open book with sparkles and light coming out

Administration and Planning

Event Partners
  • Administered by Nazareth University's Brian and Jean Hickey Center for Interfaith Studies and Dialogue, and IIIT Chair for Islamic and Interfaith Studies, Rochester, NY

Institutional partners of the conference include:

  • Department of Religious Studies, Hobart and William Smith Colleges, Geneva, NY
  • International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT)
Sponsors
  • Department of Religious Studies, Nazareth University
Planning Committee

Conference Planning Committee

  • Dr. Thomas Donlin-Smith, Prof. Emeritus, Nazareth University
  • Dr. Mustafa Gokcek, Niagara University, Niagara Falls, NY
  • Dr. Shalahudin Kafrawi, Hobart and William Smith Colleges, Geneva, NY
  • Dr. Syeda Beena Butool,  Nazareth University
  • Dr. Etin Anwer, Hobart and William Smith Colleges, Geneva, NY
  • Dr. Robert Dunbar, Religious Studies, St. John Fisher U. Rochester, NY
  • Dr. Jeffrey McPherson, Roberts Wesleyan University, Rochester NY 
  • Rabbi Dr. Owen Gottlieb, Rochester Institute of Technology.
  • Fr. Dr. Michael Calabria, St. Bonaventure University
  • Dr. Kate Fitzgerald, Nazareth U. 
  • Dr. Tom Lappas, Dean, College of Liberal Arts, Sciences, Business, and Education (CLASBE), Nazareth U.
  • Dr. Muhammad Shafiq
    Conference Coordinator and Executive Director of the Hickey Center, IIIT Chair for Islamic & Interfaith Studies, Nazareth U.

 

Conference Theme: Just Peace: Reconciliation, Forgiveness and Healing in Sacred Texts and Human Contexts

Once again, Nazareth University, the Hickey Center for Interfaith Studies and Dialogue, and the IIIT Chair for Islamic and Interfaith Studies are pleased to invite you, along with scholars from around the world, to contribute original research on the contemporary theme of Just Peace as reflected in sacred texts and human contexts within the fields of religion and the social sciences. We welcome your participation in our Ninth International Conference, which seeks to foster scholarly dialogue and interdisciplinary engagement on the challenges and possibilities of achieving just and sustainable peace in an increasingly complex global society.

Present Location: Nazareth University, 4245 East Ave., Rochester, NY 14618

When: Tuesday to Thursday, May 25-27, 2027

Why this conference title:

Our contemporary world is facing unprecedented challenges to peace, justice, and human dignity. Armed conflicts, political polarization, religious extremism, forced migration, economic inequality, environmental crises, and the rapid spread of misinformation through digital media have intensified divisions and conflicts among within and among states. While the absence of war is often regarded as peace, many communities continue to experience structural injustice, discrimination, oppression, and violations of fundamental human rights. These realities underscore the urgent need to move beyond traditional understandings of peace toward the more comprehensive concept of just peace—a peace grounded in justice, human dignity, reconciliation, and the common good.

Religious traditions and sacred texts have long provided moral and ethical frameworks for addressing conflict, promoting compassion, and fostering social harmony. At the same time, the social sciences offer critical tools for understanding the political, economic, cultural, and psychological dimensions of violence and peace-building. Bringing these perspectives together enables scholars, practitioners, and community leaders to engage in meaningful dialogue on how just peace can be cultivated in diverse human contexts.

A conference on Just Peace is particularly timely as societies around the globe grapple with ongoing wars, humanitarian crises, rising nationalism, religious and ethnic tensions, and challenges to democratic institutions. These developments call for renewed scholarly reflection on the relationship between justice and peace and for collaborative efforts to develop practical approaches to conflict transformation and social reconciliation. This conference provides an ample opportunity to scholars advancing a vision for just peace by addressing the immediate and structural causes of violence and conflicts for sustainable peace.

