Tag: Canadian School of Peacebuilding

CSOP Welcomes World Peacemakers in June 2011

In order to foster a dream of a more peaceful world, CMU is hosting some of the world’s foremost peacebuilding practitioners and teachers for its 3rd annual Canadian School of Peacebuilding (CSOP) in Winnipeg from June 6-24.

According to Valerie Smith and Jarem Sawatzky, co-directors of CSOP, it is a natural progression of CMU’s faith-based peace tradition.

“We want to create a space where people from different backgrounds and perspectives can connect in positive and respectful ways—learning together, supporting each other and creating networks of engaged peacebuilders,” says Smith.

Participants of CSOP can take the available courses for personal or professional development or for academic credit.

CSOP will host mediators, teachers, authors, relief workers, and founders of various organizations.

“We are very excited about the lineup of instructors,” says Sawatsky, who is also Associate Professor of Peace and Conflict Transformation Studies at CMU.

March Burch, an author, educator and group facilitator will be instructing on the topic of voluntary simplicity.

Cross-cultural conflict transformation will be the focus of a course by Michelle LeBaron, the Director of the University of British Columbia’s Program on Dispute Resolution. Myla Leguro of Catholic Relief Services, one of the 1000 women nominated collectively for the 2005 Nobel Peace Prize, will be discussing different international methods and experiences.

Other instructors include Paul Dekar, David Dyck, George Lakey, Richard McCutcheon, Stan McKay, Kay Pranis, and Mohammed Ali Shomali.

CSOP is supported by two major collaborating partners, including Mennonite Central Committee Canada, (MCC Canada), which does relief, development and peace work around the world; and Resolution Skills Centre, a training division for Mediation Services Canada.

It provides 50 peacebuilding courses for three levels of government, not for profits, schools, and the private business sector.

CSOP is grateful to the sponsors who provide channels between Canadian School of Peacebuilders and existing networks of peacebuilders.  This year’s sponsors are Africa Peace and Conflict Network; Canadian Centres for Teaching Peace (Peace Café); Canadian Foodgrains Bank; CAUSE Canada; Center for Negotiation and Conflict Resolution; Rutgers University; Centre de resources sur la non-violence; Crisis & Trauma Resource Institute Inc; Conscience Canada; Council of Canadians: Acting for Social Justice; Fellowship of Reconciliation; Hope and Action for Africa; CMU’s Institute for Community Peacebuilding; CMU’s Institute for Theology and the Church; La Maison de l’Amitié Student Residence; Mediation Northern Ireland; Peace Research: The Canadian Journal of Peace and Conflict Studies; Peace and Justice Studies Association, Physicians for Global Survival; Project Peacemakers; The Transitional Foundation for Peace and Future Research; Social Justice Committee; World Peace Prayer Society; and World without Wars and Violence.

CSOP is enriched and its impact broadened through its partnerships with various academic programs, including: The Centre for Peace Studies, McMaster University; The Kansas Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution (KIPCOR); The Lion and Lamb Peace Arts Center, Bluffton University; Marquette University Center for Peacemaking; The Martin Luther King Institute for Research and Social Action, the Polytechnic University of Nicaragua (UPOLI); Peace and Conflict Studies, Bluffton University; Peace and Conflict Studies Program, University of Colorado at Boulder; Peace and Justice Studies Program, Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary; The and The Peace Studies Program, University of New England, New South Wales, Australia.

Canadian Mennonite University, through Menno Simons College (CMU’s campus at The University of Winnipeg) and through its south Winnipeg Shaftesbury campus, offers one of the most comprehensive undergraduate programs in peace and conflict studies in the world.  CMU has over 1,700 students at its two Winnipeg campuses and enrolled through its Outtatown discipleship program. CMU is a member of the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada.

Visit www.cmu.ca/csop

For CSOP information, contact:
CSOP Co-director Valerie Smith
vsmith@cmu.ca; Tel. 204.487.3300 Ext. 315

Canadian School of Peacebuilding at CMU     500 Shaftesbury Blvd.  Winnipeg, MB  R3P 2N2

For CMU information, contact:
CMU Comm. & Marketing Director Nadine Kampen
nkampen@cmu.ca; Tel. 204.487.3300 Ext. 621

Professors Marc Gopin, Karen Ridd, and Harry Huebner featured in School’s second session

For release June 9, 2010

The second session of Canadian Mennonite University’s (CMU) Canadian School of Peacebuilding (CSOP), running June 21 to June 25, will feature three renowned instructors, each to teach a weeklong intensive course that will shed further light on the issues surrounding peace, justice, and conflict resolution.

