project.

Featured Faculty

Rabbi Abraham Skorka

In the Jewish-Christian Relations: Contemporary Challenges and Opportunities conversation series, Senior Research Fellow Rabbi Abraham Skorka—a leader in interfaith relations and author of a book on the topic with Archbishop Jorge Mario Bergoglio, later Pope Francis—engages in dialogues with leading scholars and practitioners in the field. The series is co-sponsored by the Center for Jewish Civilization and the Berkley Center.

Learn more about the conversation series.

Andrew Prevot

In August 2023, Andrew Prevot joined the Berkley Center as a senior fellow. Prevot is the Joseph and Winifred Amaturo Chair in Catholic Studies and a professor in the Department of Theology and Religious Studies at Georgetown University.

Learn more about the scope of his academic interests and relevant issues at the intersections of spirituality, culture, and politics.

Judd Birdsall

This year Judd Birdsall, project director of the Transatlantic Policy Network on Religion & Diplomacy, became an assistant professor of the practice in Georgetown’s Department of Theology and Religious Studies and a Berkley Center senior fellow.

From the Berkley Forum

“To constructively progress humanitarian dialogue on gender and forced displacement in Muslim settings, faith literacy and sensitivity to local values, beliefs, and traditions are much needed to support change from within.”

Sandra Iman Pertek

“Preserving the goodness of the United States and overcoming the multitudinous divisions affecting nearly every area of society will require a diverse cohort. Conservatives are not only welcome; they are needed! And they have many reasons, flowing from their own self-understanding, to be bridge builders.”

Fr. R. Aaron Wessman, GHM

“Perhaps the best route for all of us—the United States, the Middle East, and the broader Muslim world—is hinted by Thomas Jefferson, whom Obama also quoted in his Cairo speech: ‘I hope that our wisdom will grow with our power, and teach us that the less we use our power the greater it will be.”

Mustafa Akyol

Student Programs

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 graduate fellows 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 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 build understanding and promote dialogue and cooperation around issues of religion, peace, and world affairs through research, teaching, and dialogue.

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.

Upon completing any Berkley Center student program, the participant should be able to:

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.

Student Programs by the Numbers

Faculty Courses

Center faculty taught courses across the Georgetown campus, from the College of Arts & Sciences and the School of Foreign Service to Georgetown Law.

Education and Social Justice Fellows

The 2023 ESJ Cohort conducted research on Jesuit educational initiatives in Belize and the Philippines.

Doyle Global Dialogue Students

The Doyle Global Dialogue provides a platform for Georgetown students to reflect on interreligious and intercultural engagement while studying abroad.

Graduate Fellows

Graduate fellows are integral to the work of the center, where they contribute to faculty research projects and support communications and outreach efforts.

Fall leaves outside of Healy Hall at Georgetown University

Doyle Engaging Difference Program

The university-wide Doyle Engaging Difference Program supports innovative learning experiences that equip Georgetown University students and faculty to constructively engage differences inside and outside the classroom. The 2023-2024 academic year saw the continued success of the Doyle Global Dialogue, an opportunity for students studying abroad to reflect on their encounters with diverse host societies. This was also a year of transition for planning new strategic directions beginning in the 2024-2025 academic year. These initiatives will cultivate innovative learning experiences that equip students, faculty, and staff with the skills to engage constructively across differences, fostering a more inclusive and engaged campus community.

Learn More

DGD Student Reflections

Nelly Kalukango (SFS'26)

Home Country: Zambia

School: Georgetown University in Qatar

“DGD made me learn so much about myself because I was intentional about reflecting on my journey in a new country as an international student. I feel that more often than not, what we fear to be so different could turn out to be not so different. I feel that the welcoming culture in Qatar has been embracing different cultures and religions. It teaches us mutual respect. It does take some time to adjust because we have the tendency to first point out all the things that make us different, but when we do settle in, it does not actually feel so different, because we see all the core values that we have in common.”

Read Nelly’s full reflection.

Le Dong Hai Nguyen (SFS'23, G'24)

Home Country: Vietnam

School: Georgetown University (Main Campus)

“One of the most poignant moments for me personally was singing the song "Hello Vietnam" at Georgetown’s International Student Night. Joined by both Vietnamese and Vietnamese-American students, it was a powerful expression of our shared heritage and love for the place we call home. As our voices rose in unison, it felt like a healing balm that soothes the lingering ache of displacement and division. In that moment, surrounded by voices that echoed my own journey, I felt a profound sense of belonging, bound by an unbreakable bond that connected us to Vietnam, no matter where we were in the world. In that moment, I returned home.”

Read Hai’s full reflection.

Grace Blendonohy (C'25)

Home Country: United States

School: Georgetown University (Main Campus)

“The role religion plays and how it intersects a country’s culture and politics is profound and must be applied when trying to understand a new country. I have learned that exposing myself to new experiences and new people has enabled me to learn so much more about the world around me and has shown me how important it is to keep asking questions and exchanging stories and experiences with others to understand our differences and, most importantly, our similarities.”

Read Grace’s full reflection.

Elene Chkhaidze (SFS'25)

Home Country: Georgia

School: Georgetown University in Qatar

“While I have never been stronger in my faith and identity as an Orthodox Christian, nevertheless the more I grow in my faith and the more time I spend abroad, there is one thing that continues to grow. My understanding of how, despite our differences, we all share similar beliefs, hopes, and fears, irrespective of what religion, political ideology, or ethnicity we subscribe to. This has ever increased the compassion I carry for everyone. Doha and DC have become homes to me in very different senses of words and I am forever grateful for that. After all, it is the places one least expects that turn out to be the most cherished ones.”

Read Elene’s full reflection.

