The Berkley Center offers a number of ways for students to get involved with the work of the center, including participating in fellowship programs, taking courses and conducting research through the Doyle Engaging Difference Program, and working as student assistants.
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. 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 building knowledge and advancing cooperation through research, teaching, and dialogue.
Demonstrate 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 abilities and the ability to clearly articulate well-researched issues through academic and professional mentorship of 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 of Arts & Sciences and the School of Foreign Service to Georgetown Law.
The Religion, Ethics, and World Affairs program offers a minor for Georgetown Main Campus undergraduate students administered through the Berkley Center.
This year, the center supported Doyle Seminars on a wide range of subjects—from modern philosophy to anti-colonialism and disability narratives.
Over summer 2022, fellows conducted research on Jesuit educational initiatives in the United States, Portugal, and England.
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.
The Berkley Center administers the Religion, Ethics, and World Affairs (REWA) minor, which offers students the opportunity to reflect on faith and values across topic areas including international affairs, comparative politics, and religion in history and cultures. Learning at the Berkley Center extends far outside classroom walls through the global experiences of the Doyle Global Dialogue and our collaboration with the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting.
This year, the REWA capstone was taught by Judd Birdsall in fall 2022 and Rev. David Hollenbach, S.J., in spring 2023. The course examined the gains made under the Liberal World Order and inquired as to the possible pathways for religion and ethics to contribute in today’s swirling international environment. REWA capstone students presented their research during the Spring 2023 Student Symposium and online poster session.
Our Spring Symposium was held on April 22. The Berkley Center developed a virtual space on our student programs Hoya Paxa blog series to feature the research of REWA students from their capstone seminar (GOVT 313) on diverse topics including the role of religion in Biden’s environmental policymaking, just war theory and targeted killings, Vatican-Taiwan relations, and more. We invited Georgetown and the wider Berkley Center community to participate by commenting on the student projects in addition to attending in-person presentations on Main Campus.
Explore the Hoya Paxa blog series.
Read more about how the symposium showcases students’ interreligious and intercultural competency and intellectual curiosity.
related | Explore Berkley Center student projects.
Graduating REWA Students Slider
Thesis: “Democracy, Souls, and Blood: Conceptions of America’s Civil Religion in Recent Presidential Inaugural Addresses”
Building on prior scholarship regarding America’s civil religion, this paper used recent presidential inaugural addresses to examine a changing American ethos. The analysis focused on the conception of America’s divine legitimating mandate to be a “city on a hill” and the connection between democracy and national character in the twenty-first century.
Thesis: “Faith-Based Actors and Refugees in Lebanon: How Local FBAs Are Uniquely Positioned to Break Down Sectarian Boundaries and Enhance Religious Pluralism”
This paper argued that local faith-based actors (FBAs) in Lebanon are in a unique position to break out of their country’s rigidly defined sectarian boundaries and espouse religious pluralism. Furthermore, it argued that the optimal way to do so is through giving humanitarian aid—both material and spiritual—to Syrian refugees, regardless of their faith.
Thesis: “The (Benevolent) Eye in the Sky: Just War Theory and the Ethics of Drone Warfare”
The Christian philosophy of just war theory (JWT) can guide U.S. policymakers in creating a more ethical approach to drone warfare. Drone warfare has been heavily criticized for pushing the boundaries of ethics, freedom, and security and sparks discussions on sovereignty, human rights, bodily autonomy, international law, and interreligious dialogue.
Thesis: “What the Holy Don't See: A Catholic Defense of Vatican-Taiwan Relations”
This paper addressed the Vatican’s recent consideration of switching official recognition from the Republic of China (Taiwan) to the People’s Republic of China (PRC). As the leader of a global faith, and one of Taiwan’s last remaining allies, the Vatican plays an important role in shaping international relations through a moral lens, specifically what it means to honor human dignity.
Thesis: "Blood and Tears in the Name of God: A Comprehensive Analysis of ISIS’ Justifications for the Use of Violence and Exploitation"
Religiously fueled terrorism is tragically commonplace in the modern world. Throughout the years, groups like ISIS have raised themselves to infamy through their indiscriminate use of violence and hateful ideologies. However, the fuel and justification behind these atrocities is not always examined to the fullest extent. This project argued that there are various streams of underlying strategic justification that motivates the different facets of these groups’ members and followers.
Thesis: “The Church and Gender Inequality in Latin America”
As successful as religious actors have been in pushing Latin America towards democracy, justice, and human rights, issues of gender inequality seem to have been left behind. This paper examined the prevalence of gender inequality in Latin America, where the current policies and religious attitudes fall short, and how this cause can draw on successful Catholic human rights movements to create a framework that may be able to increase policy effectiveness in the region.
