Author Archives: Lee Smithey

Strategic Nonviolent Action in Egypt

The Atlantic has published a piece by Peace and Conflict Studies Professor, Lee Smithey, on “The Power of Nonviolent Resistance.” (also see Political Science / Peace and Conflict Studies Prof. Dominic Tierney’s blog at The Atlantic.)

Expanding on the recent Al Jazeera report on the nuts and bolts of strategic nonviolent action, PBS’ program Frontline has produced a longer report on the organizing behind the uprising.

Dov Cohen lecture: The Cultural Logics of Honor, Face, and Dignity Cultures

Within and Between-Culture Variation: Individual Differences and the Cultural Logics of Honor, Face, and Dignity Cultures

Please join the Psychology Department, the Intercultural Center, and the Peace and Conflict Studies Program for a lecture by:

Dov Cohen, Ph.D.

Department of Psychology

University of Illinois

Wednesday, February 16th, 2011

4:15 p.m. Science Center 101

Swarthmore College

Maps and driving instructions are available

Culture is important because it helps define psychological situations and creates meaningful clusters of behavior according to particular logics. Individual differences are important, because individuals vary in the extent to which they endorse or reject a culture’s ideals. Further, because different cultures are organized by different logics, individual differences mean something different in each. Central to these studies are concepts of honor-related violence and individual worth as being inalienable vs. socially conferred. I illustrate my argument with two experiments involving participants from Honor, Face, and Dignity cultures. The studies showed that the same “type” of person who was most helpful, honest, and likely to behave with integrity in one culture was the “type” of person least likely to do so in another culture. An integrated approach that considers cultural logics and individual differences allows for a more complete picture of both within- and between-culture variation.

Hosted by the Department of Psychology and Co-sponsored by the Intercultural Center and Peace & Conflict Studies Program

Contact: ktimmon1@swarthmore.edu

Egypt and Nonviolent Revolution: Teach-in at Haverford

Haverford will be hosting a teach-in about Egypt next week:

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Please bring your lunch and join us for a Teach In:

Protest and Democracy Movements: Egypt and Beyond

Friday, February 18, 12-2pm

Haverford College Dining Center, Bryn Mawr Room

Roundtable Discussion with:

Craig Borowiak (Assistant Professor of Political Science, Haverford College)
Anita Isaacs (Benjamin R. Collins Professor of Social Science and Associate Professor of Political Science, Haverford College)
Barak Mendelsohn (Assistant Professor of Political Science, Haverford College)
Farha Ghannam (Associate Professor of Anthropology, Swarthmore College)

Swarthmore alumni use music for healing and crossing deep conflict divides

Musicians without Borders was founded in 1999 by Laura Hassler, ’70. The organization is building a global network that uses the power of music in conflict areas for healing, reconciliation and building nonviolent community. Read about their mission and view additional videos on their website.

A Musicians without Borders project with musicians from the UK, Germany, the Netherlands and Bosnia-Herzegovina:

Roses For Srebrenica, a Musicians without Borders project, “From Woman To Woman”:

Jane Addams and the Swarthmore College Peace Collection

Swarthmore hosts the only special collection library and archive in the U.S. collecting materials solely on peace issues, providing us with unique access to specialized books, journals, and archival materials. You can read about the history of the Swarthmore College Peace Collection, its holdings, and Jane Addams’s papers in particular in this article in the latest issue of the journal, Peace and Change by two of the Collection’s archivists:

Addison, Barbara E. and Anne M. Yoder. 2011. “Jane Addams and the Swarthmore College Peace Collection.” Peace & Change 36(1):90-96.

Prof. Farha Ghannam on Tahrir Square

(photo credit: Mashahed’s Photos’ under a Creative Commons license)

Swarthmore’s Professor Farha Ghannam (anthropology) was interviewed in a story in the Philadelphia Inquirer about the important symbolism of Tahrir Square as the popular uprising demanding political reforms and Pres. Mubarak’s resignation continues in Egypt.

