"A specialization dedicated to analyzing the causes and manifestations of violence, war, oppression, and injustice and to identifying theoretical and practical alternatives, locally and globally."

CONTACT INFORMATION

Peace and Justice Studies
Michigan State University
514 S. Kedzie Hall
East Lansing, MI 48824
Phone: (517) 353-4617

Steve Sharra – Advisor
sharrast@msu.edu

PEACE & JUSTCE STUDIES EVENTS:

Peace and Justice Studies sponsors lectures, informal discussions, teach-ins, and other events to promote discussion on campus and in the community.

1) The Annual Peace and Justice Studies Lecture

Each year an important scholar in the field is invited to present a scholarly lecture and to join classes and informal discussions with students and faculty at MSU. So far, our guests have included:

2003: February 14: Professor Hans Joas (Director, Max Weber Center for Advanced Cultural and Social Studies, University of Erfurt and Professor of Sociology, University of Chicago) “War and Modernity.”

2004: March 25: Professor Michael Nagler (Emeritus Profess of Classics and Comparative Literature at University of California at Berkeley, founder and former Chair, Peace and Conflict Studies, UC Berkeley), "Globalization: Corporate Nightmare or Nonviolent Dream?"

2005: March 28: Professor Michael T. Klare (Five College Professor of Peace and World Security Studies, and Director of the Five College Program in Peace and World Security Studies), “Resources, Conflict and Overconsumption: Challenges for Social Justice”

2) Campus lectures by visiting scholars and public figures

Mr. Denis Halliday, former Assistant Secretary_General of the United Nations and Director of the "Oil for Food" Program in Iraq, "Iraq, Terrorism and the USA" February 6, 2002

Dr. Stephen Zunes, Professor of Politic Science and chair of the Peace & Justice Studies at the University of San Francisco, The US & Post-Invasion Iraq: Is The World More Secure? April 25, 2003

Dr. Juan R. I. Cole, Professor of Modern Middle Eastern and South Asian History in the History Department at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, “The Iraq Crisis: Where Do We Go From Here?” October 22, 2003

3) Martin Luther King Day Events

2001: Building Peace and Justice Studies at MSU (presentations and round table discussions by members of the founding group of Peace and Justice Studies: David Dwyer, John Metzler, Elizabeth Jordan, Elizabeth McGonagle, and Richard Peterson)

2002: 21st Century McCarthyism: Dissent and Censure in the Post 9-11 Era (Panel discussion with Scott Whiteford (Latin American Studies), Megan Plyler and David Dwyer (Anthropology), and Richard Peterson (Philosophy)

2003: Non-Violence Training with Peter Dougherty, Michigan Peace Team

2004: CREATIVE ACTION FOR SOCIAL CHANGE: Past experiences, future possibilities (Ms. Lynn Marie Smith. labor union organizer, Kobie Colemon, graduate student, Philosophy, David Dwyer, Anthropology, discussing contemporary conflicts in the light of the thought of Martin Luther King and organizing against South African Apartheid on the MSU campus)

4) Teach-ins and conferences:

Teach_In: “The September 11, 2001 Attack on America and its Aftermath,” Tuesday September 25, 2001

Conference on universities and militarism, featuring Freida Berrigan of the World Policy Institute, October 30, 2004

5) Periodic brown bag discussions on such topics as human rights, international and national law, the price of terrorism, teaching about war, and the concept of militarism.