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ANNOUNCING OUR 2010 CONFERENCE!
Building Bridges, Crossing Borders:
Gender, Identity, and Security in the Search for Peace
The 8th Annual Conference of the Peace and Justice Studies Association
October 1-2, 2010
Menno Simons College and the Global College
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
Announcing a conference jointly sponsored by the Peace and Justice
Studies Association, Canadian Mennonite University’s Menno Simons
College, and the University of Winnipeg Global College. This year’s
conference theme is Building Bridges, Crossing Borders: Gender,
Identity, and Security in the Search for Peace. Our conference will
be held on the campuses of both Canadian Mennonite University and the
University of Winnipeg in downtown Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada on October
1-2, 2010, which marks the 10th anniversary of United Nations Security
Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace, and Security and the 150th
birth anniversary of Jane Addams.
A Warm Welcome From This Year’s Hosts!
This year marks the first time that the Peace and Justice Studies Association will hold its annual meeting in Canada. A number of organizations and institutions in Winnipeg are working together to make
what we believe will be an exciting conference. Winnipeg, as you will
find out, has an exceptionally dynamic array of programs working on
peace and justice issues. We would like to acknowledge here a number of
key organizations, all of whom extend a warm welcome to you as you
prepare to visit our city at the geographical center of North America.
Menno Simons College – a College of Canadian Mennonite University – one
of the two principal co-hosts and taking the lead in this year’s
planning, equips students to make a difference in the world. Through
course work and practicum experiences, the International Development
Studies and Conflict Resolution Studies programs provide students with
practical and meaningful ways to address the pressing issues facing the
world today. Menno Simons College offers three- and four-year Bachelor
of Arts degrees in Conflict Resolution Studies and three-year,
four-year, and honours degrees in International Development Studies. At
CMU’s Shaftesbury campus we find the sister program to MSC’s program –
there it is Peace and Conflict Transformation Studies. Both CMU programs
foster a learning community that prepares students from diverse
backgrounds for participation and leadership in local and global
communities. In addition to its teaching program, MSC also houses Peace
Research: The Canadian Journal of Peace and Conflict Studies. With
thirteen full-time faculty, approximately twenty additional faculty
based at the CMU Shaftsbury campus listing elective courses, and about
250 students with undergraduate majors in these areas of study each
year, these programs represent a significant contribution to the area of
peace and justice studies in North America.
At the Shaftesbury campus of Canadian Mennonite University the Canadian
School of Peacebuilding runs engaging week-long courses each summer. In
the next year the CSOP will host courses taught by leading peace
scholars such as Howard Zehr, Marc Gopin, and Ovide Mercredi. Also
active in our work to host the conference is the Institute for Community
Peacebuilding housed at MSC. The ICP sponsors, for example, the Youth
Peacebuilding Project, which brings youth of diverse backgrounds
together with the express purpose of inviting them into positive
meaningful relationship with each other – overcoming biases, reinforcing
positive understanding, and building respect.
Across the street from Menno Simons College, The University of Winnipeg
Global College – the second lead host for this conference – is an
action-oriented, multi-disciplinary forum for Canadian and international
students. The Global College brings students and community members into
contact with faculty, visiting scholars, local leaders, and notable
speakers from around the world. It offers a three- and four-year
multidisciplinary Bachelor of Arts in Human Rights and Global Studies.
Students are encouraged to discover their role within the local and
global community through teach-ins, symposia, conferences, lectures,
local and international human rights internships, and condensed
intensive credit courses taught by visiting scholars and our faculty in
Global College Spring and Summer Institutes.
Menno Simons College
Also on the University of Winnipeg campus are two cutting edge programs
with particular interest in this year’s conference theme. The Institute
for Women’s and Gender Studies at the University of Winnipeg practices
and fosters participation in collaborative feminist work, research, art,
and activism. The IWGS is a working partner of the Department of
Women's and Gender Studies that strives to develop the creative and
transformative potential of the university, community and society
through removing barriers to, and promoting the exchange of knowledge
between the institution and its communities. Also on campus is the
Aboriginal Governance program – an innovative joint program with Red
River College – that provides an opportunity for individuals to earn
both a Diploma in Aboriginal Self-Government Administration from Red
River College, and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Aboriginal Governance
from the University of Winnipeg.
In addition to these undergraduate programs, Winnipeg hosts a dynamic
graduate program housed at the University of Manitoba’s Arthur V. Mauro
Centre for Peace and Justice at St. Paul's College, which is dedicated
to research, education, and outreach to foster global peace and justice.
The Centre is home to the University of Manitoba's PhD Program in Peace
and Conflict Studies, and the Joint University of Manitoba-University
of Winnipeg MA Program in Peace and Conflict Studies. This is a
transdisciplinary endeavor that encompasses diverse dimensions of social
life at the local, national, and international levels. Outreach events
include the Winnipeg International Storytelling Festival, the Summer
Institute on Storytelling for Peacebuilding and Renewing Community, and
the Sol Kanee Lecture Series.
