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GoFundMe has set up a hub with links to all of the fundraiser campaigns the charity site has verified as being legitimate. Every fundraiser is reviewed to make sure that funds are delivered to the correct recipients. The list includes the Ukrainian Humanitarian Fund, which is collecting, “Tax-deductible donations will be distributed to verified nonprofit organizations providing relief to those impacted.”

The International Rescue Committee

The International Rescue Committee, a global humanitarian organization that has been in existence since the 1930s, set up a fund to help Ukraine. The IRC’s website says, “Families affected by the Ukraine crisis need your help. The IRC is on the ground in Poland and preparing to support displaced families. Your emergency gift will help us provide food, medical care and emergency supplies to refugee families in countries like Ukraine, Afghanistan, Syria, and Yemen. Please give what you can today.”

Voices of Children Ukraine

Voices of Children Ukraine has been providing help to children who have been affected by the Russian military’s actions in Ukraine since 2015. “Thanks to you, we provide psychological and psychosocial support to children. It helps them overcome the consequences of armed conflict and develop. Today, during the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, we are providing non-stop assistance to affected children and families from all over the country, providing emergency psychological assistance, and assisting in the evacuation process,” the charity’s website says.

Army SOS Ukraine

Army SOS Ukraine is collecting money to support soldiers and civilians fighting in Ukraine against Russian forces, including through donations of medical supplies and tactical equipent, according to its website.

United Help Ukraine

United Help Ukraine is raising money for medical supplies, humanitarian aid, wounded warriors and to raise awareness.

Razom, a Grassroots Organization Providing Humanitarian Support in Ukraine

“Razom’s Emergency Response is the SOS button that is pressed in times of need. We created this project to provide urgent help and support in face of an extreme and unforeseen situation in Ukraine. Today, the sovereign nation of Ukraine has to deal with the most horrendous and catastrophic emergency – a brutal invasion. Razom is responding to this by providing critical medical supplies and amplifying the voices of Ukrainians,” the charity’s website says.

FARA Foundation: Providing Help to Refugees in Romania

The Fara Foundation has set up a fund to help Ukrainian refugees who are now in Romania, according to its website.

Polish Humanitarian Action: Helping Those Who Have Been Displaced to Poland

Polish Humanitarian Action is, ” providing humanitarian aid including food and other forms of support to people who had to leave their homes. Our actions include people affected by conflict both internally displaced as well as refugees coming to Poland.”

Keep Ukraine’s Media Going: A Fundraiser to Help Ukrainians Telling Their Story on the Ground in the Warzone

A GoFundMe campaign has been set up to help Ukrainian journalists who remain on the ground tell the story of what is happening in their country. “They have shown extraordinary courage, but the reality on the ground is that most operations cannot continue from Ukraine alone. This fundraiser is aimed at helping media relocate, set-up back offices and continue their operations from neighboring countries,” the campaign says.

Help Children With Cancer in Ukraine

This Global Giving verified fund helps children who are battling cancer amid the crisis in Ukraine. It supports the Tabletochki Charity Foundation.

UNICEF

The long-running charity UNICEF has created a fund to help children in Ukraine. The charity’s website says, “Children are the least responsible for armed conflict in Ukraine, but they suffer most from its consequences. Your 100% tax-deductible donation will help UNICEF ensure that Ukraine’s children have access to safe water, nutrition, health care, education and protection. Less than 3% of funds go to administrative costs.”

Project C.U.R.E.: Support Ukrainian Hospitals Directly

Project C.U.R.E. is providing financial support to hospitals in Ukraine. “Project C.U.R.E. meets global health challenges at the community level every day by delivering critical medical supplies to hospitals, rural clinics and community health centers in need in developing countries. Your gift will give the most vulnerable patients, families and children around the world access to healthcare and access to hope,” the website says.

Support the Kyiv Independent News

The Kyiv Independent has set up a fund to help it continue its English-language newsgathering efforts on the ground in Ukraine’s capital city.

World Central Kitchen

Chef Jose Andres and the World Central Kitchen is providing food to refugees who fled from Ukraine.

The Global Empowerment Mission

The Global Empowerment Mission has set up a fund to help Ukraine.

The Ukraine Crisis Relief Fund by Global Giving

Global Giving has set up the Ukraine Crisis Relief Fund. “Russia has invaded Ukraine in the biggest state-against-state attack since World War II. Millions of civilians are caught in the middle of an escalating war and humanitarian crisis, and casualties are rising. Your donation to this fund will support Ukrainians in need, with a focus on the most vulnerable, including children,” the charity’s website says.

Save The Children’s Ukraine Crisis Relief Fund

Save the Children has set up a fund to help in Ukraine. The charity says, “Ukraine’s children are in grave danger of physical harm, severe emotional distress and mass displacement. Save the Children is concerned for children caught in the middle of armed conflict, forced from their homes in freezing temperatures, and exposed to injury, hunger and cold.”

The International Medical Corps

The International Medical Corps is providing support on the ground in Ukraine. “International Medical Corps relieves the suffering of those affected by conflict, disaster and disease, often in difficult and dangerous environments. We deliver vital healthcare services and training that help devastated populations move from relief to self-reliance,” the charity says.

Sunflower of Peace

Sunflower of Peace is named for the official flower of Ukraine. The charity prepares and provides medical aid backpacks and first-aid kits to paramedics and doctors on the frontlines, according to its Facebook page. The charity was started in Ukraine in 2014 by Katya Malakhova .

Revived Soldiers of Ukraine

According to its website, “Revived Soldiers Ukraine (RSU) is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing aid to the people of Ukraine so that they may fulfill fundamental rights and freedoms such as right to life, right to appropriate and affordable medical care, freedom of belief and freedom for an adequate standard of living.”

Ukrainian Red Cross

The Ukrainian Red Cross is working on the ground in Ukraine and in areas where refugees from Ukraine are being displaced to. The Red Cross says, “For its part, the Ukrainian Red Cross has sprung into action distributing more than 30,000 food and hygiene parcels and assisting with the evacuation of people with disabilities. On Monday night alone, Red Cross teams provided basic food and necessities to over 8,000 people sheltering in subway stations during the shelling. Additionally, teams have provided first aid training to 2,000 people in metro stations and bomb shelters. Across the country, more than 3,000 staff and volunteers are supporting firefighters, medical and civil protection units. Meanwhile, volunteers are welcoming people at reception centers set up in schools and coordinating with partners like the Polish Red Cross to assist people at the border.”

Project Dynamo

Project Dynamo, which started as a group to help rescue Americans and allies from Afghanistan during the 2021 withdrawal of U.S. and NATO troops from the country, is now assisting with evacuations from Ukraine.

Lifeline Ukraine

Lifeline Ukraine provides suicide prevention support and help to Ukrainians suffering from mental health crisises.

Vostok SOS

Vostok SOS helps internally displaced Ukrainians and those in the country who have been exposed to violence and war. It is also raising money for soldiers and civilians who are fighting Russian forces.

Come Back Alive

Come Back Alive is a fund to help the Ukrainian military. The fund provides military equipment and other support. It was founded in 2014 during Russia’s invasion of Crimea.

Phoenix Wings

According to its website, Phoenix Wings, “provides the Ukrainian army with the necessary assistance in regards to the appropriate equipment & uniform, personal non-lethal protection (vests, helmets), required treatment of the wounded soldiers and acquisition the personal first aid kits, and repair of the buildings used by the army.”

Hospataliers

According to its Facebook page, “Hospitallers” is a volunteer paramedic organisation. It was founded by Yana Zinkevych at the beginning of military action in 2014 when Russia annexed Crimea and initiated warfare actions in the South of Ukraine with the assistance of the Russia-quasi-controlled forces.”

Have a resource to add? Let us know!

