The Caspersen School is pleased to house Drew University’s Centers because they reinforce the Graduate School’s core values that each individual plays a role as moral actor in the world. The University Centers bring into dialogue important social and cultural issues, while aiming to connect the University and its students to the world beyond our campus.
The Drew Centers all share a common goal of connecting the intellectual work of the academy with public life. Each values the power of knowledge joined with action to create a stronger and more just society. And while each center maintains its individual identity and agenda, the Centers also benefit from a complementary and cooperative relationship that facilitates broader inquiry and action.
Center for Civic Engagement
Well-informed civic participation and an active pursuit of the common good are crucial to a strong democracy and the vibrant communities that make up its fabric. To assist in ensuring that our students develop these skills the Center for Civic Engagement works to integrate academic learning with action in the world beyond Drew’s campus. From its location in the Caspersen School of Graduate Studies, the Center seeks to connect community-focused, experiential education across all of Drew’s Schools, while also strengthening student-led community engagement outside the classroom. It seeks to support faculty teaching, research, scholarship, and creative work that benefits communities and to develop sustainable and equitable partnerships that can help both Drew and its partners meet their goals.
Center on Religion, Culture, and Conflict
The Center focuses critical attention on the complex ways in which cultures and religions interact. By fostering interdisciplinary research and scholarly exchange, the CRCC seeks to encourage and facilitate understanding of the most problematic, and often tragic, conflicts ignited by religious, ethnic, and other cultural divisions. The Center is also a place where the University connects, both globally and locally, with people and communities outside its walls. The area within a fifty mile radius of Drew’s campus is one of the most culturally and religiously diverse places on the planet. We work in partnership with religious leaders and others within this broader community to identify, develop, and support innovative programs and activities, including practical model projects that improve cultural and religious cooperation. A distinct yet integral part of the CRCC is the Shirley Sugerman Interfaith Forum, which promotes earnest and frank dialogue among different religious traditions on issues of common concern through lectures, symposia, and community meetings.
Center for Holocaust/Genocide Study
The mission of the Center for Holocaust/Genocide Study is tri-fold:
- to COMMEMORATE those who perished in the Holocaust and other genocides and to CELEBRATE those who survived. We schedule—as permanent anchors in our programming—an annual November Conference in memory of Kristallnacht (Night of Broken Glass) and an annual Yom Hashoah (Day of Remembrance) commemoration. We also offer films, lectures, performances, workshops, and commemorative events, dealing with the Holocaust and with other genocides such as those in Armenia, Cambodia, Rwanda, and Darfur.
- to EDUCATE upcoming generations to “remember for the future.” We enrich Drew’s undergraduate and graduate course work by bringing notable scholars and speakers to campus, by scheduling visits to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, and by providing additional resources (books, videos, maps, posters, and artifacts) that enhance the study of Holocaust/Genocide.
- to DEDICATE our energies to ongoing research and scholarship. We have developed a modest archive of books, photographs, original documents, and artifacts such as original cartoons drawn by Hungarian survivors in hiding in 1944-1945. In addition, we have supported student and faculty research such as an English translation of a German text dealing with Nazi slave labor camps.