PEACEBUILDER THE MAGAZINE OF THE CENTER FOR JUSTICE AND PEACEBUILDING AT EASTERN MENNONITE UNIVERSITY
2016-17
PEACEBUILDER
FROM THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
2016-17
THE WORLD NEEDS MORE CJP GRADUATES
PEACEBUILDER is published annually by Eastern Mennonite University, with the collaboration of its development office: Kirk L. Shisler, vice president for advancement; Phil Helmuth, executive director of development; Lindsay Martin, CJP associate director of development.
J. DARYL BYLER
The Center for Justice and Peacebuilding (CJP) is rooted in Anabaptist-Christian theology and life, characterized by values and traditions that include nonviolence, right relationships and just community. CJP educates a global community of peacebuilders through the integration of practice, theory and research. CJP is based at Eastern Mennonite University in Harrisonburg, Virginia, and offers two master’s-level degrees and certificates, as well as non-degree training through its Summer Peacebuilding Institute. Donations to CJP are tax-deductible and support the program, the university that houses it, scholarships for peace and justice students, and other essentials. Visit www.emu.edu/cjp for more information.
LEADERSHIP TEAM LEE SNYDER / Interim president FRED KNISS / Provost J. DARYL BYLER / CJP Executive Director CJP MANAGEMENT TEAM J. DARYL BYLER
NAME ANY CURRENT MAJOR CONFLICT IN THE WORLD – domestic or international – and there is likely at least one graduate on location, employing the analysis and peacebuilding tools learned while studying at EMU’s Center for Justice and Peacebuilding. As of September 2016, some 590 individuals – including 77 Fulbright scholars – have received a graduate certificate and/or MA degree from the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding. These graduates weave a peacebuilding network that spans the world (see map on back cover), engaging complex conflicts in places like Afghanistan, Burundi, Democratic Republic of Congo, Iraq, Israel-Palestine, Myanmar, Somalia, South Sudan and Syria – as well as Harrisonburg, Virginia; Washington D.C.; and Oakland, California.
JAYNE SEMINARE DOCHERTY WILLIAM GOLDBERG PATIENCE KAMAU KATIE MANSFIELD KATHY SMITH LEDA WERNER STAFF LAUREN JEFFERSON / Editor-in-chief JON STYER / Designer and photographer LINDSEY KOLB / Proofreader JOSHUA LYONS / Web designer PATIENCE KAMAU / Mailing list manager
For more information or address changes, contact: Center for Justice and Peacebuilding Eastern Mennonite University 1200 Park Road Harrisonburg VA 22802 cjp@emu.edu 540-432-4000 www.emu.edu/cjp
Feedback from alumni provides valuable insights into the latest peacebuilding approaches and practices that are working on the ground, allowing CJP faculty to revise curricula accordingly (see page 3 for Dr. Jayne Docherty’s article). Alumni feedback also allows us to develop new programs, like the MA in Restorative Justice (see pages 14-15), in response to growing interests and demands in the peacebuilding field. With the recent hiring of Diana Tovar as CJP’s Peacebuilding Network Coordinator, we are eager to do an even better job of connecting with our alumni and helping them connect with each other. Already, alumni are linking together to address complex issues. CJP-affiliated faculty member Dr. Alma Abdul-hadi Jadallah is working with four Middle East alumni to create a dialogue center at a major university south of Baghdad, in a project funded by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). In the Pacific Northwest, graduates Catherine Bargen, Matthew Hartman and Aaron Lyons have formed Just Outcomes, a firm which supports communities in “developing just responses to harmful actions or situations.” And this summer, CJP grad Angela Dickey teamed with STAR trainers Donna Minter and Crixell Shell to deliver a STAR I program in Minneapolis for an internationally diverse group. Another of Diana’s tasks will be to increase the number of CJP alumni voices streaming into the classroom via Skype and Zoom. This will allow current students to learn from the peacebuilding experience of CJP alumni – and to begin forming relationships within the network they will join upon graduation. Indeed, as evidenced in this issue of Peacebuilder, CJP students are already engaged in real-world practice opportunities. With daily news reports of global violence and social unrest, it is easy to despair. I remain hopeful because of the healing justice work CJP students and alumni are embracing in hotspots around the world.
CONTENTS
FEATURES
5 PRACTICA Recent MA graduates share learnings from practicum experiences.
14 MA IN RESTORATIVE JUSTICE CJP starts a new graduate program, the first of its kind in North America.
ON THE COVER First-year CJP graduate students Ian Pulz and Jennifer Chi Lee undertake an orientation exercise led by Professor Barry Hart in mid-August.
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PHOTO BY JON ST YER
PROGRAMS
18 STRATEGIES FOR TRAUMA AWARENESS AND RESILIENCE
FOCUS: LEARNING THROUGH THEORY AND PRACTICE
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20 SUMMER PEACEBUILDING INSTITUTE
PROGRAM CHANGES Graduate program adapts curriculum in response to changing global conditions.
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WOMEN’S PEACEBUILDING LEADERSHIP PROGRAM
EXPERT OPINIONS Peacebuilders share the unique value of a CJP education.
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9 FROM THE FIELD
ZEHR INSTITUTE
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CJP provides an exponential education for these graduates.
13 MEET THE STUDENTS Photos and bios of first-year graduate students.
16 YEAR IN REVIEW View CJP program highlights in the United States and around the world.
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PROGRAM CHANGES
A JUSTICE AND PEACEBUILDING CURRICULUM FOR THE 21ST CENTURY THE ORIGINAL CURRICULUM at what is now the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding (CJP) was created in 1995, shortly after the end of the Cold War. It was a time of hope and a time of worry. It seemed possible that the world might move resources from war systems to other pressing human needs. It seemed possible that residual violent conflicts – the proxy wars of the Cold War period – might be transformed. It seemed possible that focusing on inclusive decision-making, reconciling relationships, acknowledging and healing past harms and promoting a restorative approach to issues of justice could have real impact. At the same time, new wars were breaking out in the Balkans, and the existing ways of dealing with violent conflict seemed poorly suited to these new challenges. The CJP curriculum, from the outset, embraced holistic and multi-faceted approaches to issues of promoting justice and reducing violence. Our faculty and graduates have achieved the early goals in some communities and in some countries. However, injustice and violence are like cancers or bacteria; they transform in order to thrive. We need to regularly alter our understanding and our approaches if we want to have any chance of ending violence and transforming injustice. CJP is comprised of uniquely knowledgeable people – faculty members are active practitioners and students arrive with direct experience of problems they want to better understand in order to take well-informed and realistic transformative actions. Consequently, the curriculum undergoes a major revision approximately every five years, largely as a response to changing world conditions. When the program started, the general public and most academics were inclined to locate issues of conflict and violence “over there” in other countries. Today, it is clear to many that the United States is neither different from nor separated from “over there.” You can’t, for example, look at the challenge of conflict between communities of color and an increasingly
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militarized policing system and not see parallels to other countries with similar problems. When the program started, most practitioners working to transform conflicts talked of conflict cases that could be managed. Today, it is apparent that many if not most of the manifestations of violence and injustice are the result of tightly intertwined systems that have failed to deliver just outcomes. If we want to talk about a “case” of conflict, we need to define the problem as larger than the parties who end up involved in direct conflict with one another. We need to consider the systems that have given rise to the conditions that support their open conflict. This new understanding is illustrated in a case that we study in the new curriculum. Hurricane Katrina wiped out large sections of the metropolitan city of New Orleans in Louisiana in 2005 revealing huge problems of systemic racism, poverty, inequality and failed governance structures. As we unpack this case in class, it becomes clear that the harms of Hurricane Katrina are rooted in historical discriminatory housing policies, the legacies of slavery, systems of political corruption, the practice of locating human communities within fragile
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Academic Programs Director Jayne Docherty leads CJP faculty, staff and students in continuous reflection and pedagogical analysis that results in substantial curriculum revisions approximately every five years. PHOTO BY ANDREW STRACK
ecosystems, and a host of other systems created and sustained by humans. If we want to harvest justice and peace from this catastrophe, we need a multi-faceted and creative approach. Students analyze the many factors that created the conditions for Hurricane Katrina and they study a wide array of responses to the disaster with a focus on evaluating how well those responses have addressed underlying causes. The Hurricane Katrina case is used in the second of two team-taught courses that integrate analysis, theory, and design thinking. Foundations of Justice and Peacebuilding I and II teach students to analyze complex problems of injustice, violence and harm; design creative responses; and think ahead to how those responses would be implemented and evaluated. The first course starts with less complex cases and the second course ends with large challenges such as transforming the systems that are driving global climate change. The last piece of the new required core courses will be implemented this year with the introduction of Research Methods for Social Change. This course ties research to problems of action and prepares students to learn continuously about the problems they are addressing and the effectiveness (or not) of
their own work. All is not new at CJP, however. We have retained and improved distinctive features of our curriculum. The long-standing promotion of reflective practice at CJP has been refined into a curriculum that emphasizes personal formation. Our goal is to promote self-awareness and skills of self-management so that our graduates can remain calm and focused when faced with situations of great ambiguity. We also prepare graduates to work in teams by providing a coaching support system for their first major team project. And, as always, we continue to require the mastery of specific skills for managing conflict and promoting justice. As you’ll read in the following pages, students learn, grow and prepare for the future through practice and practicum experiences, and strong mentorship by Amy Knorr, our peacebuilding practice director and faculty members. The learning objectives for the students are under constant scrutiny and revision. The process of updating the curriculum is discussed with the students who, consequently, embrace a continuous learning approach to their own work. This is one reason they are seen as leaders in the field. — JAYNE DOCHERTY
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EXPERT OPINIONS LAUREN VAN METRE Acting Associate Vice President for Applied Research / The United States Institute of Peace/ Washington D.C. EMU’s Center for Justice and Peacebuilding infuses student learning with both the hard realities and the hope of building peace. The effects of violent conflict are studied in the classroom, encountered in field-based practice, reflected on personally, and learned from fellow students – many of whom have lived in violent conflict and made a courageous commitment to respond, repair and rebuild. EMU’s location in the mountains of Virginia is deceptive – this is not a “remote” learning experience, but an engaging, international education, which produces compassionate, knowledgeable peacebuilders who are fully capable of engaging globally and at home to help communities heal.
