The Moral Imagination

When first preparing for this talk, I debated whether I should probe the intellectual side of peacebuilding, finding a specific topic to explore in some depth, or whether I should just speak from the heart. The two are not necessarily incompatible. But I have opted to speak from the heart because I have lots on the heart these days. What is most on my heart is this: How do we keep hope alive that the world we inhabit and share can be a better place for our global family? And how does change happen that moves us in that direction?

Such questions do not rise in a vacuum. I spend most of my professional life in two environments: The geography of education – the classroom – and the geography of violence and human suffering – conflict and warzones. Both geographies entail a journey, a traversing of challenging terrains…