While at Notre Dame, I met the new Henry Luce Professor of Islamic Studies–the successor to the aborted appointment of Tariq Ramadan. The Ramadan case was instructive in itself; his work visa was summarily revoked because he had once (pre-9/11) made donations to an organization that is NOW (but was not then) on a list […]
I am back from the Notre Dame peace conference, reflecting on what I learned in the spare moments I have while catching up with my “real life.” Of course I learned a TON and came back with notes, handouts, downloads, and a mental reading list of a dozen books for starters . . . but […]
Today at a session on the relationship between International Studies and Peace Studies, George Lopez made the statement, “Peace Studies is like the tortoise, coming from behind slow and steady; International Studies is more like the hare that’s just been dropped out of a helicopter.” His point was that the “heyday” of IS is past; […]
The Kroc Institute has scheduled our peace studies conference very intelligently: recognizing that as much learning can take place through individual conversations as in lectures (“frontal instruction,” or Frontalunterricht, as the Germans call it), they’ve built in scheduled and unscheduled time for the participants to interact. Tonight, taking my place next to a “random” participant […]
Today’s tidbit from the Peace Institute: Speaker Dr. Kathleen Maas Weigert, Director of the Center for Social Justice at Georgetown: http://socialjustice.georgetown.edu/ She made the interesting statement, “Peace Studies values non-violence, but that does not mean we have to all be pacifists.” I asked her to clarify this during Q&A; how could non-violence NOT lead to […]
This week I am at the Kroc Institute for Peace Studies with a BGSU “Team” led by Dr. Marc Simon (Director of Peace Studies) and Dr Ellen Gorsevski (COMS). I call it “summer camp for faculty”–in the very best sense! It’s a chance to explore new ideas, meet new people who areactive in the field, […]
Sick of “reselling” your textbooks at the end of a class only to get pennies on the dollar? Send them to Africa instead!
Are you blogging while studying abroad? If so, the International Studies program would like to know about it and publish it on our blog! Please contact me at either isp@bgsu.edu or kfoell@bgsu.edu, or just post a comment right here on the blog! Here are two I’ve found so far: Our own IS major, Sheila Campbell, […]