THE WISCONSIN INSTITUTE FOR PEACE AND CONFLICT STUDIES
SPEAKERS PROGRAM 2011-2012
Participating institutions of the Wisconsin Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies may invite the following lecturers
to speak on their campuses at no charge. Contact the Wisconsin Institute at wiinst@uwsp.edu or (715) 346-3383
to make arrangements and for more details on speakers and their topics. Please keep in mind that the speakers
are subject to availability, and the earlier in the year you request a speaker, the more likely you are to secure a
mutually agreeable date and time.
The Struggle for Democracy in Iran: What are the Prospects?
Islam and Democracy: Is Islam Incompatible with Democracy?
The United States and the Middle East
The Current State of the Arab-Israeli Conflict
Ali Abootalebi
Department of Political Science
UW–Eau Claire
Gandhian Thinking and the New World Order
Examines the nature and inner meaning of the concept of the “New World Order” within the context of modern “power
politics” as opposed to the Gandhian theory and practice of “Goodness Politics.”
Peace and Environmental Security
Explores the nature, meaning, and adequacy of “sustained environmental development” as the preferred strategy to deal
with the global ecological and environmental crisis by linking peace with environmental security.
The Traditional Hindu Approach to Interreligious Understanding and Dialogue as a Path to Peace
Examines the contribution of Hindu theory and practice in promoting interreligious understanding and dialogue within a
religiously plural world.
Lakshmi K. Bharadwaj
Department of Sociology
University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee
Dr. Bharadwaj prefers speaking engagements within 100 miles of Milwaukee.
Creating the ‘Good War’: the Language and Memory of War in the U.S.
This presentation explores the ways World War II became “the Good War” just at the time that Vietnam was emerging as
our great “national mistake.” In what ways are the differing characterizations of these two wars dependent on each
other? What are the political reasons to describe each in this way and what effect has that had on peace activism?
The Problem of Creating a Feminine War Hero
This slide lecture parallels popular perceptions of women arrested for espionage in France in World War I and U.S. female
combatants in the current war in Iraq to examine the larger questions of women’s perceived and actual roles within war
and why society has such a hard time with them.
Creating the Memory of World War I
This slide lecture examines the creation of several WW I monuments in northern France during the 1920s and 1930s as a
lens through which to explore the conflicts and tensions of the region over who “owned” the memory of the war.
Deborah Buffton
Department of History
University of Wisconsin–La Crosse
Speakers Program
Characteristic Negro Melodies: The rise of American black minstrelsy 1875 – 1925
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th
The technological advances of the industrial age eased life for many poor Americans during the late 19 century. However,
they also provided for the ongoing institutionalization of prejudices through more rapid transportation and new mass
media. Traveling vaudeville performers found rich comic fodder in ridiculing black Americans, entertaining white audiences
with affected dialect and absurd blackface makeup. Recordings of such routines exist on Edison cylinder records and early
78s, making a sobering context for turn-of-the-century humor.
Opium in China - From the Silk Road to Tiananmen Square
The opium poppy reached China in ancient times, and was used medicinally for centuries. Consumed as a soup or herbal
tea, opium sap effectively relieved the pains of hard labor and disease. It was China’s cultural fascination with ritual
practice and foreign trade goods that led to mainstream adaptation of opium as a drug of recreation. Both before and
after renewed European contact, opium’s role as a commodity, spiritual aid, diplomatic tool, and medicine was a key
element of China’s social and economic life. The impact of this plant on Asian history was tremendous and its lessons
continue to inform Chinese leaders in their domestic and international affairs.
Dan Choffnes
Department of Biology
Carthage College
The Language of Force
The political theorist Hannah Arendt argued that violence is the negation of speech, eradicating humans' ability to
influence each other through the exchange of ideas. Perhaps surprisingly, Arendt's claim is consistent with the view that
certain people "only understand the language of force," which proposes not that violence is truly a language, but that such
people are not fully human. The commitment to speech is fundamental to shared human worlds. The threat and use of
force can erode those worlds, domestically and globally. This presentation frames a discussion about the philosophical,
political, and ethical aspects of violence and other alternatives to language.