LEYMAH GBOWEE MA ‘07 Nobel Laureate 2011 / Executive Director, Gbowee Peace Foundation Africa / Monrovia, Liberia Prior to enrolling at the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding at the Eastern Mennonite University, my view of conflict was limited to my region and to those close to my country, Liberia. After my graduate studies at CJP and my interaction with the dynamic local and regional peacebuilders from across the globe, that view changed significantly. Each global conflict has a face and a name. Today, my drive for global peace is due to the fact that every conflict is very personal. I have a name in my heart for every region of the world, a direct result of the CJP experience.
KOILA COSTELLO-OLSSON MA ‘05 Consultant / Co-founder and former director,Pacific Centre for Peacebuilding / Suva, Fiji CJP offers a practical peacebuilding education program that contributes to strengthening accountability in adult learners, teachers and practitioners. If education is a way to influence us to be reflective in the way we think, feel and act, then this is what CJP is doing in an environment with global citizens who are diverse in culture, religion, language and gender. CJP equips us with ways that help discern choices in dealing with conflict and violence from a place of compassion, justice and love. This way of learning makes intentional the finding of words that contextualize stories of suffering, success, laughter and critical thinking, when so much misunderstanding is generated from the misinterpretation of words and action.
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FEATURES
THE PRACTICUM
EXPERIENCE
Second-year CJP students engage in practica as the capstone of their peacebuilding education. Rebekah “Bex” Simmerman, MA ‘16, who is fluent in the Sudanese dialect of Arabic, came to CJP after six years of working in Sudan. Interested in interfaith dynamics and the roots of anti-Islamic sentiments in the United States, Simmerman completed her practicum with EMU’s Center for Interfaith Engagement. Harrisonburg is 7 percent Muslim and 15 percent foreign-born, with students who speak more than 50 languages in attendance in local schools. Her broadranging project identified long-standing interfaith ties in the community and also loci where these connections could be strengthened. She is applying for grant-funding to continue the project. PHOTO BY JOAQUIN SOSA
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FEATURES
PHOTO BY JOAQUIN SOSA
PRACTICA
JACQUES MUSHAGASHA MA ‘16 FROM BUKAVU, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO / LIVING IN HARRISONBURG, VIRGINIA / SERVES AS PRESIDENT OF THE CONGOLESE COMMUNITY ASSOCIATION
PRACTICUM EXPERIENCE: I introduced restorative justice concepts to the Congolese community, which includes 140 refugees. ACTIVITY: The 27 adults in the workshop learned the difference between restorative justice and penal criminal justice; the principles, values and practices of restorative justice; and how these practices might be used to resolve conflict, repair broken relationships, and strengthen their community. At the end of the training session, they learned how to organize a circle process, the role of the facilitator and the use of a talking piece. Eight young people ages 14-17 also attended as listeners. WHAT THEY LEARNED: Many participants were very fascinated by the role that a talking piece can have in a conversation. Most of them promised to use the talking piece in their conversation at homes. They also promised, in case of a conflict, to explore restorative justice practices before referring the matter to the legal criminal system. This practicum allowed me to enhance my skills in facilitation and production of curriculum for training or workshops. A VISION FOR THE FUTURE: I have always dreamed of going back to Congo to work in the area of peacebuilding education and trauma healing. My vision for the Congolese community of Harrisonburg is a community of people well-integrated, both culturally and financially, into the larger Harrisonburg community. I would like to see a community of responsive and productive citizens ready to give back to their native country as well as to the welcoming society.
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FEATURES
PHOTO BY JON ST YER
PRACTICA
JODIE GEDDES MA ‘16 FROM THE BRONX, NEW YORK / NOW LIVING IN OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA / EMPLOYED AS A COMMUNITY ORGANIZING COORDINATOR WITH RESTORATIVE JUSTICE FOR OAKLAND YOUTH (RJOY)
BEFORE THE PRACTICUM: As a first-year student, I was a conflict trainer with the Boys and Girls Club of Harrisonburg. My role was to provide peace education and conflict de-escalation skills. I facilitated small-group discussions and processes for community organizations. Each of these experiences created a larger picture of the Harrisonburg community while connecting me to its residents. HEADING WEST: As a black woman, I was seeking to be in a place that affirmed my being while engaging with some of the communities most disproportionally affected by systemic harm. Restorative Justice for Oakland Youth provided me with the opportunity to engage in the use of restorative justice as a cultural shift while internalizing these practices for my self-care and healing. WORKING ALONGSIDE YOUTH: During my practicum, I designed and implemented community organizing training for and with youth. The trainings consisted of political education, journaling and storytelling. I also helped build relationship with community organizations that seek to interrupt the cycles of violence facing black and brown youth/communities. PERSONAL GROWTH: I recognized the importance of stories and the way narratives inform systems change, especially when speaking with those that do not see the symptoms of oppression. I was challenged by the way forms of oppression became normalized in the telling of some stories. I believe we have all been taught to sit with oppression, as a comfort. THE FUTURE: I believe I was led to RJOY and I am grateful to be continuing this journey.
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FEATURES
PRACTICA
AARON ODA MA ‘16 FROM AUBURN, INDIANA / NOW LIVING IN HARRISONBURG, VIRGINIA / EARNING A MEDIATION CERTIFICATE
TO MYANMAR: I spent my practicum in Yangon, Myanmar (Burma) with People In Need (PIN), an organization committed to working with local communities in solving problems using the creative resources already available. This included many indigenous and creative ways for healing, resilience, storytelling and relationship building in order to transcend the atmosphere of violence. I was primarily interested in working with arts-based peacebuilding methodologies, addressing sectarian and identity-based violence, and studying and analyzing the current conflicts in Rakhine State. I had prior connections to Myanmar, having worked in the past with Burmese refugees in Georgia and Indiana. DOCUMENTARY FILM: I conducted research into how arts-based peacebuilding approaches are addressing ethno-religious conflict in Myanmar. The case studies – collected with interviews of local participants working in the conflict transformation field, human rights workers, musicians, psychologists, and others – took the shape of a documentary film. NEW KNOWLEDGE: My practicum provided me with the analytical and relational lens to interact and work alongside people living amidst democratic transition. I learned how to address issues of interfaith identity conflict in creative ways. In a collectivist, indirect culture such as Myanmar, the need for sensitivity and imagination is crucial. I also see clearly the need for local voices and agency within peacebuilding processes and assessments. I often navigated and mediated the different communication and conflict styles between Western folks and local Burmese in the office. POWER OF THE ARTS: After this experience, I can attest to the power of the creative arts and embodied practice as a medium of conflict transformation. Having had the opportunity to observe participatory theater in Karen State and listen to the countless testimonies of practitioners for the documentary film project, I can proclaim how powerful the opportunity for storytelling, emotional expression, and creative problem-solving is in regard to a holistic understanding of service and empowerment in peacebuilding.
Aaron Oda, MA ‘16, interviews actors from Hpa-An Milliemium Centre in Karen State during his practicum in Myanmar. The group hosts participatory theater events in the region to raise awareness about specific peace and social cohesion issues most needed in surrounding villages. PHOTO BY JOAQUIN SOSA (TOP) AND COURTESY OF AARON ODA
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FUTURE PLANS: I am working towards the Virginia General District Court mediation certification. After a year or so in the States, I envision continuing my work overseas in international peacebuilding involving capacity-building and training, arts-based approaches to peacebuilding, and facilitating dialogue and bridges of understanding to diverse groups of stakeholders involving identity-based conflicts. I would love to continue this passion for using documentary film for participatory peacebuilding efforts as well.
