THE MISSION STATEMENT
OF THE BOSTON RESEARCH CENTER
The Boston Research Center for the 21st Century (BRC) is an international peace institute founded in 1993 by Daisaku Ikeda, peace activist, educator, and president of Soka Gakkai International (SGI), a Buddhist organization active in 190 countries and territories around the world. Inspired by the SGI's philosophy of value creation (Soka), the BRC works to build cultures of peace through dialogue and education programs. These programs include public forums and scholarly seminars that are organized collaboratively and offer a diverse range of perspectives. The overarching goal of these gatherings is to contribute to a shift in U.S. culture from isolation, violence, and war to interconnectedness, nonviolence, and peace.
The BRC also works to encourage the peaceful aspirations of young people through multi-author books published by academic presses. Among these, Subverting Hatred (1998), Buddhist Peacework (1999), Subverting Greed (2001), Educating Citizens for Global Awareness (2005), and Ethical Visions of Education (2007) introduce humanistic values and concerns that serve to enrich the "core curriculum." So far, our books have been used as supplemental texts in more than 400 college and university courses in the United States. Other publications include a semi-annual newsletter, the annual Ikeda Forum report, and a resource-packed website on which we post detailed summaries of our events.
Events-- Our current programs include the Ikeda Forum for Intercultural Dialogue, named after BRC founder, Daisaku Ikeda, in honor of his untiring commitment to dialogue as the sure path to peace. The annual series began by exploring points of connection between the American literary renaissance of the nineteenth century and Eastern wisdom. Looking to the Transcendentalists for inspiration, we tried to imagine how a spiritual and philosophical renaissance in the U.S. might look today.
The first three forums were:
· Re-Awakening East-West Connections: Walden and Beyond (2004), commemorating the 150th anniversary of Henry David Thoreau's classic;
· "Talking Back" to Whitman: Poetry Matters (2005), commemorating the 150th anniversary of Walt Whitman's masterpiece, Leaves of Grass ; and
· Emerson and the Power of Imagination (2006).
Building on last year's theme of imagining a "state based on love," as Emerson urged, this fall's Ikeda Forum will explore women's leadership for social change and the transformative power of friendship across culture, race, and class differences. Expanding our focus beyond the Transcendentalists, "Women and the Power of Friendship" will explore women's capacity to bring people together during the social reform movements of the nineteenth century in the United States and in emerging social change initiatives today.
This winter, the BRC sponsored a series of lectures and discussions on cosmopolitan education with Professor David T. Hansen, editor of Ethical Visions of Education. We look forward to future seminars with local educators, using Ethical Visions to stimulate dialogue on the larger purposes of education. For summaries of these programs, as well as our past events, including a Women of Courage Lecture Series and the BRC Learning Circle on Community Building, please visit our website at www.brc21.org/events.htm l .
Research-- In the spring of 2007, the Center launched a fellowship program to support dissertation research in humanistic education. BRC Education Fellows will receive financial support for research on any aspect of the contemporary philosophy and practice of Soka education. See http://www.brc21.org/resources/res_edfellowsprog.html for details.
Publications-- The Center has developed several multi-author books for college courses. In 2005, Teachers College Press published the Center's first book on education, Educating Citizens for Global Awareness , a volume edited by Nel Noddings that explores ways to integrate global concerns into high school curricula. Early in 2007, Teachers College Press published Ethical Visions of Education: Philosophies in Practice , edited by David T. Hansen, which highlights the breakthroughs of courageous educators worldwide during the wars of the 20th century.
Among the Center's most popular titles are Subverting Hatred: The Challenge of Nonviolence in Religious Traditions (1998), and Subverting Greed: Religious Perspectives on the Global Economy (2002), both published by Orbis Books. In the Fall of 2007, Orbis will bring out a 10th Anniversary Edition of Subverting Hatred with a new introduction by editor Daniel Smith-Christopher and new material containing a post-9/11 perspective. Other popular titles include Abolishing War (1998), which was updated in 2002 with an online dialogue between peace scholars Elise Boulding and Randall Forsberg, and Buddhist Peacework (Wisdom Publications, 1999) which documents the widespread peace activities of numerous Buddhist movements throughout the world.
Staff --Since its founding, the executive director of the Boston Research Center has been Virginia (Straus) Benson. Before joining the BRC, Benson co-directed a Boston-based public policy institute and served as an urban policy aide in the Carter White House. Other full-time staff members of the Center are:
Shirley Chandl, Office Manager
Masashiro Hagiya, Treasurer and IT Manager
Kevin Maher, Administrative Manager
Beth Zimmerman, Events Manager
Masao Yokota, President
|
|