Dr. Denise Crossan to join Peace and Conflict Studies Program as Lang Professor

The Peace and Conflict Studies program is thrilled to join the Lang Center for Civic and Social Responsibility in welcoming a new colleague in Peace and Conflict Studies for the 2015-2016 academic year!

Dr. Denise Crossan
Lang Visiting Professor for Issues of Social Change
2015-2016

As the Lang Professor, Dr. Denise Crossan will engage with alumni, community members, faculty, staff, and students through instruction, research, and engagement activities surrounding the topics of social innovation and social entrepreneurship.

Dr. Crossan will offer two courses on social entrepreneurship in 2015-2016:

PEAC 039 Social Entrepreneurship for Social Change (Fall 2015)
PEAC 049 Be the Change: Social Entrepreneurship in Principle and Practice (Spring 2016)

Dr. Crossan joined the School of Business at Trinity College, Dublin (TCD) in January 2009 as Ireland’s first Lecturer in Social Entrepreneurship, and is the founding director of TCD’s new center, Initiative on Social Entrepreneurship. There she has taught courses such as “Social Entrepreneurship and Social Innovation: Organisation and Management,” and has consulted with many groups as they develop earned income strategies to sustain their work for the common good.

All members of the College community are encouraged to connect with Dr. Crossan during her time at Swarthmore as she is an incredible colleague with expertise in the areas of innovation, leadership, NGOs, social entrepreneurship, as well as strategic management and marketing.

Endowed by Eugene M. Lang ’38, the Lang Visiting Professorship brings to Swarthmore outstanding social scientists, political leaders, and social activists whose careers demonstrate sustained engagement with major issues of social justice, civil liberties, human rights, and democracy.

Along with the sponsoring academic program, Peace and Conflict Studies, this Lang Visiting Professorship is co-hosted by the Lang Center.

“GET ON YOUR FEET” a workshop for organizing peaceful protest with George Lakey

When: Thursday, 2/26, 7 p.m.

Where: Lang Center/Keith Room

George Lakey’s workshop is the final event in the RADICAL DEMOCRACY AND HUMANISM residency sponsored by the William J. Cooper Foundation. The workshop will offer attendees some models for organizing and information regarding preparation for peaceful protest. What questions is it important to answer, individually and as a group, regarding purpose and practice? What tools for action are useful to groups in differing situations? What models from past and current movements can be adapted to a variety of purposes? In this session, George Lakey will show that you *can* go beyond the boring limits of choosing between a march or a rally by coming to this workshop and learning about:
– action logic
– edgy actions
– using actions leadership development
– maximizing the empowerment potential of the actions you design
– one-offs vs. campaigns.

The workshop includes question time on the use of nonviolent direct action compared with other techniques for social change.

George Lakey’s first arrest was in the ‘sixties for a civil rights sit-in; in 2013 he was arrested in a protest against mountaintop removal coal mining in Appalachia. He co-founded a number of social change groups including Movement for a New Society, the Pennsylvania Jobs with Peace Campaign, Men Against Patriarchy, Training for Change, and Earth Quaker Action Team. He has led over 1500 social change workshops on five continents, for a wide variety of groups including homeless people, prisoners, Russian lesbians and gays, Sri Lankan monks, Burmese guerrilla soldiers, striking steel workers, South African activists, Canadian academics, and leaders of indigenous peoples brought together by the United Nations Institute for Training and Research in Geneva.

“GET ON YOUR FEET” a workshop for organizing peaceful protest with George Lakey

When: Thursday, 2/26, 7 p.m.

Where: Lang Center/Keith Room

The workshop includes question time on the use of nonviolent direct action compared with other techniques for social change.

RADICAL DEMOCRACY series – a few more lectures left!! (2/23-2/27)

FUNKY CHARISMA AND PROPHETS OF FUNK, a lecture with Kate Speer ’08

When: Monday, 2/23 at 10:30AM

Where: Lang Music 204

A PERsentation that presents an inside reading of David Dorfman’s PROPHETS OF FUNK, revealing how the work positions Funk composer and musician Sly Stewart as a charismatic prophet and transfers that charisma to the audience. By using the rhythms of Funk, Dorfman and the cast draw upon Pentecostal practices of testifying and transcendence, which are modes of receiving God on a personal level. Additionally, the work suggests that if charisma can be caught, like catching the spirit in Pentecostal worship, then there is the possibility for the audience to leave the theatre with their own charisma. Thus, this dance serves as an example for activists and artists alike that charisma is a potent and palatable method to shift their audience’s perspective so that it is in line with their message and to potentially ignite social change.