Professor and Rabbi Marc Gopin of George Mason University’s Institute for Conflict Analysis and Resolution in Arlington, VA will teach Agents of Change in Intractable Conflicts: Lessons from Middle East Peacebuilding, based on his book, To Make the Earth Whole: The Art of Citizen Diplomacy in an Age of Religious Militancy.

Karen Ridd, sessional instructor in Conflict Resolution Studies at The University of Winnipeg (UWinnipeg) and associate of Training for Change in Philadelphia, is teaching Peace Skills Practice, which will examine numerous approaches to dealing with conflict and give participants the opportunity to practise peacebuilding.

CSOP’s second session will also offer the course Mennonite Approaches to Peace and Justice, taught by Harry Huebner, Professor Emeritus of Philosophy and Theology at CMU and co-founder of Christian Peacemaker Teams.

Gopin, Ridd, and Huebner are part of a group of 12 instructors participating in CMU’s second-annual CSOP, which offers eight one-week intensive courses in peacebuilding, social justice, and conflict resolution, divided into three sessions, for academic credit and professional development. CSOP offers insights and perspectives from, and to, peacebuilders from all faiths, countries, and backgrounds.

The first session runs from June 14 through June 18 and brings together seven instructors for courses in the music of social justice, indigenous practices of nonviolence, and contested food systems. The third and final session will be held June 28 to July 2, featuring Howard Zehr on Perspectives on Restorative Justice and Lois Edmund on Congregational Peacebuilding.

Canadian Mennonite University, through Menno Simons College (MSC, CMU’s campus at UWinnipeg) and its southwest Winnipeg Shaftesbury campus, offers one of the most comprehensive undergraduate programs in peace and conflict studies in the world.

CSOP WELCOMES THREE INSTRUCTORS TO CSOP
FOR JUNE 21 to JUNE 25 SESSIONS

AGENTS OF CHANGE IN INTRACTABLE CONFLICTS:
LESSONS FROM MIDDLE EAST PEACEBUILDING

Marc Gopin, Rabbi, Professor of Religion, Diplomacy and Conflict Resolution, and the Director of the Center on Religion, Diplomacy and Conflict Resolution (CRDC) at George Mason University’s Institute for Conflict Analysis and Resolution (ICAR).

This course will help participants examine and measure in a new way the dynamics of their own potential impact on war and peace. It explores: the theory and practice of positive incremental change and citizen diplomacy; a central case study from the Middle East; and the philosophical and spiritual ethics, East and West, of decision making in conflict.

Marc Gopin
Marc Gopin is the James H. Laue Professor of Religion, Diplomacy and Conflict Resolution, and the Director of the Center on Religion, Diplomacy and Conflict Resolution at George Mason University’s Institute for Conflict Analysis and Resolution. Gopin has lectured on conflict resolution in several countries and numerous academic institutions. He has trained thousands of people worldwide in peacemaking strategies for complex conflicts in which religion and culture play a role. Gopin conducts research on values dilemmas as they apply to international problems of globalization, clash of cultures, development, social justice and conflict and he has engaged in back channel diplomacy with religious, political and military figures on both sides of conflicts. Gopin was ordained as a rabbi at Yeshiva University in 1983 and received a PhD in religious ethics from Brandeis University in 1993.

PEACE SKILLS PRACTICE

Karen Ridd, Sessional Instructor in the Conflict Resolution Studies department of UWinnipeg, Associate of Training for Change in Philadelphia, and Associate Trainer for Resolution Skills Centre.

Participants examine a variety of approaches to dealing with conflict in diverse locations such as: first party conflicts (responding to your own conflicts), third party to conflicts (helping others in conflicts) and learning to recognize the cultural elements of conflict resolution (moving beyond your own culture). Students will practice the role of the peacebuilder in situations when gossip, venting, and advice-seeking are being experienced.