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FROM THE FIELD
JORDANIAN CONSULTANT & TRAINER REFLECTS ON ONGOING RELEVANCE OF CJP DEGREE THROUGH ITS PREVIOUS RESEARCH, the International Labor Organization (ILO) had determined that women employed by private schools and universities in Irbid, a governorate in northern Jordan, earn substantially less than their male colleagues. As this conflicts with several core ILO principles, the organization recently hired Amman-based consultant Raghda Quandour, MA ’03, to help with step two: analyze why this wage gap exists, and propose ways to close it. “The whole purpose [of this contract] is to provide the ILO and the Jordanian National Commission for Women with solutions,” said Quandour, who started the work in mid-2016. “There are a lot of components that we have to study.” As frequently is the case in her consulting work, Quandour places the techniques and theories of conflict analysis that she studied at CJP at the center of her approach. “How can I handle the problem of pay equity if I don’t [understand it]?” she said. “Thinking about how these organizations deal with conflict is very important.” Quandour recalls an organizational development class at CJP, co-taught
Based in Jordan, Raghda Quandour, MA ‘03, says her CJP education and connections have been beneficial more than 13 years after graduation. PHOTO BY JON ST YER
by Ruth Zimmerman, MA ’02, and David Brubaker as one of her primary influences. Among Quandour’s other recent consulting jobs have been researching the juvenile justice system in the region for the International Development Law Organization, as well as an evaluation of educational programs for Syrian refugees in Jordan on behalf of RAND and UNICEF. Over the past several years, Quandour has also felt CJP’s influence as she’s begun to lead trainings on peacebuilding and organizational development. Her first experience doing so was in 2014, when she assisted and translated for Brubaker, who was leading a several-day organizational development training for a group of Jordanian NGOs. On the final day of the training, Brubaker asked Quandour to lead the training herself. “David’s presence and moral support during this last session gave me much needed confidence, which led to [other opportunities],” she said. From January to May of 2015, working for the NGO Caritas, Quandour designed and provided a conflict resolution training for around 1,200 people, most of them Syrian refugees. She has also trained Jordanian NGO staff on managing organizational conflict and change. “What I studied [at CJP] is very much a part of how I live my life,” said Quandour. “[It influences] how I do everything I do – subconsciously, consciously, you name it.” — ANDREW JENNER
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Jean Claude Nkundwa, MA ‘14, is working to resolve a longterm political crisis in his native Burundi with the help of skills acquired at CJP. He returned to SPI in 2016 to take a course on peacebuilding responses to violent extremism. PHOTO BY JOAQUIN SOSA
FROM THE FIELD
NEGOTIATING FOR PEACE IN BURUNDI Genocide survivor Jean Claude Nkundwa, MA ’14, thought finding work in peacebuilding in his native Burundi after graduation could take up to two years. When, he, his wife Francine Muhimpundu, and young son returned, Nkundwa renewed former contacts from working 12 years with partner organizations affiliated with Mennonite Central Committee and also with Harvest of Peace Ministries. With Burundi International Community Church, he helped mobilize churches in community violence prevention training and began building an early warning system network. However, his patient plan was sidetracked by a May 2015 political crisis, one which Nkundwa presciently predicted the month before in a New York Times op-ed titled “Burundi: On the Brink?” The coup was precipitated by the decision of President Pierre Nkurunziza to run for a controversial third term. Since his win in the election, hundreds of people have been killed and more than a quarter of a million people have fled the country. Human rights abuses are rampant. “That article helped get my name out,” Nkundwa said. When he fled to Rwanda with his family and other civil society leaders, he was quickly back on his feet. With former classmate Katrina Gehman, MA ’15, he published a conflict analysis that opened doors to his inclusion in gaining support of leaders in Uganda, Ethiopia, South Africa and Tanzania for peace talks. Nkundwa says the strategic peacebuilding and negotiation practices taught at CJP have contributed to a unique skill set: “CJP taught me to think about who to build relationships with, how to work with influential individuals and groups who can facilitate your messages. As someone who works independently, that is one of my biggest skills. Now I support civil society groups in analysis, suggesting interventions, framing messages, targeting
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allies, networking and process.” From exile in Rwanda, Nkundwa is being called upon to help peace negotiations forward and to advocate for international intervention to prevent a situation that could turn swiftly to genocide, once again. In May, he was invited by Crisis Action to advocate before the United Nations Security Council with representatives of Burundi’s civil society for police intervention to protect civilians. Disturbed by the lack of consensus among mid-level security council members, he then scheduled a series of meetings, facilitated by a U.S.based student peace organization, in Washington D.C. with staff of Special Envoy for the Great Lakes Region of Africa Tom Perriello in the U.S. Department of State. He also met with the United States Senate and U.S. House committees on foreign relations, representatives of USAID, and non-governmental organization advocates. He also visited Gehman, now an independent contractor for the U.S. Army Peacekeeping and Stability Operations Institute, and met with military officials to highlight that “without civilian protection, political solutions are not possible.” At SPI, during his final week in the United States, Nkundwa took Lisa Schirch’s course on peacebuilding approaches to violent extremism in anticipation, he says, of what is likely to occur in Burundi. Despite concerns about his future, Nkundwa was pleased to be back at EMU. “Always moving from one emergency to another and constantly adapting leadership skills and language is exhausting. I needed a break. This has been a good time to reflect. I’ve taken some good deep breaths here,” he said with a laugh. Invaluable, too, was the encouragement of fellow peacebuilders. “My colleagues in other countries dealing with similar issues have listened, counseled and criticized,” he said. “My own understanding of my situation and of what is happening in Burundi needed to be checked. Here is a space to which I can bring my assessments and the way I think things should be done, so my colleagues can help me develop the most clear analysis and the best strategies to suggest when I return.” — LAUREN JEFFERSON
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FROM THE FIELD Robbie Abdelhoq, MA ‘12, a doctoral candidate in the College of Education at The University of Toledo, is researching the robust and dynamic relationship that Islam and Muslims in America have to the democratic ethic and what role that plays in the public education system. During SPI 2016, Abdelhoq was invited by Professor Lisa Schirch to offer a critique of the counter-radicalization (CVE) law enforcement program that disproportionally targets poor, immigrant communities in the Unitd States. [See page 20 for more on Schirch’s “Peacebuilding Approaches to Violent Extremism” course.] PHOTO BY JON ST YER
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MEET THE STUDENTS ANDREA MOYA URUENA BRENNA CASE RHODA MILLER CAITLIN MORNEAU
HANNAH SEO a native of South Korea, organized Korea’s first Parent-Students’ Co-op while working on her master’s degree in social work at Seoul National University and parenting her two young sons. The organization has successfully worked to promote and protect the academic, maternal and family rights of parent-students through research and policy and legislative proposals, one of which resulted in a 2016 amendment to the Higher Education Act. Hannah also holds a bachelor’s degree in social work from Seoul National University. She was previously a missionary.
is a musician by training, administrator by trade, and peacemaker in formation. She studied music at the University of New Hampshire. Caitlin worked with AmeriCorps at a homeless shelter for families in Baltimore, and with Catholic Volunteer Network, Youth Service Opportunities Project, and Smith Center for Healing and the Arts, all in Washington, D.C. She is also treasurer for the board of directors of Bethlehem Farm in Alderson, West Virginia, where she spent a summer research fellowship exploring the impact of music on individuals in rural Appalachia. She is choir manager for the Shenandoah Valley Children’s Choir.
an Oklahoma native, recently worked in Alaska in various positions, including as an education services manager at a domestic violence and sexual assault shelter and as a transition officer helping youth transition back into their communities after courtordered detention or treatment. He has also led mentorship programs. His work is grounded in restorative justice principles and trauma-informed care. Matt has worked as a youth and family pastor for more than 10 years in the Pacific Northwest. His degree from Harding University is in youth and family ministry.
is an associate professor in Princess Noura Bent Abdurrahman University in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. She holds a PhD in Islamic Studies and has been head of the Islamic Studies department and vice dean for student affairs, among other positions. Among her four published books is “Your Guide to Successful Dialogue among Civilizations,” published by the King Abdulaziz Centre for National Dialogue, where she is also a trainer.
lived in Colorado from three months old until her family returned to Iran when she was nine. She earned a bachelor’s degree in English literature and a master’s degree in North American studies at the University of Tehran. Her thesis focused on why Latinos (particularly women) in the U.S. are converting to Islam, and how they are blending their culture with Islamic values. She formerly worked at the Islamic Research and Information Center in Tehran, which investigates the different ways Muslims around the world (specifically those living in the West) incorporate Islamic values in their lives and how these values can help them establish peaceful relations with others.
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is a crisis response coordinator and lead forensic investigator at the Child Advocacy Center at the non-profit Collins Center in Harrisonburg. She formerly was a behavioral specialist and a mental health support services provider. Rhoda plans to earn an MA in restorative justice. She is a graduate of EMU with a degree in art education.
YOUNGJI JANG
JENNIFER CHI LEE
MARYAM SHAHMORADI VARNAMKHASTI
MATT TIBBLE
NOURAH ALHASAWI
currently works and lives at L’Arche Boston North, an intentional community bringing together adults with and without developmental disabilities. She earned a degree in sociology from Gordon College, spending a semester in South Africa to study the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. After graduating, Brenna worked with Facing History and Ourselves, a nonprofit in Boston dedicated to helping educators create discussion around historical instances of genocide, racism, civil rights and immigration, and with Mennonite Central Committee at the Anafora Retreat Centre in Egypt.
is from Colombia, but has lived in Ecuador for 10 years. She graduated from Goshen College with degrees in sociology and social work, and then spent a year in Mennonite Voluntary Service working with Hispanic middle school students and adult English language learners in Chicago. Since returning to Ibague, Colombia, she has been volunteering with an organization that works with victims of the armed conflict, conducting interviews and home visits, and helping with workshops on the themes of resilience and human rights.
is a second generation Korean-American from Hawaii who has spent the past five years in Johannesburg, South Africa. She graduated from Stanford University in 2005 and then joined a Christian urban ministry in South Los Angeles, California. In 2010, she moved to South Africa to work with Servant Partners, a mission agency working amongst the urban poor.
TENISHA WEITZMANN was born in Germany, raised in Spain, and moved to the United States as a high school foreign exchange student. At EMU, she earned a general studies/liberal arts degree with a minor in psychology. Tenisha will be pursuing an MA in interdisciplinary studies.
a South Korean native, holds a bachelor’s degree of law from Sookmyung Women’s University. While providing volunteer legal counseling to people at the Seoul YMCA, she became interested in reforms to the legal system in South Korea. She is particularly interested in alternative dispute resolution.
KAJUNGU MTURI of Tanzania, worked in Zambia with Mennonite Central Committee under the Brethren In Christ (BIC) Church as a peace education coordinator from 2013-16. He coordinated Peace Clubs in 12 BIC schools and trained church leaders to address issues of gender-based violence and conflict transformation in more than 100 BIC churches in Zambia. He has also worked with Prison Fellowship in Zambia on education and coordinating peace clubs for prisoners and prisoner officers. He has a degree in peace, justice and conflict studies from Goshen College, Indiana.
SILVIA MENENDEZ ALCALDE
MATT FEHSE earned his degree in government at Sacramento State University, where he was a leader with Peace & Conflict International. He has since served with Global Ministries in the Phillipines working with several organizations in farmer advocacy, disaster relief and indigenous people’s rights. His most recent work was teaching and coaching basketball in Nanjing, China.
IAN PULZ is a recent graduate of George Mason University’s School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution. He has worked at the Washington Nationals Youth Baseball Academy in Washington D.C. and researched international organizations in Switzerland.
of Madrid, Spain, studied criminology at the King Juan Carlos University and worked as an intern for the Spanish Prison Fellowship. She is a Fulbright Scholar.
WAYNE MARRIOTT of Christchurch, New Zealand, is a dispute resolution practitioner with Fleetwood Group Limited, a company he established in 2015 to design effective conflict management and dispute resolution processes. He was a mediator for 10 years with the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment, and from 2010-15, worked with FairWay Resolution Limited (formerly Dispute Resolution Services Limited). He is a practicing member of the Resolution Institute and associate member of the Arbitrators and Mediators Institute of New Zealand and the International Ombudsmans Association.
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LYLE SEGER has been a United Methodist pastor for over 30 years, serving in Kansas and Massachusetts, and as a missionary in Uruguay. He has been active in peace with justice issues, particularly within the Latino community, leading the start-up of two mission sites to advance children’s education and social advocacy. He has been a part of mission efforts in Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala and Puerto Rico. He has also been an outspoken advocate for LGBTQ rights.
CHIHCHUN YUAN of Taiwan, East Asia, is a reservist for the Christian Peacemaker Teams - Iraqi Kurdistan Team. She is a social worker in Taiwan, mainly working with children and women in rehabilitation from violence. Chihchun is interested in social policy, Middle East society, women and decision-making, community development and social changes.
CHRISTOPHER NDEGE of Tanzania, is bishop and chairperson of the Tanzania Mennonite Church-Lake Diocese. He is a current graduate student at Eastern Mennonite Seminary and plans to pursue a dual degree in conflict transformation. He graduated from EMU in 1999 with degrees in Biblical studies and theology, as well as justice, peace and conflict studies.