Negotiation as an Ethics
Contemporary ethical theories focus overwhelmingly on individuals. The needs and interests of others may serve as the
basis for an individual's decision-making and actions, but that person's thoughts and deeds are the essence of ethics for
utilitarianism, deontology, and other standard approaches. By contrast, negotiation necessarily involves multiple human
beings attempting to work together with their divergent goals, desires, and perspectives. Beginning with negotiation
among the many rather than with decisions by the one, orients ethics from the outset in a more egalitarian, democratic,
and fair direction. And since only hermits and dictators can carry out their decisions without working them out with others,
this reorientation fits better with the social world almost all humans inhabit. This presentation provides participants with
tools for reconceiving ethical dilemmas and challenges in ways that may facilitate mutually satisfactory solutions.
Brandon Claycomb
School of Arts and Sciences
Edgewood College
Genocide in the Modern Era
Many people continue to associate genocide with Holocaust and presume that the last genocide only occurred during the
Second World War and that indeed we have learned from the past. The phrase “Never Again” continues to resonate with
people and create a notion that genocide is the crime of a particular era. This presentation raises questions about
occurrence of genocide before and after Holocaust by examining the history of genocide in the US, the Armenian
Genocide, Holocaust, Cambodia, Bosnia, Rwanda and Darfur. Particular attention is paid to the role of students in terms of
how they can effectively play a role in preventing future genocides.
Human Rights
This presentation provides students with an overview of the content of human rights, beginning with UDHR and the two
Covenants of Political and ESCR of the 1960 and moving into newer areas of gender, children, anti-discrimination,
disability, and protection from landmines and now cluster munitions. Why are these rights important and why should we
care? Drawing on particular examples of human rights violations, this presentation makes it clear that we need to use our
freedoms to ensure others can have greater rights and live in dignity. To go beyond merely talking about issues as
opposed to acting on them, this presentation will engage particularly students to explore how they can form an on-campus
student organization to formulate their concerns about human rights, teach others, and become effective voices against
human rights violations here and abroad.
Speakers Program
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Reconciliation: Framework for Peace
Using the post-conflict Bosnia as an example, this presentation examines the strengths and weaknesses of reconciliation as
a framework for peacemaking. There are a number of questions that need to be resolved before reconciliation can be
effectively applied as a model of peacemaking.
Khalil Dokhanchi
Department of Political Science
University of Wisconsin–Superior
Levels of honesty, levels of reality, levels of dysfunction – Welcome to Africa.
This lecture will grapple with one of the most complex issues in the third world – poverty. It is meant to be an engaging,
probing experience to stimulate reflection and soul searching about the complexities of societies. Africa will be explored to
consider the context of peace and the trigger points for violence.
Jacques du Plessis
School of Information Studies
University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee
The Global Financial Crisis: 2007 – ?
This presentation examines increasing global economic interdependence with special attention to the recent financial
meltdown and continuing reverberations. The causes and consequences of the crisis are examined, including the
implications for the future of globalization.
China and the United States in Today’s Global Arena
No nation on earth presents greater challenges and opportunities than China today. This presentation examines the issues
of free trade, national security, human rights and democratization as they affect U.S.-China relations today and into the
foreseeable future.
Martin F. Farrell
Department of Politics and Government
Ripon College
Social Entrepreneurship: Contributing to the Common Good through Business
The Civil Economy: Meaning, History, and Prospects
Towards a Theory of Cultural Dynamics: Conditions of Successful Intercultural Exchange
Multiculturalism rightly understood can be a major contributor to peaceful coexistence between nations. Successful
exchange between cultures (here largely understood as equivalent to civilizations) at all levels leads to structurally more
complex forms of hybrid entities that typically are also regarded as intellectually and aesthetically more appealing.
However, not just any juxtaposition or artificial mixing of cultural elements leads to a derivative that integrates them into a
new “organic” whole. Rather, such integration will occur only under certain environmental conditions, which may then be
taken as constitutive of successful intercultural exchange. Using case studies, a theory is developed that seeks to explain
why it is these conditions that support intercultural exchange and what accounts for an “organic fit” between cultures.
