The Institute for Daisaku Ikeda Studies in Education has been engaging in various initiatives to advance research on the philosophies and practices of Japanese educators Daisaku Ikeda, Josei Toda, and Tsunesaburo Makiguchi, as well as to provide workshops and symposia on these to students, educators, counselors, academics, and educational leaders in the greater Chicago area and around the world.
Ikeda/Soka Studies Conference
The DePaul University Institute for Daisaku Ikeda Studies in Education hosts a biennial conference on Ikeda/Soka studies in education. This conference is an international forum for established and emerging scholars to gather, substantively discuss the current state of, and actively and collaboratively unite, characterize, define, and advance scholarship in the field of Ikeda Soka studies in education. The first conference was held in August 2018, and the second conference was virtually held in June 2021.
Ikeda Lecture
The annual Ikeda Lecture features a renowned intellectual whose work honors, intersects with, and/or responds to themes present in Daisaku Ikeda’s six decades of efforts in the fields of peace, culture, and education. In 2023, the Institute welcomed renowned peace educator Monisha Bajaj, Professor of International and Multicultural Education at the University of San Francisco, to give the lecture, entitled “Peace, Creative Coexistence, and Human Rights Education.”
Doctoral Research Dialogue Series
The Institute organizes Doctoral Research Dialogue Series for DePaul graduate students engaged in Ikeda/Soka studies. The series provides DePaul students an opportunity to network and collaborate with doctoral students from other universities who are engaged in similar scholarship.
You can read about the previous dialogue sessions here:
2019: With Alankrita Chhikara, Purdue University
2018: With Simon Høffding, University of Copenhagen
2015: With Julie Nagashima, University of Pittsburgh
International Research Forum on Ikeda/Soka Studies
On August 15-16, 2019, the DePaul University Institute for Daisaku Ikeda Studies in Education hosted the U.S.-Canada Forum on Ikeda/Soka Studies in Education. Scholars engaging in Ikeda/Soka studies in the United States and Canada were invited and shared their respective initiatives and lines of inquiry. They also discussed key concepts and hopes for the field. The two-day forum was filled with enthusiastic exchanges of ideas and initiatives for further development of the field.
Research Presentations
Faculty and doctoral students regularly present Institute-related research at domestic and international conferences. Research topics include, but are not limited to, value-creating education, human education, dialogue, global citizenship, the Dewey-Soka heritage, life and death as pedagogy, and environmental education. Recent presentations were delivered at annual meetings of the American Educational Research Association (Chicago, IL), the American Educational Studies Association (Pittsburgh, PA), Relational Coordination Collaborative Roundtable hosted by Brandeis University, Suffolk University, and MIT (Boston, MA), and the 1st International Symposium on Global Citizenship Education (Tokyo, Japan).
Translation
The Institute has produced multiple English translations of original works by Tsunesaburo Makiguchi, Josei Toda, and Daisaku Ikeda. It is currently translating Makiguchi’s four-volume work, The System of Value-Creating Pedagogy, into English. Recent translated works include Josei Toda’s first publication, “Overview of Pedagogy for the Home and Family: On Secondary School Entrance Examinations and Enhancing Performance of [Your] Children” (1929), and Daisaku Ikeda’s first publication on education, “Pestalozzi, the Great Educator” (1949), written under the pen name Shinichiro Yamamoto.
Institute for Daisaku Ikeda Studies in Education 