Menu

Second Annual Peace Studies Conference

Conflict Resolution: Challenges, Successes, and Failures of Supranational and International Organizations

September 27-29, 2010
Grand Rapids, Michigan

Grand Rapids Community College is pleased to announce its second annual Peace Studies Conference, September 27-29, 2010. Experts from around the country and throughout the world will come together to share their research and expertise related to international cooperation and crises, globalization, oppression, colonialism, violent and nonviolent resistance, human rights, and the creation of sustainable peace.

Register Now!

Sources of funding for the conference include:

This conference is a special opportunity for the wider community to learn from diverse analyses of conflict and reconciliation. We hope you will join us.

Schedule of Events

Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday

All events will take place in the GRCC Wisner-Bottrall Applied Technology Center (ATC) unless otherwise noted.

Pre-Conference Events

These two events are free and open to the public, sponsored by the Woodrick Diversity Center in conjunction with the City of Grand Rapids' Rosa Parks Sculpture Project, which will be dedicated on September 30th at 12:00 pm in Rosa Parks Circle.

Monday, September 27
9:30 – 10:30 am

Film Viewing:
The Mighty Times: The Legacy of Rosa Parks

Film provided by Teaching Tolerance, a project of the Southern Poverty Law Center.

ATC Auditorium, Room 168

10:45 am – 12:15 pm

Panel Discussion:
Voices from the West Michigan Civil Rights Movement

Prof. Mursalata Muhammad
Moderator, GRCC

Mitch Dennison
Former Board President for the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute

Beverly Drake
Executive Director Ascet

Jonathan Jelks
Student and Community Activist

Rev. Doug VanDoorn
Pastor, Plymouth United Church of Christ

Francisco Vega
Businessman

ATC Auditorium, Room 168

Second Annual GRCC Peace Studies Conference

Monday, September 27

12:00 pm

Registration opens

ATC First Floor Atrium

1:30 – 1:45pm

Welcoming Remarks

George Heartwell
Mayor of the City of Grand Rapids

Dr. Steven Ender
President, GRCC

Dr. Robert M. Hendershot
Conference Coordinator, GRCC

ATC Auditorium, Room 168

1:45 – 3:00pm

Panel Presentation:
The Impact of International and Supranational Organizations in Africa

Chair: Dr. Robert M. Hendershot, GRCC

Peace and Reconstruction in Post-electoral Democratic Republic of Congo: The Role of MONUC and Future Prospects

Dr. Theo Neethling
University of the Free State, South Africa

Testing the European Union as a Normative Power

Prof. Gordan Vurusic
Grand Rapids Community College

Innovative Strategies for Promoting Sustainable Peace in African Nations and Communities

Rev. Joshua Amaezechi
President, Pax Africana

ATC Auditorium, Room 168

3:15 – 4:45pm

Principles and Motivations Underpinning the Development of the European Union's Security and Defense Policy: from Treaties to Practice

Dr. Karen Devine
Dublin City University

ATC Auditorium, Room 168

Tuesday, September 28

8:00 – 9:00am

Registration

ATC Banquet Rooms

8:30 – 9:00am

Continental Breakfast

ATC Banquet Rooms

9:00 – 10:15am

Siobhan McEvoy-Levy

Local Narratives and Global Security: Youth and Conflict Resolution in the Middle East

Dr. Siobhan McEvoy-Levy
Butler University

ATC Banquet Rooms

10:30 – 11:45 am

Panel Presentation:
Roles of International and Supranational Organizations in Areas of Conflict

Chair: Dr. Robert M. Hendershot, GRCC

Future Peacekeeping in Africa: Considering the Rise of Maritime Peacekeeping

Dr. Francois Vreÿ
Stellenbosch University, South Africa

The Role of the United Nations in Inter-state Conflicts: A Case Study of Kashmir

Dr. Maria Saifuddin Effendi
National Defence University, Islamabad, Pakistan

Indigenous Rights, International Cooperation and the Mapuche Nation

Marilyn Andrews
Ph.D. candidate, University of Wisconsin

ATC Auditorium, Room 168

12:00 – 1:00 pm

Lunch

ATC Banquet Rooms

1:00 – 2:15 pm

Col. Bryan Groves

US Support and Participation in UN and Regional Organization Peacekeeping Operations

Col. Bryan Groves
United States Army Peacekeeping & Stability Operations Institute

ATC Banquet Rooms

2:30 – 3:45 pm

Panel Presentation:
Dealing with the Causes and Ramifications of Violence: Peacebuilding Techniques

Chair: Dr. Roger Durham, Aquinas College

Truth and Reconciliation Commissions: A road to the growth of democracy and civil society or just another dead end?

