McKelvy House Will Host Dinner Discussion of “Women in Creating and Sustaining Peace” Today

The McKelvy House Scholars invite the campus to join a dinner discussion of “Women in Creating and Sustaining Peace” this evening.

The meal will begin at 6 p.m. at McKelvy House, 200 High Street. Danielle Pollaci ’06 (Trenton, N.J.), a double major in English and international affairs, will lead the discussion at 6:30 p.m.

“What I’d like to talk about is how women impact the peace process as peacekeepers,” she says. “Peacekeeping is generally defined as a preservation of peace between feuding groups by a military force. Yet I’d like to extend this definition to encompass negotiators and civilian influence that may not be directly related to the military. If you want to throw in some comments on women’s role in guerrilla movements or terrorism that might be appropriate at some pointEssentially, what do women uniquely bring to the table?”

Pollaci poses the following questions to consider:

• Are women traditionally seen as the victims of conflict?
• Are women innately more nurturing compared to men, and therefore better at conflict resolution?
• Do women have a natural inclination to avoid conflict or to engage in more conversation vs. violence?
• Are there particular skills in which women excel that make them more prone to facilitating dialogue/negotiations, reducing tensions, or building relationships?
• If women have keen peacekeeping skills, why are they left out of most high-end decision-making?
• Why do female peace activists work on the grassroots level?
• How can women be more integrated into the peace process?
• Why are textbooks focused on men’s achievements in peace and not women’s?

Links to websites on the discussion topics as well as more information about the McKelvy House Scholars program are available on the group’s blog website.

Since 1962, the McKelvy House Scholars program has brought together Lafayette students with a wide range of majors and interests to reside in a historic off-campus house and share in intellectual and social activities. Sunday dinner discussions that engage the students in debate and exchange of ideas are the hallmark of the program; several Wednesday discussions have been added this school year. Most members also contribute to the annual McKelvy Papers, written on a topic of each person’s choice. McKelvy Scholars participate in activities together such as field trips to plays, concerts, and exhibits, and sponsor events for the campus as well.

Past discussions
Oct. 16 – “Slow Food” Movement
Oct. 12 – Hugo Chavez
Oct. 9 – Molecular Nanotechnology
Oct. 5 – Folk Music as Vehicle for Social Change
Sept. 25 – Freedom and Other Remembrance Issues
Sept. 20 – The Powerful Thrust of Language on Civic Arousal
Sept. 14 – Apathy
Sept. 11 – Why Do We Care about One Another?