Lafayette Holds First Annual Peace Conference Saturday

Numerous Lafayette student organizations invite the campus and community to the first annual peace conference held 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday in Kirby Hall of Civil Rights auditorium. Lunch will be provided.

Initiated by Students for Social Justice, the peace conference seeks to continue the work of Raisa Sheynberg ’04, who started a campaign to establish a peace and conflict resolution academic program at Lafayette two years ago.

The goal of the conference is to create a space to talk about peaceful resolution to conflict and highlight the achievements of local peace activists, including Lafayette students. The organizers hope to generate enough interest to develop a peace studies minor at the college.

The lecture and presentation schedule is:

• 11:00 a.m.: Welcome by Students for Social Justice (SSJ)
• 11:10 a.m.: Music for Social Justice, performance by Quaker singer and musician Peter Blood
• 11:30 a.m.: “Soul Force: Using Nonviolent Action to Fight for Peace and Justice,” a discussion led by Blood
• 12:30 p.m.: “Activism of Youth in Counter-Recruitment,” by Peter Crownfield of Lehigh-Pocono Committee of Concern
• 1:30 p.m.: Lunch
• 2:00 p.m.: “Women and Peace,” by Bonnie Winfield, director of Landis Community Outreach Center
• 3:00 p.m.: “Introduction to Student Action,” by Michael Benitez, director of Intercultural Development
• 3:15 p.m.: Student presentations on activism topics including Engineers Without Borders (EWB), by Marquis Scholar Margaret Garcia ’07(Stamford, Conn.), a double major in civil engineering and international studies; Amnesty International, by Jillian Gaeta ’07 (Middletown, N.J.), a double major in international affairs and French; and Global Exchange, by Viktorija Gecyte ’08 (Vilnius, Lithuania), an economics and business major, and Stefany Feliciano ’06 (Naples, Fla.) a double major in English and art
• 4:00 p.m.: Keynote lecture “Why Teach Peace?” by Colman McCarthy
• 5:00 p.m.: Closing remarks

For more information, contact lafssj@gmail.com.

Students who helped organize the conference are: Garcia; Gaeta; Danielle Pollaci ’06 (Trenton, N.J.), an international affairs major; Marquis Scholar Richard Lear ’06 (Stroudsburg, Pa.), a double major in French and government and law; Odakwei Mills ’06 (Baltimore, Md.), an international affairs major; Matt Verbyla ’06 (Unionville, Conn.), a civil engineering major; Marquis Scholar Alysse Henkel ’08 (West Des Moines, Iowa), a government and law major; and Sarah Teevan ’09 (Bogota, N.J.), a chemical engineering major.

The event is sponsored by SSJ, EWB, International Affairs Club, Amnesty International, the government department, Africans Creating African Consciousness and Interest Abroad, AYA(Black literary journal), Association of Lafayette Feminists, and Lafayette Intercultural Network Council.

McCarthy is an anarchist, peace activist, and animal rights advocate, who teaches at Georgetown University, the University of Maryland, American University, and The Catholic University of America. In addition, he is a columnist for The Washington Post and has published a number of books and essays on pacifism, education, and journalism appearing in magazines and newspapers such as The New Yorker, Readers Digest, and the Catholic Worker.