Source: https://heavy.com/news/help-ukraine-verified-charities-aid-relief-gofundme/

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As guest editor this season, it is my pleasure and privilege to announce the publication of the latest issue of the Peace Chronicle, the theme of which is Climate. These articles represent inquiries into topics of crisis, governance, denial and obstruction, migration, industry, infrastructure, biodiversity, politics, environment, greenwashing, indigeneity, resistance, water, transformation, pedagogy, activism, and of course, peace and justice.

While the fifteen writings included offer in-depth considerations of past, present, and future concerns regarding climate, and PJSA’s role in contributing to peaceful and just transitions, more can and should be said to develop these insights and offer others. My hope is that what you find here will invite opportunities to meditate on the situation we find ourselves in and provoke desperately needed action to resolve the tensions underlying the political and environmental conflicts.

Having recently moved into the role as PJSA’s Liaison to Activists, I’d like to finally invite you to consider me a resource to these ends. If you have any comments, responses, suggestions, or proposals for how the Peace and Justice Studies Association can better support activist-scholarship, please do share your ideas and I will work to the best of my ability to ensure your needs are met.

Please do also consider submitting any writings for the Peace Chronicle, either to supplement this issue, or in anticipation of the Summer issue whose theme will be Youth. There is incredible insight, wisdom, and power from the membership and leadership alike, so that together we might continue to contemplate and create the conditions we describe.

Matt Thierry, MA

Liaison to Activists

Peace Chronicle: Climate

https://www.peacejusticestudies.org/chronicle-issue/climate-sp21/

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In the wake of the events of January 6, which saw an angry mob’s shocking attempt to seize the Capitol Building, and ostensibly, harm members of Congress who were debating the question of certifying the election of Joseph Biden and Kamala Harris, we, the Peace and Justice Studies Association (PJSA), have concluded we must speak out. We are the US-Canadian affiliate of the International Peace Research Association (IPRA) and the primary academic society for peace and conflict studies scholars and activist in the US and Canada. 

While the insurrectionary action catalyzed by Donald Trump was shocking, it was not surprising. Most citizens willing to listen, observe, and think critically and morally, knew from the beginning of Mr. Trump’s campaign for the presidency that his attempt at leadership would go from bad to worse, and end up in some form of authoritarianism. In our classrooms and peacebuilding contexts, our members have issued this warning from the start. But we do not wish to simply lament the regressive path that led to this mob action, let alone the storming of our nation’s Capitol itself. We want to speak from our unique professional perspective.

The Capitol attacks on January 6 were a loud cymbal crash that followed a long-building crescendo. We do not merely reference the past four years. The fact is, white supremacy and its concomitant white fear, resentment, and anger, have been with us since the founding of the nation and became amplified when Reconstruction failed. The United States has always been a place of gross inequality and grave injustice, and yet ironically, part of the brew of victimology rehearsed in white souls is the fear that this country will be fully shared, rather than controlled by white power. Those persons screaming at cameras, telling the world that their “freedoms” have been lost, or that they are losing “their” country, are not a small minority. One need only visit, for example, the presidential campaigns of Barry Goldwater or Ronald Reagan to see that the narrative fires of victimhood and resentment have been stoked for decades, precisely in corresponding relationship to the growth of rightwing dominance exhibited in news media, the judiciary, and political culture. Centuries of pain and injustice, and decades of rising white supremacist ideology, have brought us to this moment. Donald J. Trump is as much a consequence, an epiphenomenon, and a symptom of this narrative as he is a catalyst for its inevitable eruption.

As we increasingly try to understand how we came to this terrifying moment, we will need to bring greater acuity and courage to our analyses than we have heard in mainstream venues so far. We must turn to collective self-evaluation that is relentless and vigilant. We must note how the US has a long-held propensity to run from hard conversations and painful truths. One of these, surely, is America’s history of both covertly and overtly installing, shaping, undermining and overthrowing regimes in other countries when they do not serve U.S. interests – not only dictatorial and hostile regimes, but also fairly elected democratic governments (see Chile, Honduras, Nicaragua, Haiti, to name but a few). Was it not conceivable that this interventionist tradition might eventually come to include and divide America itself? 

We cannot repair and rebuild unless we recognize the truth of our failings and our tendencies to gloss over destructive conflict, rather than transform it into constructive change. We must put our hands to the plow and do the hard work necessary to build peace in this time of tension. As John Paul Lederach puts it, “between the fierce now and the long arc” of the justice that Martin Luther King proclaimed, difficult questions must be confronted. Perhaps our social contract is not merely torn. Perhaps we have never really had such a contract at all. Perhaps there have existed two contracts, one for the rich and powerful, and another for those who have been disenfranchised, distraught, disempowered, and exploited. And perhaps our pathology will grow until a shared contract that guarantees equality and freedom, access to opportunity, dignity and respect, and human security for all is finally written and put into force.

How might we respond to the cacophony, catastrophe, and crisis? How might we respond to ever-louder crescendos and clashing cymbals of violence that will almost certainly come? What might our hard work entail? Let us, at the least, consider these observations. 

We must wrestle with the fear and anger of whiteness as well as the privilege. People of color suffer gross disparities in the United States. The inequality is stunning. If you read the Tricontinental Institute (Vijay Prasad) 2nd Newsletter of 2021 there they say: “Between 1990 and 2020, US billionaires saw their wealth increase by 1,130%, while median wealth in the US increased by only 5.37% (this increase was even more marked during the pandemic).” Yet white folks, and white men specifically, overwhelmingly comprise those ready to use violence in the service of their sense of loss. White folks constitute these aggrieved numbers who believe the government has turned against them. This irony points to what Eddie Glaude, Jr. calls “the value gap”—the fact that in the US, white lives are valued more than other lives. Addressing this moral affront is long overdue. This systemic problem is visible everywhere. As many have already noted, if the persons who made their way to the Capitol Building had been mostly black, brown, and native, they would have been stopped with deadly force. The militarized and brutal response of police to black and brown bodies this past summer is evidence of this. The very week that white fearmongers, operating on a motivational tableau of lies, stormed the seat of national government, a police officer was acquitted from facing charges for shooting a black man in the back seven times in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Others have also noted that in the wake of the carnage, it is mostly brown and black persons we see working to clean up and clear up the detritus, beginning the work to repair the physical space. 

We must hold space for legitimate protest. Democracy demands we do so. But dignified nonviolent protest is something much different than the vandalizing and violent riot of January 6th. Peacebuilding includes a long and powerful history of protest that brings social and political change for justice and freedom. But it is important to distinguish between the elements of such constructive protest against injustice and violence, and riotous violence on behalf of fabricated grievances that are not substantiated.

We must not be afraid of conflict, but rather embrace it with care and courage. Conflict can be honorable and healthy. Conflict is essential to learning. Peace and conflict scholars observe that conflict can be managed and transformed peacefully. Conflict can be turned from destructive modes of expression into constructive modes of operation. Our discipline and profession teach the means to engage in such transformation.

We must take the skills of conflict transformation, peacebuilding, mediation, and reconciliation that are used in “conflict” and “post-conflict” zones outside of the US and apply them here. Many of us, for example, have paid close attention to, and, have had experience with the Northern Ireland conflict and peacebuilding process. We have seen how neighbors, those who share social and political institutions, a religion, a language, and other features of shared social life, turned on one another and conducted a brutal 30-year war rather softly called “The Troubles” (1968-1998). We know how possible it is for conflict in the US to be stoked rather than transformed, built up rather than broken down. The nonviolent skills that have been put into great effect across the globe, in Northern Ireland and elsewhere, must urgently be put to use in the US.

We must immerse ourselves in the methodologies of understanding, a critical part of out work that too often is subverted by disingenuous debate. Those who feel alienated and angry, left out and losing, must be listened to and understood. Some work has begun toward this objective, but we are far from having the sufficient knowledge and the necessary concomitant empathy. Of course, the responsibility of understanding falls on all of us. Those who call for violence against Democrats and Republicans who are seen as traitors to Donald Trump, call for a removal of “the deep state” and for “revolution.” But they have been far from clear as to what they actually want. Perhaps they want good paying jobs, lower taxes, affordable health care, and so-called “conservative” judges. But a revolution is not needed to accomplish these objectives. What do they mean by “the deep state”? What freedoms have they lost? Perhaps these lost “freedoms” could be named more accurately as lost “privileges” formerly linked to specific racialized and gendered identities. We must work much harder to understand one another, but part of this task requires that a concrete set of desires and objectives be presented. 

