The University of Notre Dame’s 2016 Student Peace Conference will take place on April 8–9, 2016, at the Hesburgh Center for International Studies. REGISTER NOW at the conference website »
Organized by Notre Dame and Saint Mary's peace studies undergraduates, the conference brings together undergraduate and graduate students from around North America to present original research and discuss topics related to peacebuilding.
The 2016 conference co-chairs are Madeleine Witt, a management major and peace studies supplementary major, and Tyler McGehee, a biochemistry major also pursuing a peace studies supplementary major. Witt and McGehee are shaping this year’s conference around the diversity of individuals and experiences necessary for effective peacebuilding and chose “Members of the Mosaic” as their guiding theme.
“We wanted the theme to reflect the diversity of practices among peacebuilders,” explained Witt, “but we also wanted it to highlight the beautiful bigger picture that each and every one of them are contributing to. ‘Members of the Mosaic’ emphasizes both the individual and the communal aspects essential to successful peace work.”
Sponsored by the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, the Notre Dame Student Peace Conference has taken place nearly every year since 1993 and features student presentations in addition to one or more guest speakers. This year, the organizers are working to make the conference more environmentally sustainable and more connected to the local South Bend community.
“Peacebuilding activities can seem incredibly difficult and very distant from the lives of students, who spend their weeks in classrooms reading about peace initiatives but not necessarily directly engaging with them,” said McGehee. “We wanted to challenge this by focusing on the local and communal, and emphasizing that peacebuilding is both international and interpersonal, foreign and local."
The conference is free for students and faculty, but pre-registration is required. (Funding for transportation and lodging is not available to participants or presenters, but meals are provided.) Questions may be directed to the organizers at peacecon@nd.edu.
Registration closes Friday, April 1, 2016.
Contact: Tyler McGehee or Madeleine Witt, peacecon@nd.edu