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HCC Discussion Group:
Religion, Conflict & Peace
VIRTUAL EVENT New HCC Discussion Group
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We are happy to announce that we are putting together a free Harvard Club of Chicago online discussion group around the free 8-week online HarvardX Course, Religion, Conflict & Peace with Diane L. Moore, Senior Lecturer and Director of Harvard's Religious Literacy Project. This is a great opportunity to engage with fellow alumni on a topic that impacts nearly every aspect of our globalized world.
The HCC discussion group is being run by our very own HCC member Dennis Koehn. Dennis Koehn (MDV '78 Harvard Divinity School; PHDOB '15, Chicago Theological Seminary) conducted his postdoctoral research on religion, conflict and peace and has been a longstanding HCC online course discussion member. Thank you Dennis!
We hope to start the online discussion group at the beginning of August and meet through mid-October. The format of the group will be to view the course material individually and then meet via Zoom twice a month for a group discussion. We are a casual discussion group whose members engage on ideas with openness and tolerance. We understand that our members have various demands on their schedules. As such, we adjust our pace in a way that works best for the group.
The course (details below) is offered by HarvardX free for an 8-week period starting with the first day of individual enrollment. The self-paced course, open to the public, takes as little or as much time as you are willing to invest! The HCC discussion group is open to Harvard alumni and your guests.
The discussion group is a great way to engage with fellow alumni around a course that offers an excellent opportunity to better understand how religions function in contemporary world affairs. Please join us!
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-Thursday Sept 9
-Wednesday Sept 22
-Wednesday Oct 6
-Wednesday Oct 20 -- optional
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If you are interested in joining the online discussion group,
please email Dennis Koehn by Tuesday, August 3, 2021
About the HarvardX Course
In HarvardX Religion, Conflict & Peace, we will explore a series of contemporary conflicts in different regions of the world with a special focus on identifying and analyzing the diverse and complex roles that religions play in both promoting and mitigating violence in each context. Students will learn a method for recognizing and analyzing how religious ideologies are embedded in all arenas of human agency and not isolated from political, economic, and cultural life as is often assumed.
In addition to examining the conflicts themselves, we will also explore the religious dimensions of the impacts those conflicts have on civic life in areas such as public health, education, and commerce by addressing a series of questions.
- What roles do religions play in fostering violence and what roles do they play in promoting peace?
- How do religious institutions and ideologies function to support and/or thwart public health initiatives?
- What are the ideological justifications for functional economic policies and how do they reflect and/or challenge diverse religious values?
- What roles do religions play in advancing or suppressing educational opportunities and for whom?
- Are media representations of the religious dimensions of conflict accurate?
Possible countries of focus include: Brazil, Egypt, France, Israel/Palestine, Myanmar, Nigeria, Qatar, the Philippines, Somalia, Syria, Turkey, and the United States.
The course is open to all who wish to better understand how religions function in contemporary world affairs.
Please click here to find more information about the course.
For further questions on or to join the discussion group, please email Dennis Koehn.
Thank you & we hope you will join us for this great opportunity to engage with fellow Harvard alumni!
Harvard Club office:
847-256-1211