Upcoming Event – Book Discussion: Fundamental Challenges to Global Peace and Security

May 5, 2022 

11am – 12.30pm  EST 

Virtual Event – Register at: https://umd.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_EFVPyWVQQjKZ8yFFic6LuQ

This event features the editors of the recent volume Fundamental Challenges to Global Peace and Security: The Future of Humanity. Professor Michael H. Allen, Professor Hoda Mahmoudi, and Dr. Kate Seaman. The discussion will explore the challenges raised in the volume around current thinking and strategies in the field of global peace and security. The discussion will be moderated by Stella Holladay Hudson.  Continue reading

Upcoming Virtual Event: A World Without War: A Conversation with Authors Drs. Hoda Mahmoudi & Janet Khan

A World Without War: A Conversation with Authors Drs. Hoda Mahmoudi & Janet Khan

Moderator: Mr. Vafa Valapour

July 25, 2020

7:00 – 8:30 AM EDT

3:00 – 4:30 PM United Arab Emirates Standard Time

9:00 – 10:30 PM Australian Eastern Standard Time.

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Upcoming Virtual Event: A World Without War: A Conversation with Authors Drs. Hoda Mahmoudi & Janet Khan

A World Without War: A Conversation with Authors Drs. Hoda Mahmoudi & Janet Khan

Moderator: Dr. Tiffani Betts Razavi 

July 17, 2020

3:00PM – 4:30PM EDT 

5:00 – 6:30 AM (Saturday, July 18, 2020 Australian Eastern Standard Time)

9:00 – 10:30 PM  Central European Time

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Book Review: Little Brown Me, and Other Reflections on Identity

Are we as adults prepared to help the children we care about make sense of their own race-related observations?

This is a book review of  Why are all the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria by Beverly Daniel Tatum. The review was written by Brandie Williams. 

In this thought-provoking work, Why are all the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria, Beverly Daniel Tatum weaves together a conscious-jolting web of understanding surrounding privilege, racial identity, and how we come to understand who we are as individuals. In the very beginning of her book, she challenges us with a simple exercise: “think back to your earliest race-related memory.”

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Book Review: How to Rescue Those Who the System Fails

This is a book review of Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson. The review was written by Esther Kaufman. 

“Mercy is most empowering, liberating and transformative when it is directed at the undeserving,” writes author Bryan Stevenson in his book, Just Mercy. This is a concept that is difficult but perhaps essential to embrace as the media constantly divides people and societies into heroes and villains. I was born to immigrant parents who fled anti-Semitism and praise America as the land that gave their families mercy when no other state could. Yet, Bryan Stevenson’s portrayal of the American criminal justice system revealed injustices that disrupted all of my preconceived notions regarding America’s inherit goodness. Continue reading

Book Review: Ethics by Baruch Spinoza

Sometimes you finally get to read that book that makes things fall into place. No matter how much modern philosophy you read, without tracing those thoughts back to their place of origin, you will miss a lot. And who would have thought that this little book by Spinoza (1632-1677), who was ostracized for thinking outside of the limits the religious community he grew up in had put on him, would be such an eye-opener? Nowadays Spinoza’s work is an inspiration not only for philosophers, but also across different religious communities. In 1929 Einstein wrote “I believe in Spinoza’s God.” [Source] So why is Spinoza’s legacy still such an inspiration today? Continue reading