Tag Archives: Peace and Conflict Studies

From Enemies to Partners: Vietnam, the U.S. and Agent Orange – A Book Talk with the Authors

On Thursday, November 2, Peace and Conflict Studies will welcome the authors of From Enemies to Partners- Vietnam, the U.S. and Agent Orange. The lecture will take place at 4:15 PM in the Scheuer Room of Kohlberg Hall.

Flyer for Book Talk Download and print a flyer.

Dr. Charles Bailey (Swarthmore ’67) is Director Emeritus of the the Aspen Institute Agent Orange in Vietnam program. Dr. Bailey was the Ford Foundation representative in Vietnam from 1997-2007.

Dr. Le Ke Son is the former Vice Director-General of the Vietnam Environmental Administration. He is also a medical doctor with a PhD in toxicology and served as a medic in the Peoples Army for 25 years.

The authors will cover a range of topics, most notably the great power of technology and military hubris to alter the environment and impact humans even decades later.

Download Information on the Book Release

This event is cosponsored by Asian Studies, Sociology and Anthropology, the Office of Alumni and Parent Engagement, Environmental Studies, and the Global Affairs Program at the Lang Center for Civic and Social Responsibility.

Provost of Brown University, Dr. Richard Locke, Will Visit Swarthmore on November 3, 2017

Richard M. Locke is provost of Brown University and professor of political science and public and international affairs. At the time of his appointment as provost in July 2015, Locke served as the Howard R. Swearer Director of the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs at Brown.

Locke is an internationally respected scholar and authority on international labor relations and worker rights, comparative political economy, and corporate responsibility. He has published five books and numerous articles on economic development, labor relations, and corporate responsibility. For his ongoing research on fair and safe working conditions in global supply chains, Locke was named the 2005 Faculty Pioneer in Academic Leadership by The Aspen Institute. He is a member of the ILO-IFC Better Work Program Advisory Committee, and from 2013-2016, he served as chair of the Apple Academic Advisory Board, a group of independent academics who worked with Apple to improve labor conditions among the company’s suppliers.

This lecture, titled Making Globalization Work For All, is sponsored by Peace and Conflict Studies, the President’s Office, and the Provost’s Office.

Faculty Votes Unanimously to Approve Regular Major in Peace and Conflict Studies

Following the unanimous vote of the faculty, the College has now formally approved a Regular Major in Peace and Conflict Studies here at Swarthmore. Toward the end of the 19th century (1888 to be exact), the first course in peace studies anywhere in the world was taught here at Swarthmore, and our program was established in 1991. The Peace Collection and Friends Historical Library have been supporting peace research since 1930 and 1871 respectively. Now, the study of peace and conflict has been formally incorporated into the College’s curriculum!

Congratulations!

WHAT HAPPENED IN CHARLOTTESVILLE? A Teach-in on October 5, 2017

Peace and Conflict Studies faculty member Lee Smithey will be joined by Bruce Dorsey (History), Nina Johnson (Sociology and Black Studies), Jamie Thomas (Linguistics), and Gina Patnaik (English Literature) for a panel discussion on the recent violence in Charlottesville, VA.

The event will take place on Thursday, October 5 at 6:00pm in the Lang Performing Arts Center Cinema.

Teach-In Flyer

Human Rights Hummus: A Podcast Produced by Peace and Conflict Studies Alumni

Swarthmore Peace and Conflict Studies recent graduates Lily Tyson and Marissa Cohen have already produced three episodes of their new podcast, “Human Rights Hummus: Voices of the Holy Land.”

Lily and Marissa interview Israelis and Palestinians and record their stories, teaching listeners “what their lives are like and about what is going on with this occupation today, as they experience it.”

Swarthmore College, the Lang Center for Civic & Social Responsibility, and Prof. Sa’ed Atshan of the Peace and Conflict Studies program all proudly support Lily and Marissa on this project!

Check out their website here.

Dr. Sa’ed Atshan to join faculty in Peace and Conflict Studies

We are thrilled to announce that Dr. Sa’ed Atshan will join the Peace and Conflict Studies program for the fall semester of 2015!