Thesis: “The Contributions of Christian Churches to Peacemaking in the Israel-Palestine Conflict”
Amongst millions of Jewish and Muslim residents of Israel and Palestine are a few thousand Christians. While Palestinian Christians are members of churches with historic and global significance, they are also parishioners with local spiritual and social needs who live in a challenging geopolitical context often characterized by conflict. This paper explored the peacemaking opportunities and limitations of Palestinian Christian churches from an institutional perspective.
Thesis: “The Coptic People and the State: The Role of Pope Shenouda in Shaping Political Engagement”
The church’s papacy has changed its methodologies of political involvement—or lack thereof—over centuries of persecution, discrimination, colonialism, and revolutions. This paper assessed the ways in which the Coptic papacy has varied in its relationship with various presidents and governments of Egypt from 1952 to the present, encompassing the papacies of Pope Kyrillos (Cyril) VI, Pope Shenouda III, and Pope Tawadros II. It focused especially on the ways that each pope chose to interact with presidents in terms of compliance and quiet conformity to the regime as contrasted with active advocacy for certain issues or for the Coptic community.
Thesis: “The Fault Line: Caste-Based Disparities Before, During, and After Nepal’s 2015 Gorkha Earthquake”
This project attempted to understand the connection, or lack thereof, between Hindu philosophy and the caste system in Nepal. It analyzed the cross-cutting role of caste throughout Nepal’s religious groups, even outside of Hinduism. The project then charted the development of Nepal’s social hierarchy from religious texts to embedded political practices of discrimination against lower castes and Janijati ethnic minorities. After establishing the role of caste in Nepal’s society, it analyzed the socioeconomic, political, and legal exclusion of Dalit caste communities. Finally, this project used the 2015 Gorkha earthquake as a lens of analysis to understand pre-existing vulnerabilities for marginalized groups (based on caste, ethnicity, and religion) before, during, and after the earthquake.
Thesis: “The Space Between Paradise and Guantanamo Bay: A Comparative Analysis of Religious ‘In-Access,’ Human Deprivation, and Islam’s Survival Behind Bars”
This research was a comparative study between U.S. domestic prison systems and Guantanamo Bay, examining the conditions of politically- and racially-charged religious "in-access" as a form of tactical torture and soul deprivation as well as the flourishing of Islam in spite of these conditions. It considered if these conditions are unique to the extremities of Guantanamo Bay and the "War on Terror" period, or if parallel structures exist in the U.S. domestic carceral system. It concluded with recommendations for how carceral systems can maintain ethical standards for religious freedom during crises to ensure the Global War on Terrorism’s ethical gray zone does not bleed into our own borders.
Thesis: “The Synod on Synodality and the LGBT Debate”
The Catholic Church is currently in the midst of a Synod on Synodality whereby Catholic leaders in each region of the Church are consulting among themselves and laypeople of the Church about the future of Catholicism. The Synod of the German Catholic Church has taken the unprecedented step of recommending to Pope Francis and the bishops around the world that the Church modify its teaching on homosexuality. This paper examined the pontiff’s viewpoint through some of his early actions, including the Synod on the Family and his papal exhortation Amoris Laetitia. The paper then discussed Fr. James Martin, S.J.’s approach towards LGBT issues in the Catholic Church as a potential framework for change in the Church on these matters.
Thesis: “The Triumphs and Perils of Social Media for American Religious Literacy”
Since its advent, social media has not only mobilized religious freedom around the world, but also connected physically distant religious communities. This paper explores another dimension of the relationship between social media and religion: how platforms like Twitter and Facebook are impacting religious literacy, the awareness of how religion intersects with society.
Hear from REWA Alumni Slider
"Only now being away from the Berkley Center do I realize just how significant the Berkley Center's impact has been on my career trajectory. The Berkley Center employs many of the world's foremost scholars of religion. However, it was easy to forget this as a Georgetown student, given how accessible these individuals were to me as professors, advisors, and close personal mentors. Now, I'm a graduate student at Harvard Divinity School, and many of my peers at HDS are seeking out ways to get involved with the Berkley Center as master's students. I feel so fortunate to already have an established relationship with the Berkley Center from my days as a Georgetown undergraduate. I carry lessons from the Berkley Center with me in all I do now within the realm of religious studies: the Education and Social Justice Project taught me how to conduct research with human subjects and how to interpret qualitative data; the myriad of classes I took as a REWA minor provided me with several lenses for interpreting religious movements; and the syllabus for my REWA capstone class exposed me to many of the authors that now serve as the basis for my learning in my master’s degree. Not a day goes by that I’m not reminded of something I’ve learned because of my involvement with the Berkley Center!"
