What will you do to make peace on September 21, 2011, the International Day of Peace?
Join the Lang Center for Civic and Social Responsibility and the Peace and Conflict Studies Program for a screening of “Peace One Day” followed by a moderated discussion with Profs. Jennifer Magee and Lee Smithey about the documentary and an exploration of the impact of an International Day of Peace.
In 1999, filmmaker Jeremy Gilley had a simple but powerful idea – persuade the world to lay down its weapons for a day. Two years later, the member states of the United Nations declared an annual day of global ceasefire and non-violence on 21 September. Despite the humanitarian successes in Afghanistan and in other parts of the world, a global ceasefire still proves elusive. In this third film, Jeremy continues to record his extraordinary efforts to achieve the seemingly impossible.
Swarthmore’s War News Radio students Elliana Bisgaard-Church, Kate Aranoff, and Rosanna Kim appeared during the second hour of WHYY’s program, Radio Times today. The program focused on those who grew up in the wake of 9-11.
Jim MacMillan, journalist-in-residence at War News Radio, will moderate a discussion about media coverage of the Sept. 11 events and their lasting impact on the nation in Science Center 199 at 7:30 p.m. Participants include Jennifer Lin and Alfred Lubrano of the Philadelphia Inquirer and Elisabeth Perez-Luna of WHYY News.
WHAT IF activists around the world who want to be more effective could turn to a database of actual campaigns, to get ideas for creative nonviolent strategies and tactics?
WHAT IF scholars and writers who are researching alternatives to violence could turn to a global database with hundreds of cases where people used nonviolent action to struggle for human rights, eco-justice, democracy?
Campaigns are drawn from nearly every country in the world, in which people overthrew dictators, changed environmental policies, halted racist discrimination, fought for economic justice, established their religious freedom, changed sexist and other oppressive laws, established national independence, and defended their neighborhoods – all by using nonviolent resistance.
Cases are included where people power failed, as mistakes can be instructive.
Each case is presented in two ways: a database file to assist researchers and activists, and a 2-3 page narrative to assist strategists and organizers. Through the database, users can do searches on countries, kinds of tactics, kinds of movements, degrees of success. The database features “waves” of civilian resistance in which campaigns inspire each other:
– Arab Awakening of 2011
– The “color revolutions” which began in Serbia in 2000
– Soviet Bloc independence campaigns (1989-)
– African democracy campaigns of early 1990s
– Asian democracy campaigns launched by Filipino People Power in 1986
– Latin American democracy campaigns (early 1980s)
– U.S. civil rights movement against racial discrimination (1950s – 60s)
More cases are being added to the database — ranging historically all the way back to 12th century BCE Egypt — by students at Swarthmore College, who have gained assistance from Tufts and Georgetown Universities. The project is sponsored by the Lang Center for Civic and Social Responsibility at Swarthmore as well as the Peace and Conflict Studies Department and the Swarthmore College Peace Collection. For more information, email: glakey1@swarthmore.edu.
On Thursday, September 15, Leymah Gbowee is being honored with the 2011 Peace Award at Villanova, and the Peace and Conflict Studies Program and Lang Center are arranging a van to take Swarthmore folk. Please email Prof. George Lakey at glakey1 to reserve a seat (first-come first-served basis). We will meet the van at the McCabe Library turnaround at 7:00. Be prompt!
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The Center for Peace and Justice Education presents:
THE ADELA DWYER–ST. THOMAS OF VILLANOVA
2011 PEACE AWARD
to
LEYMAH GBOWEE (Peace Activist)
Ms. Gbowee organized Christian and Muslim women of Liberia to carry out peaceful protests which ultimately helped to bring about the end of the Liberian Civil War.
“Mighty Be Our Powers: Women Making Peace in Africa”
Lecture and Presentation of Award
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 2011
DRISCOLL AUDITORIUM ~ Room 132 at 7:30 PM
CO-SPONSORED BY THEOLOGY & RELIGIOUS STUDIES, ETHICS, AFRICANA STUDIES,INSTITUTE FOR GLOBAL INTERDISCIPLINARY STUDIES, SOCIOLOGY, POLITICAL SCIENCE and GENDER & WOMEN’S STUDIES
Swarthmore will mark the 10th anniversary of September 11, 2001, with a series of events that will emphasize nonviolent responses to terrorism and other threats. All events are free and members of the public are encouraged to attend.
*** SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 11: MEMORIAL SERVICE
A service of memorial and reflection will be held at the Swarthmore Friends Meeting House at 4:30 p.m. President Rebecca Chopp will offer opening remarks; additional speakers include Associate Professor of Sociology Lee Smithey and Assistant Professor of Statistics Lynne Steuerle Schofield ’99, whose mother died in the attacks. Students will offer prayers from a variety of faith traditions and a period of reflection and silence will be honored in the Quaker tradition. Participants will have the opportunity to decorate prayer flags which will be hung in Parrish Hall throughout the following week.
*** MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 12: TEACH-IN ON NONVIOLENT RESPONSES TO TERRORISM
A teach-in, facilitated by President Chopp, will be held at 4:30 p.m. in Science Center 101. Panel members Schofield, Smithey, and Visiting Professor of Peace and Conflict Studies George Lakey will reflect on the aftermath of 9/11 and the role of government on the global stage, as well as the personal, practical activism of individual citizens.
Video of the event is now available:
*** TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 13: REPORTING 9/11 PANEL DISCUSSION
Jim MacMillan, journalist-in-residence at War News Radio, will moderate a discussion about media coverage of the Sept. 11 events and their lasting impact on the nation in Science Center 199 at 7:30 p.m. Participants include Jennifer Lin and Alfred Lubrano of the Philadelphia Inquirer and Elisabeth Perez-Luna of WHYY News.
