Elms College
Social Justice and the Liberal Arts 2007-2008
Solidarity. Rights and Responsibilities.

Colman McCarthy
Founder and Director of Center for Teaching Peace in Washington, DC
“How to Be a Peacemaker”
Date: Tuesday, February 26, 7:00 p.m.
Place: Alumnae Library Theater

Veteran journalist and educator Colman McCarthy has been working for peace for more than 40 years. As a columnist for “The Washington Post” during the Vietnam war, McCarthy wrote extensively about individuals and ideas focused on nonviolent solutions to conflict. After years of writing about peace, McCarthy began wondering if peace could actually be taught.

In 1982, McCarthy began teaching a course on nonviolence as a volunteer at a local high school. By 1985, he and his wife had founded the Center for Teaching Peace in order to help schools begin or expand academic programs in conflict resolution and peace studies. In his presentation, McCarthy will explore the lack of peace education in the formal educational system and share his experience teaching peace over the past 25 years.

Hedley Abernethy, M.A.
Peace-building Education Advisor for Catholic Relief Services
Workshop on Peace-building
Date: Wednesday, March 26, 3:00 p.m.
Place: Alumnae Library Theater

Hedley Abernethy is a native of Northern Ireland and graduate from the Center for Justice and Peace-building at Eastern Mennonite University. Before coming to the US, Abernethy worked for the National Council of YMCAs in Ireland, helping to develop and promote peace-building programs throughout Northern Ireland.

Panel Presentation on “Peace-Building”
Featuring:
Hedley Abernethy, M.A., Peace-building Education Advisor, Catholic Relief Services
Michael True, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus of English, Assumption College Sharon Shepela, Ph.D., Professor of Psychology, University of Hartford
Date: Wednesday, March 26, 7:30 p.m.
Place:Alumnae Library Theater

What is “peace-building?” What are ordinary people around the globe doing to build peace? How can you join this effort? Hedley Abernethy, Dr. Michael True, and Dr. Sharon Shepela will explore the ideas, and practice, of building peace on a planet deeply affected by war.

Dr. True taught at Assumption College for 34 years before retiring in 1997. A life-long peace activist and researcher, Dr. True was instrumental in developing Assumption’s peace studies curriculum. A widely published author, his most recent work, People Power: Fifty Peacemakers and their Communities, focuses on the lives and communities of men and women central to non-violent movements for social change from the 18th century to the present.

Dr. Shepela is an award-winning professor of psychology at the University of Hartford and co-author of Courageous Resistance: The Power of Ordinary People, which examines how ordinary people find the courage to stand up for justice and peace. Dr. Shepela is also trained as a Pace e Bene nonviolent living presenter and gives workshops about creating nonviolent communities.

Performance of “Brundibar”
Ela Stein Weissberger
Commonwealth Opera of Western Massachusetts & Hatikvah Holocaust Education Center
Date: Sunday, March 30, 4:30 p.m. and Monday, March 31, 10:30 a.m.
Place: Veritas Auditorium, Berchmans Hall

Brundibar (Czech for “Bumblebee”) is an opera written by composer Hans Krasa in Prague in 1938.  Full of innocence and hope, it is a children’s fable about the triumph of good over evil that was performed 55 times in the Jewish ghetto/concentration camp of Theresienstadt by an ever-changing cast of children.  Most of the children who performed in the opera were deported from Theresienstadt to Auschwitz or other Nazi killing centers, where they perished. More than any other musical work, Brundibar inspired feelings of hope for the inmates of Theresienstadt. 

The performances will include the personal testimony of Ela Stein Weissberger, the only Holocaust survivor still living who performed continuously in Brundibar in Theresienstadt between 1941 and 1945.

Kate Brooks began working as a freelance photojournalist in the former Soviet Union at the age of 20, documenting systematic child abuse in state orphanages. Following September 11, Brooks moved to Pakistan to photograph the impact of US foreign policy in the region, and life in post-Taliban Afghanistan. In 2003, she covered the US-led invasion of Iraq and the beginning of the Iraqi jihad for TIME magazine.

Brooks has worked extensively in the greater Middle East, photographing not only political events and violent conflicts, but also documenting daily life. She has been the recipient of numerous international awards, and her photographs are regularly published in American and European magazines.

Brooks will speak on her experiences as a photojournalist in Iraq and the Middle East, displaying some of her most compelling works as part of the presentation.

Jody Williams
Nobel Peace Prize Laureate
PeaceJam Northeast Youth Conference
Date: Friday, April 4, 7:00 p.m.
Place: Veritas Auditorium, Berchmans Hall

Jody Williams has been a tireless advocate for international peace for decades. Founding coordinator of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL), Williams was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1997 for her strategic role in achieving an international treaty banning the use of landmines.

Since being awarded the Nobel Prize, Williams worked closely with the United Nations. She has served as a technical adviser to the UN's Study on the Impact of Armed Conflict on Children. Earlier this year, Williams was appointed to lead a UN High-Level Mission to investigate human-rights abuses in the war-torn Sudanese region of Darfur.

Williams will be in residence at Elms College as the focus of the PeaceJam Northeast Youth Conference from April 4-6, 2008.

Margaret Pfeil, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Theology at the University of Notre Dame
“ROTC on College Campuses”
Date: Thursday, April 24, 7:00 p.m.
Place:Alumnae Library Theater

Dr. Margaret Pfeil is an accomplished theologian and devoted peace activist. With a focus on Catholic social thought and the development of moral doctrine, Dr. Pfeil felt compelled by the events of September 11 to deepen her personal commitment to the practice of nonviolence. This eventually led her to found the Peter Claver Catholic Worker House in South Bend in 2003, where she continues to be an active community member.

Dr. Pfeil has team-taught a class with the Director of the US Army ROTC program at the University of Notre Dame entitled “War, Law, and Ethics.” Through this class, she hoped to open a space for dialogue about the role that ROTC programs play on college campuses. In her presentation, Dr. Pfeil will share her insights from this experience.

Performance of “Boots on the Ground”
Elms College Theater for Social Justice
Date: Wednesday, April 30 thru Saturday, May 3
Place: Doyle Theater, College Center

“Boots on the Ground” is a powerful docu-drama that examines the Iraq War through the perspectives of 23 different characters in southern New England. Written by Laura Kepley and Deborah Salem Smith, the play is based on over 200 hours of interviews with 70 different Rhode Islanders.

The power of “Boots on the Ground” is its focus on the human element of the war, emphasizing relationships over politics, emotion over ideology. The play is about the lives of Rhode Islanders and their connection to the war, giving voice to their experience –- from service members and their family members to veterans and everyday citizens. The play will be followed by a discussion.

For more Information contact:
John Guimond, Director of Institutional Marketing
265-2294
guimondj@elms.edu