Professor Ted Herman (1913-2010) Swarthmore class of 1935

Ted Herman, an important figure in the development of Peace Studies, recently passed away. Prof. Herman lived not far from Swarthmore and was well known in the area. We would like to share this tribute from another major peace studies scholar, Dr. Ian Harris, and express our appreciation and condolences to Prof. Herman’s friends, family, and colleagues.

Ted Herman (1913-2010)

Prof. Lee Smithey, Nobel laureate Mairead Corrigan Maguire, and Prof. Ted Herman at a Pendle Hill Peace Forum lecture at Swarthmore in March 2004

Ted Herman was a pioneer in the peace studies community. He was one of many Quaker scholar/midwives who helped nurture the field of peace studies in the 1960s. He founded a peace studies program at Colgate University at the height of the Vietnam war. This program now has both a minor and a major in peace and conflict studies.

Ted Herman grew up in West Philadelphia and was a soccer star in his youth. He did his undergraduate work at Swarthmore (graduating in 1935) and completed a Ph.D. in geography at the University of Washington. In the interim he taught in China. He joined the faculty at Colgate University as a professor of geography in 1955 and founded there in 1971 one of the earliest peace studies programs in the United States. He inspired many students to take seriously the study of nonviolence and to pursue careers devoted to peace. Largely because of Ted the Colgate program has a unique emphasis upon geography and trouble spots in the world–like the Middle East, Central America, Africa, or Central Asia–integrating trans-disciplinary academic approaches to war and peace with the study of particular regional conflicts.

Ted Herman was a fantastic mentor. He mentored me and many other young professors in the nineteen eighties who were attracted to the field of peace studies in response to the growing nuclear threat. I remember well meeting with him at COPRED (Consortium on Peace Research, Education, and Development) and International Peace Research Association (IPRA) conferences. His calm determination and self confidence convinced many of us that we could leave the shelter of our traditional disciplines and walk down the path of peace. Ted Herman understood well how the study of peace could enhance the academy and made it his life’s mission to promote it.

Ted Herman devoted considerable time to bringing together enemies on multiple sides of the Balkan conflict. In his retirement he often visited the Balkans trying to get Serbs to talk to people from Bosnia-Herzegovina. He helped establish a peace studies program in Macedonia. I remember him coming to Milwaukee in 1995 and meeting with an important Serbian bishop in the orthodox church and leaders from the Bosnian community.

Professor Ted Herman ’35

Towards the end of his life Ted Herman became convinced that the best way to promote peace studies was through peace research. He threw his considerable talents behind the International Peace Research Association Foundation (IPRAF) a non-profit, tax-exempt organization founded in 1990 to further the purposes of the International Peace Research Association (IPRA) and enhance the processes of peace. With his support IPRAF has carried out peace research projects in the Balkans and the Middle East. It offers women from developing countries scholarships to study peace at the graduate level and provides small peace research grants to further the field of peace research. (For more information see http://www.iprafoundation.org/) Ted Herman reveled in the rich exchanges that took place at IPRA conferences where scholars from around the world shared their insights into ways to generate peace.

Ted Hermann is held in the hearts of hundreds of peace educators and social activists, like myself, who have been inspired by his quiet determination to promote nonviolence. His memorial service will take place Jan 22, 2011 at 1 p.m. at Lancaster Friends Meeting in Lancaster, PA. I would like encourage those of you who live in the area to consider attending this service to honor an important pioneer in the field of peace and conflict studies.

Ian Harris

Professor emeritus

University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

Ted Herman (1913-2010)



Ted Herman was a pioneer in the peace studies community. He was one of many

Quaker scholar/midwives who helped nurture the field of peace studies in the

1960s.	He founded a peace studies program at Colgate University at the height

of the Vietnam war. This program now has both a minor and a major in peace and

conflict studies.