We must engage not only in a robust program of epistemology—learning to understand one another (and ourselves), but also, we must engage in the peacebuilding, conflict transformation, mediation, and reconciliation methodologies that are successful elsewhere. We need a program that engages in moral courage with all seriousness. This is one area where many religious institutions have failed. Do the churches that support Donald Trump no longer teach the “Golden Rule”? What became of the Beatitudes, the Sermon on the Mount, the moral teaching of Jesus and the New Testament?

We must discover, demand, and build democracy. Democracy is built on the foundations of equality. Equality makes justice, freedom, opportunity, and human security possible. Democracy is a moral theory and a moral practice. It is far more than a set of legal and governmental edifices. It is common for US citizens to speak of their country as a democracy, or to lament the democracy that has now been put on life support. One view is that we did not have democracy in the US until black citizens were included in it in the 1960s. The more truthful view is, there has been precious little democracy in the US from the founding to the present. There are a number of staple features of democracy that are still not practiced in the US. Gerrymandering, the Electoral College, and the billions poured into political campaigning and legislating, for example, undercut the possibility that each citizen’s vote counts equally. There are many valuable texts that explicate democracy, but we suggest the reader consult, for starters, the brief essay, Our Common Purpose: Reinventing American Democracy for the 21st Century produced by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. The truth is everything written above is about democracy. The United States has little chance of being a decent society without democracy. Many on the right have feared democracy all along, which is part of the project of white supremacy, and keeping power where power already lies. But the time has come: we call for a democratic future and getting on with the work of bringing it into existence.

This work cannot be entered into without hope. We must hope. Hope is the engine of change. Hope should never be fear-based. Real hope is always an expression of courage. We are living through an all-hands-on-deck moment in history. Clarity of purpose, vision, and resolve are necessary. We must do the work to build an inclusive democracy; a future of justice and freedom shared equally by all. 

Members of the Peace and Justice Studies Association prepare students to carry out this work around the world and we engage in it ourselves. It is time to bring these efforts to the United States of America. Each January we set a day aside to honor the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who taught us these profound truths. Let us honor him and the work of the movement to which he belonged, by also committing ourselves to the democratic and nonviolent work of breaking down barriers, building up communities, equalizing the structures of opportunity, and moving the US toward greater justice. We must embrace the hope and courage needed for this dangerous, yet possibility-packed, moment. 

 – The Peace and Justice Studies Association

January 15, 2021

The post Statement of the Peace and Justice Studies Association Regarding the January 6, 2021 Attack on the US Capitol first appeared on Peace and Justice Studies Association.

PJSA 2020 (virtual) Conference Schedule

September | October | November

Opening Keynote: David Hooker, University of Notre Dame

“Can (Restorative) Justice transform historical harms or dismantle present day systematic (syndemic) oppressions?”

There is an ongoing and long standing debate as to the capacity of restorative justice either philosophically or as a practical matter to effectively address issues of historical harms and present structural racism. There are those who seek to affirm and attest to ways in which restorative justice can indeed address structural racism. Others argue that transformative and some say transitional justice is what is needed to address the inadequacies of restorative justice. I will use the case of widespread torture of Black and brown bodied people at the hands of the Chicago Police Department in the 1970’s, 80’s, and early 90’s, the subsequent passage of a reparations ordinance in 2015 and the current approach to redress being pursued by the Chicago Torture Justice Center to explore these questions.

To See the Recording Click Here.

Panel: “Restorative Justice: The Power of Transformation”

• Cassandra Butler (Saybrook University)
• Gayle Humphrey (Saybrook University)
• Janice Jerome (Saybrook University) 

This session will be joined live by the Transformative Social Change Seminar at Saybrook University.

To See the Recording Click Here.

Panel: “Vulnerabilities of Somebodiness in Restorative Justice Theory”

• Greg Moses (Texas State University)
• Sanjay Lal (Clayton State University)
• Anthony Neal (Mississippi State University)

To See the Recording Click Here.

Featured Panel: “The Roots of Our Resistance: Indigenous Peacemaking and the Current Crisis”

International Day of Peace Joint Web Event of the International Peace Research Association (IPRA) and PJSA

• Kelli Te Maihāroa (Asia-Pacific Peace Research Association)
• Matt Mogekwu (Africa Peace Research and Education Association)
• Jim Fenelon (Center for Indigenous Peoples Studies, CSUSB & the Latin American Council for Peace Research)
• Adriana Anacona Munoz (Latin American Council on Peace Research)

To See The Recording Click Here

This session will feature two groups co-facilitating an interactive discussion on restorative justice, Covid, and going online with your program.

Discussion Part 1: “Dilemmas of Restorative and Transformative Practices Online”

• Amanda Smith Byron (Portland State University)
• Joy Meeker (Saybrook University)
• Jill Sternburg (Creative Response to Conflict, Restorative Justice Initiative NY)

Discussion Part 2: “Restorative Circles as a Proactive Institutional Conflict Measure”

• Michael Hemphill (University of North Carolina at Greensboro)
• Omari Dyson (University of North Carolina at Greensboro)
• Jeremy Rinker (University of North Carolina at Greensboro)
• Yougsun Lee (University of North Carolina at Greensboro)

To See the Recording Click Here

Panel: “Restorative Justice in indigenous, educational & traditional contexts”

• “Reducing Violence in Schools and Communities – Where Do We Start and How Do We Fix It?” Antoinette Dunstanand, Monica Seeley, and Cindy Morton (Peace Peddlers)
• “Conflict Resolution Education: an Ingredient of Restorative Justice” Ellen Kyes (University of Notre Dame)
• “Guiding student-teacher conflict transformation: student perspective” Gražina Čiuladienė (Mykolas Romeris University)

To See the Recording Click Here.

Panel: “Participatory Action Research with the Restorative Roots Collaborative” 

• Rochelle Arms Almengor (John Jay College of Criminal Justice, CUNY)
• William M. Evans (Neighborhood Benches) 
• Nicole Lavonne Smith (independent RJ practitioner)

To See the Recording Click Here.

Closing Keynote: Ericka Huggins, “Freedom On the Inside”

One way to restore justice is in a protective and brave circle of human beings. The circle often includes those harmed and those responsible and accountable for harm. This circle is self regulating and is supported by those who are the non-jugging supporters of restorative practice. 

These are indigenous practices of North and South American tribal peoples, of the peoples of Africa, and Asia. Reflecting on and sharing responsibility, accountability, and the possibility of forgiveness are positive alternates to punishment and its ensuing multi-generational trauma. Stories heal. I will tell stories of Restorative Justice dialogues, in my life, in community work, in prisons, and in schools. I will speak about healing as the main benefit of restorative practice, one that has positive multi-generational impact.

On Request of the Presenter, we are not making this recording available. 

Opening Keynote: Philip Metres, John Carroll University

“Shrapnel Maps: Stories Seeking Peace & Justice in Israel-Palestine” 

For nearly twenty years, Philip Metres has been actively engaged in the quest for a just peace for Palestinians and Israelis–as an activist, peacemaker, scholar, teacher, and writer. His fourth book of poems, Shrapnel Maps, writes into the wounds of the Israel-Palestine conflict, raising the voices of Palestinians and Israelis as they confront the predicament of injustice and violence, of empire and resistance. Metres will read from the work and reflect on how storytelling and poetry can offer other ways of engaging seeking justice and peace, through the transformational work of the moral imagination. For more information.

