Thursday, September 30, 2010

What about peace?

From The Miseducation of a Twenty Something . . .

"I think that’s the key thing here. Youth need to be hopeful. They need be hopeful because they ARE tomorrow’s peace-builders. We CAN inspire change, and we CAN change the state of this world."

Read the full post.

Monday, September 13, 2010

George Lakey and Karen Ridd Nonviolent Direct Action Workshop

The PJSA 2010 Youth Summit Coordinating Committee is proud to announce that George Lakey and Karen Ridd will be co-facilitating a workshop on Peacebuilding Through Nonviolent Direct Action.

From Training for Change:

George Lakey, 67, is the director of Training for Change. He began his career as a trainer at the Martin Luther King School for Social Change, and has since gone on to lead over 1000 workshops on five continents. He has run trainings for coal miners, therapists, homeless people, prisoners, Russian lesbians and gays, Sri Lankan monks, Burmese guerrilla soldiers, striking steel workers, South African activists, and others. Trained as a sociologist, he has taught at the college and graduate level and is the author of six books. He consults regularly with a wide range of nonprofit groups.

Also from TFC:

Karen Ridd is an instructor in Conflict Resolution Studies at Menno Simons College, where her courses include "Introduction to Conflict Resolution Studies" and "Nonviolent Social Change". She is the former training coordinator for the Resolution Skills Centre of Mediation Services, a conflict resolution program in Winnipeg. Karen has designed and led workshops for young people, teachers, labor leaders, Cambodian Buddhist monks, Thai farmers, Mohawk activists, and Bangkok human rights workers. She is a professional clown and has years of experience working in health care. She's also worked in El Salvador and Guatemala, where she provided protective accompaniment for human rights leaders threatened with assassination. In addition to her mediation work, she is a freelance consultant on nonviolent activism, non-competitive games, communication skills, and conflict resolution.

Sunday, September 12, 2010

Carolyn Nordstrom to speak to PJSA 2010 Youth Summit

The PJSA 2010 Youth Summit Coordinating Committee is proud to announce that anthropologist Carolyn Nordstrom from the University of Notre Dame will speak to the PJSA 2010 Youth Summit following dinner on Friday evening.

From the PJSA Conference plenary speaker bio page:

"A member of the Notre Dame faculty since 1997, Carolyn Nordstrom 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 Global Outlaws: Crime, Money, and Power in the Contemporary World; Shadows of War: Violence, Power, and International Profiteering in the 21st Century; A Different Kind of War Story; Fieldwork Under Fire: Contemporary Stories of Violence and Survival, and The Paths to Domination, Resistance, and Terror. “I have studied the ways in which people gain the necessities to wage war and create peace, and how people pay for these services,” she once said. “Drugs, precious gems, human labor and sex are routinely used in international black markets to purchase everything from guns and computer-based weapons systems to antibiotics and food. The integrity of my ethnographic research and the safety of those among whom I work have rested on having to delete basic data, which erases the extra-legal from public discourse. I want to develop a form of creative non-fiction that explores the lives of real people working in this complex, extra-legal network without revealing their locations.”

And here's a spot from UND:

Adam Mazo to present "Coexist" project at PJSA Youth Summit

As part of the PJSA 2010 Youth Summit, Adam Mazo will be presenting his documentary "Coexist" and follow-up workshop on Friday afternoon.

From the Coexist website:

"The documentary film, Coexist tells the stories of trauma survivors searching for ways to coexist with their loved ones’ murderers. As killing continues in Rwanda today and the government forces citizens to consider reconciliation, we examine the varied paths survivors choose when forced to face enemies and former enemies every day. In a world where innocent people are regularly attacked or killed because of who they are, we challenge you: how can Rwandans experiences inform efforts to build peaceful coexistence, eliminate hate crimes, and prevent all types of violence?"

Thursday, April 22, 2010

Pirates for Peace

For those of you in Winnipeg:

June 3, 2010. PIRATES FOR PEACE on the RED RIVER PADDLEWHEEL QUEEN.

Featuring local Celtic rock swashbucklers BANSHEE'S WAIL and guests.

All proceeds go towards the PJSA 2010 Youth Summit.

Tickets are $20.00. Limited amount. Reserve at pjsapeaceoutsummit@gmail.com.