Katherine Woodard (SFS'22)
“I was part of the first class of REWA students, and the program was perfect for me at that time. It allowed me to back-door a lot more philosophy and theology classes into an SFS curriculum, and that has served me extremely well over time. I remember writing then, and still believe now, that ethics is an essential practical bridge between religion and world affairs—after all, anyone working in a multicultural, multiconfessional world is going to have to wrestle with ethics.”
Colin Steele (SFS'12)
"The impact religion plays within my major of international politics cannot be understated, and I believe it helped me steer my major into a more ethical and humanity-focused IPOL major. The minor also allowed me to make a relationship with the incredible Dr. Craig, which led to me getting recommendations from her to get my Capitol Hill internship as well as my Fulbright grant. Having a professor to be able to ask questions and share news with is something I was missing in my college career, so I am incredibly grateful I ended up in the REWA minor and got to meet Dr. Craig and the other incredible professors that teach REWA classes."
Beyza Yazici (SFS'22)
“My REWA classes were among the most rewarding and memorable classes from my undergraduate experience. The small class sizes and direct engagement with some of the world's leading scholars on these issues was incredibly rewarding. I also found the curriculum to be flexible in allowing me to tailor the REWA courses to fit my interests.”
Jared Ison (SFS'17)
Our growing alumni network connects young professionals with students in our curricular programs, allowing the Berkley Center to continue fostering these relationships and building meaningful mentorship into our model.
DGD Student Reflections Slider
SFS'24
“In Taipei, cultures of the world rest against each other. Somehow both bustling and soothing, the city is a tapestry of opposites: traditional architecture preserved by modern innovations, spiritual discipline intertwined with the rhythm of nine-to-five jobs, and individuality shining through commonality. It is hard not to fall in love.”
SFS'24
“So, although I have found myself sitting a little bit straighter and being more meticulous with my words to be taken seriously, the positive experiences in this country far outweigh the bad. America, more specifically Georgetown University, has allowed me and my roommates to find refuge in our culture and religion, and for that, I am forever impressed and grateful.”
SFS'24
“My time abroad cultivated a new perspective that perhaps we’re doing something wrong, or even missing something altogether. American university campuses, social media platforms, and political discussions have become hyper-polarized. Valid and much-needed discussions around race invoke deeply personal experiences that offer invaluable perspectives to public policy. Yet, stepping outside the ring for a brief moment, I can’t help but wonder if we’re becoming more divided. Switzerland’s unity around shared values has certainly been a refreshing and uplifting experience for this particular Hoya that challenged me to rethink how we engage differences.”
SFS'24
“Coming back to the United States, I don’t know how to identify as Christian without identifying as a believer, but for five years I have struggled to reconcile these sides of myself, and I feel a lot of hope for reaching that. I’ve often found myself in spaces where I see things through my secular lens or my Christian lens, but this semester in Almaty was one of the first spaces where I could be both at once.”
C'24
“While I wish I could spend a semester in every country to gain a fuller understanding, I am satisfied with the widened perspective that I have gained from this trip. Even if I forget the details of my experiences, the fact that I was able to meet and learn from real people grants me a more empathetic understanding of those from faraway cultures, pushing me past a U.S.-centric world belief. I believe that experience will be something profound to take back to Alabama, aspiring to combat the ever-growing “us vs. them” mindsets in my home country.”
Inspired by the Document on Human Fraternity, in spring 2023 the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs at Georgetown University, together with the Higher Committee of Human Fraternity and the Muslim Council of Elders, piloted the Human Fraternity Dialogues, a unique platform for students from around the world to engage in meaningful conversations rooted in the principles laid out in the Document. The program assembled 109 students from around the globe, representing a vibrant spectrum of religious affiliations and cultural backgrounds. Driven by an imperative to unite people across religious, national, racial, and political lines, Georgetown University, the Higher Committee of Human Fraternity, and the Muslim Council of Elders also co-hosted a one-day student conference centered on giving a voice to the next generation of global citizens. On September 19, 2022, undergraduate and graduate students gathered from 11 universities across the Washington, DC, area, representing 17 nations as well as diverse religious and cultural backgrounds.
Read more about "Building Interreligious Solidarity: A Global Student Conference."
Learn more about the Human Fraternity Dialogues.
