At Brandeis
The International Center for Ethics, Justice, and Public Life is located at Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts. The Center works to honor and build on the legacy of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Louis Dembitz Brandeis, for whom the university is named, by providing opportunities for members of the extended Brandeis community to contribute to meaningful changes in the world.
The Center's on-campus mission is to reinforce deep and sustained consideration of issues of ethics, coexistence, and justice as a central and dynamic feature of Brandeis University, encouraging a climate of balanced consideration, creative response, and ethical reflection on those issues.
A hallmark of the work of the Center is the involvement of scholars and students from many parts of Brandeis University. The Center sponsors the Sorensen Fellowship, which support Brandeis sophomores and juniors to implement a project of their own design as an intern in the organization of their choice, anywhere in the world.
Staff members of the Center teach students enrolled in the Brandeis University graduate degree called the Master of Arts in Coexistence and Conflict, whose courses are grounded in the theories and practices of contemporary coexistence work. Staff member Professor Mari Fitzduff directs the MA program. Center staff also teach university courses in the undergraduate minor called Peace, Conflict, and Coexistence Studies.
The Center initiates and co-sponsors on-campus events related to our mission. These events feature prominent speakers and activists discussing issues of ethics and social justice and shaping responses to conflict throughout the world. Previous campus events have included 9/11 - Reflections Five Years Later; The Long View; Local Action/Global Impact; Telling the Story; and Pieces of the Coexistence Puzzle.
Tapping the expertise of its staff, students, and campus visitors, the Center produces a variety of publications on topics such as coexistence/peacebuilding, ethics, human rights, social activism, international justice, politics, and religion.
The Center coordinates the Distinguished Practitioner Residency program, which brings respected practitioners in any field to campus for several days to examine the ethical challenges and dilemmas of that field. The Distinguished Practitioner is in residence at Brandeis from three to five days, to offer public events, visit classes, and meet with student groups. Past Distinguished Practitioners sponsored by the Center have been Dr. Mohamed Bakarr, Director of Strategic Initiatives at the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF) in Nairobi, Kenya; Dr. William Haglund, United Nations Senior Forensic Advisor for the International Criminal Tribunals for Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia, and Senior Consultant to Physicians for Human Rights; and Dr. Brian Williams, an epidemiologist at the World Health Organization.
In addition, the Center mentors students from the Middle East at Brandeis through the Sylvia and Joseph Slifka Israeli Coexistence Scholarship, the Judd and Jennifer Malkin Israeli Scholarship, and the Seeds of Peace alumni scholarship.