To See The Recording Click Here

Panel: “Telling Other Peoples’ Stories: Navigating Narrative Responsibility” 

• Michael English (University of Colorado-Boulder)
• Lisa McLean (George Mason University)
• Alison Castel (Regis University)

To See The Recording Click Here

Panel:  “Evolving Narratives: Expanding Imagination and Mobilizing Voices for Change” 

• Amanda Smith Byron (Portland State University)
• Roberta Hunte (Portland State University)
• Sally Eck (Portland State University)

On Request of the Presenters, we are not making this recording available. 

Keynote: Dr. Sol Neely, Heritage University

“The Trail Where They Cried: Historical Violence, Memory, and Repair Across Generations”

During the fall of 2019, Dr. Sol Neely, a citizen of the Cherokee Nation, traveled the Trail of Tears with his father and daughter, meditating on historical violence, transgenerational perseverance, memory, and repair. 

To See The Recording Click Here

Panel: “Narrative & Storytelling: From Environmental Loss to Resistance”

• “Visually communicating climate change”, Lea Rekow (Florida Gulf Coast University)
• “Grief, Grit, and Gratitude: Finding resilience in the face of climate change”, Jan Inglis (The Taos Institute)
• “Dams, Boundaries and the Rising Spirit of Reciprocity”, Eileen Delehanty Pearkes (author and activist)
• “Environmental Resistance in the World of Infrastructural Brutalism”, Michael Truscello (Mount Royal University)
• “Border Walls and Bridging Work: Cultivating resilience in spaces of control”, Randall Amster (Georgetown University)

To See the Recording Click Here

Panel:  “Mythologies of Forgiveness” 

• Michelle Collins-Sibley (University of Mount Union)
• Pushpa Iyer (Middlebury Institute of International Studies)
• Wim Laven (Cuyahoga Community College) 

To See the Recording Click Here

Keynote:  Jamil Al Wekhian, Kent State University

“Understanding Fringe-Right Terrorism–a survivor’s perspective”

In the summer of 2019 Dr. Jamil Al Wekhian was enjoying a family outing when they were targeted in an episode of domestic terrorism. On the evening of Sunday July 28, they were targeted with profane slurs disparaging their skin color, openly mocked for how they were believed to pray, and threatened—“I will bury you all in the river.” A 357 magnum was retrieved, pointed in their direction, and fired over their heads by a man who wanted to scare the family into leaving. This presentation covers the experience of domestic terrorism in the US, the process of healing, the hope for peace and justice in the future, and the scars that remain

To See the Recording Click Here

Panel: “Symbols and Structures: Stories that Move” 

• Pat Romano (Dawson College)
• Alison Loader (Dawson College)
• Anick Legault (Dawson College)
• Mark Beauchamp (Dawson College)
• Susan Elmslie (Dawson College)

To See the Recording Click Here

Panel: “Storytelling, Scholarship & Activism”

• “Narrative Analysis, Diaspora and Scholar Activism,” Christopher P. Davey (independent scholar)
• “The Confidence Tale and Plotting Nonviolent Fiction,” Gabriel Ertsgaard (independent scholar)
•  “Storytelling for Social Change at Cincinnati’s Harriet Beecher Stowe House,” John Getz (Xavier University/Harriet Beecher Stowe House)

To See the Recording Click Here

Discussion: “Polarization in a Time of Misinformation and Political Strife: water, climate, and anergy change”

• Lea Rekow (Florida Gulf Coast University)
• Zoe Roller (US Water Alliance)
• Michael Loadenthal (PJSA/Georgetown University)

To See the Recording Click Here

Keynote: Dave Ragland, The Truth Telling Project

“Truth-Telling in a Time of Polarization”

Followed by Q&A with Dave Ragland and Wim Laven

To See the Recording Click Here

Workshop: “Restorative Circle Process: Polarization and the Election”

• Alison Castel (Regis University)
• Amanda Byron (Portland State University)

To See the Recording Click Here

Workshop: “Understanding Trauma and Trauma Healing Tools for Conflict Resolvers”

• Rachel Goldberg (Depauw University)

To See the Recording Click Here

Panel: “Polarization in Liberal Democratic Societies: Ideology, Mechanisms, and Alternative Forms of Resistance”

• Jeffery Warnke (Walsh University)
• Dale Snauwaert (University of Toledo)
• Janet Gerson (International Institute on Peace Education)

To See the Recording Click Here

Panel: “Security and Conflict in a Polarized Climate”

• “Sum-Dynamics Theory as a Generalizable Theory of Conflict,” Jameson Lingl (California State University Dominguez Hills)
• “Ideology, Crisis and Division: Shadows of Neo-transdialectic in Modern Political Discourse,” Chris Smithmyer

To See the Recording Click Here

Workshop: “The Value of E-Mediation in High Conflict Disputes,” Christy L. Foley (E-Mediation Services)

• Christy L. Foley (E-Mediation Services

To See the Recording Click Here

Panel: “Inequities Exposed: Addressing Systemic Injustice in Our Local Communities”

• Nancy Pearson
• PC Walker
• Shayla Betts (Saybrook University)

To See the Recording Click Here

Workshop: “Calling In” vs “Calling Out”

• Elizabeth Franz (Listen First Foundation)

To See the Recording Click Here

Panel: “COVID-19, Authoritarianism and Racism: A Collision of Factors Threatening Humanity”

• Joel Federman (Saybrook University)
• Theopia Jackson (Saybrook University)

To See the Recording Click Here

Panel: “Reframing for More Constructive Outcomes”

• “Reframing Reality for the Coronavirus, Job Loss & Needed Racial Justice Age: Implications for Peace Studies and Different Aspects of Peace,” Linda Groff (California State University)
• “Stigma as a Type of Violence,” Aniuska Luna (Citrus Health Network)

To See the Recording Click Here

Storytelling: “Storytelling! Grumpy old women, turtles, frogs, locusts, and other unlikely heroes”

Join storyteller Louise Omoto Kessel for a live storytelling performance that will be enjoyed by adults and young people alike. Louise will offer traditional and contemporary stories selected to encourage us on our path of working for peace and justice. Grumpy old women, turtles, frogs, locusts, and other unlikely heroes model for us how to keep putting one foot in front of the other, keep it positive, keep the faith, and join together to be heard! (Facilitated by Swasti Bhattacharyya)

To See the Recording Click Here

Panel: “Constructive Stories in Response to Polarization”

• Chip Hauss (Alliance for Peacebuilding)
• Abby Rapoport (Stranger’s Guide)
• Kate Mytty (Build Peace)
• Toni Farris (George Mason University)
• Tim Ries (Touring saxophonist, The Rolling Stones)

To See the Recording Click Here

Closing Keynote: Brandon Brown, “Many Sides of Silence: Polarized Narratives as Blockades to Justice and Healing”

“You have the right to remain silent,” a statement, made to thousands of people placed under arrest every day in the United States, signifies the beginning of a process where diametrically opposed narratives will, more than likely, take hold.  On the one hand, silence is meant to protect the possible offender yet can have deafening consequences for a victim who seeks to make sense of a harm they endured.  On the other hand, silence can be a mechanism of oppression and dehumanization for people in prison, those reintegrating back into society, or those in various marginalized communities.  Drawing on my experience of being incarcerated for over a decade, alongside the privilege of conducting ethnographic research inside of a maximum-security prison, I will share my findings of the various ways that silence polarizes narratives to the detriment of justice, and offer the “violence of silence” as an overarching symptom of the conflict of mass incarceration in the U.S. 

To See the Recording Click Here

The post PJSA2020 Video Recordings first appeared on Peace and Justice Studies Association.

Our pieces cover a range of themes and locations for thinking about how we can decolonize the world, our research, and our classrooms. Kelli Te Maihāroa presents Indigenous ways of knowing and being as a mechanism for decolonizing Peace, Conflict, and Justice Studies. Michael Loadenthal examines the project of decolonization with the question: Why Miami University is Not in Florida? Polly Walker argues that settler responsibility is necessary for decolonizing peace studies. Pushpa Iyer cautions against colonizing decolonization. Emily Welty looks at decolonizing her sabbatical as well as decolonizing quarantine.