Ted Herman grew up in West Philadelphia and was a soccer star in his youth.  He

did his undergraduate work at Swarthmore (graduating in 1935) and completed a

Ph.D. in geography at the University of Washington.  In the interim he taught

in China.  He joined the faculty at Colgate University as a professor of

geography in 1955 and founded there in 1971 one of the earliest peace studies

programs in the United States. He inspired many students to take seriously the

study of nonviolence and to pursue careers devoted to peace. Largely because of

Ted the Colgate program has a unique emphasis upon geography and trouble spots

in the world--like the Middle East, Central America, Africa, or Central

Asia--integrating trans-disciplinary academic approaches to war and peace with

the study of particular regional conflicts.



Ted Herman was a fantastic mentor.  He mentored me and many other young

professors in the nineteen eighties who were attracted to the field of peace

studies in response to the growing nuclear threat. I remember well meeting with

him at COPRED (Consortium on Peace Research, Education, and Development) and

International Peace Research Association (IPRA) conferences. His calm

determination and self confidence convinced many of us that we could leave the

shelter of our traditional disciplines and walk down the path of peace. Ted

Herman understood well how the study of peace could enhance the academy and

made it his life?s mission to promote it.



Ted Herman devoted considerable time to bringing together enemies on multiple

sides of the Balkan conflict.  In his retirement he often visited the Balkans

trying to get Serbs to talk to people from Bosnia-Herzegovina.	He helped

establish a peace studies program in Macedonia. I remember him coming to

Milwaukee in 1995 and meeting with an important Serbian bishop in the orthodox

church and leaders from the Bosnian community.



Towards the end of his life Ted Herman became convinced that the best way to

promote peace studies was through peace research. He threw his considerable

talents behind the International Peace Research Association Foundation (IPRAF)

a non-profit, tax-exempt organization founded in 1990 to further the purposes

of the International Peace Research Association (IPRA) and enhance the

processes of peace. With his support IPRAF has carried out peace research

projects in the Balkans and the Middle East.  It offers women from developing

countries scholarships to study peace at the graduate level and provides small

peace research grants to further the field of peace research. (For more

information see http://www.iprafoundation.org/) Ted Herman reveled in the rich

exchanges that took place at IPRA conferences where scholars from around the

world shared their insights into ways to generate peace.



Ted Hermann is held in the hearts of hundreds of peace educators and social

activists, like myself, who have been inspired by his quiet determination to

promote nonviolence. His memorial service will take place Jan 22, 2011 at 1

p.m. at Lancaster Friends Meeting in Lancaster, PA. I would like encourage

those of you who live in the area to consider attending this service to honor

an important pioneer in the field of peace and conflict studies.



Ian Harris

Prof. Dominic Tierney examines traditions of U.S. militarism

Prof. Dominic Tierney, a political scientist who serves on the Peace and Conflict Studies steering committee, has been busy during this academic year! Let me draw your attention to his latest book and public commentary.

How We Fight: Crusades, Quagmires, and the American Way of War.

“How We Fight examines the American experience of war over the last two hundred years. The nation’s wars don’t repeat themselves, but they do rhyme. We like smiting tyrants, and we dislike dealing with the messy consequences. As we saw in Afghanistan and Iraq, this can be extremely dangerous for U.S. interests and values.”

Prof. Tierney discusses his work in a podcast of a lecture he delivered on campus.

[podcast]http://media.swarthmore.edu/faculty_lectures/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/dominic_tierney-how_we_fight.mp3[/podcast]

How We Fight is available at Amazon.com and BarnesandNoble.com.

You can also read Professor Tierney’s November 2010 New York Times Op-Ed on constructive work by the U.S. military.

He appeared on NPR’s All Things Considered in November to discuss the “Battle Hymn of the Republic” and themes (dark and hopeful) in the song that we might not usually consider.

[podcast]http://www.swarthmore.edu/news/audio/20101113_atc_05.mp3[/podcast]

He also wrote on the topic in The Atlantic where he writes a regular blog.

Other books by Tierney include:

Failing to win : perceptions of victory and defeat in international politics

FDR and the Spanish Civil War : neutrality and commitment in the struggle that divided America

As the popular nonviolent revolution in Egypt unfold today, I can point you to Prof. Tierney’s blog post “‘Our S.O.B.s’ and America’s Revolutionary Dilemma Abroad” at The Atlantic.