Facebook event: Pirates for Peace

Saturday, March 6, 2010

A plethora of plenary presenters

PJSA 2010 General Conference announces first round of plenary speakers!

From the PJSA 2010 Conference Coordinating Committee:

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.

For more information and presenter bios:

PJSA 2010 Conference Schedule

On the weekend of October 1 and 2, 2010, some of North America's leading experts and thinkers in peace, social justice, and human rights will converge on our humble campus here in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.

As a young person you have a unique opportunity to be a part of this significant event by attending the PJSA 2010 Peace Out! Youth Summit, an interactive, cross border, and cross cultural experience for tomorrow's peacebuilders.

Currently accepting registrations from Canadian and US students. Registration fees only $15.

Registration.

Questions?

pjsapeaceoutsummit@gmail.com

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

A cross border blog for youth

Welcome to the PJSA 2010 Peace Out! Youth Summit blog site!

In the coming weeks this is where you will be able to find all the information you need regarding the PJSA Peace Out! 2010 Youth Summit to take place in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada on October 1 and 2, 2010.

Expect constant updates from the coordinating committee, summit announcements, and opportunities to get involved on both sides of the border. Our goal is to create not only a youth conference but a youth event experience and this blog is where we begin.

Stay tuned for how you can get started.

If you're a student in late high school to early undergrad studies, interested in peace studies, social justice issues, and human rights initiatives, want to meet like-minded students from around North America, and like the idea of two breakneck days of hands-on workshops, speaker sessions, cultural events, and a party or two, the PJSA 2010 Peace Out! Youth Summit is right up your alley.

Information on the Peace Out! Summit, Travel and Accommodations, Summit Agenda, Registration, and the Peace and Justice Studies Association can be found on the page bar above.

Links to the websites of our local hosts, the Menno Simons College (Canadian Mennonite Univeristy) and Global College (University of Winnipeg), can be found to the left.

For more immediate information or to join our mailing list you can contact us at pjsapeaceoutsummit@gmail.com.

You can also find us on Facebook.

Until later,

Peace out!

The PJSA 2010 Peace Out! Youth Summit Coordinating Committee

PJSA 2010 Youth Summit - A cross border experience for youth

The two-day PJSA 2010 Peace Out! Youth Summit will be held in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada on October 1 and 2 in conjunction with the Peace and Justice Studies Association 2010 General Conference. Hosted by Menno Simons College (Canadian Mennonite University) and the University of Winnipeg Global College, the summit will be an educational and inspirational mix of hands-on workshops related to conflict resolution and cross-cultural experiences, speaker sessions designed to engage and inspire young people, evening social events including several opportunities to meet cutting edge academics and activists in fields ranging from peace and conflict studies to politics and anthropology, and unique cultural activities specific to the summit mandate of peace, justice, and human rights studies.

The Peace Out! Youth Summit is being crafted by a hardworking group of conflict resolution and human rights undergrad students at the University of Winnipeg. It will run concurrently on the UW campus with the PJSA 2010 Conference and will, at times, be directly involved with the conference itself. This will be a unique opportunity for young students interested in peace and conflict studies, social justice, and human rights issues to interact with other similarly interested students from all over North America.

Currently, the PJSA 2010 Youth Summit Coordinating Committee is looking for US students in late high school and early undergrad studies interested in attending the summit on October 1 and 2 in Winnipeg. Students from all economic and cultural backgrounds are encouraged to attend.

This is the first time the PJSA has held its annual conference in Canada and the first time an official youth component has been added. There is much to be excited about as we prepare for this unique cross border event.

The goal of the Summit Coordinating Committee is to create a summit that is not a youth conference but rather a youth experience that will transcend the weekend in October and provide a platform from which young people will be able to envision their future in a more just and peaceful world.

We hope you can join us.

Registration fees for the Youth Summit are only $15US.

For more information please visit us at www.pjsapeaceoutsummit.blogspot.com or contact us at pjsapeaceoutsummit@gmail.com.

The Peace and Justice Studies Association is a North American non-profit organization that brings together academics, K-12 teachers and grassroots activists to explore alternatives to violence and share visions and strategies for peacebuilding, social justice, and social change. Every year the PJSA holds a major conference that gathers both PJSA members and other substantial figures in the areas of peace, conflict, and justice studies.