Our understandings of colonization and decolonization and our ways of knowing are connected to our (sometimes shared) history and politics of race and Indigeneity. Rafael Vizcaíno presents praxis beyond metaphors. Delores (Lola) Mondragon outlines the making of a veteran Women’s Indigenous healing circle. Laura Finley looks at intersections between COVID-19, colonialism, and Indigenous Peoples. Shirley Ley offer guidance on supporting people of color in predominantly white workspaces. Emily Grace Brolaski provides compelling narrative on her grandmother, Dr. Inés Maria Talamantez a founder of the study of Native American religious traditions. “Let Go of Power” is our featured interview with Richard Jackson, the Director of the National Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Otago in New Zealand, who addresses challenges and successes he has observed in efforts to decolonize.

Read it today here!

The post Summer issue of The Peace Chronicle focused on decolonization released! first appeared on Peace and Justice Studies Association.

Response to Epidemic Racist Violence and Police Brutality

By PJSA Board Members: Wim Laven, Pushpa Iyer, and Ellen Lindeen

We write on behalf of the Peace and Justice Studies Association (PJSA), a bi-national North American peace and justice association of both scholars and activists, to call for action on the dual epidemic of police violence and racism as highlighted in the death and response to George Floyd’s murder by a police officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota and other officer-related deaths across the country. This paper presents a historical and critical analysis of the disproportionate violence by law enforcement against the black community, followed by some recommendations. There are many additional moral concerns which we see as antagonistic to our vision of peace and justice in the world, which is based on democratic and faith-based principles. PJSA wishes to advance our vision for cultural, ethnic, geographic, and socio-economic equality under the law and the fundamental dignity and worth of all humans. This paper details our call to action to end institutional, structural, and systematic racism, as highlighted in police brutality.

History of the Problem: There has never been Equality

Race-based violence in North America predates the establishment of the modern Canadian, Mexican, and United States governments. Colonial powers and then subsequently the states, in varying degrees, used genocide and genocidal practices in their establishment. The transatlantic slave trade, combined with colonial practices of displacement and violence, have established significant wealth and durable economic inequalities with dramatic modern presentations. The average white family holds ten times as much wealth as the average black family. The average white person has more education, more income, more opportunities to invest and grow their wealth, than the average black person. As a result, this economic gap continues to grow.

For the Black community, the establishment of “freedom” and “equality” has been slow in their formation. Both the codification and protection of the slave trade and the three-fifths compromise represent examples of the explicit dehumanization of African personhood in the US Constitution. The Emancipation Proclamation did not establish freedom or put an end to the prejudicial policy. Decades of Jim Crow included thousands of extra-judicial lynchings, and terror groups like the Ku Klux Klan, the oldest in the US, have mobilized to prevent minority groups from enjoying basic civil rights and liberties.

Policing in the US has roots in slave patrols and night watchers; they would become police departments later. Slave patrols were constructed to manage race-based conflict, most specifically the control over slave populations. They were ruthlessly brutal in their use of power. Where connections between the KKK and law enforcement during Jim Crow were a matter of fact, racial profiling has openly been presented as a tool for law and order in recent decades. Over the years, the FBI has warned of the increasing threat of white nationalist and supremacist groups infiltrating law enforcement. Further, during the Bush-era War on Terror, and the Pentagon’s 1033 program, law enforcement began to get hold of the technology and equipment of war from the Department of Defense. The renewed militarization of the police during this period lead to further violence against blacks and other minoritized populations (more on the history of militarization of law enforcement in the section below). There is, therefore, historical and statistical evidence of US police departments practicing discriminatory and prejudicial operations.

The militarization of Law Enforcement

Historically, the federal government has mobilized the military and national guard to expand civil rights and freedom. After the Civil War, federal troops were used to guard reconstruction in the South and to protect civil rights. In 1957 President Eisenhower famously used the national guard to enforce integration in Little Rock, Arkansas. Federal Marshalls guarded Ruby Bridges during her integration, in 1960, to a white elementary school in New Orleans, Louisiana. Before the Civil War, few cities had police departments in the South. Police departments were established to control freed slaves. In the North, they were built to monitor immigrants and place checks on unions.

This trend shifted in the 1960s, in response to the rebellions and riots occurring across the US grants and crime legislation that established the purchase and use of military resources and weapons. Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) teams were also established during this period. These heavily militarized forces were primarily directed to respond to black-insurgency. During the War on Drugs which took place over various presidencies, the militarization continued by Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan (in particular). It was more than a metaphor, the war included increasingly violent and dramatic responses, but it was also racialized. Pejorative biases and stereotyping of drug use were frequently directed at communities of color. Discrepancies in punishment present harsher sentencing for minorities than whites.

Civil forfeiture, the confiscation of property from convicted and sometimes suspected drug dealers, has also been used to finance the purchase of more munitions and weapons from the Pentagon. The relationships and connections between community law enforcement and the federal armed forces were fully cemented through the Patriot Act and other responses to the acts of terrorism on September 11, 2001. This redoubled the role of the police in the activities of war by putting law enforcement on the front line of a War on Terror. Police budgets have continued to expand with increasingly lethal arsenals; meanwhile, so many other budgets have experienced decades of cuts.

SWAT teams have expanded roles; they are no longer limited to emergencies. They are now called in response to non-violent warrants. There has been an astronomical increase in drug raids, and the SWAT team is now the first step in many jurisdictions. Cops today are told they are fighting wars, and they believe it. The proliferation of militarized responses has ensured increases in cultural, structural, and systemic violence and disproportionate impacts on minority communities. “Protect and Serve” is not the motto of the warrior cop; policies have created us and them physical and psychological distancing. The isolation from communities is experienced on both sides, the public increasingly sees law enforcement as a threat to public safety, and law enforcement increasingly sees combatants instead of citizens.

The manifestation of the problem

Black and other minoritized communities all across the country have generations of grievances of police brutality. The cases and examples are too numerous to list. The March 3, 1991 beating of Rodney King was captured by a citizen journalist and provided evidence of the long-known truth about the brutal use of violence against minoritized populations. The April 1992 acquittal of officers charged with crimes in that beating set off protests and riots in Los Angeles and across the country. As technology has increased, documentation of episodes of violent events has increased. Evidence of the brutal use of force is made available by body cameras, dashboard cameras, and the ubiquitous use of mobile phones as cameras; however, the problem persists, the effectiveness of the cameras, in terms of deterring or reducing police violence, has not been demonstrated.

Two distinct threads of explaining police violence have emerged. In one thread, the acts of violence are blamed on single individuals—bad apples spoiling the bunch. The other thread identifies the structural and systematic conditions which have caused, created, and permitted the violence to occur. In the first case, it is clear that there are implicit and tacit biases held by individuals and that these prejudices have and continue to impact citizens’ treatment in prejudicial ways. Individuals have, in public, found ways to weaponize biases to assault innocent persons of color (sometimes with fatal consequences). In this second thread, we see discriminatory policies like racial profiling and broken windows policing, which are always antagonistic in their execution.

Decades of policies and policing have criminalized melanin and poverty. Drug laws and the War on Drugs are examples of the primary pipelines to prison showcasing disproportionate incarceration rates and vastly different sentences for similar crimes across different racial demographics.

George Floyd was accused of buying cigarettes with a counterfeit $20 bill. He was arrested, restrained, and held in a lethal hold. He complained he could not breathe and called out for his mother. Onlookers pleaded for his life but to no avail. Tony McDade, a transgender man, was shot down without any warning or identification from law enforcement; Ahmaud Arbery was jogging when killed by two white men; Breonna Taylor was shot by cops when sleeping in her bed; Sandra Bland and Philando Castille were killed after they were stopped for minor traffic violations; Eric Garner lost his life when he was held in a chokehold by the police when selling single cigarettes; Michael Brown was unarmed and described by witnesses to have his hands up when shot; Tamir Rice was only 12 years old and playing with a replica toy Airsoft gun when he was killed; Trayvon Martin was killed when walking back home from buying Skittles. The list goes on as evidence grows. Thanks to quick cell phone videos which document how white individuals threaten blacks and other persons of color with police violence for no reason other than the color of their skin, we know that we are dealing with systemic and institutional racism. PJSA joins the chorus of voices calling for justice and condemnation of the use of force and violence terrorizing communities and causing unnecessary death.

