Baha'i Inspired Lecture Series
Pathways to Peace
A Collaborative Community Building Effort.
From Social Ostracism to Creating Peace
Professor Derik Smith, Acting Director, The Wilmette Institute
_edited.jpg)
“I would present ideas that are fundamental to the Baha’i conceptual framework for social transformation. The Talk is organized around the themes of History, Human Nature, and Power. I would demonstrate how Baha’i approaches to these subjects open important territory in the studying and teaching of social transformation and peacebuilding.''
Dr. Derik Smith is the chair of the Department of Literature at Claremont McKenna College and an affiliate faculty member in the Intercollegiate Department of Africana Studies at Claremont College. His scholarship centers on American culture, with a particular focus on African American literary traditions. His current research explores African American poetry, intellectual history, and the intersection of critical race studies with the Bahá’í Faith. He also serves as a faculty representative on the working group for the Justice Education Initiative at the Claremont Colleges and is the acting director of the Wilmette Institute, an online education provider dedicated to fostering social transformation.
Dr. Smith’s work has been widely published, and he is the author of Robert Hayden’s In Verse: New Histories of African American Poetry and the Black Arts Era, which won the 2019 Book of the Year award from the College Language Association. Since 2012, he has taught courses on American prisons in both New York and California. Additionally, he serves on the executive boards of the Association for Bahá’í Studies, North America, and Starting Over Inc., a nonprofit organization that focuses on policy advocacy, reentry services, and transitional housing in Southern California. He resides there with his wife and three children.
EVENT DETAILS
Date: Thursday, March 27, 2025
Time: 6:00 PM | Social and refreshments | 6:30 Inspired Talk followed by Q & A
Location: Ludwick Center | 1920 Bonita Ave. | La Verne, CA
TIS GOD REALLY DEAD?!?
WHY DID THE ENLIGHTENED PHILOSOPHERS AND SCIENTISTS DISMISSED RELIGION AS IRRELEVANT TO PEACE
Alex Habib Riazati
Dr Alex Habib Riazati has been a scientist and strategist at Boeing Defense Integrated Systems for the last 38 years. He has also been a psychotherapist with a PhD in Clinical Psychology for the past 17 years, with a private practice called Integrative Counseling.
Alex Habib Riazati has been a scientist and strategist at Boeing Defense Integrated Systems for the last 38 years. He has also been a psychotherapist with a PhD in Clinical Psychology for the past 17 years, with a private practice called Integrative Counseling.
He is the founder of the Human in The Making Foundation (www.humaninthemaking.org), a non-profit organization aiming at motivating, and empowering the individuals to actualize their hidden noble potentials, enriching families and communities and enable them to develop social interests, offer unconditional services to their fellow humans, and continuously engage in abolishing human rights violations and abuses.
He is also the author of three volumes of work on fundamental verities and progressive revelation, and is the program director of the television program “Danesh Binesh Azadi.”
r approach to education and social transformation.
EVENT DETAILS
Date: Thursday, February 20th 2025
Time: 6:00 PM | Social and refreshments | 6:30 Inspired Talk followed by Q & A
Location: Ludwick Center | 1920 Bonita Ave. | La Verne, CA
ON-CAMPUS PRESENTATION of BAHA’I INSPIRED LECTURE SERIES
TRANSFORMATIONAL EDUCATION
Tim Conley
Tim owns 67 Entertainment, a Los Angeles-based film, television, and new media company. His most recent production and directorial debut, a full-length feature
documentary, “N.ot W.ithout A.lonzo” (2024), has won three awards during its festival run, including two Best Documentary Awards and the Grand Jury Prize for Best Feature Film at three prestigious film festivals.
Prof. Timothy “Tim” Conley is the Department Chair of Cinema and Film at California College of Arizona State University (CCASU). He also holds Interim Department Chair appointments in the General Education, Graphic Design and Interactive Marketing, and
Virtual FX Departments at CCASU. Tim has previously taught courses in Film Studies, Media Studies, and cultural and ethnic Studies at California State University, Santa Monica College, El Camino College, and Rio Hondo. In addition to higher education
instruction, Tim owns 67 Entertainment, a Los Angeles-based film, television, and new media company. His most recent production and directorial debut, a full-length feature
documentary, “N.ot W.ithout A.lonzo” (2024), has won three awards during its festival run, including two Best Documentary Awards and the Grand Jury Prize for Best Feature Film at three prestigious film festivals. A lifelong community activist and servant for
justice, Tim is a board member of the Santa Monica Bay Area Human Relations Council, a board member of the Dubois-Hamer Institute for Academic Achievement at California State University, Northridge, a board member of the Coalition for Police Reform in Santa Monica, and the Vice Board Chair for the Urban Scholars Academy of
Inglewood, California.
EVENT DETAILS
Date: Thursday, April 24th 2025
Time: 6:00 PM | Social and refreshments | 6:30 Inspired Talk followed by Q & A
Location: Ludwick Center | 1920 Bonita Ave. | La Verne, CA
ON-CAMPUS PRESENTATION of BAHA’I INSPIRED LECTURE SERIES
TRANSFORMATIONAL EDUCATION
Teresa Henkle Langness, Founder of FCL and Author
Dr. Langness has authored 50 books in multiple genres. She began her research on “Why We Learn” in her role as a textbook writer, in an era when compartmentalization of content isolated human learning from practical, positive impacts on broader communities.
