Zachary Zumwalt, MRPL ’23, is an active-duty Navy chaplain (20 years) who has served in Korea, Japan, and around the United States. As a member of the second MRPL cohort, he explored religious literacy in the context of the U.S. Navy Chaplain Corps—specifically how it could inform emerging work in conflict prevention within the Indo-Pacific region.

Zachary Zumwalt has led worship services on land, on ships, and under the sea. Prior to becoming a Navy chaplain, he was an enlisted sailor assigned to work on submarines, which do not have chaplain crew members. While...

NPR reporter Rachel Treisman covers the history, continued plausibility, and alternatives to the two-state solution. Atalia Omer, professor of religion, conflict and peace studies at the Keough School of Global Affairs at the University of Notre Dame, as well as the T. J. Dermot Dunphy Visiting Professor of Religion, Violence, and Peacebuilding and Senior Fellow in Conflict and Peace at Religion and Public Life, was one of the experts asked to provide context and commentary for this issue.

Israel continues to respond to Hamas' unprecedented...

This primer was drafted for the United States Institute of Peace in June 2023 by Susan Hayward, RPL Associate Director for the Religious Literacy and the Professions Initiative, and Htay Wai Naing, recent HDS graduate, Certificate in Religion and Public Life student, and RPL graduate assistant.

"Appreciating the religious dimensions of society, state and politics in Myanmar is essential to understanding the country’s conflicts. This is not easy, as religions in Myanmar are deeply entangled with a complex array of ethnic identities and shaped by dynamic...

"When Religion and Public Life at Harvard Divinity School launched three years ago, it engendered a new Certificate in Religion and Public Life, providing students the opportunity to develop the knowledge, skills, and networks to leverage their master of theological studies and master of divinity degrees across a range of professional contexts, including in journalism, government, humanitarianism, and organizing.

In addition to coursework and a capstone project...

"Conflicts are driven by a number of complicated factors, but are often mislabeled as religious. This experience showed me that religious literacy is necessary in peacebuilding to appropriately address the ambivalent and complex religious dimensions of conflict, and how best to channel the power of religious peacebuilders in the creation of just and peaceful societies."—Ailih Weeldreyer, MTS candidate

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Going into her second year in the Master of Theological Studies program at Harvard Divinity School, Ailih Weeldreyer is no...

On May 8, 2023, Religion and Public Life program at Harvard Divinity School hosted a conversation with Professor Aprilfaye Manalang of Norfolk State University to learn about her ongoing research on religious identity, grief, and COVID with Filipina-American nurses, as well as Jeanne Shin-Cooper of Buffalo Grove High School in Illinois whose students are taking part in this critical interview project. Prof. Manalang discussed her pedagogical practice of promoting Asian-American understanding at a Historically Black University, and the process of communicating this research to a public audience via podcast.... Read more about Video: Educator Webinar: Religious Literacy and Nurses' Stories in the Age of COVID and Anti-Asian Hate