11/07 AC4 Landmark Event: Sustaining Peace – Interdisciplinary Perspectives

Sustaining Peace: Interdisciplinary Perspectives

Showcasing cutting-edge interdisciplinary work in conflict resolution, violence prevention, peace and sustainability at Columbia University

Wednesday, November 7th, 2012
2pm to 8:30pm
Teachers College, Columbia University

Room locations TBA

Featuring:

 

Agenda:

2:00pm-3:30pm Information tables and AC4 Fellows/Projects poster session.

3:30pm-6:20pm Workshops

6:30pm-7:30pm Book Launch and Keynote from Peter T. Coleman “What if We Took Peace Seriously?”

7:30-8:30pm Reception

 

or email: Christianna Gozzi at cgozzi@ei.columbia.edu

 

There is no fee to attend this event.

View the Event Flyer

 

Details:

2:00pm-3:30pm Information tables. Location: Everrett Lounge, Zankel Hall, Teachers College

Featuring information from:

Master of Science program in Negotiation and Conflict Resolution (NECR)

International Center for Cooperation and Conflict Resolution (ICCCR)

Center for International Conflict Resolution (CICR)

Center for Research on Environmental Decisions (CRED)

MPA in Development Practice at the Earth Institute

Center for Human Rights Documentation and Research

Institute for the Study of Human Rights (ISHR)

Center for Sustainable Urban Development (CSUD)

Advanced Consortium on Cooperation, Conflict and Complexity (AC4)

Columbia University Partnership for International Development (CUPID)

Consilience: The Journal of Sustainable Development

Humanitarain Affairs Working Group (HAWG)

Association for Negotiation and Conflict Resolution Students (ANCoRs)

Barnard Center for Research on Women

 

Poster Session. Location: Everrett Lounge, Zankel Hall, Teachers College

Featuring presentations from:

Ethos of Peace and Conflict [Click the (+) for more information about this poster]

Title: Mapping Peaces: Investigating Mind Types for Preventing Conflict and Promoting Peace in The Middle East

Presenter: Nora El Zokm

Summary: This study, led by Dr. Peter T. Coleman, seeks to understand the drivers for, and the constraints against, destructive conflict and sustainable peace within Israel and the Occupied Territories. Employing the new methodology Rule Development Experimentation (RDE) (Moskowitz & Gofman, 2007), we identify unique clusters of motives for peace and conflict in both Israeli Jewish and Palestinian communities in the Middle East. We have recently completed collecting data from 300 participants in our third round of studies in the Middle East, both in Israel and the Palestinian territories. Our goal is to learn what induces individuals’ investments in conflict and peace, what detracts from their interest, and what factors have no impact on their interest.

Fortune Society Participatory Action Research

Conflict Resolution Working Group: Trip to North Korea

Sustainable Peace and Land Tenure in Haiti [Click the (+) for more information about this poster]

Title: Designing Watershed Restoration and Monitoring Programs in Haiti

Summary: Earth Institute multi-sector teams are committed to providing support in conducting baseline integrated socio-economic research based on the Millennium Development Goal framework in Haiti.With hundreds of reforestation and agriculture programs across Haiti and numerous watershed restoration programs, large landscape-scale positive impacts are still not being observed. Without comprehensive monitoring platform, deriving mutually beneficial goals is challenging, including common agricultural priority zones, targets for reforestation that are geographically and environmentally significant or spatially-sensitive investment strategies for social services ranging from health care programs to education.

The Earth Institute launched an ambitious research project to collect data in ten communes along Haiti’s southwest coast in the South Department through a socioeconomic household survey, land tenure analysis, land degradation and land use mapping and numerous other focused research projects. The research analyzes core variables related to sustainable development and pathways to reducing state fragility and disaster vulnerability.

Engaging Governments in Genocide Prevention [Click the (+) for more information about this poster]

Title: Genocide Prevention: Initiatives and Emerging Architecture

Presenters: Ted Perlmutter, Katy Kasmai-Nazaren

Summary: Prevention of genocide and mass atrocities requires collaboration of networks of people who practice and do research on genocide prevention and relevant fields. We aim to facilitate state engagement of genocide prevention and advancement of its research agenda. Our approach is to integrate the emergent genocide prevention systems at the international, regional, national and local levels.

and from AC4 Fellows:

Jonathan Blake – Political Science – Northern Ireland, Nationalism

Joe Brown – Political Science – States, Non-State Actors and Conflict

Christine Webb – Psychology – goals, strategies for reconciliation

 

3:30pm-6:20pm: Workshops

Workshops

Click the ‘+’ to the left of each workshop for the description

3:30pm to 4:20pm:

(+) Facilitation Skill Building in Conflict Settings

Presented by: Danielle Goldberg, Program Coordinator, Program on Peace-building and Rights, Institute for the Study of Human Rights

Location: 150 Horace Mann

Summary: Participants will explore basic facilitation skills as a tool for teaching about conflict resolution and social harmony in conflict settings. The workshop will draw on the presenter’s experience training educators in Sri Lanka and the Western Balkans on Columbia’s Conflict Resolution and Social Harmony curriculum, which she co-authored.

(+) Urban Public Spaces and Community

Presented by: Michelle Jackson

Location: 152 Horace Mann

Summary: This workshop will look at the physical transformation of urban public space and its impact on community. A specific focus will be given to community gardens in Harlem.

(+) If the Wheels Fall Off: Competing Arguments on the Prevention of Mass Atrocities

Presenter: Mark Whitlock, Adjunct Instructor, Negotiation and Conflict ResolutionLocation: 109 Zankel Building (Trustee’s Room)

Summary: A growing literature exploring mass atrocities debates the plausibility of, and prospects for, early warning and prevention. Drawing on theory and recent field research in Africa, this workshop examines challenges and opportunities for regional EW and prevention. Important elements to be presented include developments in predictive modeling, crowd-sourced crisis mapping, political will, decision-making, and the explosion of big data.