Professor Atshan will offer a range of exciting new courses!:

PEAC 003 Crisis Resolution in the Middle East (Spring 2016)
PEAC 015 Introduction to Peace and Conflict Studies (Fall 2015)
PEAC 043 Gender, Sexuality, and Social Change (Spring 2016)
PEAC 053 Israeli-Palestinian Conflict (Fall 2015)
PEAC 103 Humanitarianism: Anthropological Approaches (This is a two-credit seminar, cross-listed with ANTH) (Spring 2016)

Dr. Atshan graduated from Harvard University in 2013 with a Ph.D. in Anthropology and Middle Eastern Studies. He holds an M.A. in Social Anthropology from Harvard, an MPP from the Harvard Kennedy School, and a B.A. in Political Science and Middle Eastern Studies from Swarthmore College. He is currently a post-doctoral fellow at the Watson Institute for International Studies at Brown University.

Over the past six years, Atshan has regularly taught “Introduction to Peace and Justice Studies” in the Peace and Justice Studies Program at Tufts University, where he has also taught courses on “The Arab Spring and Nonviolent Strategic Action” and “Gender, Sexuality, and Human Rights in the Middle East.”

Dr. Atshan designed and taught courses at Harvard and Brown on social movements in the Middle East and the Arab Spring, among other topics. He has earned four of Harvard’s excellence in undergraduate teaching awards along the way.

Sa’ed has won multiple awards and fellowships from important organizations that include the National Science Foundation, the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation, Social Science Research Council, and the Paul and Daisy Soros Foundation, and in 2009, he was awarded a Kathryn Davis Fellowship for Peace.

In addition to his work on humanitarian politics and aid intervention, Atshan has conducted research into nonviolent Israeli and Palestinian social movements, countering old characterizations of nonviolence as foreign to the region. Instead he discovers and reveals “co-resistance” or coalition and joint struggles for social justice between Israeli and Palestinian activists.

Professor Atshan has worked with a range of organizations that include Human Rights Watch, the American Civil Liberties Union, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Seeds of Peace International Camp, the Palestinian Negotiations Affairs Department, and Medical Aid for Palestinians, all indicating his commitment to the practical pursuit of peace and justice to which our field aspires.

We look forward to having such an innovative scholar and teacher join our program!

Sexualized Violence, Silence, and Crucifixion

The Scandal of the Cross: Sexualized Violence, Silence, and Crucifixion

Crucifix Prof. David Tombs

Trinity College Dublin

4:15 p.m., Wednesday, November 20, 2013

Scheuer Room, Kohlberg Hall, Swarthmore College

Download a flyer

Directions to campus

St. Paul’s description of the cross as ‘a scandal’ (1 Cor. 1.23) is widely known. Christians around the world are familiar with it, and many recall it each year on Good Friday. But what exactly made the cross so scandalous and shameful? The lecture examines sexualized violence and tortures in contemporary conflicts and in the Roman world. It explains why the cross was so offensive in the first century, it suggests that the real shame of the cross has been unspeakable for two millennia, and it asks how this might be appropriately addressed in a theology which affirms human dignity.

You can read some of David Tombs’ work on the topic in an article, ‘Crucifixion, State Terror and Sexual Abuse’, that appeared in a 1999 issue of Union Seminary Quarterly Review.

Prof. David Tombs

David Tombs works in Belfast, Northern Ireland as Assistant Professor of Conflict Resolution and Reconciliation for the Irish School of Ecumenics, Trinity College Dublin. His primary focus is public theology and the interface of religion, violence and conflict transformation.

When Swarthmore students study in Northern Ireland as part of the College’s Northern Ireland Semester program, they study with Dr. Tombs and his colleagues at the Irish School of Ecumenics. David Tombs has been a marvelous partner for the program and works closely with Swarthmore faculty, staff, and students. His visit will provide an excellent opportunity for students who might be interested in studying in Northern Ireland the opportunity to learn more about the Irish School of Ecumenics in Belfast.

Co-sponsored by Peace & Conflict Studies, Department of Religion, Provost’s Office, Off-campus Study, The Northern Ireland Semester, Gender and Sexuality Studies

Contact: peacestudies@swarthmore.edu

125 Years of Peace and Conflict Studies in Higher Education at Swarthmore College

In recent months, a document was discovered in the Swarthmore College Archives revealing that the first known Peace and Conflict Studies course in higher education, “Elements of International Law with special attention to the important subjects of Peace and Arbitration” was offered by Professor William Penn Holcomb in 1888 at Swarthmore College. Thus, this year, we are celebrating 125 of the origins of peace and conflict studies in higher education!