Karen Ridd
Karen Ridd is a dynamic educator, facilitator and speaker with experience throughout North America and overseas, including El Salvador, Guatemala, Colombia, Thailand and Cambodia. Karen is presently a sessional instructor in the Conflict Resolution Studies department of The University of Winnipeg, an associate of Training for Change in Philadelphia and as well as an associate trainer for Resolution Skills Centre. Karen holds a Bachelor of Arts (1984), a Master of Arts in Peace and Justice (2009), a Diploma in Mediation Skills, and has been working and studying in the field of conflict resolution since 1986. Karen began her affiliation with Mediation Services in 1995, when she became the Training Coordinator, responsible for carrying out and developing trainings, as well as overseeing the program as a whole. Karen presently lives in rural Manitoba, and is the delighted mother of Ben and Daniel. She has received numerous honours for her work, including the 1992 Government of Canada 125th Anniversary of Canadian Confederation Governor-General’s Award, the 1990 Canada YM/YWCA Peace Medal and the 1989 Manitoba International Human Rights Achievement Award.

MENNONITE APPROACHES TO PEACE AND JUSTICE
In collaboration with Mennonite Central Committee Canada

Harry Huebner, Professor Emeritus of Philosophy and Theology at Canadian Mennonite University, Winnipeg, author, formerly with Mennonite Central Committee in Jerusalem, and co-founder of Christian Peacemaker Teams

This course draws from the professor’s experiences in peacemaking as one who has been involved in both Christian Peacemaker Teams and Mennonite Central Committee. It examines peace and justice literature by both Mennonite and non-Mennonite authors, including John H. Yoder, Gordon Kaufman, J. Denny Weaver, A. James Reimer, Duane Friesen, Alasdair MacIntyre, and Stanley Hauerwas, and it seeks to develop a viable peace/justice theology especially for organizations like MCC.

Harry Huebner
Harry Huebner graduated from University of Manitoba with a BA in Philosophy/Psychology and an MA in Philosophy. He earned his PhD in Theology at the University of St. Michael’s College. Harry has been teaching at Canadian Mennonite University and its predecessor colleges from 1971 – present. He took one year off to do PhD work in Toronto from 1974-5 and served with Mennonite Central Committee in Jerusalem from 1981-3. Harry was also involved in the founding of Christian Peacemaker Teams. In his spare time Harry enjoys traveling, especially to the Middle East. Harry Huebner hails from Crystal City, Manitoba. He and his wife Agnes attend Charleswood Mennonite Church, where Harry has taught Sunday School, has been Congregational Chair, and has served in several conference and MCC committees.

Visit www.cmu.ca/csop

For CSOP information, contact:
CSOP Co-Director Valerie Smith
vsmith@cmu.ca; Tel. 204.487.3300 Ext. 315
Canadian School of Peacebuilding at CMU
500 Shaftesbury Blvd.
Winnipeg, MB R3P 2N2

For CMU information, contact:
Nadine Kampen, CMU Communications & Marketing Director
nkampen@cmu.ca; Tel. 204.487.3300 Ext. 621
Canadian Mennonite University
500 Shaftesbury Blvd.
Winnipeg, MB R3P 2N2

John Bell of Scotland and Canada’s Ovide Mercredi among Renowned Instructors for First Session, June 14 – 18, 2010
For release May 27, 2010

When Canadian Mennonite University hosts its second annual Canadian School of Peacebuilding (CSOP) three weeks from now, June 14 to July 2, 2010, it will welcome a diverse group of peacekeepers to its south Winnipeg campus.

CSOP this year welcomes 12 instructors ready to share insights and perspectives at CSOP’s summer program, through its eight one-week intensive courses for professional development and academic credit. Applications in hand to date represent interested individuals from over 30 countries.

“We are honoured to welcome local and international members of the world peacemaking community as CSOP instructors for the 2010 program,” says CSOP Co-Director Jarem Sawatsky.  CSOP aims to create a space where people from different backgrounds and perspectives can connect in positive and respectful ways—learning together, supporting each other, and creating networks of engaged peacebuilders. CSOP is for peacebuilders from all faiths, countries, and identity groups.

The 2010 course offerings include the music of social justice, contested food systems, indigenous practices of nonviolence, intractable conflicts, peace skills practice, Mennonite approaches to peace, restorative justice, and congregational peacebuilding.

“The CSOP community is shaped by an ethic of respect and collaboration,” says Valerie Smith, who was recently appointed Co-Director along with Sawatsky. “We bring peacebuilders from around the world together in a collaborative learning community.” CSOP aims to nurture and equip its participants for various forms of peace practice and expose them to some of the most significant emerging ideas and teachers in the field.