During the spring 2023 semester, the International Association of Jesuit Universities (IAJU) completed a successful pilot of its Global Citizenship Curriculum Project. Inspired by Jesuit Superior General Rev. Arturo Sosa’s 2018 call for “education for world citizenship,” the project brings students across the global Jesuit network of 200 colleges and universities into dialogue about the meaning and practice of global citizenship. Thirty-six professors from 20 Jesuit institutions incorporated a shared Global Citizenship Course Module (readings and recorded lectures) into diverse courses ranging from Theological Anthropology to Human Rights in Africa and Sociology of the Philippines. A highlight of the project was a series of 37 online dialogues that brought together 500 students from 12 different countries to share their perspectives on global citizenship with one another. Lively discussions centered on two foundational questions: “What does global citizenship mean to you?” and “How can young people have a positive impact as global citizens?”
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.
The Theology and Culture Community Dinner Group serves as an informal community-building space for law students and graduate students from different disciplines to exchange ideas about topics of interest. Students take turns choosing (brief) readings, sparking the discussion, and also providing an entry point for those who may not have had time to read that week. The group meets every other week at the Georgetown University Law Center.
Learn more about the Theology and Culture Community Dinner Group.
The Berkley Center and Georgetown’s Department of Arabic and Islamic Studies partnered during the 2022-2023 academic year to host a series of seminars on theology in Arabic. Georgetown students and faculty are invited to participate in reading Arabic theological texts in translation through these seminars, which will function as reading groups with an emphasis on exposure to theological reasoning and the personal voice of the authors from original Arabic texts. As familiarity with key topics develops, so too will familiarity with Arabic in its shared theological vernaculars across world religions: i.e., on the basis of terminology and overarching themes, and as a vehicle of personal expression.
Berkley Center faculty bring decades of scholarly and professional experience to the classroom, teaching in seven departments across the university while conducting research projects at the center. The center also supports the Doyle Seminars program, which provides undergraduate instructors with dedicated funding to develop inclusive pedagogies and engage diversity and difference in and beyond the classroom.
First-Year Seminars Slider
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.
Executive Director, Berkley Center
Associate Professor of the 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.
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.
Hear from Our Students Slider
"Inspired by my engagement in interreligious dialogue while at the Berkley Center, I was motivated to teach abroad after undergraduate at an international university that cultivates interreligious solidarity."
Domenic De Santes (C’23)
"My work with the Berkley Center has helped me understand how faith compels people to respond to political and social issues. These lessons are vital to my research and advocacy on issues related to environmental justice and migrant rights."
Kate Reeves (SFS'23)
As an entertainment journalist, understanding the intersection of race and pop culture is vital to successfully covering (and uncovering) what makes Hollywood tick. From #OscarsSoWhite to the Kardashians’ rampant cultural appropriation, JOUR 378 Pop Culture, Race, and the Media, a Doyle Seminar taught by Arienne Thompson Plourde in fall 2022, thoughtfully examined the myriad ways that race, racial identity, and racism infiltrate all aspects of entertainment.
Read more about the Pop Culture, Race, and the Media seminar.
Student Reflection on Pop Culture, Race, and the Media Slider
“I sent a ton of emails and ended up talking to someone who worked at Netflix and to an entertainment journalist. Our final project for the sports beat was on Black quarterbacks in the NFL and how academics discussed their media coverage, and I talked to a lot of academics who had worked just on this. I really enjoyed going straight to the source itself.”
Eli Kales (C'24)
2022-2023 Doyle Seminar Faculty Slider
Adjunct Lecturer, Journalism Program
Pop Culture, Race, and the Media (JOUR 378) thoughtfully examined the myriad ways that race, racial identity, and racism infiltrate all aspects of entertainment.
Associate Teaching Professor, Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures
Advanced Oral Communication (CHIN 313) was designed to enhance the oral communication skills of students who have completed at least three years of Chinese at the college level.
Assistant Teaching Professor, Department of Philosophy
How should I live? What is the right thing to do? What does it mean to be a good person? Ethical Theory (PHIL 232) was a systematic, intensive exploration of philosophical ethics that takes on these questions.
Assistant Professor, Department of French and Francophone Studies
By tracing the multiple dynamics of caring along issues of gender, race, class, and ecology, Caring in Crisis (FREN 465) questioned the relations of power and structures of inequality that the perspective of care reveals.
Associate Director, Georgetown University Women’s Center
In a Christian context, feminist theology explores the richness that comes from considering a God that seeks to be in relationship with creation from a position of marginalized identities. Feminist Theology (THEO 97) sought to engage the diversity of the field of feminist theology, including methods, approaches, topics, and experiences.
