ACN Attends PJSA Annual Conference

 

From October 14th through October 16th, the Ashland Center for Nonviolence (ACN) participated in the annual conference of the Peace and Justice Studies Association (PJSA) at the University of Mount Union. Elizabeth Buttil, the Assistant Director of the ACN program, and three Peace Scholars, Josie Brown, Tyler Easton, and Carolina Amparo, spent two days learning about Peace movements, theories, and leaders.
    
The PJSA conference was organized into a series of activities such as roundtable discussions, lectures, film screenings, and poetry readings. On the first day, our ACN team joined a roundtable led by attendees from Berea College about  “Teaching and Learning Nonviolence through Being Nonviolent.” Afterward, we listened to a presentation by one of the members of the ACN programming committee, Dr. Wim Laven, titled “What are They Telling Us?” Dr. Laven’s work was focused on “ the role of forgiveness in healing a divided America” according to a “broad range of responses from students and young adults.” Friday ended with a keynote lecture by E. Ethelbert Miller, who spoke on “Writing Poetry and Asking Questions: The Journey of an African American writer.”

    

Our ACN team presented the following Saturday morning. We spoke about “Peace Scholars as Models for Peacebuilding on College Campuses” and explained the initiatives ACN has held in the past few years, such as book clubs, tutoring programs for local students, peace vigils, and forums. We took a variety of questions from audience members who were affiliated with similar organizations across the country. Overall, the ACN panel highlighted the interests and strengths of our Peace Scholars and displayed the different ways we can promote a welcoming and respectful campus community.

    After our panel discussion, we split up for the remaining two sessions and listened to different topics. Some learned about peace and justice issues pertaining to the “Colonial, Postcolonial, and Decolonial” moderated by Dr. Michelle Collins-Sibley, who is another member of our programming committee. Others focused on topics such as “Exploring Gender, Sex, and Sexuality.” After eating some phenomenal Thai food for lunch, we made our way back to the awards banquet and plenary speech.

 The PJSA conference was an opportunity for educational and personal growth. As Peace Scholars, we were able to practice presenting our work before an audience and, as participants, were free to explore the aspects of Peace Studies that called to us. We are incredibly grateful to our Assistant Director, Elizabeth Buttil, and all other members and donors of ACN who made this experience possible. 

Carolina Amparo an undergraduate student majoring in Political Science and Political Economy at Ashland University. She is a Peace Scholar with the Ashland Center for Nonviolence, as well as an Ashbrook Scholar and a Diversity Scholar. 

October Event Wrap-Up: Dispelling the Myths and Misconceptions

 

 

    On Tuesday, October 25th, Egyptian-American and police officer, Sarah Shendy, presented her Anti-Islamophobic training to the Peace Scholars, students of the criminal justice and religion departments, and AU community members. She mainly explained and corrected common misconceptions about Islam and shared her experiences as an Muslim woman in America. She also emphasized the necessity of understanding Muslims correctly not only for police officers, but for people of all professions because of the problem posed to Muslim Americans by stigmas and misunderstandings by other Americans. Some of the main points about Islam that Sarah touched on in her talk were the Five Pillars of Islam, the Arabic language, and the rights of Islamic women. She also talked about how the Muslim community is growing in America, especially within Hispanic communities in Texas. This was something I had not known before the talk, as I had not realized how widespread the Muslim community is in America, nor that it is growing so rapidly. This further stresses the importance of being educated on Islam. As a female police officer, Sarah is passionate about her job and thankful she was able to pursue the career that she was interested in and well suited for: “I didn’t choose the profession; the profession chose me.” She said that she cares most about helping victims of abuse, and that she even likes to send notes to those she helps and check in with them to see how they are doing. This talk was very informative about both Islam and the perspective of police officers in America, and it was a pleasure to meet and learn from Sarah.

Anne Casey has Philosophy and Political Science majors, as well as History and Ethics minors. She is an Ashbrook Scholar and Intern, an ACN Peace Scholar, and an Honors Program Scholar. She works as a communication coach at the Writing and Communication Center and as a philosophy tutor. She is Vice President of  the Thomistic Institute and is a ballet teacher and chair of health and safety for the AU Dance Company.