Canadian Mennonite University, through Menno Simons College (CMU’s campus at The University of Winnipeg) and through its south Winnipeg Shaftesbury campus, offers one of the most comprehensive undergraduate program in peace and conflict studies in the world. Located in Winnipeg, Manitoba, CMU has over 1,800 students at its Shaftesbury Campus in Southwest Winnipeg, at Menno Simons College in downtown Winnipeg, and enrolled through its Outtatown discipleship program. CMU is a member of the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada.

CSOP WELCOMES SEVEN INSTRUCTORS TO CSOP JUNE 14 to JUNE 18

POETS, PROPHETS, AND MUSIC OF SOCIAL JUSTICE
John Bell, The Iona Community, Glasgow, Scotland
Irma Fast Dueck, Canadian Mennonite University, Winnipeg, Canada

This course examines the relationship of worship and social justice, exploring the works of poets and prophets from biblical times on to the present, many of whom come from the fringe of the church, giving particular attention to their importance in the struggles for justice around the world.

John Bell
John Bell, a native of Kilmarnock, lives in Glasgow where he studied Arts and Theology. After spells of voluntary work in London and Amsterdam and engagements in student politics, he was ordained by the Church of Scotland. For ten years, he worked in youth ministry with his colleague, Graham Maule, before transferring to concentrate on music and worship.
John lectures, preaches, and conducts seminars across denominations in Europe, North America, Australasia and, more recently, in Southern Africa. He is a hymn writer, author, and occasional broadcaster on national radio and television, but retains a primary passion for congregational song. He and the work he shares with his colleagues has been honoured by the Royal School of Church Music, the Hymn Society in the U.S. and Canada, and the University of Glasgow, the first and second of which bestowed on him the status of Fellowship, the third a Doctorate.

Irma Fast Dueck
Irma was born and grew up in Winnipeg, Manitoba. She was a university chaplain and pastor before beginning her teaching career at Canadian Mennonite Bible College (a predecessor college of CMU) in 1991. She received her Doctorate of Theology from Victoria University at the University of Toronto, a Masters of Divinity from the University of Winnipeg and a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Waterloo. Irma’s research interests frequently lead her to themes connected to the practices of the church and the theology purveyed/conveyed by those practices. In the past few years she has given more sustained focus to the rituals of the church such as worship and baptism and on themes related to power. More recently her commitment to peacemaking has led her to participate in a number of reconciliation endeavours including Muslim-Christian dialogue (sponsored by Mennonite Central Committee); she also continues to be involved with Mennonite-Catholic dialogue groups around Winnipeg.

A CREE PERSPECTIVE ON NON-VIOLENCE
Ovide Mercredi, former National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations in Canada, current Chief of Misipawistik Cree Nation in Manitoba, and current Chancellor of the University College of the North.
Mercredi will share a Cree perspective on non-violence based on traditional values and look at contemporary examples of these values. Culture and non-violence will be studied as it relates to maintaining peace and harmony within a family group or community.

Ovide Mercredi
Chief Ovide Mercredi is the first Chancellor of the University College of the North. He is a Cree, a lawyer, a negotiator, an author, a lecturer in Native Studies, and an activist on behalf of First Nations in Canada. He is known for his involvement in constitutional law reform issues, and Aboriginal and Treaty rights negotiations. He was a sessional adjunct professor on Aboriginal peoples at the University of Sudbury, the University of Lethbridge, and McMaster University. In addition, he has lectured at other Canadian universities, including the University of Manitoba and The University of Winnipeg. Mercredi acted as a key adviser in First Nations’ opposition to the Meech Lake Accord, and in 1989 was elected as the Manitoba Vice-Chief of the Assembly of First Nations. He held the position of National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations from 1991 to 1997, and led the First Nations negotiations in the Charlottetown Accord. Among Chief Mercredi’s many honours and awards are the Order of Manitoba, nomination for the Gandhi Peace Prize, and honorary law degrees from Bishop’s University, St. Mary’s University, and Lethbridge University.