Wolfgang Grassl
Department of Business Administration
St. Norbert College
The War on Terror: Who wins? Who loses?
In the last twenty-five years, there has been a “paradigm shift” in war profiteering. It will always be true that corporations
will make huge profits from war. But now, the military corporations have gained such influence over U.S. war-making
policy, it is true to say that the corporations make war for profit. This presentation outlines how they do it.
G. Simon Harak, S.J.
Director, Center for Peacemaking
Marquette University
Speakers Program
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What does Psychology have to do with War, Peace, and Conflict?
This lecture, appropriate for Introductory Psychology, Social Psychology, and other courses, examines the role of basic
psychological mechanisms in the phenomenon of war and peace at different levels of human experience. Also suitable for
other courses concerning war and peace that would like to add an element of psychology.
Using Family Culture to Demonstrate the Principles, Problems, and Potential of Intercultural Interaction
This hands-on exercise uses a culture everyone knows, that of their own family, to demonstrate a number of important
principles about intercultural understanding. Interculturalism, or multiculturalism, is seen today as an important part of a
college education. However, many students in Wisconsin have had little or no contact with others from recognizably
different cultures, and may thus feel that they have little experience in multiculturalism. This may lead to discomfort when
discussing such issues, or in the failure to understand the value of multicultural education. Dr. Hatcher’s exercise also
points out how cultural differences can lead to misunderstandings and misperceptions, and can be used to demonstrate
the value of learning from other cultures. The exercise, with introduction and discussion, can be done in 45 minutes, and
is suitable for large or small groups.
Peace Studies and Psychology
This presentation is meant to take one class of an introductory psychology or other psychology class and show how basic
concepts of psychology can be applied to issues of war and peace.
Joe W. Hatcher, Jr.
Department of Psychology
Ripon College
The Ethics of Globalization
Just War Theory
An introduction to just war theory with an eye to U.S. foreign policy, and consideration of just war teaching within the
Islamic tradition, as well.
Richard Hudelson
Department of History, Politics, and Society (retired)
University of Wisconsin–Superior
Jainism: Philosophy of Nonviolence
Based on the Jain religion, which appeared in India about 2,500 years ago, and may be regarded as the oldest philosophy
based on nonviolence, Jain philosophy accepts and advocates nonviolence as the highest ideal of life and as the means of
attaining “moska” or liberation.
Gandhian Economic Perspectives
Gandhi’s argument that the concepts of development and progress must change in order to eradicate poverty.
Gandhi’s Method of Social and Political Change
This examines a crucial issue in Gandhi's thought and life.
Pravin C. Kamdar
Department of Business and Economics
Cardinal Stritch University
The War in Afghanistan: Working for Nonviolent Solutions
Patrick Kennelly participated in a March 2011 delegation to Afghanistan to explore nonviolent solutions to the war. It is
believed that this was the first time that a sizable delegation of peacemakers has visited Afghanistan during a time of
conflict in the last three decades. The delegation participated in a week of peacemaking organized by the Afghan Youth
Peace Volunteers and the Open Society. They also strengthened the links between Afghan and American civilians and
NGOs engaged in nonviolent peacemaking and working for human rights.
Dorothy Day and the Catholic Worker Movement Lessons for Today
This talk is an introduction to Day and the Catholic Worker. It traces Day’s development from a young person in Chicago to
the leader of a worldwide movement that shelters the homeless and works for peace. Focusing on Day’s upbringing and
her development of a social conscience, and work to form communities that confront poverty, violence, racism, and
oppression, this talk challenges the audience to examine the relevance of Day’s ideas today.
Speakers Program
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Iraqi Student Project: a Model for Peacemaking
The American invasion of Iraq decimated the country’s higher education system. The university structures were badly
damaged and students were left without teachers, books, and computers. Universities became soft targets for violence
and many students fled the country. As the years go by, many students remain as refugees in Syria and Jordan and are
unable to avail themselves of higher education. The Iraqi Student Project seeks to make undergraduate education possible
for qualified students whose education was interrupted and are unable to continue their education because of the
violence in their country. The project hopes that by providing students with opportunities to complete their education in
the United States, there will be a generation of young Iraqis who will possess the skills necessary to rebuild their country.
