Lighting the Darkness: Exploring Alternatives to Violence 27th annual Peace Studies Conference

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September 3, 2014

Dr. Erica Chenoweth will deliver the keynote address at the 27th Annual Peace Studies Conference at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 17. This year's theme is "Exploring Alternatives to Violence" in room 204, Gorecki Center on the CSB campus.

Chenoweth is presenting "Why Civil Resistance Works: Illuminating Alternatives to Violence in the Past and Future." She will discuss why nonviolent resistance campaigns have been more effective in achieving their goals than violent insurgencies. Chenoweth will also identify various reasons why some nonviolent campaigns have failed. She will also explain how these insights might yield productive alternatives to violence in the 21st century.

Chenoweth is associate professor and director of Program on Terrorism and Insurgency Research at the Josef Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver and is an international authority on political violence and its alternatives.

Chenoweth has won numerous awards for her efforts in promoting civil resistance and has been featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Foreign Affairs, The Economist and The Boston Globe.

The conference will begin with an address by Nonviolent Peaceforce director of special projects  Mel Duncan at 1 p.m. in room 204, Gorecki Center. Duncan cofounded this nongovernmental organization created to promote, develop and implement unarmed civilian peacekeeping as a tool for reducing violence and protecting civilians in situations of violent conflict.

Screenings of the award winning documentary "Little Town of Bethlehem" will be at 3 p.m. in room 204, Gorecki Center. It's a story about three men with different religious backgrounds who are born into violence and risk everything to find a path to peace through non-violent resistance. 

The conference is part of a series of inauguration activities for CSB President Mary Dana Hinton.

The event is co-sponsored by the Eugene J. McCarthy Center for Public Policy & Civic Engagement at SJU, the SJU Chair in Critical Thinking and the Global Awareness Lecture Series.