HANNAH KIM has taught high school English for eight years. She has participated in restorative justice workshops at Korea Peacebuilding Institute and at Northeast Asian Regional Peacebuilding Institute. Hannah is pursuing a Master’s in Interdisciplinary Studies with conflict transformation and TESL as concentrations. She wants to integrate peace into language education by coordinating language programs for peace and teacher training programs for peacebuilding.
JUDITH NASIMIYU MANDILLAH has been a probation officer for 25 years, and is now the chief probation officer of the Kakamega High Court, Kenya, where she leads and advocates for alternative dispute resolution processes. Judith has a BA in counseling from Kampala International University and is currently completing an MA in peace and conflict studies from Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology.
PAULA FACCI VISITING SCHOLAR is pursuing a PhD in peace, development and conflict studies at Universitat Jaume I in Spain, following her wish to deepen her research on dance and movement as tools for elicitive conflict transformation. She earned a master’s degree in peace and conflict transformation at the University of Innsbruck, Austria. She has worked for Faith and Joy Foundation Brazil (Fé e Alegria), a movement for integral popular education and social promotion for children and youth, in the areas of social projects and coordination of institutional development.
SHAMSA HASSAN SHEIKH works for the Wajir County Land Management Board in Kenya, where she designs and facilitates local alternative dispute resolution processes for land and resource-based conflicts. She also aids in the review and drafting of land and resource-based policies. Shamsa has a BA in law from the University of Nairobi.
RACHEL CHEROTICH MUTAI
CATHERINE GAKU NJERU
is the curriculum development coordinator at African Leadership and Reconciliation Ministries (ALARM) in Kenya, an NGO that promotes community healing and reconciliation. She has conducted trauma healing programming for women, led youth leadership development activities, and been involved in a domestic violence counseling ministry. Rachel has a BA in theology from Kenya Highlands Evangelical University and an MDiv from Africa International University.
is a gender specialist at the International Peace Support Training Center. Among other work, she has been involved in the design of Kenya’s national action plan for implementing UN 1325 and on training for the military in peacebuilding, child development, and women’s empowerment programs. Catherine has a BA in sociology from Egerton University and an MA in project planning and management from the University of Nairobi.
ERIC EBERLY
AARON QUINLEY a Virginia native, is most passionate about working with organizations that affect positive changes in, or reduce the negative impacts of, the U.S. criminal justice system and the culture that perpetuates it. He currently assists JustLeadershipUSA, a New York-based organization. He has degrees in psychology with a minor in criminal justice studies, and a graduate degree in sociology/ community development. He has also begun graduate coursework in policy analysis and evaluation and is a part-time student in the MBA program.
was an English teacher in Asia for nearly 10 years. Throughout his time in Korea and China and his work with Mennonite Central Committee and Mennonite Partners in China, he has seen the power of exchange programs and peacebuilding ventures to change deeply ingrained beliefs and patterns of behavior. In his current role as curriculum coordinator and instructor at the Intensive English Program at EMU, he seeks to meld diverse groups of international, immigrant and refugee students and fuse them with the greater EMU and Harrisonburg communities. He holds an MA in TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) from Azuza Pacific University and a BA in English from EMU.
MARYAM SHEIKH ABDIKADIR works for Serve Women and Children Empowerment and Development Agenda, an NGO in Garissa and Kismayo, Kenya, that rallies Somali women to work for peace using clan and family networks. She also volunteers for NEPA, an association for Somali professionals, and is a writer and a poet. Maryam has a bachelor’s degree in education and a master’s degree in development studies.
VIOLET WAIRIMU MUTHIGA is the CEO of Sauti Ya Wanawake Pwani, a women’s organization based in Mombasa, Kenya, that works in six coastal counties. Violet conducts trauma counseling for mothers of youth who have been radicalized, reintegration programs for de-radicalized youth, and civic education related to UN 1325. Violet has a BA in sociology from Egerton University and is currently completing an MA in project planning and management at University of Nairobi.
BEATRICE KIZI NZOVU works for Life and Peace Institute in Nairobi, Kenya, focusing on how communities, and specifically women, can build resiliency against violent extremism. She has worked with cattle rustling and resource issues in North and South Rift, land conflicts in the coast, gender mainstreaming at the regional level, and post-election violence. Beatrice has a BA in sociology from Maseno University and an MA in peace studies and conflict transformation from European University.
SARAH CHELIMO NAIBEI recently transitioned into the role of assistant county commissioner from her previous position at the Peace and Rights Program where she played a role in the signing of a peace agreement between conflicting communities in Mt. Elgon, Kenya. She has rehabilitated ex-combatants and child soldiers. Sarah has a BA in gender and development from Makarere University and an MA in project planning and management at the University of Nairobi.
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FEATURES
Professor Johonna Turner (right) instructs in a course on restorative justice. PHOTO BY JOAQUIN SOSA
CJP OFFERING NEW MA IN RESTORATIVE JUSTICE DEGREE IN THE FALL OF 2016, EMU’s Center for Justice and Peacebuilding (CJP) debuted an expanded course catalog featuring its new MA in Restorative Justice program. In keeping with CJP’s long-established leadership in the field of restorative justice, the degree is the first of its kind offered by a traditional, residential graduate program at any North American university. The core restorative justice courses, designed to give students broad exposure to the theory, history and application of restorative justice, will be taught by CJP professors Carl Stauffer and Johonna Turner. More specialized restorative justice courses taught by visiting faculty will also be offered during the annual Summer Peacebuilding Institute. Degree requirements will also include some of the peace-
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building courses that form the core of CJP’s MA in Conflict Transformation degree; electives on topics such as trauma, community development, international development or organizational development; and a research project related to restorative justice. Among the new degree’s distinctive aspects is that it teaches restorative justice in a graduate program with broad emphasis on peacebuilding and conflict transformation. “Restorative justice is often taught with a rather narrow focus on applications such as criminal justice or education,” writes Howard Zehr, a CJP professor and co-director of CJP’s Zehr Institute for Restorative Justice. “A restorative justice program rooted in the frameworks of conflict transformation, trauma awareness and peacebuilding provides for a much deeper and broader foundation, with a wide range of applications. This has often been remarked on not only by our graduates, but by people who have worked with them.” Another notable emphasis of the program will be its application of restorative justice theory and practices to social movements and structural change. “We are building the curriculum around the idea that restorative justice not only affects the individual, but that it also has the frameworks and tools and values to be applied to systems and structural change,” said Stauffer. “That’s new territory [in the field].”
FEATURES
Turner adds that the restorative justice movement overlaps with “a broad range of social movements for social justice” and offers effective tools for addressing structural violence. “Young people of color organizing for restorative justice in their schools see this movement as critical for dismantling the school-to-prison pipeline and ending state violence against youth,” she wrote in an email. Students in the new degree program can pick from four areas of focus for their study of restorative justice, including criminal justice, community-building, transitional justice and education. (The education focus will include partnership with EMU’s MA in Education program, which currently offers a restorative justice in education concentration and graduate certificate, and is starting an MA in Restorative Justice in Education program in fall 2017). One of the justifications for the new restorative justice program, highlighted in a prospectus prepared by CJP, is the fact that rapid growth in the practical application of restorative justice has resulted in a “significant disconnect between practice and theory.” “As a result, there are many lost opportunities for collaboration, improved practices, program reforms and mutual learning,” the document continues. “This program would help to bridge the divide between practitioners and theorists, and give opportunities for current practitioners to explore the theoretical debates and current research in the field.” “We think this degree broadens and deepens the EMU commitment to peacebuilding,” writes CJP Academic Programs Director Jayne Docherty. “The maturing of the field of restorative justice is evidenced by the number of school systems and criminal justice systems that are adopting restorative justice practices. At CJP we think that restorative approaches to justice have even more to offer when those practices are linked to an orientation toward social, political and economic change that focuses on long-term transformation of the systems that promote and perpetuate inequalities.” — ANDREW JENNER
Gregory Winship, a conflict resolution trainer from Missouri, will be the first student to graduate with an MA degree in the limited residency program.
LIMITED RESIDENCY PROGRAM ENABLES PROFESSIONALS TO EARN GRADUATE DEGREES For many professionals interested in earning a graduate degree, moving to Virginia to study full-time for two years at the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding isn’t possible. Recognizing this, CJP now offers a limited residency program for the MA program. “Full residency is still the preferred option, when possible, because it allows for a deeper level of community building,” said Jayne Docherty, academic programs director. “But this option enables practitioners and others interested in gaining new skills and knowledge to join us while honoring their other commitments.” That was the case for Gregory Winship, training and office manager at the Center for Conflict Resolution (CCR) in Kansas City, Missouri. He had the support of CCR’s executive director Annette Lantz-Simmons, MA ’09*, who also was urging Winship’s colleague Debbie Bayless to attend EMU. But he couldn’t leave his organization for two years. Winship’s work with CCR includes sites such as prisons, schools, communities and the criminal justice system. “For me, the restorative justice training was an important piece of what CJP offered. At CCR, we think that restorative justice, conflict resolutions, and trauma awareness and resilience are the trifecta of what people need. Those concepts cover life skills … whatever context a person is in, knowledge of those three concepts helps immensely.” If all goes as planned, Winship will be the first to graduate within the limited residency format, earning an MA in restorative justice in May 2017. He will have accomplished this by attending the Summer Peacebuilding Institute (SPI) for two consecutive summers, taking online courses, fulfilling a onesemester residency requirement, and completing the practicum requirement at his workplace. (Winship is also earning a graduate certificate in non-profit leadership and social entrepreneurship, coursework that included a few extra online classes.) Winship says his spring 2016 residency provided opportunities to develop friendships and networks among current students and faculty he’d met at SPI and online, and “get a better picture for the mission and values of EMU and CJP.” Faculty and staff have been welcoming and supportive, as he transitioned into the academic community and juggled responsibilities at CCR (he telecommuted 10 hours a week during the semester). The residency also provided unique learning and practice opportunities for Winship, an experienced trainer. He led workshops within Virginia Mennonite Conference, facilitated meetings in a local community, hosted a seminar series at a transitional residential home for ex-offenders, accompanied an undergraduate class to Graterford Prison, and joined other students in lobbying for sentencing reform with Friends Committee on National Legislation. The presence of experienced professionals in classes benefits the CJP community as much as it does the individual, says Docherty. “Our discussions about case studies are more realistic. Working professionals often share workplace skills with less experienced students. The work/school balance can be difficult for these students, but they also find the extended time in Harrisonburg helpful for reflection and reorienting their career goals or plans for future work.” There have been plenty of challenging times, Winship says, but a key factor has always been the relevance to his work, and lately, too, the exciting possibilities in the field itself. “Restorative justice is operable in so many venues, and a lot of those places are becoming RJ-friendly. I can see this degree opening up a lot of new possibilities in the field.” — LAUREN JEFFERSON *CCR’s founding director Diane Kyser MA ’06 is also a graduate and Debbie Bayless is on track to finish an MA in restorative justice in December 2017. Adding in former colleague Mikhala Lantz-Simmons, MA ’16, and her mother Annette, Winship says the CCR staff joke about being the Midwest campus of EMU, or “EMU-KC.” CCR is “a great example of what the holistic approach to justice and peace challenges can look like in the United States,” says Docherty.