In addition, the students’ presence on campuses in the United States will allow for the development of person-to-person
relationships. It is the project’s hope that these experiences of getting to know the “enemy” will increase people’s
commitment to say no to war and work to build peace in the world. Kennelly and an Iraqi university student will discuss
the history, success, and shortcomings of the Iraqi Student Project as a model for peacemaking.
Patrick Kennelly
Associate Director, Center for Peacemaking, Marquette University
A co-founder of the Iraqi Student Project Milwaukee
Member of the Casa Maria Catholic Worker community
Yoga’s Understanding of War and Peace
The 5,000-6,000-year-old tradition of Yoga, originally known as the Vedic Tradition of the Himalayas, has a very precise and
specific understanding of the causes of war and discontent in the world. This Himalayan Tradition teaches a very clear
method of manifesting peace in today’s world. This presentation will elaborate on the theoretical and practical
foundations of peace from the Himalayan Tradition’s worldview. Participants will experience yogic practices that will
nurture peace within the individual, which then can become global peace.
Michael A. Ketterhagen
Department of Theology
Marian University
Opportunities and risks created by the demise of the Soviet Union
The following lectures are offered:
Lessons from the Rise and Fall of Soviet Communism
st
The Fall of the Soviet Union and the Rise of 21 -Century Socialism
The Paradox of Plenty and Global Competitiveness
Who is in Charge in the Kremlin? The Key Factors of Russian Political Life
Russia: Hydrocarbons, Autocracy, and Power Politics
Perestroika and Demise of the USSR: Personal Reflections
The World of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Yuri N. Maltsev
Department of Economics
Carthage College
Yuri Maltsev, Professor of Economics at Carthage College in Wisconsin, earned his B.A. and M.A. degrees at Moscow State
University, and his Ph.D. in Labor Economics at the Institute of Labor Research in Moscow, Russia. Before defecting to the
United States in 1989, he was a Chief Consultant of the Bank for Foreign Trade and then a member of a senior team of
Soviet economists that worked on President Gorbachev's reforms package. Prior to joining Carthage, Mr. Maltsev was a
Peace Fellow at the United States Institute of Peace in Washington, D.C., a federal research institution. Mr. Maltsev also
consulted with different departments of the U.S. government and testified before Congress. He has lectured at leading
universities, corporations, banks, colleges, churches, and schools all over the United States, Canada, Europe, Asia and
Africa. Dr. Maltsev has appeared on Cable Network News, Fox News, PBS NewsHour, C-Span, CBC and other American,
Canadian, Spanish, Lithuanian and Finnish television and radio programs. He has authored five books and over a hundred
articles published in The Christian Science Monitor, Newsday, Washington Times, Free Market, San Diego Union Tribune,
Journal of Commerce, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Seattle Times and others. His chapter on Franklin Delano Roosevelt was
included in a monumental volume: Reassessing American Presidenc,y published in 2001 in Auburn, Alabama. Now he is
working on a book "The Tea Party Movement" for Praeger Academic Publishers and on the second edition of his previously
published “Requiem to Marx” (1994). He contributed to the Encyclopedia of the World Poverty and numerous other
publications.
Speakers Program
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Afghanistan and Iraq
Dr. Ricigliano is involved in active research on the current conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq and the prospects there for
peacebuilding and post-conflict reconstruction. However, he will have limited availability in the 2011-2012 academic year.
Robert Ricigliano
Director, Peace Studies/Institute of World Affairs
Department of Communication
University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee
The Price of Tourism in Argentina: How much is too much?
Explores the environmental, political, and economic consequences of tourism in Puerto Iguazú, Argentina, through the
lenses of human rights and environmental rights.
The Galápagos Islands: Fishing, Tourism, and Human Rights
Explores the environmental, political, and economic consequences of over-fishing and tourism on the ecosystem and
people of the Galápagos Islands.
Issues in Nuclear Proliferation: Do ‘Know-How’ and Technology from the Former Soviet Union Pose a New
Nuclear Threat?
Since 1992, newspaper articles have claimed that Russian nuclear scientists and nuclear materials were going east and
south to the highest bidder. This lecture will explore the truth and implications of these claims and whether the United
States should be concerned about the deals that Russia has made with China, Iran, and other countries.
