The 2011 Peace and Conflict Studies conference will focus the attention of our discipline at the community level of analysis; it contends that local-level considerations are vital to the reduction of structural violence. With the community as the foundation to the conference, we will survey the contours of six sub-topics: Education; Justice; Media; Memorialization; Infrastructure; and Psychological Trauma in a series of panel discussions. These will be united by an opening keynote event with three keynote speeches. By concentrating on the community level, we ensure that the lessons from our conference have a wide scope of applicability, whether a community of interest exists in East Timor or Israel, Chechnya or Puntland, São Paulo or Toronto. Based on our subthemes, we expect there to be interest from students of Aboriginal Studies, Architecture, Canadian Studies, Criminology, Education, Engineering, Geography, Global Health, History, International Relations, Law, Political Science, Psychology, Public Policy, Sociology, and Urban Studies, inter alia.
Who we are
The organizers of this year’s Conference are a varied bunch, who focus on everything from engineering and urban planning to political theory. They examine conflict and tension from the Middle East to Indonesia, and bring analysis right back to our own backyards, questioning peace and equity within Canadian society. It is no wonder that their creation is such an interdisciplinary conference that will bring together many communities to address a common interest: supporting successful methods for building lasting peace.
All 14 of this year’s Conference team are in the Peace and Conflict Studies programme, but the ones to contact for most things are the three ‘Directors’: Zannah, Aaron, and Peter.
