3rd International Conference on Ikeda/Soka Studies in Education

On August 17-19, 2023, the DePaul University Institute for Daisaku Ikeda Studies in Education hosted the 3^rdInternational Conference on Ikeda/Soka Studies in Education. Convened under the theme Interdependence, Literary Selfhood, and the Restoration of Humanity, the conference commemorated the 30^th anniversary of two important works that Daisaku Ikeda presented in the United States in 1993—his poem The Sun of Jiyu Over a New Land and his second Harvard address, Mahayana Buddhism and 21^st Century Civilization. The presentations highlighted core principles and concepts from Ikeda’s work, such as human education, the poetic mind, global citizenship, and value-creating approaches to knowledge, society, and power, as well as those from the work of Tsunesaburo Makiguchi and Josei Toda.

The Institute received more submissions than ever for this conference, which for the first time was held both in person (Aug 17 & 18) and virtually (Aug 19). With more than sixty presentations across twenty concurrent sessions—and participants representing multiple countries from Asia, Africa, Europe, the Americas, and the Middle East—this was the largest and most diverse conference to date.

In his welcome address, Institute director Jason Goulah introduced the conference theme, noting that the featured 1993 works from Ikeda advance multiple principles, cohered in interdependence, that remain relevant today and enliven Ikeda’s broad goal of the restoration of humanity at the heart of his philosophy of human education. These include awakening to our true identity and humanity, cultivating a broad spirituality and religious sentiment, confronting death, and overcoming racial violence and discrimination, among many others. Goulah also described what he calls Ikeda’s “literary selfhood,” or “deeply dialogic and lived engagement with transnational literature, poetry, writers, and their thought and ideals that uniquely animates his approach to his spheres of influence and nurtures and vindicates his faith in human possibility across them.”

Institute director Jason Goulah giving his welcome address

Conference participants engaging in dialogue during a session

The conference keynote, Dialogues of the Heart: Daisaku Ikeda, Transnationalism, and American Literature, delivered by Boston University professor of English Anita Patterson, explored this literary selfhood in detail. Tracing the history and influence of Buddhism in American literature, including in the work of Ralph Waldo Emerson and Walt Whitman, Patterson highlighted the role literature can play in promoting transnational dialogue and cultural understanding. She also explained how Daisaku Ikeda’s lifelong engagement with American literature has been a source of inspiration to her own work as a scholar and teacher. She concluded with a detailed summary of her forthcoming multiauthor book project, Dialogues of the Heart: Daisaku Ikeda, Transnationalism, and American Literature, where contributors collectively explore Ikeda’s writings in an interdisciplinary context in order to understand the immediacy and transformative power of literature and philosophy, especially their capacities to inspire transnational dialogue.

Before the keynote, Jennifer Mueller, the new dean of DePaul’s College of Education, welcomed conference participants and offered especial appreciation to students in DePaul’s doctoral program in Value-Creating Education for Global Citizenship for joining the conference. Mueller also recognized the Institute’s 10^th anniversary in 2024 and expressed her resonance with Ikeda’s emphasis on the need to enact education (教育; kyōiku) not as one-directional “teaching” but as the homophone for “mutual fostering” (共育; kyōiku) of self and other, teacher and taught.