Insights from the Field: Podcast explores annual conference of the Association for Bahá’í Studies

Podcast episode explores the 48th ABS conference, featuring discussions on applying Bahá’í teachings to contemporary issues across diverse academic fields.

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ATLANTA, United States — A new podcast episode of the Bahá’í World News Service explores the rich discussion and collaborative spirit that characterized the recent 48th annual conference of the Association for Bahá’í Studies (ABS) in North America.

The conference, held in Atlanta, Georgia, brought together nearly 2,000 participants from diverse fields of study to explore the application of Bahá’í teachings to contemporary discourses on humanity’s well-being.

Eric Farr, a coordinator of the Association’s collaborative endeavors, explains in the podcast how the ABS seeks to advance its initiatives. He discusses how Bahá’ís working in various fields examine the interplay between prevailing ideas in their professions and the insights drawn from Bahá’í teachings and community experiences.

“What we understand childhood to be, for example, will shape how educationalists develop policy and curricula. Bahá’ís in these fields notice these things and how they affect practice and conversation,” he says.

He adds, “We have a responsibility as people who care about the well-being of humanity to analyze that, to consider together in small groups or in large groups how these ideas accord with the Bahá’í teachings and the experience of the Bahá’í community.”

Mr. Farr elaborates on the Association’s approach to fostering this collaborative exploration. “One of the concrete ways that ABS is trying to do that is by creating a constellation of spaces and activities where people can take initiative,” he explains. “Small groups can draw on the powers of consultation and collaborative inquiry to analyze their fields and think together about how they can contribute more coherently and effectively.”

The podcast highlights various aspects of the conference, including plenary sessions, breakout discussions, and thematic seminars, as well as discipline-specific sessions on economics, literature, sociology and anthropology, history, philosophy, and political science.

One session focused on the interplay between technology and society, exploring its relation to the Bahá’í principle of the harmony of science and religion.

A participant of this seminar, Janice Ndegwa, a Ph.D. student in history, shares her reflections on the complex relationship between technology and society. “One of the popular ways of thinking about technology is that it’s human beings who have to adjust to the way that technology works,” she says. “And then you have another point of view that talks about how technology is a reflection of what a society is thinking about.”

Ms. Ndegwa emphasized the seminar’s focus on the mutual influence of technology on society. She elaborates on how Bahá’í principles, particularly the concept of the nobility of each human being, can inform approaches to technological development and adoption:

“If we treat all human beings as people who can be active participants in the process of knowledge production, then the idea that we just take up technologies that are produced in one part of a country or one part of the world and apply them wholesale to another community wouldn’t be possible.”