Tag: peacebuilding

Liberty and Learning: Mustafa Akyol

Mustafa Akyol, a prominent Muslim modernist and senior fellow at the Cato Institute, is featured in the latest NetVUE podcast episode. He discusses his journey as a journalist and academic, emphasizing empathy and collaboration for peace. Akyol reflects on religious liberty, democracy, and his aspirations for peace in the Middle East.

Mustafa Akyol

The most recent episode of NetVUE’s podcast Callings features Mustafa Akyol, a public intellectual who is widely regarded as one of the most notable Muslim modernists and reformers in the world today. Named one of the world’s top 50 thinkers by the UK magazine Prospect, he is a senior fellow at the Cato Institute’s Center for Global Liberty and Prosperity in Washington, D.C., as well as a senior lecturer at the Islamic Civilization and Societies program at Boston College and the director of the Islam and the Muslim World course at the Foreign Service Institute.

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A Pilgrimage of Pain and Hope: Emmanuel Katongole

Emmanuel Katongole, a Catholic priest and theology professor, discusses his vocational journey in the most recent episode of NetVUE’s podcast Callings, emphasizing themes of identity, belonging, and the complexities of living a life that crosses boundaries. His experiences illustrate how dislocation can help explore questions of home and community and foster a deeper understanding of self and hope in creating a better world.

Emmanuel Katongole

In the most recent episode of NetVUE’s podcast Callings, our hosts John Barton and Erin VanLaningham speak with Emmanuel Katongole, a Catholic priest in Uganda and a professor of theology and peace studies at the University of Notre Dame. Known for his work on violence and politics in sub-Saharan Africa, Katongole is a theologian of peacebuilding and reconciliation who confronts the complexities of callings in various contexts. He is the author of many books, his most recent being Who Are My People? Love, Violence, and Christianity in Sub-Saharan Africa.

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Peace, Conflict Resolution, and Vocation: A Call to Respond

NetVUE’s November 2023 Webinar focused on vocational elements of peacemaking and conflict resolution in the context of existing conflict and violence in various parts of the world, such as Gaza and Ukraine.

Engaging students in the classroom continues to be an essential part of undergraduate education but is often a challenging task. Current world events can be complicated, stressful, and difficult to understand. NetVUE’s November 2023 Webinar focused on vocational elements of peacemaking and conflict resolution in the context of existing conflict and violence in various parts of the world, such as Gaza and Ukraine. Exploring meaning and purpose as peacemakers can help students connect academic topics as well as personal development to global and local realities. On November 21, three speakers discussed experiences and strategies for how we can integrate global events in our work with students.

John Barton (top left); Geoffrey Bateman (top right);
Jonathan Golden (bottom left); Rachel Pickett (bottom right)
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Called to Build Peace

As educators today, and particularly in the humanities, we face several challenges: how do we lead students into worthwhile conversations and real learning on controversial issues? How can we help students overcome their natural obstacles to understanding others, especially understanding views different from their own?

How can people with different views on issues that matter have meaningful conversations? 

My students in first-year composition may or may not care about writing a paper, but when I ask this question the first day of class, they are with me. They are tired of the shouting stalemate they see in our current discourse, and they want to do better. 

As educators today, and particularly in the humanities, we face several challenges: how do we lead students into worthwhile conversations and real learning on controversial issues? How can we help students overcome their natural obstacles to understanding others, especially understanding views different from their own? How do we help them “loosen up so they can learn,” as my colleague Paul puts it—to open up intellectually and emotionally so that they can engage with the world? 

Continue reading “Called to Build Peace”