Welcome to A Different Future

Hi, friends.

On the pages that follow, I hope to chronicle my journeys over the next year, as I travel the world on sabbatical (and, OK, some vacation, too) visiting centers, interviewing experts, and just dreaming about how to build a new, innovative, and creative center dedication to civic dialogue, conflict transformation, mediation, and peacebuilding.

We as a nation stand at an impasse in our ability to talk to one another. Discord has silenced dialogue, debates derail into division. Our inability to have real dialogue across political, scientific, cultural, and personal divides has fractured our political and community conversations. It has also impoverished education, even at the highest levels. A critical need has arisen to teach our students, and our communities, how to engage constructively with those holding very differing ideologies and viewpoints, to have meaningful dialogue across our divides. Emory University is poised to take a bold step with the establishment of a new center in conflict transformation, mediation, civic dialogue, and peacebuilding; but even more, the initiative is a commitment to reimagine our educational priorities, strengthen community ties, and enrich democratic engagement at a pivotal moment in our nation’s history.

The chronicle you are reading records my odyssey to research, design, and build the new center. It is also an invitation to join me on this journey with your reactions and ideas. Starting with a sabbatical year of traveling the globe visiting centers in places like The Hague, Geneva, Oslo, Helsinki, Belfast, Johannesburg, and other centers, I will be seeking out new models, innovative curricula, and novel approaches to conflict to build into the design of the new center. Please come along - I need your creative minds, and I promise to listen carefully to anything you have to contribute. Let’s create something new, together!