Julie A. Keil, JD
Saginaw Valley State University

Canadian and American Culture of Militarism: Coping Mechanisms in a Military- Industrial-Service-Complex

Dr. Carole McKenna
Ferris State University

Energy and Water Disputes in Central Asia as a Conflict Generating Factor

Muhiddin Tojiev
Public Committee for Development of Tajikistan

ATC Auditorium, Room 168

4:00 – 5:15 pm

Panel Presentation:
Teaching Peace: The Necessity of Peace Studies in Higher Education

Chair: Dr. Ric Underhile, GRCC
Peace Building in Counselor Education: A Professional Conceptualization of the UN Millennium Declaration

Dr. Jenny R. Keller
Clinical Psychologist, Regina Qu'Appelle Health Region, Saskatchewan, Canada

Keeping it Real in the Liberal Arts: Incorporating Discussion of Global Inequities in a Folk Literature Course

Dr. Rebecca Sammel
Ferris State University

Developing Global Competence in our Students: The Role of Academic Institutions

Dr. Barbara L. Ciaramitaro
Ferris State University

ATC Auditorium, Room 168

5:45 – 7:00 pm

Dinner

Your dinner this evening has been prepared as a student project of the Banquets and Catering class of the Secchia Institute for Culinary Education at Grand Rapids community College. The menu, recipes, planning, cooking and service have all been performed by GRCC students.

ATC Banquet Rooms

7:00 – 8:30 pm

Dr. Virginia Beard

The Role of Women and Civil Society in Peaceful Democratic Development in the African Context

Dr. Virginia Beard
Hope College

ATC Banquet Rooms

Wednesday, September 29

8:00 – 9:00 am

Registration

ATC Banquet Rooms

8:30 – 9:00 am

Continental Breakfast

ATC Banquet Rooms

9:15 – 10:30 am

Panel Presentation:
Surviving and Remembering the 1988 Gas Attack on Halabja, Iraq

Chair: Dr. Robert M. Hendershot, GRCC

Goran Adham Rahim
Executive Mayor of Halabja

Sarkhel Gafar Hama-Khan
Director of Halabja Monument Project

Rzgar Hama Noori Merza
Head of PUK Committee

Mahmood Hama Ameen Mahmood
Interpreter, Member of Halabja Monument Project

ATC Auditorium, Room 168

10:45 am – 12:00 pm

Panel Presentation:
Barriers to Peace: Ethnic and Sectarian Tensions

Chair: Prof. Gordan Vurusic, GRCC

A Century of Identity Reconciliation and the New Stage of Dayak Development

Laura Steckman
Ph.D. Candidate, University of Wisconsin-Madison

What's not Jewish about a Jewish state?:  The answers are an existential threat to Israel.

Prof. Keith St. Clair
Grand Rapids Community College

ATC Auditorium, Room 168

12:15 – 1:15 pm

Lunch

ATC Banquet Rooms

1:15 – 2:30 pm

Donald Mansir

Peace: Nature, Nurture, Theology and Culture in the Conflicts of the Holy Land

Brother Donald Mansir, FSC
St. Mary's College, Moraga, California

ATC Banquet Rooms

2:45 – 4:00 pm

Panel Presentation:
Identity, Violence, and Conflict Resolution in the 19th Century Great Lakes Region

Chair: Prof. Heather Forrest, GRCC

Fenians and Patriot Hunters: Irish Revolutionaries in the Great Lakes Borderlands, 1837-1870

Dr. Adam Pole
University of Windsor

Native American Diplomacy and Conflict Resolution Strategies in the Early 19th Century Great Lakes

Prof. Mike Light
Grand Rapids Community College

Irish Immigrants and the Mormon Kingdom: the Ethnic and Religious Struggle to Control Beaver Island

Dr. Robert M. Hendershot
Grand Rapids Community College

ATC Auditorium, Room 168

4:15 pm

Dedication of the Grand Rapids Community College Peace Pole

Dr. Steven Ender
President, GRCC

This event is free and open to the public

Bostwick Commons

After 4:30pm, conference guests are encouraged to explore the ArtPrize Competition being hosted by the City of Grand Rapids, and enjoy dinner at one of the city's many restaurants (dinner is not provided at the conference center on Wednesday evening) before joining us to hear Avraham Burg at Fountain Street Church at 7:00pm.

7:00 pm

Avraham Burg

Finding Reconciliation in an Era of Fear

Avraham Burg
Peace Activist, Political Leader, Author, and the first GRCC Diversity Lecture Series Speaker of the year.

Activist and political leader Avraham Burg has been a leading figure in Israeli politics for over 20 years. Burg has advocated for a more liberal reconciliatory approach to the Middle East conflict; "All of my life I've been an activist of the peace camp ... I'm ready to go a very long way to bring people together from dialogue to acceptance and than compromise."

Burg's career in public service began with the founding of the protest movement against war in Lebanon and as an activist for Peace Now. In addition in his years as Executive Chairman of the Jewish Agency for Israel he oversaw the immigration to Israel of over half a million Jews. Burg has been an advocate for pluralism and tolerance in Israeli society.

In his book, God is Back (2006, Hebrew), Burg explores the critical need for separation of religion and the state. He warns that an increasingly large sector of Israeli society disdains political democracy. In The Holocaust is Over; We Must Rise from Its Ashes, Burg argues that the Jewish nation has been traumatized by the Holocaust and has lost the ability to trust itself, its neighbors or the world around it. Burg has written for The Guardian and the International Herald Tribune and appeared on CNN's Crossfire.

This event is free and open to the public

Fountain Street Church

Fountain Street Church is located at 24 Fountain Street NE
This venue is within walking distance of the GRCC campus. Please reference the map in your conference packet for more information

5936 page hits and 5218 unique visits since 07-15-10
Updated on 21-SEP-10
Edit this page | View text only version