2025 Ikeda Forum | Engaging Difference in an Age of Division: The Power of Dialogue and Human Revolution in Restoring Our Shared Humanity
Join us for our 21st annual Ikeda Forum for Intercultural Dialogue on Friday, September 26, from 7:00 - 8:45 pm ET. Named after Center founder Daisaku Ikeda in honor of his untiring commitment to dialogue, this signature event brings scholars from diverse disciplines and backgrounds together to investigate the peacebuilding potential of key ideas drawn from Buddhist humanism. This year’s forum is titled, “Engaging Difference in an Age of Division: The Power of Dialogue and Human Revolution in Restoring Our Shared Humanity,” and features a panel discussion with four renowned scholars and peacebuilders:
- Catia Confortini, Professor of Peace and Justice Studies, Wellesley College (moderator)
- Nadya Hajj, Associate Professor of Peace and Justice Studies, Wellesley College
- Anna Ikeda, Representative to the UN for Disarmament of Soka Gakkai International (SGI) and Program Coordinator for Disarmament at the SGI Office for UN Affairs
- James McCarty, Clinical Assistant Professor of Religion and Conflict Transformation; Director, Tom Porter Religion and Conflict Transformation Program, Boston University
Acknowledging the divisiveness of this current moment, the inspiration for this year’s forum theme is found in these words of Mr. Ikeda:
…transforming the course of human history will require of each individual a truly profound inner resolution, an existential determination to seek one’s fundamental, inherent humanity and to transform one’s entire being–an endeavor that we… call human revolution.
Crucial to this process is an awareness of the existence of others–to have what might be called an internalized other. It is only through intense spiritual interaction that humans grow and mature. An inner, spiritual dialogue is a necessary prerequisite for any attempt at external dialogue.
The forum will include a pre-event reception with food, icebreaker activities, small group discussions and reflections, and more.
Free admission. Pre-event reception with food begins at 6:30 pm.
Moderator & Panelists Bios:
Catia C. Confortini is Associate Professor at the Peace and Justice Studies Program at Wellesley College in the US. She received her Ph.D. in International Relations from the University of Southern California and her MA Degree in International Peace Studies at the Joan B. Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies at the University of Notre Dame. Her research and publications explore the contributions of women’s peace activism to peace studies as an academic field and as a practice, as well as feminist theorizing of peace and violence. More recently, she has explored the relationship between feminist peace research – with its normative commitment to a world without (gendered) violence – and global health. This has resulted in the co-edited book (with Tiina Vaittinen) entitled Gender, Global Health, and Violence: Feminist Perspectives on Peace and Disease (RLI, 2020). Her work has been published in Health Policy and Planning, The International Feminist Journal of Politics, Peace and Change, Journal of International Political Theory, and International Political Sociology. She is the author of Intelligent Compassion: Feminist Critical Methodology in the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (OUP, 2012); co-editor (with Tarja Väyrynen, Élise Féron, and Swati Parashar) of The Handbook of Feminist Peace Research (Routledge 2021); and co-editor (with Tiina Vaittinen and Shweta Singh) of the book series Feminist Studies on Peace, Justice, and Violence (Edinburgh University Press).
Nadya Hajj is an Associate Professor in Peace and Justice Studies at Wellesley College and a Visiting Scholar with the Middle East Initiative at Harvard University. Her research focuses on conflict transformation and public good provisions among marginalized communities like refugees. She has 20 years of experience in qualitative research in conflict settings. With a focus on Palestinians living in refugee camps in Lebanon and Jordan, her first book, Protection Amid Chaos: The Creation of Property Rights in Palestinian Refugee Camps (Columbia University Press, 2016), explores how people develop binding claims on assets and resources in challenging political and economic spaces. Her second book, Networked Refugees: Palestinian Reciprocity and Remittances in the Digital Age (University of California Press, 2021) shows how Palestinians living in refugee camps utilize Information Communication Technology platforms to motivate reciprocity—a cooperative action marked by the mutual exchange of favors and services—and informally seek aid and connection with their transnational diaspora community to solve collective dilemmas, like raising funds for funeral services, or securing other critical goods and services. Hajj holds a Ph.D. and an M.A. in Political Science from Emory University and a B.A. in Middle East Studies and Political Science from the University of Virginia.
Anna Ikeda is a Representative to the UN for Disarmament of Soka Gakkai International (SGI) and Program Coordinator for Disarmament at the SGI Office for UN Affairs,where her work focuses on nuclear abolition and stopping killer robots. She is a campaigner for the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) and Stop Killer Robots, where SGI serves as an international member. In her work, Anna has explored the role of peace and disarmament education in strengthening norms for and promoting disarmament, as well as the contributions of youth and faith communities. On behalf of SGI, Anna has also supported the coordination of many joint interfaith statements on nuclear weapons delivered at the UN disarmament fora. She is an Executive Committee member of the Voices for a World Free of Nuclear Weapons, a cooperation circle of the United Religions Initiative. She also serves on the Board of Directors of the Metta Center for Nonviolence. Anna holds an MA in International Human Rights from the University of Denver, and MS in Global Affairs from Rutgers University.
James McCarty, PhD, is Clinical Assistant Professor and Director of the Religion and Conflict Transformation Program at Boston University’s School of Theology. At Boston U he is also a Faculty Affiliate with the Institute on Culture, Religion, and World Affairs at the Pardee School of Global Studies. He is the author of multiple peer-reviewed journal articles and the editor of two books, the most recent of which is The Business of Incarceration: Theological and Ethical Reflections on the Prison-Industrial Complex publishes this year.