The University of New Mexico Peace Studies program will host Albuquerque's first Peace Fair, free and open to the public, on Tuesday, March 1, from noon to 8 p.m. in the Student Union Building ballroom.
UNM's School of Law, Students Organizing Action for Peace (SOAP), International Programs, Women Studies, Women's Resource Center, the sociology, political science, anthropology and communication and journalism departments, Religious Studies and College of Arts and Sciences are co-sponsors.
A celebration of peacemaking activities in New Mexico, the event is “a chance to educate the campus and statewide community about the UNM Peace Studies Program,” said Jenny Moore, Peace Studies director and School of Law associate dean.
Peace Studies is dedicated to the study of the causes of violence and alternatives to violence and the practice of conflict resolution on all levels – from the interpersonal to societal to international.
The Peace Fair will include a keynote speaker, panel presentations and displays devoted to peace as well as information about Peace Studies courses and events.
Academics and community activists with expertise in local and global conflict resolution will give presentations to “illustrate the dynamism and synergy developed through skills and insights that come from mediation work within families and institutions on the one hand and the practice of conflict resolution in cross-cultural, national and international arenas on the other,” Moore said.
Panels will convene at 1 and 3 p.m. The first presentation includes UNM African American Studies Director Shiame Okunor, who travels with students to Ghana, Economics Professor Alok Bohara of the Nepal Studies Center and Mennonite pastor Anita Amstutz.
The 3 p.m. panel features Deborah Tang of Haven House, a domestic violence shelter; Debra Oliver, co-facilitator of the New Mexico Peace Initiative, and Lori Helene Rudolph, adjunct professor in UNM Women Studies and core member of the Arab/Jewish Peace Alliance, and Cecilia Chavez, Albuquerque Center for Peace and Justice, and the liaison to women organizing in response to the Juarez murders.
At 5:30 p.m., Melinda Smith, a mediation expert involved in reconciliation work and founding executive director of the New Mexico Center for Dispute Resolution, will give the keynote address “ Toward a Culture of Peace: Applications here and abroad.”
Smith is a UNM Peace Studies program member with more than 20 years experience in the mediation field. Since 1995 she has focused on public lands grazing and logging issues; water quality; fire and drought management; endangered species; and community land use and transportation policy. She also facilitated dialogue related to the Palestinian/Israeli conflict for the Center for Restorative Justice and Peacemaking at the University of Minnesota and is currently working in the South Pacific.
UNM's Peace Studies is an undergraduate interdisciplinary minor program that includes courses and electives from more than 15 departments governed by a program committee of faculty, students and community partners. Broader membership includes individuals committed to and engaged in peacemaking activities.
Peace Studies members include therapists for victims of domestic violence and other traumatic experiences, court and public school mediators, counselors for conscientious objectors to military service, reconciliation experts in family and community conflicts, and peacemakers in war-torn societies throughout the world.
To co-sponsor or request a table, visit www.unm.edu/~peace or call 277-4032.
Contact: Laurie Mellas Ramirez, (505) 277-5915
Posted by scarr at January 14, 2005 12:48 PM