Adjunct Faculty, Center for Contemporary Arab Studies
Political Ecology (CULP 225) introduced students to the field of political ecology, which involves the ways that politics, power, and culture shape relationships between humans, other animals, nature, and the environment.
Postdoctoral Fellow, Georgetown Humanities Initiative
We live in the Anthropocene, a geological age defined by humanity’s dominant influence on climate and the environment. But there remains much debate as to when exactly the Anthropocene begins. This debate matters, as it puts into perspective our current environmental crises and the significance of human-environment interaction across time. Environmental History of Rome (CLSS 293) reflected on this significance over the short- and long-term by casting an environmental lens on the archaeology and history of the Roman Empire.
Associate Professor, Department of French and Francophone Studies
Francophone Feminist Thought (FREN 464) gave students the opportunity to discover French and Francophone voices and tendencies that can help inform and even inspire us in our current historical moment, because they offer tools and strategies for thinking through and tackling situations of injustice experienced by women and a variety of other marginalized groups in Europe, North America, and Africa.
Faculty Reflection on Pop Culture, Race, and the Media Slider
“I like to joke that after this course, my kids will never (passively) enjoy a movie again because their minds are working overtime thinking about who’s in power (decision-makers), who’s missing (underrepresented/historically excluded), and who benefits (mostly white, mostly male studio heads) when it comes to commercial art.”
Arienne Thompson Plourde, Adjunct Lecturer, Journalism Program
After the initial three-part conversation series in spring 2021, the Doyle Conversations about Anti-Racism in Higher Education continued to bring together students, faculty, and staff at Georgetown University for four sessions during the 2022-2023 academic year. Sponsored by the Doyle Engaging Difference Program, the series invited members of the Georgetown community to share strategies and tools related to anti-racist work across campus. The Doyle Program also offered a special session as part of the Teaching, Learning, and Innovation Summer Institute (TLISI) in May 2023. Events in the series explored anti-racist work in a wide variety of settings at Georgetown, from the curriculum and classroom pedagogy to student life. In each event, leaders from across the university reflected on their anti-racist work as part of a panel discussion. By fostering critical dialogue about race in its complexity, the event series helped to advance the conversation about racial justice on campus and beyond.
The Berkley Center collaborates with Georgetown’s Center for Social Justice Research, Teaching and Service to support Education and Social Justice fellows, in a model of mentored research echoed throughout the center. Student assistants and visiting graduate researchers at the Berkley Center play a critical role in supporting the work of scholarship at the center.
This map highlights the 43 countries in which our Education and Social Justice fellows have conducted their research projects. Learn more about the 2023 fellows and their projects by clicking on the countries highlighted in red.
2022 Global Social Justice Research Symposium Video Player
Meet Our 2022 ESJ Fellows Slider
SFS'23
Mobile, Alabama
Craig conducted research at Spring Hill College in Mobile, Alabama. During her three weeks at Spring Hill College, a small Jesuit college, her research focused on support systems that sustain students throughout their time in college, and how those systems are influenced by the school’s Jesuit values.
C'23
Lisbon, Portugal
Hengelbrok conducted research at the Fundação Gonçalo de Silveira (FGS). During her three weeks in Lisbon, Portugal, she shadowed, interviewed, and participated in projects at FGS, a non-profit organization dedicated to addressing inequalities within their communities through the development of global citizenship and care for the common good. Her research focused on the methodologies and practices that FGS employs in order to foster global citizenship, while also examining the impact of the 48-year long dictatorship on the role of civil society organizations within the Portuguese education system.
SFS'23
United Kingdom
Uniyal conducted research at three public and four private Jesuit schools in England. During his three weeks in England, he sought to understand the complexities of balancing social justice, character development through value-based education interventions, and financial stability at Jesuit schools across England. His research specifically focused on the Jesuit Pupil Profile, a value-oriented educational program aimed at building well-rounded and active students.
Student Assistants Slider
Berkley Center student assistants 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. Our student assistants 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.
Dina Aldanova (G’23)
Domenic De Santes (C’23)
Nikki Gander (G’24)
Madeline Hart (SFS’23)
Megan Hearst (G’23)
Kexin (Cassie) Huang (G’23)
Rosy Lin (C’23)
Lena Musoka (G’23)
Kerry O’Donnell (SFS’23)
Lindsey Parnas (G’23)
Mackenzie Poust (G’23)
Pooja Reddy (SFS’24)
Anna Snyder (C’22)
Olivia Yamamoto (SFS’24)
Elizabeth Zonarich (G’22)