When the world witnessed the killing of George Floyd at the hands of a police officer, it literally became the last straw on the (black) camel’s back. Protestors took to the streets all over the country. In some places, the peaceful protestors were joined by those who wanted to use violence and loot. Militarized police departments and the National Guard have been utilized in response, and the President has suggested deploying US Armed Forces through the Insurrection Act.

PJSA condemns the undemocratic attempts to stymie the protected right of protest. We also condemn the use of excessive force against protesters in acts of suppression. We see an illegitimate and authoritarian privileging of law and order that undermines basic freedoms in civil rights and liberties.

Recommendations for the problem

We understand that the events in Minnesota are not an isolated example. We share in the desire to address the manifestations of violence at every level. We offer the following evidence-based options for improving policy and procedure and for rectifying historical and contemporary grievances. PJSA offers strategies for equity, just enforcement of the law, superior physical and mental health and safety for both the officers and the public, and more durable peace and security. We also make ourselves available to offer assistance beyond the following recommendations.

Reforms of Policing and the Policies for Law Enforcement

1. Ban the use of choke and strangleholds, especially in cases where individuals are restrained.
2. Require the use of and training in conflict de-escalation.
3. Develop and require continuous anti-bias training (while being fully aware of all the ways these trainings can quickly turn counter-productive), coach officers in understanding their biases, and limit the harmful impacts of these biases.
4. Require warnings to be made prior to shooting.
5. Exhaust all other means before escalating to shooting or the use of lethal force.
6. Create a “duty to intervene,” which would require officers to intervene when they witness excessive use of force and require that use of force be immediately reported to a supervisor.
7. Require all policies to adhere to the Department of Justice guidelines and recommendations for Constitutional practices, like banning shooting at moving vehicles.
8. Create mandatory time off policies, consistent with psychological recommendations, for officers involved in both uses of force and shooting events.
9. End and permanently ban all iterations of racial profiling and “stop and frisk” policies.
10. Create a use-of-force continuum to regulate further and restrict escalations of force for certain offenses or methods of resistance.
11. Require comprehensive reporting of all events where force is used.
12. Review hiring policies to bring more diversity into the force to be more inclusive so the local police force can mirror community demographics
13. Curb “use of force” practices against journalists.
14. Stop militarization. Return military equipment and weapons to the military.
15. Identify and remove members from known hate groups, white nationalists, and white supremacists from all capacities within law enforcement.
16. Modify laws making police first responders in cases outside of their expertise and training.
17. Introduce workshops for bringing cultural change in these institutions.

General Recommendations and Reforms At-Large

1. Increase funding, availability, and access to educational opportunities to minoritized communities.
2. Increase the capacity for educational programs for incarcerated individuals.
3. Bring Peace Education to schools to discuss the history of slavery and black marginalization
4. Engage in an ongoing systematic analysis of the judicial apparatus to identify the presence of “conviction machines” and respond with measures to ensure “equal protection under the law.”
5. Remove and replace antiquated vestiges of racial oppression and hatred with those promoting equality; one example is replacing the former slave owner Andrew Jackson on the $20 bill with abolitionist, activist, and former slave Harriet Tubman.
6. Increase funding and accessibility to Public Defender and other legal aid programs.
7. Begin investigations to use Truth and Reconciliation Commissions (like South Africa and Rwanda) and study Reparations (like Germany) for centuries of racial injustice.
8. Establish a Department of Peace and a Secretary of Peace within the US government.
9. End qualified immunity for certain bias crimes and discrimination.
10. DefundPolice Departments and invest those savings in other areas, like mental health, mediation, and social services, which are better equipped for addressing issues within communities.
11. Evaluate and identify locations where corrupt and/or frivolous agents and departments of law enforcement need reforming, dissolution, or abolition and replace them with or add community policing and restorative justice. (Note: more police does not equal less crime, and police reform can reduce crime.)

The post Response to Epidemic Racist Violence and Police Brutality first appeared on Peace and Justice Studies Association.

In times like these, it is with great pleasure that I send this note—offering some good news about new benefits, services, and opportunities. There can be little question that these are historic times: of rising rebellion against economic collapse as well as the double pandemic of police violence and militarized, privatized responses to the global health crisis. As co-Secretary General of the International Peace Research Association (IPRA), I see every day how our affiliates in every corner of the planet engage in work to better the lives of all people. Since this email blast will go to many who are not yet IPRA members, it is worth noting that—since 1964—we and our five affiliated regional associations have brought together scholars and grassroots practitioners to explore scientific and sustainable solutions to the world’s most intractable problems. We hope the THREE new resources offered here will empower everyone reading this with greater ways to get more involved.

First, with caution and careful review, we are moving forward with plans for our major biennial conference, to take place in Nairobi, Kenya from 11-15 January 2021 at the Multimedia University of Kenya. It is exciting to announce that the Call to Papers has just been released, along with a specialized website focusing on conference planning. Please review the materials, help spread the word, and make plans to join us in 2021.

Second, it is nothing short of a thrill to announce that we have just launched IPRA’s Peace Search, a new web-based collaboration with the award-winning peace journalists at Waging Nonviolence (WNV). Their community of international members already includes close colleagues, and we plan to utilize this space so that an ever-widening group of readers can join us. Featured articles in this new launch include a spotlight on the campaign initiated by our Latin American colleagues on the need to build a more and just and peaceful “new normal;” an analysis of COVD-19 and the climate crisis by former SG Ursula Oswald-Spring; an impassioned message from middle-schooler Sarah Fontaine-Sinclair (Cree/Ojibwe); and much more. As my co-SG Christine Atieno and I note in our welcoming message, “we look forward to hearing from you with your comments, critiques, ideas and writings.”

Finally, we are very pleased to announce our new partnership with the professional, peer-reviewed Journal of Resistance Studies (JRS). An inter-disciplinary resource focusing on the study of unarmed strategies, discourses, tactics, effects, causes, contexts and experiences, JRS is now available FOR FREE to all IPRA members. Please contact IPRA if you would like to become a member and receive this cutting-edge academic (yet organizer-friendly) magazine.

Now is the time to intensify our efforts for peace with justice and come together to build effective solutions to the crisis we currently face. IPRA hopes that these new benefits help with this constructive process. Through these resources and others, we will bring you more news in the coming months and years! Together we can change the world!

Stay safe, healthy and strong,

Matt Meyer

Secretary-General, International Peace Research Association

New York, New York

The post new resources from IPRA first appeared on Peace and Justice Studies Association.

It is with heavy hearts, but confidence it is the right thing to do, that we must announce that the PJSA-ACR conference scheduled for fall 2020 has been cancelled. We did not make this decision easily. The Board considered that we do not yet know when the coronavirus will be contained nor when travel and gathering size restrictions will be lifted. We are aware that many institutions have already made cuts to faculty and staff and to travel funds for next year as well. These and many other factors left us with no choice but to cancel.

We are, however, using this opportunity to re-envision and hopefully expand what PJSA has to offer its members. To that end, we invite ideas from everyone! We have formed a committee examining/exploring what alternative(s) to the fall conference we can present, so please reach out if you would like to be involved by emailing info@peacejusticestudies.org.

We are also interested in suggestions of speakers, especially those from the global south that we are typically unable to bring to North America, who can help address the current through a peace and justice studies approach, and how can can sustain the movements for justice that are facing unprecedented challenges. We will be in touch in the coming weeks about our fall plans so get us your ideas!

At this challenging time, if you would like to show your support for PJSA, this is a great opportunity to renew your membership! You can check your membership here, and become a new member here. For assistance with membership renewal/lapses, visit here, or email info@peacejusticestudies.org

Most importantly, we wish that all our members and your loved ones remain safe and well during this difficult time.