Kate Speer ’08 says of herself: “I am a dance artist who relishes a good beat that sends my sweaty, exhausted body into motion, who choreographs huge landscapes that crescendo into mountains and dissolve into streams, and who writes in order to open my mind to the body’s subtle, hidden meanings. Within the discipline of dance, I identify as a scholartist, a term that evokes a synthesis of choreography, performance, and scholarship. As a choreographer, I live at the intersection of social activism and artistic production by merging theatrical storytelling with athletic, momentum-based movement in order to engage the audience’s visceral and emotional capacities.”

Plus

BETWEEN APATHY AND ACTION, a lecture/discussion with Kate Speer ’08

When: Tuesday, 2/24 2:40 p.m.

Where: Lang Music 407

For this lecture in the RADICAL DEMOCRACY AND HUMANISM residency, Kate Speer ’08 will address how David Dorfman Dance uses dance as political activism. Since its formation in 1985, David Dorfman Dance has become one of the leading American modern dance companies known for politically relevant and community based works. By analyzing the choreographies of Disavowal (2008) and underground (2006) through the lens of activist art and protest theories, Dorfman’s work reveals a set of beliefs that are distinctly American, including democracy, individualism, and activism. Additionally, his works strive to encourage the audience to begin dialoguing, effectively employing democracy within the concert stage environment. Consequently, David Dorfman’s work aims to create active American citizens who are more critical of their actions in the world, perhaps even inspired to act after leaving the theater.

Kate Speer says of herself:”I am a dance artist who relishes a good beat that sends my sweaty, exhausted body into motion, who choreographs huge landscapes that crescendo into mountains and dissolve into streams, and who writes in order to open my mind to the body’s subtle, hidden meanings.
Within the discipline of dance, I identify as a scholartist, a term that evokes a synthesis of choreography, performance, and scholarship. As a choreographer, I live at the intersection of social activism and artistic production by merging theatrical storytelling with athletic, momentum-based movement in order to engage the audience’s visceral and emotional capacities.” http://www.katespeerdance.org/about.html

RADICAL DEMOCRACY series – a few more lectures left!! (2/23-2/27)

FUNKY CHARISMA AND PROPHETS OF FUNK, a lecture with Kate Speer ’08

When: Monday, 2/23 at 10:30AM

Where: Lang Music 204

Plus

BETWEEN APATHY AND ACTION, a lecture/discussion with Kate Speer ’08

When: Tuesday, 2/24 2:40 p.m.

Where: Lang Music 407

Stanley Hauerwas to speak on “light”

“How to think about light theologically”
A lecture by Dr. Stanley Hauerwas

Where: Bond Memorial Hall at Swarthmore College (directions)
When: Monday, February 23rd at 7:00 pm

Dr. Stanley Hauerwas is perhaps the most famous American
ethicist-theologian alive today. Dr. Hauerwas is currently the Gilbert T. Rowe Professor of theological ethics at Duke Divinity School where he also holds a joint appointment in the Duke University School of Law.

Among his many honors, Dr. Hauerwas was named in 2001 “America’s best theologian” by TIME magazine. Also in 2001, Hauerwas delivered the prestigious Gifford Lectures at St. Andrews College in Scotland.

As the country’s foremost Christian pacifist, Hauerwas has written on a wide range of topics from war, peace, law, American politics, the Christian Church and ethics. In ethics, Dr. Hauerwas has been at the forefront of the resurgence of Aristotelian virtue ethics in the American academy.

This task he undertook in collaboration with the equally renowned
philosopher, Dr. Alasdair MacIntyre, with whom he worked and taught for many years. This Monday at 7pm in Bond Memorial Hall, Dr. Hauerwas will speak on the topic “How to think about light theologically.” Don’t miss this lecture by one of the most famous living pacifists and theologians!

Contact: ekast1

Theater of Witness covers new ranges of emotional spectrum

The following piece appeared in the most recent issue of The Phoenix.

Theater of Witness covers new ranges of emotional spectrum

By Daniel Bidikov on February 12, 2015

Theater of Witness is a series of staged dramatic performances and cinema pieces through which subjects recount complex personal histories. It was brought to Swarthmore on Monday, February 10 by its founder and director Teya Sepinuck. Sepinuck served as adjunct faculty in member in the college’s dance department for almost 20 years before leaving to found the Philadelphia-based TOVA: Artistic Projects for Social Change in 1991. More recently, she has been in Northern Ireland expanding the Theater of Witness program.The program opened with Sepinuck reading a short passage from her book, describing an encounter with children who were unwitting victims of war. It seemed generic, too distant to be meaningful. Sepinuck then moved towards presenting the actual “theater” of witness.She started with some footage of a young boy narrating on and off camera, accompanied by footage of his Philadelphia neighborhood. It is part of a piece connecting mothers of young gang violence victims to the perpetrators of said violence. The relationship between victim and perpetrator is essential and unique to Sepinuck’s work.“It’s harder to identify with the perpetrator,” said Sepinuck. “But it’s important.”