Logan Richman (SFS'25)

Home Country: United States

School: Georgetown University (Main Campus)

“A saying I learned this semester is chi non risica non rosica (who doesn’t risk doesn’t gain.) My ancestors sacrificed to give me a profound, indescribable gift and privilege. They gave me a life and opportunity they never had and knew their descendants would never have if they had stayed in Italy. I’ll carry the magical, exciting memories of Bologna with me forever. I’ll carry the learning. Yet what I will cherish most intensely is the recognition that I will never take my family’s sacrifices for granted. I will honor their stories and lives. And I will celebrate the cultural wonders, pure humanity, and love they have all gifted me.”

Read Logan’s full reflection.

Religion, Ethics, and World Affairs Minor

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 Hoya Paxa Student Symposium 2024 was held on April 13, 2024.

Explore the Hoya Paxa blog series.

Faculty-Led First-Year Seminars

Paul Elie

Senior Fellow, Berkley Center

Director, American Pilgrimage Project

The Search (IDST 010-21) sought to understand the personal search through rich accounts in literature—books in which author and reader venture forth together in order to make sense of their lives and the world around them—and the different ways a search can be framed through the art of narrative.

Michael Kessler

Executive Director, Berkley Center

Associate Professor of Practice, Department of Government | Adjunct Professor, Georgetown Law

Creating and Making: The Moral Craft of Life (IDST 010-15) explored philosophical and theological visions of craft, labor, and creativity, and their connections to moral and political life, as a way to think about how our laboring, crafting, and creating is a fundamental part of what constitutes the good life.

Katherine Marshall

Senior Fellow, Berkley Center

Professor of the Practice, Walsh School of Foreign Service

Pandemic Responses: Practice and Ethics (INAF 100) examined human rights and ethical issues linked to the COVID-19 pandemic as well as focused on how local and global institutions respond to humanitarian challenges.

A Berkley Center graduate fellow at work

Berkley Center Graduate Fellows

Graduate fellows are integral to the work of the center, helping us achieve our mission through their contributions to faculty research projects, as well as their support of communications and outreach efforts. Some work directly with faculty members to provide book editing assistance; conduct research that informs reports, blogs, or policy briefs; or support classroom instruction. Others support our staff in day-to-day center operations. In all cases, graduate fellows are given meaningful, content-rich work that develops knowledge and skills that make them strong candidates as they seek internships and enter the job market.

Learn More

Education and Social Justice Project

The Education and Social Justice Project (ESJ) provides Georgetown students summer research fellowships to explore issues at the intersection of education and society. Student participants conduct in-depth examinations of innovative initiatives, with a focus on the work of Jesuit secondary and post-secondary institutions. Under faculty supervision, students gather information through interviews, analyze best practices, and share their reports and conclusions with a wider global audience. The fellowship is administered by the Berkley Center; the Center for Social Justice Research, Teaching and Service; and the Office of Mission & Ministry.

Watch the recording of the 2023 Global Social Justice Research Symposium.

Learn More

2023 ESJ Fellows

Pragyan Acharya (SFS'24)

Project Location: The Philippines

Pragyan conducted research at Xavier University in Ateneo de Cagayan, the Philippines. During his three weeks, he observed, interviewed, and participated in the life of the Night School Program, a government-subsidized social development project sponsored by the university’s School of Education. His research sought to understand how the volunteers at the Night School sustain their work through the Arrupe Volunteer Framework.

Molly May (C'24)

Project Location: Belize

Molly conducted research at St. Martin de Porres Primary School in Belize City, Belize. During her three weeks, she observed and interviewed students, teachers, parents, and administrators at the school to understand the core values of the community. Her focus groups and interviews examined channels of communication, social cohesion, and religious identity.

Renee Vongai Mutare (SFS'24)

Project Location: Belize

Renee conducted research at St. Martin de Porres Primary School in Belize City, Belize. During her three weeks, she observed and interviewed students, teachers, parents, and counselors working with Project HEAL, a non-profit organization providing counseling services and life skills training to students. Her research explored the role of counseling and social-emotional learning in education as a reflection of the community’s commitment to Jesuit values.

The Throne of the Virgin Mary in Cyprus.

Pulitzer Center International Reporting Collaboration

Elene Chkhaidze (SFS’25) was selected as the Berkley Center-Pulitzer Center international reporting fellow for summer 2023. She explored the role of religion in the Cyprus conflict. Her project centers religious leaders and visual elements to document the role religion could play in reconciliation efforts.

Other Student Programs

Global Citizenship

The IAJU Global Citizenship Fellows Program is an initiative of the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs at Georgetown University and the International Association of Jesuit Universities that empowers students from Jesuit universities around the world to become leaders in global citizenship. In June 2024, the latest cohort of fellows gathered in Rome for a transformative week-long study tour. There, they engaged in dynamic workshops, thought-provoking lectures, and enriching cultural excursions, all designed to deepen their understanding of global citizenship and inspire actionable solutions to pressing global issues.

The Global Citizenship Curriculum Project is organized under the auspices of the IAJU Task Force on Global Citizenship and made possible by the generosity of the GHR Foundation.

Human Fraternity

In the wake of the successful Human Fraternity Dialogues, the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs, in collaboration with the Higher Committee of Human Fraternity and the Muslim Council of Elders, launched the 2023-2024 Human Fraternity Fellows Program. The Human Fraternity Fellows Program enabled a select group of talented students who participated in our Human Fraternity Dialogues to engage deeper online and to convene for a study tour and in-person dialogue in Abu Dhabi from February 2 through 8, 2024. The Human Fraternity Dialogues and Fellows Program are made possible through the generosity of the GHR Foundation, which supports the Berkley Center’s Culture of Encounter Project.