Our contested food system: cultivating a just peace (In collaboration with Canadian Foodgrains Bank)
Cathy Campbell, Rector of St. Matthew’s Anglican Church, Winnipeg, and author Stations of the Banquet: Faith Foundations for Food Justice
Martin Entz, Professor in the Department of Plant Science at the University of Manitoba, researcher on cropping systems and natural systems agriculture.
Kenton Lobe, Instructor in International Development Studies at Canadian Mennonite University, Winnipeg, former food policy advisor for Canadian Foodgrains Bank, and organic farmer
Ray Vander Zaag, Assistant Professor of International Development Studies at Canadian Mennonite University, formerly with Canadian International Development Agency as a Project Officer

An interdisciplinary team including an agricultural scientist, a geographer, a theologian and a food activist will teach the course. Dialogue and participant engagement will play a critical role in the learning process.
This course examines the current realities of our food system, mainstream prescriptions, and emerging discourses around local food systems, sustainable agriculture and food sovereignty / democracy, with the aim of understanding the worldviews that underpin them.
It pays particular attention to faith-based narratives and the possibilities for cultivating a just peace in what are being called “food wars.”

Cathy Campbell
Reverend Dr. Cathy C. Campbell, rector of St.Matthew’s Anglican Church in the inner city of Winnipeg, is actively involved in the challenges of living out the food and justice dimensions of the Gospel. She is author of Stations of the Banquet: Faith Foundations for Food Justice (2003) and Faith as if Food Matters (2008). Prior to her ordination she taught at Cornell University and the University of Toronto and held volunteer positions in a variety of non-governmental organizations. She is delighted to have finally returned to her roots on the prairies.

Martin Entz
Martin Entz is a professor of “natural systems agriculture” in the University of Manitoba’s faculty of agricultural and food sciences. Martin has spent 20 years developing food production systems based on nature’s own template. Projects include no-tillage (conservation) farming, organic farming, integration of animals and crops for small-holder production, and development of perennial grains. Martin heads the Glenlea study—Canada’s oldest organic cropping plots. Martin’s international work includes a “pesticides reduction” project in cooperation with universities in Central America. Martin enjoys rural extension and interaction with farmers. Martin is engaged in the debate around “power” and food. He questions the benefits of genetically modified (GM) crops, and worries GM will decrease biological diversity necessary for a sustainable food system. Martin and his family operate a small farm near Libau, Manitoba.

Kenton Lobe
Kenton Lobe’s interest in food and agriculture stems from his interdisciplinary Master’s degree in Natural Resource Management. His fieldwork was undertaken in Kerala, India where he explored the social and ecological impacts of globalizing shrimp markets on a small-scale fishing community. Kenton is a teacher/practitioner at heart and until recently balanced his teaching in International Development Studies at Canadian Mennonite University and Menno Simons College with work at an international development NGO. He spent six years working with the Canadian Foodgrains Bank in Winnipeg as Policy Advisor, examining the structural injustices that allow hunger to exist in a world that produces enough food for all. In particular, his work focused on Canadian public policies surrounding issues of agricultural trade, the human right to food, and development assistance for small-scale farmers in the global South. This work took him to the World Trade Organization, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN.

Ray VanderZaag
Ray VanderZaag was raised on a potato farm in south-central Ontario. After graduating from Calvin College (B.Sc. – Biology) and Michigan State University (M.Sc. – Crop and Soil Sciences), he went to work in Haiti with the Christian Reformed World Relief Committee. During the first five years in Haiti, he worked in a rural community development program, supporting local staff and community groups involved in agriculture, reforestation, cooperative, literacy, water, and leadership activities. The next three years he worked in Port-au-Prince giving overall leadership to three CRWRC programs in Haiti. Returning to Canada, he earned an M.A. in International Affairs (Development Studies) and a Ph.D. (Geography) at Carleton University. His dissertation involved 11 months of field research on NGO/local community relations in rural Haiti. Ray then worked for a year for the Canadian International Development Agency as a project officer in the Southeast Asia Regional Program before joining CMU’s faculty. Ray also teaches one course per year in the IDS program at Menno Simons College, CMU’s campus at UWinnipeg.

Visit www.cmu.ca/csop

For CSOP information, contact:
CSOP Co-Director Valerie Smith
vsmith@cmu.ca; Tel. 204.487.3300 Ext. 315
Canadian School of Peacebuilding at CMU

For CMU information, contact:
Nadine Kampen, CMU Communications & Marketing Director
nkampen@cmu.ca; Tel. 204.487.3300 Ext. 621