Cuba Today: Myth and Reality
This talk is based on current research and two visits to Cuba (January 2004 and January 2002). Dr. Roberg discusses the
current political, economic, and social atmosphere of Cuba and its ramifications for both Cuba and the United States.
Jeffrey L. Roberg
Department of Political Science
Carthage College
Good and Bad Lessons from the “Good War”
The most widely “learned” lesson of World War II—that evil should be nipped in the bud—is a bad one. To justify the
lesson “if you want peace, work for justice,” Rowley argues that the Versailles treaty established a patently unjust
international order and gave Hitler a ready-made strategy for initiating war. To substantiate the lesson “there is no way to
peace, peace is the way,” he argues that appeasement was a just policy and that preemptive war would have been no
solution at all. Moreover, Rowley points out that appeasement did not fail; it was the switch from appeasement to
deterrence that precipitated the war. He concludes that even in 1939, the pursuit of peace and justice was a practical and
hopeful policy and the only way the war and the Holocaust could have been prevented. Dr. Rowley is Professor of History
at the University of Wisconsin–Platteville where he teaches World, Russian, and British history. His presentation is based
on an article published in the Fall 2009 issue of Religion, Conflict, and Peace.
David Rowley
Department of Social Sciences
University of Wisconsin–Platteville
Environmental Security: Issues and Politics
This lecture and Powerpoint presentation gives an overview of the different issues involved in Environmental Security.
Environmental Security is the study of the link between human conflict and environmental degradation. This means both
how the environment is affected by conflict as well as how the environment is part of the cause of conflicts within and
between countries. A number of examples and images of these two aspects are given, followed by a discussion about what
current policy is regarding Environmental Security and what individuals can do to try to lessen these security risks.
Wendy Scattergood
Department of Political Science/Survey Center
St. Norbert College
Speakers Program
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The Effect of Deforestation on Indigenous Cultures: The Case of the Mbyá Guaraní of Argentina
Deforestation of the Southern Cone rainforests in South America is often discussed in terms of its long-term effects on the
environment, biodiversity, the ozone, and the economy, however little attention is paid to the concurrent destruction of
culture of peoples who live in the rainforests. This lecture examines multiple contributing factors of continuing
deforestation of the Paraná forests of northern Argentina along with the consequences of deforestation on the Mbyá
Guaraní people who live in these forests.
Tourism, Development, and Mbyá Guaraní Communities in Argentina
In Argentina, the Mbyá Guaraní ethnic people live in an area near the Cataratas del Iguazú that is being rapidly developed
for tourist use. While tourism has brought needed income to some Mbyá communities, there have been concurrent
changes in culture and physical and psychological health. This talk examines concerns about how governmental policy
makers have developed tourism on Mbyá lands, and suggest goals that stakeholders should achieve in their plans for
sustainable development. Finally, programs of sustainable tourism must include the indigenous participation at all levels
of planning and implementation, a practice seldom followed in the case of the Mbyá.
Penny Seymoure
Department of Psychology and Neuroscience Program
Carthage College
The Theatre of Empowerment: Prison Theatre and Social Change
For over 15 years, Jonathan Shailor has been using theatre as a means to teach prison inmates about themselves, about
others, and about conflict resolution. This remarkable work has been featured in The New York Times, on Wisconsin Public
Radio, and elsewhere. In this talk, Jonathan will share stories of his remarkable experiences in directing and acting with
inmates, and he will discuss how this “theatre of empowerment” has changed his perspective on the U.S. prison system.
For more information, go to http://shakespeareprisonproject.blogspot.com/.
Jonathan Shailor
Founder and Director
Certificate Program in Conflict Analysis and Resolution, University of Wisconsin-Parkside
and The Shakespeare Prison Project
Twentieth Century: A Time of Peace
We are so conditioned to looking at the wars of the twentieth century that we fail entirely to see the peace. Yes, it was
the bloodiest century in history, but paradoxically, it was also the century when humanity made more progress toward the
control of war and toward replacing it with more peaceful methods of conflict management than at any time since war
was invented some six thousand years ago. Dr. Shifferd will present arguments from his forthcoming book, War and
Peace: The Next Hundred Years.