PHOTO BY JOAQUIN SOSA
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FOCUS
YEAR IN REVIEW
CJP HIGHLIGHTS 2015-16
2015
2016
2015
Women’s Peacebuilding Leadership Program receives $20,000 grant from JustPax to explore funding sources for more women’s cohorts.
CJP welcomes 23 new first-year graduate students.
Leda Werner and Daryl Byler travel to Jordan and Iraq to meet with potential funders for women’s programs.
SPI hosts first annual Community Day for local peacebuilders.
Zehr Institute hosts 3-day visit of Nepalese judges and law officials.
WPLP graduates 13 students at ceremony in Nairobi, Kenya.
SEPTEMBER
NOVEMBER OCTOBER
JANUARY FEBRUARY
DECEMBER Professor Lisa Schirch introduces Handbook on Human Security: A CivilMilitary-Police Curriculum at a conference in The Hague, Netherlands. The manual is the result of a three-year grant-funded project.
Zehr Institute co-hosts national gathering at Richmond Hill to plan truthtelling and racial healing processes in communities across the U.S.
Howard Zehr wins Howard Zinn Lifetime Achievement Award.
CJP director Daryl Byler writes an open letter, published in the Richmond Times-Dispatch, titled “How is Call to Arms Christ-Centered?” to Liberty University president Jerry Falwell. Women’s Peacebuilding Leadership Program announces $900,000 in new grants to fund cohorts from Kenya and the Horn of Africa.
2015
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Systems expert Glenda Eoyang provides systems training for faculty, then returns to teach in SPI.
2015
Kellogg Foundation names EMU/CJP to truth, racial healing and transformation initiative.
2016
FOCUS 2016
Eight women from Kenya, comprising WPLP Cohort 4, arrive for SPI classes.
2016
2016
The 22nd annual Summer Peacebuilding Institute begins.
Vernon Jantzi, Beth Good and Krista Johnson Weicksel MA ‘10 host STAR training in Beirut, Lebanon, for Syrian NGO workers.
Commencement marks the graduation of 37 students, representing 12 nationalities.
MARCH
Katie Mansfield and Barry Hart (STAR) present at “Trauma, Memory and Healing in the Balkans and Beyond” conference in Sarajevo.
MAY APRIL
JULY JUNE
AUGUST
Kellogg awards a planning grant to design a restorative justice pilot program in Jackson (Mississippi) Public Schools.
“Restorative Justice In Motion” conference draws 169 participants, representing 11 countries.
Victims rights advocate Tammy Krause MA ’99 recognized with CJP Alumni Award for Outstanding Service.
Carl Stauffer leads restorative justice workshop for practitioners in Russia.
Coming To The Table’s “National Gathering” marks 10 years of acknowledging the wounds of slavery.
STAR and Zehr Institute co-host training in Virginia for lawyers working in restorative justice.
2016
2016
CJP welcomes 22 new students for orientation.
2016
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PROGRAMS
STRATEGIES FOR TRAUMA AWARENESS AND RESILIENCE
SARAJEVO Trauma, Memory and Healing in the Balkans and Beyond
MORE THAN TWO DECADES after the war that tore apart the former Yugoslavia, the scars remain. Memorials and ruins stand as physical reminders of the conflict that ran for four years in the mid-1990s; less visible are the emotional and psychological wounds that many residents still bear. It is these latter scars that drew the attention of Katie Mansfield and Barry Hart of Eastern Mennonite University’s (EMU) Center for Justice and Peacebuilding. Mansfield, director of the Strategies for Trauma Awareness and Resilience (STAR) program, and Hart, professor of trauma, identity and conflict studies, helped to plan and participated in an international conference on “Trauma, Memory and Healing in the Balkans and Beyond” in July in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. The conference, sponsored by the Transcultural Psychosocial Educational Foundation (TPO), had two goals: developing an “archive of knowledge” from the papers presented at the event, and building a network of people who “share ‘best practices’ for psycho-social trauma recovery and the healing of memories,” according to the website. Mansfield says the goals were largely met, with “a joint effort of scholars, practitioners and activists.” Mansfield and Hart were on a panel that considered how to
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Professor Barry Hart (left) and STAR director Katie Mansfield (front, second from right) helped plan and participate in an international conference in Sarajevo. PHOTO COURTESY OF TPO
integrate psycho-social responses to trauma into peacebuilding work and shared about EMU’s STAR program, which began in 2001 to address the trauma of the September 11 events. Hart also presented a paper titled “Multidisciplinary and Cross Sector Approaches to Building Peace after Complex and Violent Conflicts: The Importance of Psychosocial Trauma and Well-being in this Process.” Mansfield facilitated several workshops on the body’s response to trauma and on using play as a method for getting around “stuck-ness.” She also led a daily period of breathing and meditation exercises. Beyond the formal presentations, they say the conference included sobering moments, such as a visit to the memorial at the Srebrenica genocide site, and heart-warming ones, including the hospitality shown by a local women’s group that works together across ethnic boundaries. Many issues remain for the region, including high unemployment and other economic challenges, growing insulation of ethnic groups, changing gender roles and differing perspectives on the wartime years. Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) has a longstanding presence in the Balkans, and EMU has several connections there as well. Those include former seminary faculty members N. Gerald and Sara Wenger Shenk, who served in the former Yugoslavia with MCC, and Amela ’00, MA ’04, and Randy Puljek-Shank, MA ’99. Amela, a native Bosnian, is MCC Area Director for Europe and the Middle East and presented at the conference. The conference “highlighted the importance of being per-
PROGRAMS
IT’S A BUILDING PROCESS. I REALLY TRUST THAT THEY’LL TAKE THIS FORWARD IN A DYNAMIC, MEANINGFUL WAY, AND WE WANT TO BE AS MUCH A PART OF THAT AS POSSIBLE.
STAR
BY THE NUMBERS
NUMBER OF PARTICIPANTS IN ALL TRAININGS OF ANY LENGTH >6000 since inception from >60 countries
NUMBER OF TRAININGS IN 2015-16 26 STAR Level I and Level II trainings
Mansfield and Hart are pleased at STAR/CJP involvement with graduates working in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
COUNTRIES WHERE STAR TRAININGS HAVE TAKEN PLACE
PHOTO BY JOAQUIN SOSA
sistent in continuing to talk about the impact trauma has on generations while also naming that we are not doomed forever due to the traumatic experiences many generations have gone through,” she said. “Resiliency and recovery from trauma are key terms that need to be in the forefront of our conversations. Trauma brings many opportunities for growth and healing. Thus, for us in MCC … supporting our partners across the world in their work, learning how they worked on trauma healing and recovery, and exchanging best practices helps all of us build critical yeast that will eventually lean towards peace.” This was the second conference held on the topic, and both Mansfield and Hart hope the series continues. They praised TPO program director Zilka Spahić Śiljak, co-organizer of the conference, as “a really impressive and dynamic person” whose energy and vision were instrumental in bringing the event together. The author of Shining Humanity – Life Stories of Women Peacebuilders in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Šiljak teaches at several universities and is currently doing research at Stanford. “I think it was the right conference as part of the next step,” Hart says. “It’s a building process. I really trust that they’ll take this forward in a dynamic, meaningful way, and we want to be as much a part of that as possible.” “It’s exciting to think how CJP may be involved in helping to deepen those capacities that are already so powerfully there,” Mansfield adds. The collection of conference papers is expected to be available in English by early 2017. — WALT WILTSCHEK
DOMINICAN REPUBLIC BOLIVIA
BURUNDI
FIJI
CANADA LIBERIA LEBANON HAITI UNITED STATES GUINEA GERMANY
MYANMAR
NORTHERN IRELAND
KENYA
EL SALVADOR
NICARAGUA
MEXICO COLOMBIA SOMALIA
NEW ZEALAND
SOUTH SUDAN
ZIMBABWE
SPECIAL TRAININGS Transforming Historical Harms • STAR for mediators and lawyers • Youth STAR • STAR and Journey Home from War with Veterans • STAR with active duty military • Village STAR in translation • STAR with human rights groups
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PROGRAMS
SUMMER PEACEBUILDING INSTITUTE
COUNTER NARRATIVE
Adnan Ansari, program director of the consulting firm Muflehan, speaks to Professor Lisa Schirch’s “Peacebuilding Approaches to Violent Extremism” class, which included Women’s Peacebuilding Leadership Program participants and many others who came specifically to SPI for the course. PHOTO BY JOAQUIN SOSA
Course presents peacebuilding approaches to violent extremism
WHEN LISA SCHIRCH was asked to teach a course on violent extremism at the 2016 Summer Peacebuilding Institute, the peacebuilding expert took an online tour to gather ideas from other universities. What she found was disappointing. Most courses offered at major universities, Schirch says, are oriented exclusively towards counter-terrorism, “focused on the use of police and military action.” However, for this course titled “Peacebuilding Approaches to Violent Extremism,” Schirch wanted students to examine violent extremism through a wider set of perspectives. “There is not one cause of or cure for violent extremism,” Schirch says. Using the metaphor of bacteria growing in a petri dish, she notes: “We have to think of violent extremism in its full context. When you have corruption in the government,
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poverty, rapid changes caused by climate change, the media covering and glorifying violent extremism and making people famous for doing it, and when there’s religious extremism as well, all these factors are the ecology in the petri dish that enable violent extremism to grow. And you can’t stop there. Different responses to violent extremism, such as the use of drone bombs, cause a cascade of other reactions and problems, all of which contribute to whether the extremism continues, escalates, lessens or ends.” Even before she had determined her curriculum, the course filled quickly, eventually bringing together 26 SPI participants from 13 different countries. Their experiences varied widely, from Al Shabaab to Boko Haraam, from Muslim and Jewish religious terrorists and Daesh (ISIS) to radical Buddhist nationalists in Myanmar and White supremacists in the U.S. Mornings were spent gaining basic understandings: exploring definitions of violent extremism, which vary in different contexts; looking at psychological, social, political, economic and religious factors contributing to radicalization; community resilience; responses to violent extremism; and legal contexts. Legal frameworks often impede peacebuilding responses to violent extremism, Schirch says. “Peacebuilding is about reaching out and engaging people with extremist beliefs. But
PROGRAMS
EMU MAY BE THE ONLY PLACE WHERE YOU HAVE PEOPLE FROM THIS MANY DIFFERENT COUNTRIES SHARING AND LEARNING FROM EACH OTHER ABOUT HOW VIOLENT EXTREMISM TAKES PLACE IN THEIR COUNTRY, LOOKING AT HOW IT’S BOTH UNIQUE AND SIMILAR.