*** LAUNCH OF GLOBAL NONVIOLENT ACTION DATABASE
An online resource that provides free access to information about hundreds of cases of nonviolent action will debut on Sat., Sept. 10. The Global Nonviolent Action Database, a vast, virtual library, contains information about more than 500 nonviolent campaigns, spanning six continents, multiple historical periods, and addressing economic, environmental, racial, anti-colonial, and sexual injustice issues.
Developed by Lakey and dozens of Swarthmore students, this initiative was supported by the College’s Lang Center for Civic and Social Responsibility. “Through working on this project and pushing each other to critically examine our work and its possibilities and limitations, we have grown together as researchers and activists for positive social change,” says Aden Tedla ’12, an honors political science major from Riverside, Calif. “By presenting this history and making it more accessible, the database can remind all of us that we have the capacity to confront power and oppression using alternative, creative, and strategic means.”
by Stacey Kutish
9/8/2011
see http://www.swarthmore.edu/x33803.xml
Swarthmore Marks 10th Anniversary of 9/11 with Emphasis on Nonviolence
Swarthmore will mark the 10th anniversary of September 11, 2001, with a
series of events that will emphasize nonviolent responses to terrorism
and other threats. All events are free and members of the public are
encouraged to attend.
*** SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 11: MEMORIAL SERVICE
A service of memorial and reflection will be held at the Swarthmore
Friends Meeting House at 4:30 p.m. President Rebecca Chopp will offer
opening remarks; additional speakers include Associate Professor of
Sociology LeeSmithey and Assistant Professor of Statistics Lynne
Steuerle Schofield ’99, whose mother died in the attacks. Students will
offer prayers from a variety of faith traditions and a period of
reflection and silence will be honored in the Quaker tradition.
Participants will have the opportunity to decorate prayer flags which
will be hung in Parrish Hall throughout the following week.
*** MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 12: TEACH-IN ON NONVIOLENT RESPONSES TO TERRORISM
A teach-in, facilitated by President Chopp, will be held at 4:30 p.m. in
Science Center 101. Panel members Schofield, Smithey, and Visiting
Professor of Peace and Conflict Studies George Lakey will reflect on the
aftermath of 9/11 and the role of government on the global stage, as
well as the personal, practical activism of individual citizens.
Video is now available.
*** TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 13: REPORTING 9/11 PANEL DISCUSSION
Jim MacMillan, journalist-in-residence at War News Radio, will moderate
a discussion about media coverage of the Sept. 11 events and their
lasting impact on the nation in Science Center 199 at 7:30 p.m.
Participants include Jennifer Lin and Alfred Lubrano of the Philadelphia
Inquirer and Elisabeth Perez-Luna of WHYY News.
*** LAUNCH OF GLOBAL NONVIOLENT ACTION DATABASE
An online resource that provides free access to information about
hundreds of cases of nonviolent action will debut on Sat., Sept. 10. The
Global Nonviolent Action Database, a vast, virtual library, contains
information about more than 500 nonviolent campaigns, spanning six
continents, multiple historical periods, and addressing economic,
environmental, racial, anti-colonial, and sexual injustice issues.
Developed by Lakey and dozens of Swarthmore students, this initiative
was supported by the College’s Lang Center for Civic and Social
Responsibility. “Through working on this project and pushing each other
to critically examine our work and its possibilities and limitations, we
have grown together as researchers and activists for positive social
change,” says Aden Tedla ’12, an honors political science major from
Riverside, Calif. “By presenting this history and making it more
accessible, the database can remind all of us that we have the capacity
to confront power and oppression using alternative, creative, and
Join Haverford’s Center for Peace and Global Citizenship for a reading and discussion with author and civil rights lawyer, Alia Malek. Alia will be discussing her new book, Patriot Acts: Narratives of Post-9/11 Backlash. A groundbreaking collection of oral histories, Patriot Acts tells the stories of men and women who have been needlessly swept up in the War on Terror. In their own words, narrators recount personal experiences of the post-9/11 backlash that have deeply altered their lives and communities. The eighth book in the Voice of Witness series, Patriot Acts illuminates these experiences in a compelling collection of eighteen oral histories from men and women who have found themselves subject to a wide range of human and civil rights abuses—from rendition and torture, to workplace discrimination, bullying, FBI surveillance and harassment.
Welcome back to all faculty, staff, and students. I hope your semester is off to a great start.
We are in the middle of the drop-add period, and I want to take the opportunity to let you know that there are Peace and Conflict Studies opportunities beyond Swarthmore at our sister colleges, Bryn Mawr and Haverford. Courses that count toward a Concentration in Peace, Conflict, and Social Justice Studies at Bryn Mawr College or a Concentration in Peace, Justice, and Human Rights at Haverford College may also be applied to a minor in Peace and Conflict Studies at Swarthmore. You can read more about the Tri-College consortium’s respective programs at http://bit.ly/tricopeace-info You will also find contact information for each program in that document. Peace studies offerings at Haverford and Bryn Mawr can allow you to study topics not offered at Swarthmore or give you options when you encounter scheduling conflicts between Swarthmore courses. Take advantage of the Tri-co consortium, and feel free to contact the coordinators at any of the colleges!
The Peace and Collaborative Development Network maintains useful guides for PCS students. I’ve posted one or two of the following resources before, but I am posting several together for easy reference.
The July issue of the Swarthmore College Bulletin features three pieces on global citizenship in one form or another. Two of the pieces are about peace and conflict studies honors minor, Adriana Popa ’12, and Prof. Ayse Kaya, who teaches political science courses on globalization for Peace and Conflict Studies.
What will you do to make peace on September 21, 2011, the International Day of Peace?