Sincerely;

PJSA Executive Director and Board of Directors

The post the 2020 PJSA-ACR conference has been canceled first appeared on Peace and Justice Studies Association.

The need for strong university leadership and proactive thinking in response to the Covid-19 pandemic 

By: Jeremy Rinker (PJSA Board Institutional Liasion), and Wim Laven (PJSA Board Treasurer)

We write on behalf of the Peace and Justice Studies Association (PJSA), a bi-national North American peace and justice association of both scholars and activists, on the need for strong university leadership and proactive thinking in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. This paper lays out both principled and pragmatic advocacy for a robust bailout and stimulus for higher education. Our reasoning extends and promotes the message and vision of PJSA by ensuring equitable distribution of resources and by safeguarding opportunity for current and future generations of students across all variety of cultural, ethnic, geographic, and socio-economic categories.

Averting the Enrollment cum Expenditure “Crisis” Mentality in Higher Education

In crisis situations the hardwired human reaction is rapid response – this is mammalian – fight or flight. The Covid-19 pandemic is no exception. College and university campuses are an important site of the many metaphorical battlefields. On most campuses, students have been sent home to physically distance, and administrations on many campuses have invoked faculty, students, and staff to keep teaching, learning, and researching. This strategic approach is inconsistent with research on best practices for handling trauma in the workplace or classroom.[1] Most university responses have, thus far, been like a collective immune system; they have tried to produce the tried and true Protestant American antibody of work as the sole arbiter of normalcy. While some are experiencing pandemic productivity many are, unfortunately, struggling to get by. Institutional survival should not be based on achievement during adversity, but thoughtful strategic planning and forward-thinking reflexive leadership.

The Covid-19 fight on college campuses must be one for shared resources and the protection of the values of equity and inclusion. Higher education is responsible for the promotion of a civilization’s mental health and university spaces hold the brain trust of our civilization and democracy. Austerity will not develop antibodies, vaccines, or the minds and technologies of the future. Today’s pandemic showcases decades of budget cuts that do not reflect prioritizing the role of higher education in public health and, indeed, undercut the university role in the production of critical and life-sustaining public goods. Rather than once again averting our eyes, we need to look this crisis in the face and see it as an opportunity to address the unequal structures of the past and re-center the production of knowledge as a pro-social and affirmative good in society. Covid-19 did not create injustice, but it can be a “portal”[2] to sustainable change. Universities are the lever which can open this portal.

As the class of 2020 graduates face an expected job market with 20-30% unemployment we see further evidence that those who’ve contributed the least to the problem will suffer the most. Campuses need to expand student educational and training opportunities and counter this trend. The minds of the future are the most deserving of bailouts and deserving of the hard-won opportunities that a quality education should provide.

The importance of strategic and reflexive evidence-based leadership in times of crisis.

Academics are not accustomed to flight, but neither should academics accept the metaphor of fight. While we have tried to produce antibodies through ingenuity and focus on works, the need for art and play is rarely considered. Play is rarely the first American response to crisis and, of course, this is no vacation. Still, a month into this pandemic, calls are increasing to “get the economy working again” and “end the stay at home orders.” This is a problem of the commons, and we believe that only critical thinking, proper management, strong science, and the flexibility grasped through art and play will mitigate the risks of returning to our past sense of “normal.”

This is a time to rethink much of what was considered normal in the past. University policy decisions have manifold ramifications requiring creative and strategic leadership. College and university administrators were facing severe demographic shifts long before the Covid-19 coronavirus hit the United States.[3] Forecasts of shrinking enrollment were a pre-Covid-19 foregone conclusion and many colleges and universities were already preparing for spending cuts as a result of shrinking college-age demographics and enrollments. In the changed world of Covid-19, we know the economic futures of many industries have rapidly been put in limbo. Some industries will not survive. Higher education will survive, but at what costs to students and knowledge seekers across the country?

Dire prognosis of the death of higher education is a continuation of the ugly trend to devalue education.[4] We highlight the need for lovers of knowledge production to stay vigilant and at the same time implore college administrators and state legislators to keep a cool head about the worth and place of higher education[5] in our democratic society. Universities have long been the engine of economic development in our country. We at PJSA are concerned that the true value that colleges and universities bring to so many communities will continue to be overlooked or denied by legislators and campus leaders driven by the economic bottom line. We fear that neoliberal management models and growth projections will guide university leaders to make unfounded decisions about both the purpose and direction of higher education. Administrative decisions are often not made with full consideration of the public and societal value contained within our institutions, but rather with the same past assumptions and injustices. We urge leaders not to miss important opportunities for both change and expansion.

In a recent letter to the U.S. House of Representatives, the American Council on Education argues that: “The pandemic is striking during the height of the admissions process, and the requirement to close physical campuses for extended periods, along with justifiable concerns among current and prospective students about when and if to return to campus, are problems higher education did not have in the Great Recession.”[6] University administrators only concerned about revenue can get caught up in the dropping enrollment trap and constrict university spending at a time when the need to spend creatively and adapt may be the greatest. To get out from under the Covid-19 rock we must be creative, innovative, and not afraid to take risks – all attributes that have put U.S. colleges and universities in the driver’s seat of economic development and technological innovation for generations.

University administrators must resist the urge to cut further the humanities or fields that seem less popular to current students because they appear too expensive due to limited enrollments. These lesser enrolled fields hold the brain trust of our democratic civilization; they are the greatest value to the future of creative thinking and democratic citizenship. Already, on our campuses we are hearing talk of academic review of programs and hiring freezes. These are worrying harbingers of economic corrections that may be more based in fear than on evidence or the creativity of playful transformation work. We urge leaders in higher education to resist the crisis mentality. With support from the federal government we urge university administrators to use this crisis as a pivotal moment to creatively plan ways that the national trust in higher education can be restored and strengthened.

Notes

[1] For more on trauma sensitive schools: “in which all students feel safe, welcomed, and supported and where addressing trauma’s impact on learning on school wide basis is at the center of its educational mission. … [it] allows for the necessary teamwork, coordination, creativity, and sharing of responsibility for all students.” See: Cole, S. F., O’Brien, J. G., Gadd, M. G., Ristuccia, J., Wallace, D. L., & Gregory, M. (2005). Helping traumatized children learn: Supportive school environments for children traumatized by family violence. Boston, MA: Massachusetts Advocates for Children, Trauma and Learning Policy Initiative. See also: Cole, S. F., Eisner, A., Gregory, M., & Ristuccia, J. (2013). Helping traumatized children learn II: Creating and advocating for trauma-sensitive schools. Boston, MA: Massachusetts Advocates for Children, Trauma and Learning Policy Initiative.

[2] See Roy, Arundhati (2020). https://www.ft.com/content/10d8f5e8-74eb-11ea-95fe-fcd274e920ca

[3] In North Carolina, for example, the 18-24 years old population is projected to be the slowest growing age group over the next 20 years, growing by just 8% or 83,000 between 2016 and 2036. Source: Carolina Demography. 2018. Past, Present, and Future: Demographic Change and North Carolina’s Community College System. Chapel Hill, NC: Carolina Population Center, University of North Carolina. Found at: https://www.ncdemography.org/

[4] Harvard Business School professor Clayton Christensen, in 2017, at the Innovation + Disruption Symposium in Higher Education predicted that “50 percent of the 4,000 colleges and universities in the U.S. will be bankrupt in 10 to 15 years.”

[5] One recent 2014 report from John Hopkins University showed that the University was the state of Maryland’s largest Employer with over 48,000 employees (see: http://web.jhu.edu/administration/gca/projects/publications-and-reports/economic-impact-report/EIR%20Documents/EIR%202014/Maryland%20One%20Page%20Summary%20EIR%202014.pdf Yet another report from 2018 shows that the University of Georgia’s teaching, research and service generated $5.7 billion in economic activity across the state. (See:https://news.uga.edu/5-7-billion-ugas-economic-impact-grows/).