Winnipeg is also home to Mediation Services, a large non-profit
organization promoting effective and peaceful responses to conflict and
crime in Manitoba. Its three core programs – Community, Court
(victim-offender), and Resolution Skills Centre – provide individuals
and communities with tools to use restorative justice principles to
understand and address conflict in ways that repair harm and build
respectful relationships. We are very pleased that our colleagues at MS
are working with us to run a parallel set of workshops at the
conference.
Together these institutions and programs extend a warm hand of
friendship from our country to those of you visiting from the United
States, and to fellow Canadians from across the country, a warm welcome
to Manitoba. We look forward to seeing you in October 2010!
2010 PJSA Plenary Speakers Announcement
Winnipeg, Manitoba, October 1 and 2, 2010
The Peace and Justice Studies Association, in conjunction with Canadian
Mennonite University's Menno Simons College and the University of Winnipeg
Global College, is truly delighted to invite you to join Cynthia Enloe,
Marilou McPhedran, Carolyn Nordstrom, Sherene Razack, Betty Reardon, and
Sandra Whitworth (and many more) as we explore the theme Building Bridges,
Crossing Borders: Gender, Identity, and Security in the Search for Peace.
Cynthia Enloe has distinguished herself as one of the world's leading
commentators on issues of gender as it relates to identity and security. Her
career has included Fulbrights in Malaysia and Guyana, and guest
professorships in Japan, Britain, and Canada, as well as lectureships in
Sweden, Norway, Germany, Korea, Turkey, and at universities around the U.S.
At Clark University, Professor Enloe has been selected Outstanding Teacher
three times and named University Senior Faculty Fellow for Excellence in
Teaching and Scholarship. In 2009, she was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by
the University of London's School of Oriental and Asian Studies. Her newest
book is Nimo's War, Emma's War: Making Feminist Sense of the Iraq War.
Marilou McPhedran is an international human rights lawyer. She has
co-founded several internationally recognized non-profit systemic change
organizations including LEAF the Women's Legal Education and Action Fund,
which has conducted constitutional equality test cases and interventions for
25 years. She has co-investigated and co-authored a number of research
projects on systemic reform and human rights, including the ten country
pilot study to assess impact of the UN Convention on the Elimination of all
forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).
Carolyn Nordstrom has crossed many borders theoretically and physically in
her investigations that span gender, militarism, and issues of security in a
global context. A member of the Notre Dame faculty since 1997, she is an
anthropologist at home in lecture hall and war zone alike. She studies
wars, the illegal drug trade, gender relationships, and war profiteering.
Her research has made her an eyewitness and scholar of worldwide urban and
rural battlefields as well as of the shadowy worlds of diamond, drug, and
arms smuggling. In addition to her teaching and lecturing, she has written
dozens of articles, and several books including A Different Kind of War
Story and Shadows of War.
Sherene Razack, a professor of Sociology and Equity Studies in Education at
the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, the University of Toronto,
has been identified as one of Canada's leading cultural critics. Her work
on race and identity issues, gendered exclusions, and militarism is
provocative and enlightening. Her recent books include Dark Threats & White
Knights: The Somalia Affair, Peacekeeping, and the New Imperialism, and
Casting Out: The Eviction of Muslims From Western Law and Politics.
Betty Reardon, one of the early seminal contributors to our field of study,
and Founding Director Emeritus of the International Institute on Peace
Education, has been producing cutting-edge analysis in areas of peace
education, gendered violence, and militarism for years. She is the recipient
of the 2008 PJSA Outstanding Contribution to Peace Studies Award, and most
recently the 2009 Sean McBride Peace Prize awarded by the International
Peace Bureau, one of the oldest of the many nongovernmental peace
organizations. Her many publications include Sexism and the War System.
Sandra Whitworth, a professor of Political Studies and Women's Studies at
York University is an internationally recognized analyst of gender in the
global political system. Her co-authored 2002 United Nations
Secretary-General Study, Women, Peace and Security, won one of the American
Library Association's 'Notable Government Documents Awards' in that year.
Her most recent book is entitled Men, Militarism and UN Peacekeeping: A
Gendered Analysis.
While we wanted to share some of the names of keynote speakers to increase
your anticipation about coming to Winnipeg, we are far from done indeed,
there's a lot more to come! We are in the process of confirming other
speakers (yes, there will be a few men, too!) and have been working in
collaboration with a remarkable number of exciting individuals and
organizations to create a memorable experience for you at the 2010 PJSA
conference.
Full biographies of these remarkable scholars and activists will also be
posted on the PJSA website. You will find them here:
http://www.peacejusticestudies.org/conference/schedule.php#plenaries
To make this conference a true success, however, we need you to commit to
make the trip to Winnipeg to share your projects, research, workshops, and
other activities. For many of you, we need you to cross a border to start
the process of building bridges. Registration is now open! You will find
the Call for Proposals, a Preliminary Conference Schedule, and the
Registration page at our website:
http://www.peacejusticestudies.org/conference/
http://www.peacejusticestudies.org/conference/schedule.php |