Annual Special Lecture Series

The SERC-GC special lecture occurs annually in November to commemorate the founding of Soka education on November 18, 1930 with the publication of Tsunesaburo Makiguchi’s book The System of Value-Creating Pedagogy. 

The inaugural lecture, The Presence and Role of Dialogue and Soka Education, was delivered on November 21, 2018 by Dr. Jason Goulah, Associate Professor and Director of the Institute for Daisaku Ikeda Studies in Education at DePaul University, Chicago.

The 2nd annual lecture was delivered on November 20, 2019 by Dr. Olivier Urbain, Director, Min-On Music Research Institute, Tokyo. Dr. Urbain lectured on Musicking from Empathy to Global Justice: Sound and Proactive Peacebuilding.

The 3rd annual lecture was delivered virtually on November 18, 2020 by Dr. Namrata Sharma, Adjunct Professor, SUNY Oswego, New York. Her presentation included topics from her new book, Value-Creating Global Citizenship Education for Sustainable Development: Strategies and Approaches.

The 4th annual lecture was delivered virtually on November 18, 2021 by Dr. Hiroko Tomioka, Professor, Faculty of Education and staff member with the Ikeda Research Institute for Soka Education, Soka University Japan. Dr. Tomioka’s lecture was entitled, Overview of Soka Education: From Makiguchi’s Pedagogy.

The 5th annual lecture was given on November 17, 2022 by Mr. Kazuhiro Iguchi, English language teacher at Soka Kansai High School, Osaka, Japan and doctoral student at the DePaul University (Chicago) Value-Creating Education for Global Citizenship program. The presentation was entitled, Practical Implementation of Soka Education in the Teaching and Learning Environment.

The 6th annual lecture was delivered by Dr. Maria Guajardo, Professor, Soka University on November 16th, 2023 on the topic “Dialogic Learning and Global Citizenship Education”.

The 7th annual lecture will be delivered on November 18th, 2024 by Dr. Ira Helfand, co-Founder of Physicians for Social Responsibility, member of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, and member of the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War. Dr. Helfand will speak on the topic "The Growing Danger Of Nuclear War And What We Can Do To Prevent it."