“When Students for a Free Palestine held a discussion last week about recent violence in Gaza, its members admitted that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a historically complicated issue, riddled with emotion and politics.

But the group’s leaders said that that was not what they wanted to talk about.

Although SFP is a pro-Palestine activist group, its members wanted to have a dialogue open to all students to discuss the recent violence in Gaza as well as what many see as severe human rights violations resulting from this violence…”

See the full story in The Phoenix

Stephen Zunes, Professor of Politics and International Studies at the University of San Francisco will deliver a talk, “After the Gaza War: Human Rights, International Law, and U.S. Policy toward Israel and Palestine,” on February 19, 2009 at 4:15 in Upper Tarble (Clothier). (flyer)

Dr. Stephen Zunes is a Professor of Politics and International Studies at the University of San Francisco, where he chairs the program in Middle Eastern Studies. He serves as a senior policy analyst for the Foreign Policy in Focus project of the Institute for Policy Studies, an associate editor of Peace Review, and chair of the academic advisory committee for the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict. Zunes is the principal editor of Nonviolent Social Movements (Blackwell Publishers, 1999), the author of the highly-acclaimed Tinderbox: U.S. Middle East Policy and the Roots of Terrorism (Common Courage Press, 2003) and co-author (with Jacob Mundy) of the forthcoming Western Sahara: Nationalism, Conflict, and International Accountability (Syracuse University Press.) more information

In November 2008, Swarthmore Students for a Democratic Society joined peace activists from across the country at the annual vigil to close the School of the Americas, a purported training academy for mercenary armies serving repressive regimes in Latin America, at Fort Benning, Ga. You can view a video covering their trip.

Several upcoming talks at our sister college, Haverford, may be of interest:

Thursday, January 29, 2009

Jill Stauffer

??Human Rights:? What is in the Law, Who is the Subject???

4:30PM Gest Center 101

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Keith Brown

“The sum of tiny things: Fieldwork, democracy and The Ugly American in post-conflict Macedonia, 2001-2008”

4:30 pm Gest 101

Thursday, February 5, 2009

Leslie Dwyer

“Post-Traumatic Politics: Humanitarianism and the Negotiation of Political Subjectivity in Indonesia”

4:30 pm Gest 101

Tuesday, Feb 10

Rosellen Roche

“‘It keeps it peaceful, if ye know what I mean’: perceptions of paramilitary control in ‘post-conflict’ Northern Ireland”

Gest 101; 4:30 pm

Thursday, Feb 12

Elizabeth Drexler

“Securing the Insecure State: Corrupt Histories, Imagined Enemies and Impunity”

Gest 101; 4:30 pm

The following is excerpted from @library.edu: The Newsletter of the Swarthmore College Library. Spring 2009. Vol. 11, no. 2. Professor Ross’ course, “Living in the Light: Quakers Past and Present” (Religion 23) counts toward a Peace and Conflict Studies minor.

Ellen Ross: Living in the Light: Quakers Past and Present

Some assignments take advantage of the rich special collections available on campus. In Living in the Light: Quakers Past and Present (Religion 23), taught by Ellen Ross, students are invited to use the Friends Historical Library and the Peace Collection to complete their final research paper. The assignment is open-ended, on any topic related to the Quakers, and students work closely with Professor Ross to craft their topics and discover their sources. For example, when a student wrote about 19th century Quaker women and peace efforts, Professor Ross and the student deciphered the flowery script of letters from the Peace Collection written by Lucy Biddle Lewis, who was active in Quaker postwar relief work and was the national Chairman of the Women??s International League for Peace and Freedom.

Other students were immersing themselves in diaries and journals that bring the past to life or deriving inspiration from the experience of working in an archive. One student said, “After talking to the librarians in special collections, I changed my topic. It helped me to get more focused on what I like.”

This personal investment in the research process is one of Professor Ross’s goals for the assignment. Not only does it allow students to explore world-class collections, but it also entices many of them into the library to engage in research and writing on a topic that sparks their interest. As Professor Ross notes, “Some students never darken the doors of the library,” but the guest book at FHL is filled with her students’ names.

On November 26 in Mumbai, India, terrorists attacked several prominent Mumbai landmarks. Over the course of a three-day siege, over 170 people lost their lives. On December 2 and 3, vigils were held for the victims of these attacks and on December 12, an open Shabbat service will honor the memory of those lost. In a series of interviews with the Daily Gazette, several members of the Swarthmore community reflect on the attacks and the implications of moving forward. … more from the Daily Gazette.

This week, SwatSTAND, the Swarthmore chapter of STAND, A Student Anti-Genocide Coalition, has been encouraging the Swarthmore community to participate in a nation-wide STAND fast to raise money for and awareness about genocide. ??We are asking that for a period of time, be it for one day or for the entire week, students give up one luxury item and donate the money they would have spent toward that item,?? Neena Cherayil ??11, an officer of SwatSTAND, said. Also, in an initiative unique to Swarthmore, SwatSTAND is collaborating with the local co-op in a further effort to raise funds. For the next three weeks, students have the option of donating their ten percent co-op student discount to the cause. … more from The Phoenix

Can vegetarianism reduce the likelihood of war? Since 1980, Food Not Bombs has been arguing that it can. One of the organization’s co-founders, Keith McHenry, gave a lecture on Tuesday, Nov. 25, focusing on the history of Food Not Bombs and its major goals: supporting vegetarianism and redirecting military expenses to providing food. … more from The Phoenix

Co-sponsored by Peace and Conflct Studies

“Nonviolent Action and the Struggle for Land: Experiences in India and Brazil”

Kurt Schock (Associate Professor of Sociology, Rutgers University)

Monday, November 24, 2008, 4:30 p.m.

Scheuer Room

Kohlberg Hall

Swarthmore College

Prof. Kurt Schock is author of Unarmed Insurrections: People Power Movements in Nondemocracies (University of Minnesota Press). “He is currently researching land reform and land rights movements in the global south. He is examining how various methods of civil resistance, such as protest marches and land occupations, are being used to promote a more equitable distribution of land and resources. He is also interested in how constructive programs such as rural cooperatives and small-scale sustainable agriculture are being used to promote agrarian reform. More broadly his research seeks to understand how methods of nonviolent action and ‘people power’ movements are able to successfully challenge state domination and economic exploitation.”

Light refreshments will be provided.

Campus maps and directions to Swarthmore College are available at http://www.swarthmore.edu/visitordash/dash_visitors.php

A .pdf flyer is available at http://www.swarthmore.edu/SocSci/peace/documents/Schock_F08_poster.pdf

Sponsored by the Department of Sociology and Anthropology with the Peace and Conflict Studies, Asian Studies, and Latin American Studies programs.