There is the courage of superheroes and soldiers at war. Blockbuster courage, let’s call it. Then there is the courage of everyday people living regular lives – lives that are nevertheless heroic in their own way, especially when they are defined by a refusal to be defeated by the inevitable challenges of life, and even more, when they manifest a commitment to the happiness and wellbeing of others. These were the kinds of qualities that were celebrated and explored during the first Dialogue Nights of 2020, held at the Ikeda Center on Friday, January 31. Called “We Can Do It! Challenging...
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Millennials are often called “the anxious generation”—and for good reason, said Center Program Manager Lillian I in her welcoming remarks for the fifth and final Dialogue Nights of 2019. There is no shortage of reasons for this generation of young people to be in a “constant state of panic,” observed Lillian: “living paycheck to paycheck, not being able to pay rent, will I ever be able to save enough money to buy a house or have my own family, what is the purpose of my life, and the list goes on.” Held on December 13th, the event was called “Millennial Challenge: Appreciating the Uncertain...
The terms intercultural and intergenerational are usually used to describe distinct forms of dialogue or social interaction. Yet, they really are one and the same, aren’t they? Each generation has their own mores and modes of expression, as well as challenges they face that are unique to them, in other words, a unique culture. Thus, it was more than fitting that the 2019 Ikeda Forum for Intercultural Dialogue—called “Can Dialogue Save the World: Exploring the Power of Human Connections”—featured the dialogic experiences of eight young professionals who, over the last several months,...
On Friday, Oct 25th, more than 110 participants joined us for the 15th Annual Ikeda Forum: "Can Dialogue Save The World? Exploring the Power of Human Connections." Our heartfelt thanks to all who attended! This year's forum featured eight youth presenters who participated in a 5-6 month dialogue experiment with Boston-area scholars seeking to answer the question: "What kind of inner transformation does one experience through sustained dialogue with another informed by Daisaku Ikeda's philosophy?" The eight young professionals shared their findings and experiences at...
The Ikeda Center hosted its second-ever Movie Nights event on Friday, September 27. Participants gathered to watch American Textures, a 2016 documentary produced by Crossing Borders Films. In it, six Black, White, and Latino young people travel together across the United States, in the process learning not only about the history of racial injustice and segregation in the cities they visit, but also how to engage truthfully with one another about matters of race, identity, and community. The producers of the film envisioned it as a creative response to intensifying “interracial...
The fourth Dialogue Nights event of 2019 was devoted to exploring the meaning of friendship and its power to help us meet and overcome life’s challenges—small and large and in between. Called “Friendship: An Antidote to Despair?”, the August 16th event attracted nearly fifty Boston-area university students and young professionals who were eager to talk sincerely and openly about the role of friendship in their lives. The core question was this: Is genuine friendship really powerful enough to transform our feelings of despair about the world?
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As part of its Education Fellows program, the Ikeda Center convenes a gathering in Cambridge halfway through each two-year cycle of the program. The current fellows, each of whom is doing doctoral work relating to some aspect of Soka, or value creating, education, are able to engage in dialogue with the program’s Advisory Council members about their progress on their respective research and dissertation activities. This year’s gathering took place on July 26th, 2019.
All three current Fellows attended. Nozomi Inukai is a doctoral candidate in the College of Education at DePaul...
Over the last several years it has become apparent that nearly every topic or project the Ikeda Center turns its attention to requires a close consideration of the place of dignity within it. In other words, while dignity is a worthy topic in and of itself, digging into the particular meaning of dignity for scholars working in the various fields that comprise the movement toward peace and justice can enrich everyone’s appreciation for both the complexity of dignity in human affairs and the power of dignity as a driver of creative social change.
Working from this premise, the Center’...
The Ikeda Center hosted its first ever Movie Nights event on Friday, June 21. In her welcoming remarks, Anri Tanabe explained that Movie Nights extends the open-hearted spirit of Dialogue Nights, which is for university students and young professionals, to intergenerational gatherings of people. As with Dialogue Nights, the goal of Movie Nights is to promote dialogue on matters of immediate, contemporary interest. The first Movie Nights feature was State of Pride, a new documentary directed by Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman that features the YouTube star Raymond Braun traveling...
Winston E. Langley is Emeritus Professor of Political Science & International Relations, and Senior Fellow at the McCormack Graduate School, University of Massachusetts Boston, where he served as Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs from 2009 to 2017. Dr. Langley's scholarly interests include human rights, alternative models of world order, religion, and politics. His publications include Kazi Nazrul Islam: The Voice of Poetry and the Struggle for Human Wholeness and the Encyclopedia of Human Rights Issues Since 1945. A longtime friend of...
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Ikeda Center for Peace, Learning, and Dialogue
396 Harvard Street, Cambridge, MA 02138
Phone: (617) 491.1090 Fax: (617) 491.1169