Voices of Today, Changes for Tomorrow

 

 

 

Friday, March 31, 2006

6:00 PM – Opening Remarks
6:15 PM – Welcome Dinner Banquet
7:00 PM – Musical Entertainment by Folk Singer and Peace Activist, Joseph Taschetta
7:30 PM – Dance Performance by the student Indian Dance Group, Bangara!
8:00 PM – Film Showing and Introduction, Jian Yi and Wu Wenguang’s Documentary: Perspectives from Village Self-Governance in Rural China

Saturday, April 1, 2006

9:00 AM – 9:30 AM Continental Breakfast

9:30 AM – 10:30 AM Session I
- Presentation: Peace Education Initiatives in the U.S. – Leaders of two different peace education programs will present on their extensive work and insights. Take Ten teaches peaceful conflict-resolution and violence-prevention to students from kindergarten to high school. The Peace Kit for Kids is an interactive project that encourages all students be peacemakers and make a difference in their world.
- Panel A: The Death Penalty – Speakers will discuss human rights implications of the death penalty practice, the potential role of students in ending the practice, and the implications of aggressive responses to capital punishment.
- Panel B: Creating Institutions for Peace – Speakers will discuss the role that institutions can play in creating a stable peace. Three case studies – Ethiopia, Peru, and Eastern Europe – will demonstrate the various challenges and effects that these institutions can have in often-turbulent regions.

10:30 AM – 11:30 AM Session II
- Presentation: Youth Voice – Gabriel Dvoskin, a World Peace Fellow at the University of California Berkley, has 15 years of experience working with media and development for various research agencies and the United Nations. He will offer a multimedia presentation on how Youth Voice, an organization that coordinated comprehensive youth-service in the Afghani communities, has worked as a catalyst for deep social changes through shaping the hearts and minds on future leaders and decision makers.
- Panel A: Art in War and Peacebuilding – Speakers will discuss the various functions that art performs both during conflict and in peacebuilding efforts. The mediums of poetry and song will be specifically explored. The different elements of art will be explored both in 20th century war poetry and in urban hip hop in present-day minority communities.
- Panel B: Human Rights and Security in the Context of Immigration – Speakers will discuss immigration in the new context of terrorism after 9/11, human rights concerns along the United States-Mexican border, and law enforcement abuses against immigrants along the border area.

11:30 AM – 12:30 PM Session III
- Documenting Self-Governance in China: Empowering Individuals through Film – Jian Yi and his colleagues have spent the past few year’s promoting self-governance throughout rural China and have recently embarked on a documentary project that allows young men and women in the villages to record their own lives and the self-governance process. Mr. Jian will expand upon his work and discuss how this project has peacefully empowered an often-marginalized people.

12:30 PM – 1:30 PM Lunch

1:30 PM ­ 2:30 PM Session IV
- Presentation: Identity & Discrimination ­ Speakers will discuss the role of identity its relation to discrimination. The challenges of racial and religious discrimination will be explored and discussed, including adapting to Western culture and overcoming the perpetuation of stereotypes.
- Panel A: The Role of Women in Peacebuilding ­ Speakers will discuss the interaction of feminism with anti-war movements, female political
representation in the Indian democracy, and the developing role of women in Chinese society.
- Panel B: Youth in Post-Conflict Resolution ­ Speakers will discuss disarmament education in Albania, the role of accused youth in the post-genocide Rwandan gacaca courts, and the “lost generation” of Tajikistan as it struggles to recover from civil unrest.


2:30 PM ­ 3:30 PM Session V
- Presentation: Children’s Defense Fund ­ Representatives from CDF will discuss the Freedom Schools Program, which runs with a peace education component in summer school programs across the country. The presentation will explore the value of this program and the challenges it faces.
- Panel A: The Religious Dimensions of Conflict and Peace ­ The role of religion in conflict and peacebuilding will be broadly explored. Speakers will discuss the history and current elements of the ongoing conflict in Northern Ireland, the challenges of transcending the clash of civilizations in Islamic peacebuilding, and the importance of the Hindu Gita in Gandhi’s teaching.
- Panel B: Peace through Economic Development ­ Speakers will discuss how economic development and aid in conflict zones impacts the community, both positively and negatively. The idea of peace through commerce in Iraq will be explored by LTC Susan Soisson, program manager for the Notre Dame Student International Business Council and recently retuned from the IraqTheatre. The panel will also reflect on the effects of United Nations microfinance programs, and additionally, the threat of neocolonialism in Africa by foreign aid
programs.

3:30 PM – 4:30 PM Session VI
Finding the Hope for Peace in Youth: Peacebuilding in Mindanao – Myla Leguro of the Mindanao Peacebuilding Institute in the Philippines will discuss the hopes and challenges of peacebuilding. She speaks of her extensive work from youth and community programs that tackle the issues of peace education, interreligious dialogue, and peace advocacy.

4:30PM – 5:00 PM Closing Remarks

Top of Page

Home > Events > Public Events Calendar > Student Peace Conference > University of Notre Dame Student Peace Conference