Steven Shankman is a man with many titles. He recently added to his list by becoming the first United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization chair at the University, and the only one in the United States to focus on transcultural studies, inter-religious dialogue and peace.
Shankman’s focus on inter-cultural studies and comparative literature led him to begin working with centers worldwide similar to the University’s Oregon Humanities Center, specifically one in St. Petersburg, Russia. The Russian Institute for Cultural Research established a UNESCO chair in 2000 whose focus is comparative studies of spiritual traditions, their specific cultures and inter-religious dialogue.
“It seemed to me they were doing very important work,” Shankman said.
Because Russians were looking for a new cultural identity after the fall of communism, Shankman feels Russia is one where research into development of inter-religious dialogue is especially valuable.
“There was a very passionate search that I saw – for meaning, how to go on from here,” he said. “People turned to religion for meaning.”
Shankman said this search can go two ways, either into sectarianism and violence or in a more universalistic direction.
“Passions released with the return to religion are shaping what’s going on in the world,” he said.
One of Shankman’s first trips as UNESCO chair will be to a conference next month in Moscow where all the chairs in this specific discipline will talk about several subjects, including teaching religion.
“People really take part in these movements as part of their lives so it’s important to have discussions about them so that they don’t become radicalized,” Shankman said.
Shankman said his interest in inter-cultural and inter-religious discussions is centered on his view that culture and religion are the basis for ethics and also for development of a respect for “the otherness of others.”
“Being able to cultivate a tolerance and even hunger for the strange, for the different, seems to me essential for being a humble and open human being,” he said.
Shankman is the author of two books that compare early Greece and early China, has edited another book on comparative culture and has a new publication coming out titled “Other Others: Levinas/Literature/Transcultural Studies.”
Shankman said it took several years to make the UNESCO chair a reality at the University. There are just nine other chairs at universities in the United States of the total 620 reported by UNESCO to exist world-wide. Although most chairs exist at universities, some are at higher education non-governmental organizations and some exist in public and private sector organizations, according the UNESCO Web site.
“It’s a very great honor to the University and Steve Shankman, who is the chair holder,” University President Dave Frohnmayer said. “It is a very vast and important area to bring to bear the scholarly resources and insights of the University.”
Shankman said graduate students will someday be able to earn a UNESCO sanctioned add-on to their degrees by having hands-on experience in this area. By hands-on, he means participating in some of the peace-making efforts going on in the world in places such as Israel and Palestine or a country he recently visited, Kazakhstan, which Shankman said has 130 different ethnic divisions.
He said other benefits may be an increase in visiting scholars from around the world, opportunities to study at institutions in other countries and eventually the integration of the principles of comparative studies becoming part of other departments and classes.
Frohnmayer said he believes the chair may affect other disciplines.
“I think the potential, the ways it can touch the University in its teaching and research, are almost limitless,” Frohnmayer said.
People from across the U.S. and in several other countries helped Shankman on his quest to establish the chair here. He said because it was the first of its kind in the U.S., “I felt the University of Oregon was really on the cutting edge.”
The UNESCO program is an information sharing agreement. This portion is coordinated through the University of Fribourg in Switzerland as well as UNESCO. The program was created to encourage developed and under-developed countries to share research and attempt to close the ever-widening education disparity.