   Panel Titles include but not limited to:

interdisciplinary/interfaith frameworks for addressing conflict
 
 a)     critically examination of the concept of “just peace”, reconciliation, and healing

b)     interdisciplinary/interfaith frameworks for addressing conflict

c)     cultivating reconciliation and individual/collective healing

d)     “just peace” as ethical, theological, philosophical, and sociopolitical commitments to justice and repair

e)     enacting practices of forgiveness, accountability, and restoration in contexts of conflict, inequality, and polarization

f)       liberation hermeneutics

g)     interfaith ethics

h)     race and justice

i)       lived theologies

j)       other suggestions.

  Note: The conference is held in a hybrid format, allowing those who are unable to attend in person to participate by presenting or attending virtually.   

  •  Registration Cost:

  • in Person Presenter: $449.00 (includes meals and refreshments)
  • Participant/Spouse: $309.00 (includes meals and refreshments)
  • in person for speakers without meals but includes refreshment and airport pick and drops: $145.00
  • in person cost for student presenter without meals but refreshments included and airport pick and drops: $135.00
  • Zoom presentation:  $105.00 (limited to overseas scholars for visa issues or those with genuine reasons of being not able to come in person)
  • Registration for Zoom participants, $ 59.00
  • Room Night on Campus: $84.00 (if staying on campus) 

Submitting a proposal:

The Conference is open to scholars in religious studies, theology, social sciences and humanities from US and abroad as presenters or participants.

  • SUBMITING a  PROPOSAL
  • Abstracts should be no more than 550 words
  • Send a 225-word resume that presents expertise in the area of your presentation
  • Include your address, telephone number, and email address
  • Last date to receive your proposal is January 10, 2027; earlier is preferred. Notice of acceptances or otherwise will be sent by January 31, 2027
  • Guidelines for full presentation will be emailed with acceptance of proposal
  • Registration will open on February 5, 2027
  • Selected papers are published   
  • Email your abstracts or having any questions to: hickeycenter.conference@gmail.com
  • Please indicate in your abstracts whether you will present in person or online, thanks
Book cover shows a hand holding an open book

Book from Sacred Texts conference is available.

Past Conferences and Publications

2013: Focused on the role of sacred texts in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, in uniting and dividing humanity. Selected papers from the conference were published in December 2014: Sacred Texts & Human Contexts: A North American Response to A Common Word between Us and You

2014: Held in Istanbul. Focused on poverty and wealth in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Selected papers were published by Palgrave MacMillan in June 2016: Poverty and Wealth in Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

2016: Focused on nature and the environment in religions. Selected papers were published in January 2018: Nature and the Environment in Contemporary Religious Contexts. A WXXI public radio half-hour interview with Thomas Donlin-Smith, professor of religious studies at Nazareth University; Nathan Kollar, Hickey Center co-founder; and others explored how faith influences the environment. Fall 2017 publication by Cambridge Scholars Publishing: Nature and Environment in Contemporary Religious Contexts.

2017: Focused on women and gender in religions. Selected papers were published in February 2019: Making Gender in the Intersection of the Human and the Divine.

2018: Sacred Text and Human Context international conference is on Religions and (De)Legitimization of Violence on July 29-31, 2018 at Nazareth University. More than 50 scholarly papers are expected to be presented on the topic. The Conference Committee have selected 17 Papers for publication. The editing process are mostly compete and we are sending the manuscript to publishers. The book: Religions and (De)Legitimization of Violence (2021, Palgrave).

2021 Focused on Mystical Traditions: Approaches to Peaceful Coexistence was held virtually on May 24-25, 2021. The book:  Mystical Traditions: Approaches to Peaceful Coexistence (Interdisciplinary Approaches to the Study of Mysticism) was published by Palgrave McMillion in 2023.

2023: Conference on Inclusion or Exclusion: The Self and the Other in Sacred Texts and Human Contexts was held at Nazareth University of Rochester on May 22-24,2023 and the book: Inclusion or Exclusion in the Sacred Texts and Human Contexts, has been published by Palgrave in 2024