Global Reach
by Greg Schaber
James Buchanan has vivid memories of the first time the F.B.I. came calling. It was five years ago, shortly after the U.S. State Department began sending representatives from the Muslim world for visits to Xavier’s Edward B. Brueggeman Center for Dialogue. Buchanan, the Center’s director, gave each of the visitors his business card, one of which was later found in the possession of an individual with questionable ties in the Middle East.
“It was a little nerve-wracking,” Buchanan says, “simply because they came in and they knew everywhere I traveled throughout the whole year. ‘When you were here, who did you meet with?’ ”
Times have changed. Buchanan has gotten used to the now-annual event. These days the agents often call instead of stopping by, and those calls serve as regular reminders of how far the Brueggeman Center has come in just a few short years.
Six years ago, the Center was nothing more than a name and a few shelves in the McDonald Library. Now, through projects like the annual Town Hall Meeting, the Christian/Jewish/Islamic “Artistic Expressions of Faith” series and the landmark “A Blessing to One Another: Pope John Paul II and the Jewish People” exhibition—as well as many less-visible-but-no-less-important projects—the Center has emerged as an important cog in interfaith relations locally and beyond. Equally important, the Center’s scope also provides space at the table for other disciplines, the business and governmental communities, and civic society.
When it comes to environmental issues, Ralph Nader and John Pepper appear to be polar opposites. But Nader, the famed consumer-advocate and presidential candidate, and Pepper, the former chairman of Procter & Gamble, discovered unexpected common ground at the 2003 Town Hall Meeting on “Globalization and the Environment.”
“They were disagreeing, but in many ways their goals for humanity were pretty much the same,” Buchanan says. “What was interesting is that they found a kinship in that moment.”
Such is the power of dialogue. The ground rules are simple—the projects must be cutting-edge and the participants must have what Buchanan calls “the will to risk”—that is, they must be open to the possibility of having their views transformed. Finding an answer is secondary to beginning the conversation. “Every project we do I look at as a spark of hope,” Buchanan says. “You don’t know what’s going to come of it.”
Such sparks of hope are a treasured commodity on all fronts these days. Shakila Ahmad, a trustee for the Islamic Center of Greater Cincinnati, says dialogue is critical for real interfaith progress. “If we don’t talk to each other, how are we going to build understanding and learn to work together?”
The Islamic Center and the Brueggeman Center have engaged in a number of joint projects, from the biannual Artistic Expressions of Faith to a recent film screening that included opportunities for audience members to engage in one-to-one dialogue, to the 2006 Town Hall Meeting on “Islam and Globalization,” which featured Karen Armstrong, an internationally known expert on Islam. Ahmad says those projects neatly illustrate the Center’s multi-level contributions—fostering one-to-one discussion, taking a leadership role to bring in world-renowned experts for dialogue and in the creation of programming that can serve as a regional an national model.
Jonathan Cohen, associate professor in Talmud and Halachic Literature at Hebrew Union College- Jewish Institute of Religion, has collaborated with Buchanan on a number of programs. He points to “A Blessing to One Another” as a high point that solidified the Center’s place as a leader in interfaith relations. “The Brueggeman Center is unique and crucial to our community,” he says. “We need it to succeed in reaching as many people as possible.”
Building social capital is at the heart of everything the Center takes on, and its reach is long. To date, it has hosted individuals from 44 countries. In the midst of this activity, it has also emerged as a model for the power of collaboration—a particularly important trait in this era of shrinking budgets and programmatic reassessment. With funds limited to a small endowment, the Center has partnered with a broad range of organizations and corporate collaborators in staging a staggering number of events that bring in experts from around the world to dialogue on some of the critical issues of the day.
At 7:36 a.m. on May 5, Buchanan is at his computer, e-mailing the 2009 list of Winter/Cohen Brueggeman Fellows. Six students were chosen for the one-of-a-kind program in which they design and implement their own international research project and, ultimately, travel to places like Haiti, Peru, Brazil, Colombia, Jordan and Egypt. Alone. Unlike other study abroad experiences, the Brueggeman Fellows don’t have the support of faculty or other students traveling with them.
For Buchanan, that means another summer of sleepless nights. “We live on the edge when they’re out there doing this,” he says. “I’m on pins and needles. While we would never put them in harm’s way, we are not putting them in easy situations.”
Despite the sleepless nights, Buchanan says the program is his favorite among the Center’s many activities. Previous fellows have visited 17 countries. It’s all part of better preparing students to live and succeed in a globalized world. “It’s transformative,” he says. “They come back changed.”
A glimpse at some of the past Town Hall topics conveys a sense of the Center’s programmatic scope and underscores its focus on globalization. “China and Globalization: Challenges and Opportunities,” “HIV and Globalization,” “Globalization and Ecology,” “Cincinnati on the Brink: Race, Regionalism and Prospering in a Global Economy” and “The Impacts of Globalization on Women in the U.S. and Globally.” The events featured participants including Nader, Pepper, David Rusk, Mary Robinson, Dr. Paul Farmer and Vandana Shiva.
Buchanan has been studying globalization for years as an extension of his dialogue work. Now that globalization has become mainstream, his work puts the Center ahead of the curve and provides an edge in creative, impactful programming. Along with this programming, the Center is increasingly involved in other types of projects, such as producing books as the outgrowth of programs like last years symposium on religion and mortality, “Confronting Death.” It’s also working to aid refugees and asylees in Greater Cincinnati and trying to help navigate the financial and international regulations that would allow the production of affordable AIDS medication in Ghana. The Center was also one of eight nationally to participate in a new Fulbright visiting scholar program in 2008 and is involved in a long-term project on fundamentalism.
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