The Swarthmore College Bulletin has published an article on this exciting finding.

Pioneering Peace Studies

By Sherri Kimmel

Swarthmore College Bulletin, July 2013

That Swarthmore College was an early proponent of peace and conflict studies should come as no surprise to those familiar with the College’s dedication to Quaker values. However, the recent discovery of an article published 125 years ago indicates the College was the first college or university to offer an actual peace-studies course.

Lee Smithey, associate professor of sociology and peace and conflict studies coordinator, announced the distinction at a gathering this spring, reading from an 1888 article that was republished from The Peacemaker (the organ of the Universal Peace Union) in The Friends Intelligencer. Christopher Densmore, curator of the Friends Historical Library, discovered the article and shared it with Smithey.

[Parrish Hall in 1890 (photo courtesy of Friends’ Historical Library)]
The article praised the College’s new course in peace and arbitration as “an eventful era in the peace movement of the 19th century. To thus drill, as it were, for peace is to hasten the abolition of war and the military system. All credit to Swarthmore! This example will go round the world.”

Though Swarthmore launched the first course, peace and conflict studies as a discipline “didn’t take off for another 60 years,” says Smithey. Manchester College, founded in Indiana by another historic peace church, the Church of the Brethren, formed the first program in 1948.

According to Smithey, peace and conflict studies programs have gained momentum in waves—after the World Wars and the Vietnam War, and in the 1980s and ’90s, when concern over the proliferation of nuclear arms grew. Now, there are peace and conflict studies programs at about 400 institutions. Swarthmore’s program began in 1991–92 and has 30 students enrolled as minors, honors, or special majors, Smithey says.

The program draws courses from a range of social science and humanities departments at Swarthmore and the other campuses of the Tri-College consortium and explores the causes, practice, and consequences of collective violence as well as peaceful or nonviolent methods of dealing with conflict.

Says Smithey of the College’s new distinction, “Swarthmore College was ahead of its time, and 125 years later, we still hold these values as we seek to advance our knowledge about constructive conflict and just and peaceful relations.”

Report on Tri-college trip to PJSA 2012

Fifteen peace and conflict studies and environmental studies students and faculty from the Tri-Colleges (Swarthmore, Haverford, and Bryn Mawr) attended this year’s Peace and Justice Studies Association meetings at Tufts University October 4-6, 2012.

[Tri-College Trip to the 2012 Peace and Justice Studies Meeting at Tufts University from Swarthmore Peace Studies on Vimeo.]

This year’s theme was “Anticipating Climate Disruption: Sustaining Justice, Greening Peace”, offering a perfect opportunity to team up with the Environmental Studies Program and our Tri-college peace studies partners for a joint trip. The opportunity also aligned well with President Chopp’s leadership on climate issues and Swarthmore College’s long commitment to peace and social justice concerns. In fact, a write-up about our trip appeared in the conference program. You can also read more about the trip in a story by Taylor Hodges that appeared on October 11 in The Phoenix.

We would like to express our deep gratitude to our co-sponsors: The President’s Office at Swarthmore College, The Dean’s Office at Swarthmore College, The Center for Peace and Global Citizenship at Haverford College, The Peace and Conflict Studies Program at Swarthmore, Peace and Social Justice Program at Bryn Mawr, Peace Conflict and Human Rights at Haverford, and the Tri-College Environmental Studies Program. Thanks also to George Lakey of the Peace and Conflict Studies Program at Swarthmore and Chloe Tucker of the Center for Peace and Global Citizenship at Haverford who also went on the trip.

The conference organizers were very helpful in organizing homestays for our students with Tufts students, many of whom take Swarthmore alum Sa’ed Atshan’s ’06 course at Tufts, “Introduction to Peace and Conflict Studies”!

Students speak for themselves about their experience at the conference in a story that appeared in The Phoenix and in the video interviews above.

In order to bring some of the flavor of knowledge of the conference back, we have also curated tweets from the conference below (in reverse order).