[6] See: https://texascivilrightsreview.files.wordpress.com/2020/04/highered_fourth_covid_request.pdf – accessed April 19, 2020.

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The Journal of Transdisciplinary Peace Praxis (JTPP), a peer-reviewed, biannual, scholarly journal of contemplative cutting edge research and practice which brings together peace practitioners with academics to explore radical responses to social conflict, war and injustice, is published by Frontpage Publications Limited, UK both in print and online versions.

In this partnership endeavour, JTPP’s  e-versions are made available to the PJSA members free of cost; by now, you must have enjoyed reading the 3^rd issue (Vol. 2, No. 1), released on 30 January 2020, focusing on exploring the limits of our current neoliberal capitalist ethos and cultural mindset.

In its 4^th issue (Vol. 2, No 2, scheduled to be released on 15 August 2020), JTPP will deal with the transdisciplinary assessments of the complicated religious dynamics in social, cultural, and political life with regard to peace and conflict.

JTPP brings an exclusive subscription plan for the home institutions of the PJSA members.

For an exclusive time, JTPP will offer 15% discount for any JTPP subscription for 2020 routed through PJSA members. In case, the subscription/order is further routed through a subscription agent, the discount will, however, stand reduced to 10%. Please ask your libraries to subscribe by going here.

In addition, the subscribers, recommended by the PJSA members, will receive free of cost the e-versions of the past (archival) JTPP issues of 2019 (Vol. 1, No. 1 & Vol. 1, No. 2) published in January and July 2019 respectively.

JTPP will send you the Proforma Invoice, and instead of using your debit/credit card, the payment could be made by cheque payable in the US.

So, what are you waiting for? Just write either to PJSA at our membership email or to JTPP at connect@jtpp.uk  or simply fill out a subscription!

Hurry, this Special Subscription Offer closes on 30 April 2020.

The post PJSA’s Collaboration with the Journal of Transdisciplinary Peace Praxis (JTPP) first appeared on Peace and Justice Studies Association.

The post Updates on the 2020 conference from the Directors of PJSA & ACR first appeared on Peace and Justice Studies Association.

Greetings from the JTPP! Hope, you have enjoyed reading the 3^rd issue (Vol. 2, No. 1) of the Journal of Transdisciplinary Peace Praxis (JTPP) focused on exploring the limits of our current neoliberal capitalist ethos and cultural mindset. We encourage your feedback and support!

In its 4^th issue (Vol. 2, No 2, scheduled to be released on 15 August 2020), JTPP invites submissions that explore the role of religion in conflict and peace. We welcome transdisciplinary assessments of the complicated religious dynamics in social, cultural, and political life.

Needless to mention, you will get the 4^th issue both in e-Pub and PDF versions via email immediately upon publication.

Meanwhile, JTPP brings an exclusive subscription plan for the PJSA members and their home institutions.

For an exclusive time, JTPP will offer 15% discount for any JTPP subscription for 2020 routed through PJSA members. In case, the subscription/order is further routed through a subscription agent, the discount will, however, stand reduced to 10%. Please ask your libraries to subscribe by going here.

In addition, the subscribers, recommended by the PJSA members, will receive free of cost the e-versions of the past (archival) JTPP issues of 2019 (Vol. 1, No. 1 & Vol. 1, No. 2) published in January and July 2019 respectively.

So, what are you waiting for? Just write either to PJSA at our membership email or to JTPP at: connect@jtpp.uk  or simple fill out a subscription!

JTPP will send you the Proforma Invoice, and instead of using your debit/credit card, the payment could be made by cheque payable in the US.

Hurry, this special offer closes on 31 March 2020.

In its partnership arrangement, JTPP is committed to contribute to PJSA in both financial terms and intellectual pursuits.

Sincerely,

Jeremy A Rinker

Editor:  Journal of Transdisciplinary Peace Praxis (JTPP)

&

Michael Loadenthal

Executive Director, Peace and Justice Studies Association (PJSA)

The post the Journal of Transdisciplinary Peace Praxis subscriptions first appeared on Peace and Justice Studies Association.

I wanted to alert everyone: issue two of Peace Chronicle is now available online.

https://www.peacejusticestudies.org/peace-chronicle/

This issue’s theme is “dignity” and we’ve covered the subject from a number of angles that I think you’ll enjoy. Please let it be a source of hope and renewal going forward into 2020.

Please also let me plant seeds for our next issue (on decolonization), we’re always interested in adding voices and if you have something to say, let me know (wimlaven@gmail.com).

In peace,

Wim Laven, Ph.D

The post New issue of the Peace Chronicle on “Dignity” just released! first appeared on Peace and Justice Studies Association.

It is with great pleasure that we officially announce that you will soon be receiving in your inboxes a digital version of the 3rd Issue of The Journal of Transdisciplinary Peace Praxis(JTPP).

Please be on the lookout for this link in the days ahead. If you do not receive the link, this means your membership has lapsed. Please take the time to renew and support PJSA and JTPP. PJSA members will have full access to our 3rd issue and can request hard copies be sent for a nominal fee. Through partnership with the Peace and Justice Studies Association (PJSA) your 2020 membership includes this relatively new cutting edge journal of peace research and practice. The third issue of the journal is focused on exploring the limits of our current neoliberal capitalist ethos and cultural mindset.

At JTPP we do not shy away from taking on complex and wicked problems with an eye toward developing transdisciplinary peace praxis. We believe that you will enjoy this third issue that aims to make the hegemonic influences of neoliberal ideology and norms more clear and pliable in our own peace practices. In the third issue you will find examples of peace researchers and activists challenging the realities of neoliberalism in the institutions of the media, on university campuses, and after natural disasters. We are eager to grow our readership and are excited about the PJSA-JTPP partnership. We promise that upon reading the forthcoming third issue of the JTPP you will not be disappointed and we hope that you will be inspired and re-energized.

Should you have questions do not hesitate to reach out to either PJSA  at our membership email or to JTPP at: am@jtpp.uk and/or at: connect@jtpp.uk.

Sincerely,

Jeremy A. Rinker

Editor: The Journal of Transdisciplinary Peace Praxis (JTPP)

&

Michael Loadenthal

Executive Director, Peace and Justice Studies Association (PJSA)

The post PJSA partners with The Journal of Transdisciplinary Peace Praxis(JTPP) first appeared on Peace and Justice Studies Association.

Source: https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/free-press-columnist-named-peace-educator-of-year-562456142.html

The post first appeared on Peace and Justice Studies Association.

The nomination process for the PJSA Student Awards is now open!

Each year PJSA recognizes one outstanding undergraduate thesis and one outstanding graduate thesis/dissertation completed during the 2018-2019 academic year (between June 2018 to May 2019) in the fields of peace and conflict or justice studies with the following awards:

• Best Dissertation/Graduate Thesis of the Year Award
• Best Undergraduate Paper of the Year Award

Awardees are honored at PJSA’s award banquet during the annual PJSA conference (October 4-6, 2019) and receive a 2 year membership to PJSA plus a $300 travel stipend and waived registration fee to attend the conference!

Nomination Instructions:

• Faculty: now that the academic year is over, do you have a student whose graduate thesis/dissertation or undergraduate thesis (or senior capstone or honors paper required for graduation) was particularly outstanding and deserves recognition?
• Students:  self-nominations are accepted and encouraged!

To submit a nomination, please send the following to Sheherazade Jafari, PJSA Awards Chair (sjafari@gmail.com) by July 1, 2019 at 5 pm ET:

1. Student name and contact information (current email and phone number)
2. Student university affiliation, academic program and date of completion (month and year)
3. The title of the thesis/dissertation and an abstract
4. A complete copy of the thesis/dissertation in Word or PDF
5. Your name, email address and university affiliation (as the nominator)

Only nominations with a complete application will be considered. 

We look forward to receiving your nominations!

The post Nominations for PJSA Student Awards Now Open! first appeared on Peace and Justice Studies Association.