counterterrorism laws prevent us from teaching negotiation to people affiliated with extremist groups.” Two guest speakers addressed violent extremism in the United States, a topic of special interest to the students considering recent political rhetoric. Robbie Abdelhoq, MA ’12, a doctoral candidate at the University of Toledo in Ohio, spoke about the harmful impact of FBI and police initiatives within the Muslim community. Adnan Ansari, program director at the Northern Virginia-based independently funded think-tank Muflehan, talked about their consulting work in countering violent extremism, which includes, among other efforts, digital intervention and clergy/leader training. In the afternoons, students participated in role-play scenarios with case studies from Schirch’s recently published Human Security: A Civil-Military-Police Curriculum. They also analyzed a specific violent extremism movement of their choice and provided a briefing on the final day. Schirch frequently participates in policy conversations about violent extremism in Washington, D.C., London and Geneva. But she believes the one-week course at EMU provides a one-of-a-kind opportunity for cross-cultural analysis of violent extremism. “EMU may be the only place where you have people from this many different countries sharing and learning from each other about how violent extremism takes place in their country, looking at how it’s both unique and similar,” she said. “With this comparative lens, you start seeing interesting patterns and distinctions in how the government responds in different ways and how some governments have more success than others in countering it.” The course will be offered again during SPI 2017.
WHO FUNDS THE WINSTON FELLOWSHIP? The Winston Fellowship, which nurtures and supports the professional growth of new peacebuilders, is awarded to a select number of international or indigenous participants who attend the Summer Peacebuilding Institute. The fellowship covers tuition; visa, course and materials fees; and transportation costs. The fellowship is derived from a grant in 1999 to Eastern Mennonite University from the Winston Foundation for World Peace, which was founded by Robert Winston Scrivner. Before his death, Scrivner created the Winston Foundation for World Peace with his own money. The foundation wound down its operations in 1999. Since that time the award recipients, called Winston Fellows, have included 29 peacebuilders from 25 countries. Scrivner favored activism over scholarship, and wanted the focus of the foundation to be “a place where the most promising individuals or fledging groups would naturally turn for the first or very early support” in the work of peacebuilding. A graduate of Harvard University and Harvard Law School, he left corporate law to work for the Rockefeller Brothers Fund and eventually became executive director of the Rockefeller Family Fund. Scrivner guided the fund to consider creative, risk-taking grants and to support social change agents. His colleagues described him as a visionary concerned about big issues in society. He advocated “telling truth to power,” by urging social and political leaders to acknowledge the consequences of their actions on all citizens and on the future of the planet. Scrivner believed in problem-solving through reasonable dialogue and in the “troublemaker school” of social and political change. He was a prime catalyst in the formation of the arms control movement of the 1980s. He also saw the importance of educating people about the devastating effects of nuclear winter. He was one of the earliest supporters of the International Physicians for Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW), a group that would later receive the Nobel Peace Prize. Scrivner encouraged the Rockefeller Family Fund to support class action lawsuits, including ones involving cigarette smoking, the toxic substance dioxin and Agent Orange. Bob Scrivner died in 1984, but his light continues to shine through the initiatives that he set in motion and that are continuing today. — MELINDA B. SCRIVNER
— LAUREN JEFFERSON
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PROGRAMS
SPI
2016
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PROGRAMS
SPI 2016 offered 19 courses to 175 peacebuilders from 41 countries. In the new format, four sessions of classes were followed by a fifth session for a related conference or consultation. In summer 2016, the “Restorative Justice in Motion” conference drew nearly 200 practitioners from around the world. PHOTOS BY ANDREW STRACK AND JOAQUIN SOSA
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PROGRAMS
WOMEN’S PEACEBUILDING LEADERSHIP PROGRAM
IMPACTFUL INTERVENTION Roselyne Onunga helps transform conflict and build infrastructure in her native Kenya.
The WPLP curriculum fuses theory and practice, with each student developing an intervention project through which she into practice skills and knowledge learned. Roselyne Onunga (top photo, at right), a 2015 graduate from Kenya, addressed conflicts between the Luo and Kalenjin communities involving land/boundary disputes and cattle theft along the Nyakach-Kericho border. The previous year, 35 deaths were associated with the conflict. Onunga’s analysis revealed that, in her words, “the people who were involved in the fights were not involved in the community peace talks being held in the area.” With the support of her organization, Local Capacities for Peace International, and the district peace committee, Onunga organized a series of meetings between the two conflicting communities. She first served as a mediator, going between huts due to the refusal of the representatives to sit together. Eventually, the representatives formed an effective and collaborative cross-border committee, the result of their actions being no conflict-related deaths between these communities in 2015. In addition, she facilitated civic education trainings, which resulted in the construction of the community’s first road as well as local political representation. Now more confident and skilled, Onunga is focusing on mentoring young women who will run for public office. “Many people think that peacebuilders should not hold office,” she says, “but I tell them peacebuilding and political ambitions go hand in hand. In fact, peacebuilders should have the opportunity to involve themselves in political positions so they are able to make changes in governance.” PHOTOS COURTESY OF WPLP
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PROGRAMS
WPLP BY THE NUMBERS TOTAL NUMBER OF WPLP GRADUATES 42
TOTAL NUMBER OF PEACE DOVE PINS SHARED 160
TOTAL NUMBER OF COUNTRIES REPRESENTED 9
LIBERIA
KENYA
SOMALIA
SOMALILAND
WEST PAPUA
TOTAL GRANT FUNDS RAISED
$1,800,000
PAPUA NEW GUINEA
BOUGAINVILLE
SOLOMON ISLANDS
FIJI
TOTAL HOURS OF COURSEWORK COMPLETED
630
NUMBER OF CJP MA ALUMNI MENTORING PARTICIPANTS 11 MOST CREATIVE GIFT BROUGHT HOME: 2 BAGS OF HALAL MARSHMALLOWS
FAVORITE NEW FOOD: ICE CREAM
HALAL FOOD
HALAL FOOD
FAVORITE GIFT TO TAKE HUSBANDS: LEATHER BELT HANDCRAFTED AT THE OLD ORDER MENNONITE HARNESS SHOP
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PROGRAMS
PHOTO BY ANDREW STRACK
The fourth cohort of the Women’s Peacebuilding Leadership Program includes (from left) Maryam Abdikadir, Shamsa Sheikh, Judith Mandillah, Sarah Naibei, Catherine Njeru, Rachel Mutai, Violet Muthiga, Beatrice Nzovu, USAID representative Rosa Wanyagi and WPLP regional advisor Nuria Abdi, MA ‘07.
