Antipodean Bahá’í Studies

It’s not too late to make plans to attend the 33rd Annual Conference of the Association for Bahá’í Studies– North America! The conference, on the theme “Environments,” will be held 13–16 August 2009, at the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel in Washington D. C.

The conference will open Thursday morning with several general sessions as well as the Student/Faculty Development Program A special all-day workshop on  Thursday will explore the topic “Engaging the Writings: Scholarship and a Broad Pattern of Action.” Participants will be invited to examine excerpts from the Writings and identify insights on how to engage in and develop new approaches toward scholarship that advance Bahá’í Studies in areas such as global social and economic prosperity, defense of the Faith and the explanation and exploration of its teachings, and correlation of the teachings with the works in various disciplines. The afternoon session, “Some Explorations in Applying Bahá’í Scholarship,” will seek to connect knowledge with a cycle of learning, reflection and action with an emphasis on making a positive contribution to improving society. Presenters Dorothy Marcic, Peter Engstrom, and Johann Wong are from the arts, business and social development arenas and exemplify a strong commitment to putting principles into action.

 Also on Thursday afternoon, the International Environment Forum (IEF) will host a workshop led by Arthur Dahl on “Values-Based Indicators of Sustainable Development,” which welcomes all who are interested in learning about and contributing thoughts to an EU-funded project to develop values-based indicators of sustainable development. Dr. Dahl is senior consultant to the project, which is being jointly undertaken by a number of interested Europeanbased organizations, inspired in part by the Bahá’í International Community’s statement, “Valuing Spirituality in Development.”

Thursday evening’s plenary session on will feature Dr. Dahl’s presentation, “Transforming Environments from the Inside Out.”

The Friday morning plenary session organized by the IEF and moderated by Tahirih Naylor of the Bahá’í International Community will address the topic, “Global Governance, Human Maturity, and the Challenge of Sustainability.” This session will explore the emerging need for more effective international environmental governance in light of the widespread acknowledgement that current approaches are insufficient to safeguard the interests of an increasingly interdependent world. The emergence of a global consciousness of  oneness and the requisite degree of human maturity required to ensure a transition from national to global governance approaches will also be examined.

Peter Adriance, NGO Liaison for the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the U.S., will present on “The Essential Role of Religion in Fostering a Sustainable World.” Next, featured presenter Peter G. Brown will address the conference. Dr. Brown is co-author of the book, Right Relationship: Building a Whole Earth Economy (February 2009). The book, which was written by a cooperative group, emerged from the Quaker tradition of dialogue and truth-seeking. The Moral Economy Project and the authors start with the idea that human well-being is entirely dependent on the well-being of the whole commonwealth of life. Dr. Brown’s reflections have garnered strong interest from leaders of thought on the themes of global governance, human maturity, and sustainability.

The presentation will begin by defining the concepts of “right relationship,” the “commonwealth of life,” and “whole earth economy”. Dr. Brown will then introduce five key questions: What is the economy for? How does it work? How big should it be? What is a fair distribution of its benefits and burdens? How should it be governed?

Following this presentation, Arthur Dahl, President of the International Environment Forum, will respond and discuss, with audience participation. In the evening, along with the presentation of the Association for Bahá’í Studies Awards, there will be an Evening with the Arts.

Saturday morning’s plenary will begin with a presentation by Soli Shahvar, director of the Ezri Centre at Haifa University and author of The Forgotten Schools: Baha’is and Modern Education in Iran 1899–1934 (I.B. Tauris International Library of Iranian Studies, 2009), followed by a panel on “Social Environment and Building Bahá’í Community Identity” with Payam Akhavan, Kit Bigelow, and Mark Perry.

Payam Akhavan will discuss, in light of recent developments, the emerging need for a new Iranian Bahá’í identity, not as victims but as an important social force poised to provide leadership for the reconstruction of Iran.

Kit Bigelow will explore the Bahá’í teachings on the important role language and speech play and their relevance for changing our current cultural, social, and human environments. Mark Perry’s presentation will discuss “Annulling Differences of Race: The American Bahá’í Experience and Beyond.” Dr. Perry will trace the processes of change in the Bahá’í community with regard to race and their implications both for the development of early Bahá’í identity and for ongoing processes of change.

The evening program will be devoted to the Hasan M. Balyuzi Memorial Lecture presented by Otto Don Rogers.

Sunday morning’s plenary will include Member of the Continental Board of Counsellors Ann Boyles, and the Young Scholars Panel, moderated by Jian Khodadad.

Every evening after the plenary sessions there will be “After Hours Arts.”

Breakout sessions at the conference will include the following presentations:

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