Colloquia and Panel Discussions

A core purpose of the Ikeda Center is to bring scholars and others together across disciplines and institutions to explore and promote peace, learning, and dialogue. These often take the form of colloquia and panel discussions.

Nuclear Abolition: Claiming Your Right to Live

This April 2018 panel discussion and public dialogue featured students from the two Reardon-Zakharia nuclear abolition seminars. They shared their findings on how best to raise awareness of nuclear issues among the general population and to strengthen their commitment to abolition.
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Assessing the State of Soka Education

The field of Soka education studies took a big step forward in June 2017 when fourteen education scholars gathered at the Ikeda Center to discuss directions that will both advance the practice of Soka education and increase awareness of it within the academy.
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Glimmers of Hope: Peace Education Around the Globe

Held at the University of San Francisco, this March 2016 panel discussion featured scholar-educators Matt Meyer, Maria Hantzopolous, Monisha Bajaj, and Tetsushi Ogata. They illuminated the various aspects of critical peace education.
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Thoughts on Education for Global Citizenship Globe

In June 2011, the Ikeda Center hosted a non-public seminar in which Boston-area scholars examined key thoughts from Daisaku Ikeda's 1996 Teachers College lecture on global citizenship education.
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Dialogue In a Divided World

For this in-house 2009 seminar, Professor Nur Yalman invited several of his Harvard colleagues to explore challenges to humanistic education and open-hearted, open-minded dialogue in a world marked by vast differences in power.
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Active Education, Active Democracy

This article reports on a Center-sponsored panel discussion at the April 2008 Philosophy of Education Society annual meeting, held in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Panelist consider, DuBois, Montessori, and Makiguchi.
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Learning to Learn About Death

This February 2008 public dialogue held at the Center featured Harvard professors Harvey Cox, Tu Weiming, and Nur Yalman along with cultural anthropologist Mary Catherine Bateson looking at cross-cultural views on death.
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A Buddhist Perspective on Death

During this October 2008 event, Dr. Yoichi Kawada spoke on "Enjoying the Rhythm of Birth and Death." Cultural anthropologist Mary Catherine Bateson responded.
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Re-imagining the Purposes of Education in our Time

In early 2007, Professor David Hansen of Teachers College, Columbia University, discussed themes from Ethical Visions of Education, which he edited, and also explored the cosmopolitan approach to education. Professor Ann Diller repsonded.
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Please check back for more colloquia and panels from 2007 and earlier.