Educating for Global Peace
spiritual & ethical perspectives on peace & justice
a peace education center & biosophical institute sponsored lecture series
june - december 2006
Please join us for this timely and provocative lecture series exploring spiritual and ethical perspectives on peace and justice towards educating for global peace. The THIRD talk in the series, "One World, Many Religions: Getting Beyond Dialogue..." will be September 12, featuring Joyce Dubensky, Executive Vice President of the Tanenbaum Center for Interreligious Understanding.
~ free and open to the public ~ RSVP requested ~
email: peace-ed@tc.edu / phone: (212) 678-8116
ONE WORLD, MANY RELIGIONS:
GETTING BEYOND DIALOGUE...
JOYCE S. DUBENSKY
Executive Vice President,
Tanenbaum Center for Interreligious Understanding
Tuesday, September 12. 7-9pm.
Location: Teachers College, Columbia University
(room will be posted at entrance)
click here for directions to Teachers College
Religion is often blamed for causing conflict and violence across the globe. But the lesser-told story is that religion can be an incredibly powerful resource for resolving conflicts and building sustainable peace. This presentation will focus on how education about religion and religious teachings are being used today to resolve conflicts and build peace in different parts of the world. It will also focus on practical approaches that address behaviors (as opposed to dialogue groups). This practical approach will be shared by elaborating on three of the Tanenbaum Center’s educational programs – Building Blocks for Democracy: Children Celebrate Their Traditions, COEXIST: A High School Curriculum, and Peacemakers in Action: Profiles in Religious Conflict Resolution – which focus on young children, high school students and adults, respectively.
Building Blocks offers curricula to help educators address thorny issues of cultural and religious diversity by tapping into the students’ own stories. COEXIST is a conflict resolution curriculum that offers real-world skills for resolving disputes, while educating students about the religions and cultures of Nigeria. It is based on the story of Imam Muhammad Ashafa and Pastor James Wuye; once motivated by religion to fight each other to the death, they have become Nigeria’s most dynamic peacemaking duo, tapping into Islamic and Christian teachings to make the case for peace. Peacemakers in Action: Profiles in Religious Conflict Resolution (Cambridge University Press, 2006) shares the real-life strategies that religious leaders have used successfully to negotiate cease-fires, hostage releases and reconciliation in areas of armed conflict around the world. With stories from regions as far-flung as Israel/Palestine, Northern Ireland, El Salvador, South Africa, Northern Ireland and East Timor, the forthcoming book will serve as a resource for diplomats, government actors, seminarians and religious leaders, demonstrating practical techniques used by religious leaders to make peace on the ground. Ms. Dubensky will highlight how each of these programs has broken ground in the field of peace education, their real world impact, and how attendees can benefit from the work that has been done.
JOYCE S. DUBENSKY
Joyce S. Dubensky is the Executive Vice President of the Tanenbaum Center for Interreligious Understanding, a non-sectarian not-for-profit that creates practical programs that address unresolved – and often unrecognized – tensions in religiously-diverse workplaces, schools and areas of armed conflict. The Tanenbaum Center’s programs help prevent verbal and physical conflict perpetrated in the name of religion. Ms. Dubensky oversees the Tanenbaum Center’s programs, which include: Religious Diversity in Education and Religion and Conflict Resolution. She recently completed the Tanenbaum Center’s newest publication Peacemakers in Action: Profiles in Religious Conflict Resolution (Cambridge University Press, fall 2006), a book on the methods of religious peacemakers who curb violence in armed conflicts around the world. She also developed a high school conflict resolution curriculum, COEXIST, based on two of the book’s subjects – sworn enemies turned peacemakers from Nigeria; and she is expanding the Tanenbaum Center’s award-winning Building Blocks for Democracy: Children Celebrate their Traditions program for elementary schools, named a 2005 Finalist for the Association of Educational Publishers’ Distinguished Achievement Award. Ms. Dubensky co-authored “Torture: An Interreligious Debate”, now in the recently-released book, The Torture Debate in America (Cambridge University Press, 2006). Before joining the Tanenbaum Center, Ms. Dubensky was Deputy Director with the New York Region of the National Conference for Community and Justice. An attorney, Ms. Dubensky created the Legal Department at the United Jewish Appeal-Federation of Jewish Philanthropies of New York, where she served as General Counsel for over ten years. Ms. Dubensky holds her J.D. from New York University School of Law and has a Master’s degree in American History with an emphasis on Minority Studies from Adelphi University. She serves on the Board of Advisors for the Center Against Violence in the Family.
Please note that lectures will take place at different venues.
Please contact the Peace Education Center for additional detail and to RSVP.
email: peace-ed@tc.edu / phone: (212) 678-8116
