New Center Offers Certificate in Intercultural Dialogue

The Center, which will be established in September 2008, is the latest step in formalizing Shankman's position as the first-ever North American UNESCO Chair in Transcultural Studies, Interreligious Dialogue and Peace. There are only 20 other chairs of this type in the world.

UNESCO, the educational wing of the United Nations, organizes a number of cultural programs -- one of which is entitled "Intercultural Dialogue."

"We are extremely proud that the first chair awarded for this program in the United States has been given to Steven Shankman," said UO President Dave Frohnmayer. "This is a testament to the work that is being done on this campus in the areas of conflict resolution, peace studies and international scholarship."

With the founding of the Center for Intercultural and Interreligious Dialogue, the UO will establish a program that will allow students to earn a UNESCO-sponsored certificate in Intercultural Dialogue that will supplement advanced degrees in such fields as religious studies, comparative literature, philosophy and political science.

In spring 2009, the university will host the first meeting ever held in the United States of the chairs from UNESCO's Intercultural Dialogue Program. The new Center is organizing a conference on "Ethics, Religion, and the Environment" that will coincide with the meeting of the UNESCO Chairs.

Shankman, a College of Arts and Sciences Distinguished Professor, will continue to teach half-time in the English department in addition to his duties as UNESCO Chair and director of the new Center.

His new responsibilities also signal a change for another center on campus. Since 1994 Shankman has been director of the Oregon Humanities Center, which supports research and innovation in humanities at the UO. Barbara Altmann, former chair of the Department of Romance Languages, will now fill the Humanities Center director position.