FOURTH COHORT OF WOMEN’S PEACEBUILDING LEADERSHIP PROGRAM BEGINS STUDIES AT THE SUMMER PEACEBUILDING INSTITUTE Eight women who comprise the fourth cohort of Eastern Mennonite University’s Women’s Peacebuilding Leadership Program began their intensive studies at the Summer Peacebuilding Institute this summer. The women, selected from a competitive process in early 2016, have diverse professional experiences and skills: they are writers, poets, court officers, county commissioners, non-profit CEOs, lawyers, and educators – peacebuilders all – representing Kenya’s various geographic regions, religions and ethnic communities. Their coursework at SPI is the first step in a 19-month process that will ultimately lead to a graduate certificate in peacebuilding leadership. “It’s been wonderful to see our WPLP cohort here on campus, taking classes and sharing about their peacebuilding work with other SPI participants,” said Leda Werner, program director. “Their coursework in peacebuilding leadership, conflict analysis, and responding to violent extremism blends academic theory and practical tools, providing them with a solid foundation needed to carry out their intervention plans in their communities later in the program.” The fourth cohort is one of two cohorts sponsored by a $900,000 grant from U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Kenya and East Africa. A second cohort of eight women from the Horn of Africa region will enter WPLP in May 2017. Launched in 2012, the WPLP program has graduated 42 women from Africa and the South Pacific. Accompanying the group are Rosa Wanyagi, USAID Kenya and East Africa representative, and Nuria Abdi, a 2007 CJP graduate who serves as the cohort’s regional advisor. The cohort is the first to engage with a new curriculum designed specifically to address USAID objectives of responding to violent extrem-
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ism, women’s empowerment and good governance. Other structural and curricular changes reflect the program’s growth and development based on participant feedback and monitoring and evaluation data gathered from the previous three cohorts, Werner said. SPI has been six weeks of “learning in class and outside of class on topics relevant for us and for our situations,” said Maryam Sheikh Abdikadir. The women engaged in personal assessments in the “Leadership for Peacebuilding” course, evaluating their own weakness and strengths and then learning new skills. Courses on conflict analysis and peacebuilding responses to violent extremism followed. “So often we observe and end up judging,” Abdikadir said, “and being able to analyze perceptions, root causes, drivers, mitigators and allies within the conflict – that is really an important life skill that you can apply in all kinds of situations.” Sharing and learning from international peacebuilders about their experiences with violent extremisim was “profound,” she added. “Listening to these examples from around the world caused me to look at my own situation differently.” The women are in the midst of discerning the specific conflict they’ll address in the intervention project, the final phase of the program. Among the possibilities: addressing historic clan conflicts, community conflicts and cross-border conflicts in the northeast, western, and Rift Valley areas of Kenya; bolstering the use in courts of alternative dispute resolution for family and community-related violent conflicts; and working to resolve negative social effects of a government-led security operation aimed at protecting Kenya from Al Shabaab attacks. The women return to Kenya with assignments to finish this fall. In January, they will take Strategies for Trauma Awareness and Resilience (STAR) Level 1 followed by an intervention design workshop led by former WPLP director Jan Jenner, MA ‘99. As the participants put their intervention plans into action in the spring of 2017, they are supported and guided through online praxis workshops, where they are joined by Abdi, WPLP staff and local and regional peacebuilding experts. A final class on mobilizing for systems change examines how to increase the reach of their intervention, which continue through the fall. A December 2017 graduation is planned. — LAUREN JEFFERSON
PROGRAMS
ZEHR INSTITUTE FOR RESTORATIVE JUSTICE
NATIONAL RACIAL RECONCILIATION PROCESS CJP faculty and partners join to take on a history of racism and violence
THE MEETING BEGAN with an unlikely handshake between the two South Africans, Tsidiso and Paul, black teenager and white policeman, orphan and murderer. Nearly a decade before, during the dark days of apartheid, Paul had killed Tsidiso’s parents in their house. Tsidiso, five at the time, was there when it happened. His grandmother found him the next morning, lying on his mother’s body. By 1997, when the two met again in a Johannesburg office, apartheid had been abolished and the South African government had created a national Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) to address the country’s history of institutionalized racism and violence. Before the commission itself,
Partners in hope and healing: Fania Davis, executive director of Restorative Justice for Oakland Youth, and Carl Stauffer, co-director of the Zehr Institute for Restorative Justice at EMU, summer 2016. PHOTO BY ANDREW STRACK
victims and perpetrators of violence had opportunity to give public testimony about how they’d experienced – or caused – suffering. The TRC eventually referred some cases, including Tsidiso’s and Paul’s, to a victim-offender mediation process run by a separate group of peacebuilding organizations. Among those involved was Carl Stauffer, now co-director of CJP’s Zehr Institute for Restorative Justice, then working as a peacebuilder in South Africa with Mennonite Central Committee. Stauffer was in the room beside Tsidiso during the wrenching meeting with Paul. There was the handshake, then questions and answers about what happened, and a pause for
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PROGRAMS
HOW DO WE TRANSFORM THESE HARMS SO THAT THE KILLINGS CAN STOP? … HOW DO WE HOLD SYSTEMS ACCOUNTABLE? Tsidiso to collect his ragged emotions. After Paul offered an unqualified, direct apology, the discussion turned to ways that Paul could begin mitigating the harm he’d caused: money for Tsidiso’s school fees, for the proper funeral his parents had never had, for a proper tombstone to mark their grave. They agreed to meet again to finalize their plans. “I really believe that Paul realized for the first time that he is his brother’s keeper,” recalls Stauffer, who uses the experience as a case study in some of his classes. “It was a fascinating metaphor for South Africa.” When Stauffer came to EMU to teach in 2010, the idea that a similar truth and reconciliation process should happen in the United States seemed unlikely. Then came the racially charged violence, unrest and renewed national soul-searching of the past few years. In response, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation (WKKF) announced an ambitious, nationwide project called the Truth, Racial Healing and Transformation initiative (TRHT). CJP, which has worked closely with WKKF over the past decade, is one of dozens of “implementing partners.” “It’s actually quite refreshing and surprising in some ways for me to be involved in a national conversation around this,” said Stauffer. The sprawling initiative, launched in January, is still in early development and specifics of EMU’s involvement are being explored, Stauffer said. Generally speaking, the years-long process is designed to uncover, understand and undo the legacy of centuries of structural racism in numerous facets of American life. According to a WKKF release, the process will model itself on similar ones in South Africa and elsewhere. “By uncovering human rights violations and tragedies, and engaging populations in a healing process, [truth and reconciliation commissions] have historically restored dignity and respect on many occasions, paving the way for transforming of societies – a prevailing objective of the U.S. effort,” the release continues. Because of the initiative’s broad scope and the country’s history of racism, Stauffer said individual groups and participants will need to pick specific, smaller starting points. A timely issue that CJP had become involved with prior to joining the TRHT initiative (and which will proceed in collaboration with it) is the problem of police violence in communities of color. That conversation developed out of CJP’s relationship with Fania Davis, a California-based civil rights lawyer and founder of Restorative Justice for Oakland Youth (RJOY), an organization that has pioneered the use of restorative justice in schools and has also signed onto the TRHT initiative. In March 2016, Davis led a Zehr Institute webinar on the possibilities for a truth and reconciliation process in response to violence against African-Americans, and in June, she and Stauffer co-taught a Summer Peacebuilding Institute course on the subject.
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“We need to think about justice in a completely different way,” said Davis during the webinar, linking current violence against African-Americans to the historical trauma of slavery. “How do we transform these harms so that the killings can stop? … How do we hold systems accountable?” One of the hopes that Davis and Stauffer share about the building momentum behind a truth and reconciliation process in the United States is that it will reflect the values of restorative justice by being widely inclusive, with input, participation and leadership from individual communities. “I’m hoping that in this country … [the truth and reconciliation process] will not simply be a commission of experts who have been appointed to hear the evidence, to review the documents and come up with findings of fact and recommendations telling us what to do,” Davis said in the webinar. In the context of the larger TRHT initiative, a first step in addressing that police violence might include understanding and publicly discussing the history that lives behind the disturbing present. But, Stauffer said, understanding and discussion alone are not enough. “We have to use that as a springboard for the present and the future, for what we’re going to do to rebuild relationships in our society,” he said. Back in South Africa, the promising work that Tsidiso and Paul had begun went off-track. Although they’d planned a follow-up meeting, Paul’s attorney hindered attempts to arrange it and later said that Paul had simply vanished. The restitution payments for school fees and tombstone were never made. And while the fairy-tale conclusion that Stauffer and his colleagues had hoped for never came to be, he looks back on the experience as a success. “A lot of folks come at this whole field with a zero-sum mentality,” he said. “We have to hold on to these incremental successes to understand that we’re building peace. We can’t just create it out of a good idea. It’s something we have to build, sometimes brick by brick. We count every transformational encounter as part of that success, even if it doesn’t have the full ramifications that we might want.” As the TRHT process, modeled after the South African experience and others, is beginning in the United States, Stauffer said this idea of incremental success will be an important one to carry forward. In the coming years, he hopes to see the process culminate in a serious, sustained national discussion on the legacy of structural racism; the development of model case studies of change and healing; and, most importantly, positive change in the country’s structures, institutions and legislation: Even if scattered, if incomplete, if imperfect, they will represent progress, he said. — ANDREW JENNER
PROGRAMS
ZEHR INSTITUTE WEBINARS EXPLORE THE FRONTIERS OF RESTORATIVE JUSTICE In January, the focus was restorative justice and trauma healing; in February, campus sexual assault. In March, the Zehr Institute for Restorative Justice webinar looked at violence against African-Americans, and in April, the spring 2016 webinar series ended with a discussion on neuroscience and how human biology contributes to structural injustice. The Zehr Institute has sponsored a regular webinar series, typically once a month in the spring and fall, since it was founded in 2012. Now at more than 30 webinars and counting, the series has become one of the institute’s most successful forms of outreach. “I would venture to say that we’re becoming sort of the repository where the conversations that are happening on the margins of the field are being brought into the center stage, and that’s exactly what we set out to do,” said co-director Carl Stauffer. “The webinars have been a great platform to have the conversations that we want to have.” The April webinar, “Can restorative justice address structural and racial injustice? A neuroscience prospective,” was presented by Dr. Cheryl Talley, a professor of neuroscience at Virginia State University and a past member of the CJP Board of Reference. “[Preparing for] this webinar allowed me to consolidate all of the reading and thinking that I’ve been doing over the years, so it was a really beneficial exercise for me,” said Talley, whose research interests include the intersection of affective neuroscience and social justice. The webinar attracted around 100 participants, making it one of
Zehr Institute webinar speakers (from upper left, clockwise): Howard Zehr, Lauren Abramson, Carl Stauffer, Estelle Archibold, Carolyn Boyes-Watson and Kathy Evans.
the Zehr Institute’s best-attended yet. Though unsure of how the audience might respond to some of her more discomfiting points – such as her discussion of the neuroscience research showing how human brains are wired for bias – Talley was pleased by the “far-reaching” discussion that followed her presentation. Each webinar typically begins with a 35 to 40-minute talk by a guest presenter, followed by an equal amount of time for conversation and discussion among the participants. Over the years, topics have ranged from reform of the criminal justice system, one of the most traditional applications of restorative justice, to indigenous justice, arts-related applications of restorative justice, education and beyond. Recently, Stauffer added, an increasing number of webinars have focused on how restorative justice can inform efforts to transform structural violence and restore communities. The four webinars scheduled for fall 2016 will continue the series’ tradition of wide-ranging subject matter, with presentations on theology, a restorative justice-inspired novel, practicing law and a model program in Oakland, California, that diverts young people out of the criminal justice system. As awareness of the webinar series has grown, more and more of the participants from around the country and world are newcomers to Eastern Mennonite University and the Zehr Institute. “My goal in starting [these webinars] was trying to find ways to connect people,” said Howard Zehr, the institute’s namesake and other co-director. “I think it’s been pretty successful …. It’s certainly enlarging our circle.” For more information on the upcoming schedule and to access all past Zehr Institute webinars, visit www.zehr-institute.org. — ANDREW JENNER
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PROGRAMS
MASTERS IN CONFLICT TRANSFORMATION
FIRST E-JOURNAL
Docherty partnered with then-graduate student Lantz-Simmons, who brought to the project skills in video production and graphic design and a fluency in creating multi-media environments. For example, a podcast of a conversation between Catherine Barnes and Lisa Schirch, well-known practitioners, is embedded in this first issue. “We are more and more aware that this is a multi-textual world,” Docherty says. “There are many more ‘alive’ things you can do if you don’t restrict yourself to a book.” INVITING CONVERSATION
CJP-authored series on peacebuilding origins and values available online
AT THE HEART of the first e-journal published by CJP is an invitation. Readers are welcomed to reflect along with co-authors Professor Jayne Docherty and Mikhala LantzSimmons, MA ’16, on “A Genealogy of Ideas.” In the first issue, titled What is Old is New Again, the “Peacebuilding Wheel of Values” [see below] includes key areas of strategic peacebuilding and major fields of practice and career focus. Are you a peacebuilder? Are you doing work that contributes to the building of peace? Where does your work fit? How does your work fit? Later, a two-page graphic traces the historic origins and chronology of peacebuilding activity. It diagrams nearly 40 years, from the Cold War and apartheid in South Africa to the war in Syria, beginning with Adam Curle’s work in Nigeria in 1967 (just six years later, Curle, who was Quaker, became the chair of the first peace studies program in the world at Bradford University). A host of similar peace church-motivated movements pre-date the 1992 United Nations Agenda for Peace, often seen as a formative influence in the field. ExplicitlyWhat including values Expanding the narrative leads to other questions: is the in a heuristic device lineage of your work? How does the peacebuilding work of civil society and UN peacebuilding work influence and cross-fertilize?