After a brief and interesting, if not completely comprehensive, introduction to the methods of the program, Sepinuck showed a few particularly powerful Theater of Witness performances.The first video featured a man named Hakim Ali telling his story. Ali had committed acts of gang violence, and had not spoken about it or outwardly reflected on it before participating in Sepinuck’s program.

“It’s very healing,” said Sepinuck.

On stage he is full of emotion, the kind of regret and loss that is easy to feel and almost impossible to communicate. Sepinuck shared a story about how the mothers of victims and convicted perpetrators alike were in tears, moved to unabridged expression by the stories of their sons. But none of them were shown on screen, and the distance remained.

Next was the story of a couple from Sepinuck’s film “Raising Our Voice.” The work was inspired by a man who called Sepinuck, requesting to participate after having seen one of her programs. He confessed to committing domestic abuse and told Sepinuck that he kept hearing her name when he was praying. The film opens with a monologue from the man’s wife, who decided to participate in the program after watching him. She fights tears on screen as she outlines a history of helplessness and running away, ending on a note of strength and confidence. The scene then cuts to the man’s own story as the film follows him through a saga of masculine pressure that poisoned his protective instincts of love. The two end up on stage together, dancing closely. The “healing” capability that Sepinuck had referred to earlier was more than just cathartic introspection. It unifies parties that have damaged each other. As the couple dances on screen, there is not exactly forgiveness, but there is still love.

Sepinuck then presented her more recent work on the lives of those who had lost loved ones due to separatist and military violence in northern Ireland. She showed individually narrated short films: one of a young woman named Victoria, whose father was killed in an IRA related bomb attack and one of a young man named Fionbarr, whose father died at the hands of suspicious British police. Sepinuck then showed a Theater of Witness project featuring a young woman who had given herself to the IRA years ago as she tells the story of her impassioned extremism and its abrupt end due to a brain hemorrhage. She is then shown on stage together with the wives of men killed by IRA activity, in an example of the show’s careful exploration of the relativism of innocence and the universality of pain.

To conclude, Sepinuck showed material from her film “Living with Life”, a Theater of Witness project done at the State Correctional Institute in nearby Chester. A group of men sentenced to life in prison are interviewed about their free lives and current emotions at an unexpected, almost inconceivable depth. This is followed by their performance of an original composition by the prisoners, about how they must hold on to some fragments of sanity while confined. It is a perspective on life that, as consumers of a media saturated with grotesquely fantasized prison environments, is almost never seen.

Honors Acting Capstone: DUBLIN BY LAMPLIGHT (2/27-3/1)

DUBLIN BY LAMPLIGHT is a story of national identity, heroism, and goof. Join us in Dublin in 1904 at the grand opening of the Irish National Theatre of Ireland. But wait, the the King of England is in town for a visit! Amidst the squalor and the muck, the pomp and circumstance, an intrepid six-person ensemble plays 33 different characters to tell the fictional….and not so fictional…story of rebels, divas, dandies, and duds. A unique blend of classic melodrama and commedia dell’ arte and the Irish struggle for independence from the British crown.

Written by Michael West
Directed by Alex Torra
Stage Managed by Swift Shuker

with
Cosmo Alto
Amelia Dornbush
Tyler Elliot
Michelle Johnson
Jameson Lisak
Joshua McLucas

and
Costume and Makeup Design: Laila Swanson
Light Design: Amanda Jensen
Sound Design: Liz Atkinson
Dialect Coach: Peter Schmitz
Movement Coach: Brendon Gawel

LPAC Frear Ensemble Theater
February 27, 2015 at 8PM
February 28, 2015 at 2PM & 8PM
March 1, 2015 at 2PM

Lakey workshop “Get on your feet: Organizing for Peaceful Protest”

GET ON YOUR FEET: ORGANIZING FOR PEACEFUL PROTEST
A workshop with George Lakey

Thursday, February 26
7:00 – 10:30 p.m.
Keith Room – Lang Center for Civic and Social Responsibility
Swarthmore College (Directions)

You *can* go beyond the boring limits of choosing between a march or a rally by coming to this workshop and learning about:

action logic
edgy actions
using actions leadership development
maximizing the empowerment potential of the actions you design
one-offs vs. campaigns

The workshop includes question time on the use of nonviolent direct action compared with other techniques for social change.

George Lakey is formerly a Lang Professor in Peace and Conflict Studies at Swarthmore College. He founded the Global Nonviolent Action Database.

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!