Fall 2026 Events

For some, faith is private belief. For others, it is a way of confronting injustice, caring for neighbors, and building communities where everyone belongs.

What happens when faith becomes a force for hope in our neighborhoods?

Dr. Lewis Brogdon, Executive Director of JustFaith Ministries, explores that question through stories, scholarship, and practical experience. JustFaith Ministries is a national nonprofit that creates transformative programs at the intersection of faith, justice, and action. Through small-group learning and reflection, JustFaith equips people to address the root causes of injustice and put their faith into action in local communities and around the world. Drawing on decades of leadership in ministry, scholarship, and community engagement, Brogdon examines how faith can inspire ordinary people to become agents of justice, reconciliation, and hope.

The evening also features members of local JustFaith groups, who share how courageous conversations, meaningful relationships, and shared action have deepened their faith and transformed their communities. The program concludes with an opportunity to learn about upcoming JustFaith small groups and discover how you can join others in putting faith into action.

What can a mischievous boy teach us about living together in a democracy? Celebrating the 150th anniversary of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Terry Lindvall explores how Mark Twain tricks us into thinking about laughter as a glue to communal unity. By inviting everyone to be part of the joke, Twain shows how humility, honesty, and Horatian humor exposes hypocrisy and heals differences.

Nusbaum at Night: Fireside Chats over Zoom — The Declaration of Independence isn't the only classic celebrating a milestone anniversary this year. On select Monday evenings at 7:00 p.m. on Zoom, Batten University faculty offer engaging 30- to 40-minute conversations exploring timeless works that continue to shape how we think about ourselves, our communities, and our world.

The Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution — read in their entirety and taken together — established a firm, if imperfect and amendable, foundation for our nation's first 250 years. They remain a dynamic covenant for meeting America's recurrent challenges, but only to the extent that "We the People" continue to "pledge" "our lives" and "sacred honor" to the principles that these documents embrace.

In an era marked by deep division, this conversation explores how the founding principles of our democracy can still help us navigate disagreement, find common ground, and build a more united future.

Visit the Batten University Office of Civic Engagement and Service Learning's resource table to pick up your free pocket Constitution and voter registration materials.

September 17 is recognized as Constitution and Citizenship Day, commemorating the formation and signing of the U.S. Constitution on September 17, 1787.

Only when we understand social media's past can we understand its future. Video platforms like TikTok and YouTube are shaping public life in unprecedented ways. While more users than ever are empowered to tell their stories, these same people often feel disconnected from their own communities. But this is not the first time we've been in this bind.

When portable video cameras emerged in the 1960s, they similarly sparked both unbridled optimism and deep concern. For the first time, ordinary people could document their own lives, challenge powerful institutions, and tell stories that had long gone unheard. While early video users were both intrigued and disturbed by seeing their own images on the television screen, this video revolution promised radical changes in politics, media, and even medicine. The reality proved far more complicated.

In this fascinating look at a forgotten chapter of media history, Teddy Wansink explores the Guerrilla Television movement of the 1970s through the story of a Washington, D.C. video center that used the emerging technology to amplify overlooked voices and advance community justice. Their successes, struggles, and unanswered questions offer surprising insights into our own social media age.

Today, the phrase "Jesus is Lord" sounds like a religious statement. In the first century, when the Roman Empire already proclaimed its own lord and savior, those words sounded political.

This presentation traces how a movement whose founder and earliest leaders were executed by the state eventually found itself debating power, patriotism, empire, and the relationship between faith and government. It also examines why questions of ultimate allegiance have shaped societies for two thousand years, and why they remain central to the challenge of holding a diverse people together today.

Sixty years after the USS Enterprise first appeared on television, Star Trek remains one of popular culture's most hopeful visions of life together. Beyond the phasers, warp drives, and unnamed ensigns in red shirts lies a deeper question: Can people with different backgrounds, beliefs, and ways of seeing the world learn to work together?

Eric Mazur explores how Star Trek imagined a future in which difference was not something to overcome, but something that made communities stronger. He considers why Gene Roddenberry's optimistic vision still offers timely lessons about disagreement, diversity, curiosity, and the search for common purpose.

Nusbaum at Night: Fireside Chats over Zoom — The Declaration of Independence isn't the only classic celebrating a milestone anniversary this year. On select Monday evenings at 7:00 p.m. on Zoom, Batten University faculty offer engaging 30- to 40-minute conversations exploring timeless works that continue to shape how we think about ourselves, our communities, and our world.

One of the most important skills in a divided society may also be one of the simplest: learning to notice.

Using masterpieces from the Chrysler Museum's collection, we explore how artists such as Botticini and Bosch hid meaning in dogs, lions, monsters, and other unexpected creatures. Together we practice the art of careful observation that moves us beyond first impressions and quick judgments to deeper understanding — not just of art, but also of people and communities.

After 20 years working with schools, businesses, nonprofits, and communities across Virginia, Jonathan Zur has seen thousands of efforts to create belonging. Some succeeded spectacularly. Others sadly made things worse.

What actually changes people? Which conversations matter? Which trainings don't? Why do some communities become more divided even when they're trying to unite?

In one of his final public presentations as CEO of the Virginia Center for Inclusive Communities, Zur looks back on two decades of bringing people together across differences. He shares what surprised him, what changed his thinking, what he's learned doesn't work, and what anyone trying to build stronger, more connected communities should know.

The Cookson Lecture was established in honor of Catharine Cookson, PhD, who served as the first full-time director of the Robert Nusbaum Center, formerly the Center for the Study of Religious Freedom.

Filmed in Italy, it was called a "spaghetti western," and sometimes the blood flows as freely as marinara. But beyond the gunfights, Sergio Leone's The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly asks an unsettling question: What happens when the people standing between you and your goal are also the only ones who can help you reach it?

Sixty years later, the uneasy alliances among Blondie, Tuco, and Angel Eyes reveal surprising lessons about rivalry, cooperation, self-interest, and the uncomfortable reality that sometimes we need to work with people we don't particularly like or trust.

Nusbaum at Night: Fireside Chats over Zoom — The Declaration of Independence isn't the only classic celebrating a milestone anniversary this year. On select Monday evenings at 7:00 p.m. on Zoom, Batten University faculty offer engaging 30- to 40-minute conversations exploring timeless works that continue to shape how we think about ourselves, our communities, and our world.

Can people who deeply disagree remain in community?

In the 19th century, Jewish synagogue practice in America was divided between traditionalists and reformers. Two of the leading rabbinic figures of the era, Rabbis Isaac Mayer Wise and Solomon Schechter, each attempted to unify American Jewry.

Their approaches differed, but crucially, Schechter understood that unity is not the same as uniformity. If one of the denominations were to be dominant, the other would be legitimated as "the loyal opposition." More than a century later, Michael Panitz explores what their struggle to balance conviction, disagreement, and belonging might teach us about the challenge of holding diverse communities together today.