The first issue was produced by Lantz-Simmons as part of her practicum, the final piece of her master’s degree in conflict transformation. She’ll stay with the project to work on the next installments. “It’s a way to really contextualize this program,” LantzSimmons says. “I’m interested in different mediums of sharing information, and it also lined up with my values of democratizing information.” She has proceeded with the goal of making the e-journals full of inspiring information that is presented in an enticing and inviting format. “A lot of things aren’t fun to read because of how they look,” Lantz-Simmons says. “It’s important to make something appealing not just textually but also visually.” Docherty says that creativity “opened up a lot of opportunities.” She is hopeful that the project will engage CJP alumni, invite current practitioners into a wider conversation, encourage others to consider CJP programs, and more generally spark readers to consider how they can be engaged in peacemaking. “Everyone can do this, and we want to make sure people hear that,” Docherty says. “You don’t have to be a professional. Anyone can be more conflict-competent so they know what to do when conflict happens. Anyone can be a peacebuilder.” — LAUREN JEFFERSON AND WALT WILTSCHEK
Remember the Wheel of Peacebuilding Activities at the beginning of this journal? Here is another wheel developed by Barry Hart (2008, p. ix). Hart has dedicated his academic work and practical experience to the importance of integrating an understanding of the effects of trauma when working to build peace. As with the first wheel we shared, Hart wanted to explain what is required for peacebuilding and he wanted to emphasize the values that he argues “drive” the wheel of peacebuilding forward towards a stable society.
DONORS ENVISION INSPIRATIONAL STORYTELLING
The series will be published at intervals over the next year. Volume 2 will focus on models of conflict analysis and basic tools. The third volume features stories of restorative justice and trauma healing work, while the fourth is on worldviewing. The series is financed by James and Marian Payne, the founding donors of CJP. The Paynes provided a generous, open-hearted directive: tell the story of peacebuilding in a way “that inspires people to action, so that others can work at peace and justice themselves,” says Docherty, academic programs director and professor of leadership and public policy at CJP. “We asked ourselves, ‘How do you write something like that?’ We wanted something with depth, but not too academic and easily accessible.”
Societal stability, Hart says, refers to safety, adequate health care, economic and social justice, good governance and the ability to build and constructively maintain relationships and supportive social systems (2016). Each piece of the wheel can be seen as a potential entry point to peacebuilding: starting points to move toward a more stable society. Playing with the wheel metaphor, Hart argues that the values we bring to peacebuilding work “inflate the tire” that runs around the segments that capture different activities involved in peacebuilding. A flat tire will not get you very far. According to Hart the tire is inflated by values associated with each area of practice with focus on “human needs, rights and dignity as well as beliefs,” (2008, p. ix). No heuristic device can capture everything. In this case, the specific values are not written on the wheel. This can be an entry point for good conversation among those working in different areas. Remember, good heuristic devices spark conversations.
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The “Peacebuilding Wheel of Values” was developed by Professor Barry Hart.
PROGRAMS
DEFENSE-VICTIM OUTREACH PIONEER TAMMY KRAUSE EARNS CJP ALUMNI AWARD FOR OUTSTANDING SERVICE Tammy Krause, MA ‘99, was selected for CJP’s 2016 Alumni Award for Outstanding Service. Krause, of Harrisonburg, Virginia, has worked on federal capital cases throughout the United States for the past 19 years. Her involvement in the legal profession began as a graduate student at CJP, when she joined Professor Howard Zehr at the invitation of capital defense attorneys to work with victims of the Oklahoma City bombings. Since then, she has pioneered defense-victim outreach, known as DVO, in which an independent intermediary seeks to build professional relationships between the defense attorneys and the victim’s family in an effort to ensure that victim concerns are addressed. Her work with the Department of Justice has included several high-profile cases, including the trial of Zacharias Moussaoui. “Tammy is among those graduates who have taken restorative justice into areas well beyond anything I had imagined,” said Zehr, who has been both a mentor and colleague. “In creating and practicing this work, she drew heavily upon and integrated what she had learned about restorative justice and peacebuilding at CJP. In my estimation, she represents much of what we hope from our graduates. As a pioneer and leader in a new field of justice and peacebuilding, she is very deserving of this recognition.” The annual award is given to CJP alumni who have demonstrated exceptional commitment to CJP’s mission of supporting conflict transformation, restorative justice, trauma healing, development, organizational leadership and peacebuilding efforts at all levels of society. The first award was conferred in 2015 to Ali Gohar, MA ’02, founder and executive director of Just Peace Initiatives in Pakistan. The catalyst for Krause’s involvement – indeed for the creation of her profession – was a phone call to Zehr from attorney Dick Burr, then a lead attorney on the defense team of Timothy McVeigh. McVeigh was accused (and later convicted and executed) of planning the Oklahoma City bombing of 1995, in which 168 people were killed and hundreds injured. Burr reached out to Zehr, an expert in restorative practices, to explore some way of interacting with victims. Krause’s first experience as liaison became her practicum. Over the next several years, with the help of Zehr, the CJP community and Dick Burr, Krause developed a model and best practices. A Soros Justice Fellowship and an Ashoka Fellowship helped her promote the model within the judicial system and build a network of trained liaisons. From 2003 to 2007, she worked as a victim outreach coordinator for the federal public defenders.
Tammy Krause, MA ‘99, accepted the 2016 Alumni Award for Outstanding Service during a SPI luncheon in summer 2016. PHOTO BY ANDREW STRACK
Krause now holds a PhD in law from the University of Manchester and has continued her work with the federal government in victim outreach. She interacts with people who have lost loved ones and who are struggling to understand not only what happened but why it happened and the motivations of the person or people who made it happen. She also helps victims and survivors understand the process of law, which can seem arbitrary, unintelligible and unfair. She’s deeply appreciative of the award, she said, and humbled by the honor from a place that remains a source of sustenance and strength. “CJP’s teaching of the reflective practitioner has given me a place to come to where people are asking those same questions: am I doing this right? There’s a bond created in that integrity, in that honesty of trying to figure that out. I’ll be forever grateful for that.” — LAUREN JEFFERSON
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We can make the world a better place for everyone. Please help CJP support the hopes and dreams of our peacebuilders by making a gift today. As you’ve read in the preceding pages, our alumni have often been deeply impacted, both personally and professionally, by their CJP experience. Too often they must go to extreme lengths and surmount incredible odds to join CJP for their studies. While here, members of our community build strong bonds. Hero Anwar Brzw, MA ‘09, showed the power of that connection. In the fall of 2015, she drove three hours from her home in Sulaimaniya, Iraq, to Erbil, the capital city of Iraqi Kurdistan, to visit with Executive Director Daryl Byler and Women’s Peacebuilding Leadership Program Director Leda Werner. A native of Iraq, Hero is deputy director of REACH, a large NGO in the Kurdistan region of northern Iraq. Hero introduced Daryl and Leda to the country director of Oxfam and urged him to send some of his staff to the Summer Peacebuilding Institute. She described CJP as unique because of its emphasis on personal formation and community building, in addition to strong conflict CJP alum Hero Brzw reviews current CJP materials with WPLP analysis and peacebuilding training. director Leda Werner during a fall 2015 trip to Iraq. Before they left for the airport, Hero handed Daryl an envelope with $1,000 for CJP. She said that she hoped every CJP alumnus would start giving $100 per month. I spoke to Hero via Skype in May of 2016 to hear more about her CJP experience and thank her for this generous gift. She shared with me that her time at CJP was transformative, a turning point in her life. She says she now believes that each individual has the power to make change in our society, and peace is not a distant dream but it can be a reality. “CJP is a place of hope. Students who have experienced violence, trauma and discrimination begin to rebuild and take steps forward to enjoy life again. I wish everyone who lives in Iraq could come here; the country would be a very different place.” For Hero, her donation to CJP was a small way to show her gratitude for all that CJP did for her. “Everyone can do this. Maybe people just need a reminder. I’m happy to remind them: find a way to give back!” Your gifts to CJP make it possible for these transformative journeys to begin and take shape. I invite you to consider supporting CJP by becoming a monthly or annual donor. With a gift of $84/month or $1,000/year, you will join our Partners in Peacebuilding giving level. LINDSAY E. MARTIN Associate Director of Development for CJP lindsay.e.martin@emu.edu 540-432-4581
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THANKS TO OUR GENEROUS DONORS! FOR FISCAL YEAR 2015-16, ENDING JUNE 30, 2016
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GLOBAL IMPACT
Master’s or graduate certificate in conflict transformation: 590 alumni in 78 countries U.S. states (32) and Canadian provinces (6) where CJP alumni live and work Academic and non-degree training at EMU SPI - Summer Peacebuilding Institute: More than 3,075 alumni in 124 countries STAR - Strategies for Trauma Awareness and Resilience: More than 5,000 participants from 62 countries Peacebuilding institutes modeled on EMU’s Summer Peacebuilding Institute: Located in 9 countries -- Bosnia-Herzegovina, Canada, Ghana, Fiji, Mozambique, Northeast Asia, Philippines, United States, Zambia
Our vision is to create a critical mass of peace and justice leaders in every region of the world who have the skills to transform their communities, organizations, and nations. Evidence of CJP’s impact can be seen daily in the work of our students, graduates and our programs.
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