Teresa Henkle Langness, founder of the global educational model Full-Circle Learning (FCL), has witnessed the benefits of connecting learners with members of the human family beyond their classroom walls. Her focus is on how Learners Can Connect Communities. In an urban community facing civil unrest, the methodology first fused the goals of collaboration, conflict resolution, character development, integrated curriculum design, positive classroom management, altruistic identity-building, and service-learning. Over the next third-century, FCL attracted practitioners in 40 nations across five continents, especially in Sub Saharan Africa. Interweaving the goals of cognitive learning and social cohesion, educators in diverse communities applied strategies that empowered learners to tackle sociological challenges and sustainable development goals. Schools reported transformative outcomes as learning expanded relationships across the community and around the world. The programs challenged in-school learners to embrace their role as peacemakers, humanitarians, and change agents.
Dr. Langness has authored 50 books in multiple genres. She began her research on “Why We Learn” in her role as a textbook writer, in an era when compartmentalization of content isolated human learning from practical, positive impacts on broader communities.
Full-Circle Learning practices recommend local contextualization. Recent international conference papers include Wi-Fi and the Wisdom Exchange: The Value of the Lived Experience in the Age of AI; and Trust and Technology: Synchronizing Health, ICT, and Community-based Education in Sub-Saharan Africa, along with a keynote address on “Improving Life as a North Star for Research.”
Langness has also served as an officer on various non-profit boards in the fields of education, the environment, and human relations and is a founding member of the Association for Transdisciplinary Communication (AFTC). Baha’i principles have informed her approach to education and social transformation.
EVENT DETAILS
Date: Thursday, November 21st 2024
Time: 6:00 PM | Social and refreshments | 6:30 Inspired Talk followed by Q & A
Location: Ludwick Center | 1920 Bonita Ave. | La Verne, CA
ON-CAMPUS PRESENTATION of BAHA’I INSPIRED LECTURE SERIES
HARMONIZING DIVERSE WORLDVIEWS
Ymasumac Maranon Davis, Writer and Educational Consultant
My current areas of research are exploring the onto-epistemology of Indigenous Latine communities and their experience in educational systems in the United States.
Ymasumac Maranon Davis is a writer, educational consultant, university lecturer, and keeper of intuitive healing spaces. She shares ancestry from the Quechua people of Bolivia and the early pilgrims of New England. As a child, she lived in a village in the Yucatan Peninsula among the Mayan people. Culture, language, and politics are threaded throughout her work as a writer with strong cords of spiritual energy coursing through the interlacing of her words. Ymasumac is a doctoral candidate in Education for Social Justice at the University of San Diego. Her other research interests include how oral storytelling is used as a counternarrative, learning how multiple ontologies and epistemologies coexist and collaborate in learning spaces. She has worked in public education as a bilingual teacher, and an administrator at the county office of education coordinating the innovative world of educational technology. She is currently an adjunct lecturer at California State University of Fullerton and a Course Designer for the Wilmette Institute. She has presented at conferences and written on topics ranging from shifting perceptions in education, equity in the 21st-Century classroom, and empowering voices in the margins. She is married to a wonderful man, together they have four children moving into early adulthood.
EVENT DETAILS
Date: Thursday, October 24th 2024
Time: 6:00 PM | Social and refreshments | 6:30 Inspired Talk followed by Q & A
Location: Ludwick Center | 1920 Bonita Ave. | La Verne, CA
ON-CAMPUS INAUGURAL PRESENTATION of BAHA’I INSPIRED LECTURE SERIES
FUNDAMENTALS OF SOCIAL TRANSFORMATION
Professor Derik Smith, Acting Director, The Wilmette Institute
.png)
“I would present ideas that are fundamental to the Baha’i conceptual framework for social transformation. The Talk is organized around the themes of History, Human Nature, and Power. I would demonstrate how Baha’i approaches to these subjects open important territory in the studying and teaching of social transformation and peacebuilding.''
Professor Derik Smith is chair of the Department of Literature at Claremont McKenna College and is an affiliate faculty in the Intercollegiate Department of Africana Studies at Claremont College. His work is anchored in the analysis of American culture and, particularly, African American literary culture. His current scholarship addresses African American poetry and intellectual history, as well as the connection between critical race studies and the Baha’i Faith. He is currently a faculty representative on the working group of the Justice Education Initiative at the Claremont Colleges. He is the acting director of the Wilmette Institute, a distance education provider with a focus on the discourse of social transformation.
Dr. Smith’s work has appeared in many publications, and he is the author of Robert Hayden's In Verse: New Histories of African American Poetry and the Black Arts Era, which was awarded the 2019 Book of the Year prize by the College Language Association. Since 2012, in New York and California, Professor Smith has been teaching courses in and about American prisons. He also serves on the executive boards of the Association for Baha’i Studies, North America, and Starting Over Inc., a non-profit organization focused on policy advocacy, re-entry services, and transitional housing in Southern California, where he lives with his wife and three children.
EVENT DETAILS
Date: Thursday September 19, 2024
Time: 6 PM | Social and refreshments | 6:30 Inspired Talk followed by Q & A
Location: Ludwick Center | 1920 Bonita Ave. | La Verne, CA
A Collaborative Community Effort.
The Spiritual Assembly of
The Baha’is of Rancho Cucamonga
TRANSFORMATIONAL EDUCATION with Tim ConleyThu, Apr 24La Verne
From Social Ostracism to Creating PeaceThu, Mar 27La Verne