The Divinity School is pleased to announce our participation in an Anti-Violence Task Force formed by the Hyde Park and Kenwood Interfaith Council.

The goal of the task force is preventing violence through education, service, outreach, and advocacy, and Brie Loskota, the Executive Director of the Martin Marty Center for the Public Understanding of Religion, is the University representative on the Anti-Violence Task Force.  As the Marty Center Executive Director, Loskota works on supporting scholarship on religions and translating research to a variety of audiences.  Her experience engaging religion and civic culture and enhancing religious pluralism and community resilience in faith communities makes her an excellent fit for this task force.

Other members of the task force include Reverend Veronica Johnson, a pastor of the Hyde Park Union Church; Nancy Goede, pastor at the Augustana Lutheran Church of Hyde Park, and Saba Ayman-Nolley, president of the Interfaith Council.

In addition to engaging members of the neighboring communities, the task force is encouraging students of the university to be engaged in promoting anti-violence.  Loskota says it is “a beautiful fabric of people all working in concert towards a shared goal of a flourishing community,” and the Divinity School and its students’ focus on the study of religion can help work towards that goal.

Read more on the formation and work of the task force.