4:30pm to 5:20pm:

(+) Taking a Communication Perspective for Sustainable Peace

Presented by: Beth Fisher-Yoshida, Faculty and Director of the MS in Negotiation and Conflict Resolution and Co-Chair of AC4 and members of the Cosmopolis 2045 team

Location: 150 Horace Mann

Summary: This workshop is designed to provide participants with an introduction to Coordinated Management of Meaning (CMM) and how it can be used to transform conversations for sustainable peace. Our relationships are made in communication and we, therefore, need to be mindful of the dynamics we are creating with how we speak and communicate with others. Communication is made in turn taking and the turns we take are fateful for what will happen next. All of this influences the social worlds we are making.

(+) Culturally Relevant Urban Wellness: Bridging the Aboriginal/non-Aboriginal Divide among Youth in Vancouver, British Columbia

Presented by: Jeffrey J. Schiffer, PhD Candidate Special Projects Officer at Vancouver Aboriginal Child & Family Services Society (VACFSS)

Location: 152 Horace Mann

Summary: This workshop will share challenges and successes from the inaugural year of the Culturally Relevant Urban Wellness (CRUW) program in Vancouver, British Columbia. CRUW engages Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal youth in a 7 month, 16 session program at the University of British Columbia farm. Youth work together with Aboriginal elders and knowledge keepers, and program staff and other professionals, in a curriculum around: 1) Ancestral Aboriginal knowledge; 2) Holistic & Sustainable Urban Wellness (emphasizing healthy life transitions); 3) Emotional & Cultural Competence (with an emphasis on honouring our diversity); and 4) Mentorship (across many axis: elder-youth; staff- youth; youth-youth). This workshop will explore CRUW’s successes in breaking down stereotype and discrimination, as well as empowering youth to develop skills for conflict resolution and sustainable peace in their communities.

(+) Applying Dynamical Systems Theory

Presented by: Stephen Gray and Josefine Roos, AC4 Fellows

Location: 109 Zankel Building (Trustee’s Room)

Summary: This is a presentation on the practical applications of Dynamical Systems Theory in the field of conflict resolution and peacebuilding. We will provide a brief description of the theory, and then provide an overview of ongoing developments of DST applications using a range of sources in Africa, Asia and the Americas.

5:30pm to 6:20pm:

(+) Is the environment a good tool for peacemaking?

Presented by: Shahar Sadeh, Visiting Scholar, AC4, Earth Institute.

Location: 150 Horace Mann

Summary: In recent times an international consensus has grown among policymakers and practitioners that the environment can play a role in the stability of international relations and can even promote peace. One example of “environmental peacemaking” is peace parks: trans-boundary protected areas dedicated to the protection and maintenance of biological diversity, natural and cultural resources, and to the promotion of peace and cooperation. The workshop will question the possibilty of the environment to serve as peacemaking tool and will demonstrate past trials for peace-park creation in the Middle East.

(+) Designing Teaching and Training Tools for the Emerging Fields of Peacebuilding, Fragile States and Natural Resource Management

Location: 152 Horace Mann

Participants:

Moderator: Alex Fischer, Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN)

Presenters: Tucker Harding, Columbia Center for New Media Teaching and Learning (CCNMTL); Alexandra Varga, E3B/Center for Environmental Research and Conservation (CERC); Marc Levy, Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN); Tatiana Wah, Center on Globalization and Sustainable Development (CGSD)

(+) Applying Dynamical Systems Theory to Support Myanmar’s Peace Processes

Presented by: Stephen Gray, Nikolas Katsimpras, and Josefine Roos, AC4 Fellows

Location: 109 Zankel Building (Trustee’s Room)

Summary: The workshop presents findings from three months of field work in Myanmar. Through interviews and facilitated data collection workshops conducted throughout the country the authors have produced maps which reveal the complexity and interdependcy of Myanmar’s conflicts and the wider reform process. These maps present stakeholders with a more holistic understanding and novel opportunities for conflict transformation, successful peace agreements, and effective, integrated peacebuilding strategies.

 

6:30pm-7:30pm Book launch:The Psychological Components of a Sustainable Peace

Location: Grace Dodge Hall 179

Keynote by Peter T. Coleman, PhD. “What if we took peace seriously?”

(+) Expand for more information about this book

Scholarship on the psychology of peace has been accumulating for decades. The approach employed has been predominantly centered on addressing and preventing conflict and violence and less on the conditions associated with promoting peace. Concerns around nuclear annihilation, enemy images, discrimination, denial of basic human needs, terrorism and torture have been the focal points of most research. The Psychological Components of a Sustainable Peace moves beyond a prevention-orientation to the study of the conditions for increasing the probabilities for sustainable, cooperative peace. Such a view combines preventative scholarship with a promotive-orientation to the study of peaceful situations and societies. The contributors to this volume examine the components of various psychological theories that contribute to the promotion of a harmonious, sustainable peace. Underlying this orientation is the belief that promoting the ideas and actions which can lead to a sustainable, harmonious peace will not only contribute to the prevention of war, but will also lead to more positive, constructive relations among people and nations and to a more sustainable planet. The Psychological Components of a Sustainable Peace is valuable and stimulating reading for researchers in peace psychology, political psychology, and conflict resolution as well as others who are interested in developing a sustainable, harmonious world.

 

7:30-8:30pm Reception, Location: Grace Dodge Hall, 177

 

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