Why War? Is Peace Possible?
War is endemic, and yet war does not just “break out,” nor is it rooted in human nature. It has identifiable causes. Peace
is not a dream, but a present reality, and many see the way clear now to making it the dominant reality. Dr. Shifferd will
analyze the social system that produces wars and the emerging peace system, presenting the argument from his
forthcoming book, War and Peace: the Next Hundred Years.
Confronting Hyper-civilization
Throughout the long hunting and gathering era and into the era of civilization, humans lived sustainably, in balance with
the natural world. Hyper-civilization is the highly intensified form of civilization characterized by gross overpopulation;
unprecedented energy capture and use; habitat destruction; invasive species; technical reach into the atom and the gene
and out into the stars; chemical pollution of soils, air, and water; and climate alteration and unprecedented extinctions
that burst upon the world in the last 200 years and trashed the planet. It is nothing short of a planetary revolution. Where
is it leading, and what can we do about it? This is the subject of Dr. Shifferd's current book project.
Kent Shifferd
Professor Emeritus
Northland College
How to Create a Civil War and Destroy a World: What Shakespeare Has to Say About Today
We live in an age of ideologies, a time when contrasting world views compete for control of human thought and society—
in our own country and throughout the world. That conflict tends to focus, often in a very nasty way, in matters of culture:
Speakers Program
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entertainments and diversions; the status of women; attempts by one group to regulate the behavior and social and
religious practices of another group; the tendency to demonize those with opposing views (“I'm right, you're evil”). The
age of ideologies actually began in the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries—the age of Shakespeare and his
contemporaries. His plays not only reflect the competition of those ideologies, they chart the process by which a
conflicted society can spiral from disagreement to civil war and the death of a peaceful, coherent, society. Professor
Stokes uses Shakespeare’s texts together with a wealth of contemporary historical documents to illustrate Shakespeare’s
prophetic understanding of that disintegration, not only as it occurred in his own society, but as it is occurring in our own.
Is a Common Conscience Possible in the Modern World?: Building a Framework of Principle as a First Step
toward Global Peace
As a Baha'i, Professor Stokes has an abiding interest in the quest for world self-governance. Is the ancient yearning for
peace a practical hope? Is it possible to define a process by which sustained peace may be achieved? The presentation
argues that it is, and that such a process begins with the gradual development of “a common conscience,” via the building
of a framework of principle as a first step.
James Stokes
Department of English
University of Wisconsin–Stevens Point
Building the Peace Community: Traveling and Studying with Multicultural and Diverse Students to Understand
and Practice Non-Violence
Few institutions of Higher Learning provide students with the “practical tools” of Changemaking. From understanding
Power, working with the Media, GOTV, holding Public Accountability Sessions, running for office, or planning and
conducting issue campaigns—the courses and trips we offer have one very practical objective, to prepare and equip
students to create change. Over the past 12 years, students have led successful campaigns to raise the minimum wage,
Vote No on the Gay Marriage Ban, Passed a City-Wide Referendum Against the War, passed a student referendum to
solicit $8 per semester from every student for Sustainability Projects on campus, assisted the City and County of La Crosse
to become “Eco Municipalities,” and elected 9 students to the City Council and County Board.
Guy Wolf
Environmental Studies and Multicultural Student Services Office
University of Wisconsin–La Crosse
Identity Opportunities in Peace Movement Discourse
Drawing on the data and analysis behind her co-authored book Contesting Patriotism: Culture, Power and Strategy in the
Peace Movement (Rowman& Littlefield, 2008/2009), this presentation considers how race, class, gender, and religion serve
as focal points for the discourse of some peace movement organizations but not for others.
Is Pink more Peaceful? Stereotypes, Social Realities, and Women on the Global Stage
Why is the debate about whether women are more peaceful still not solved? What do we find at the intersection of peace
discourse and movements for gender equity? This interactive presentation reviews historic arguments about women and
peace and brings those discussions up to present realities.
Lynne M. Woehrle
Department of Behavioral Science
Mount Mary College