|
GRINNELL, Iowa, Sept. 30 (AScribe Newswire) -- Lectures by international dignitaries and the rededication of a long-standing symbol of peace on Grinnell College's central campus will highlight the inauguration of the Peace Studies Program at Grinnell College from Oct. 8-12.
The Peace Studies Program and the Rosenfield Program in Public Affairs, International Relations, and Human Rights are co-sponsoring three lectures on peace in the Middle East and one discussing world food issues. In addition to the lectures, the inauguration of the Peace Studies Program will be marked by a ceremony to rededicate the Peace Pole, which stood for many years outside the former location of the Iowa Peace Institute. The pole will be rededicated on Monday, Oct. 11 at 5:30 p.m. at its new location near Burling Library on the Grinnell College campus.
The lectures on Middle East peace titled "Divided Land, Divided Hearts: The Struggle for Peace in the Middle East," feature three divergent speakers, two of them prominent figures, one an Israeli, the other a Palestinian -- both of whom have been active in efforts to promote peace.
- Yossi Alpher, special advisor to the prime minister of Israel in 2000 and a participant in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, will give the first lecture on peace efforts in the Middle East on Friday, Oct. 8 at 4:15 p.m. in the Forum South Lounge.
- Sari Nusseibeh, former PLO Commissioner for Jerusalem Affairs and President of Al-Quds University in East Jerusalem, will give the second lecture on peace efforts in the Middle East on Monday, Oct. 11 at 8 p.m. in the Forum South Lounge.
- Elizabeth Koch, a 2002 Grinnell College graduate and a participant with Sari Nusseibeh in the joint Israeli-Palestinian peace campaign which is focused on grassroots community organizing for nonviolence, democracy, and negotiations toward a peaceful solution. Her lecture, "Balancing on the Green Line" is on Tuesday, Oct. 12 at 4:15 p.m. in the Forum South Lounge,
- Chris Dowswell, member of the United Nations Mellinnium Development Project Hunger Task Force and a close associate to Nobel Prize winner Norman Borlaug. Dowswell is also the former director of program coordination for the Sasakawa Africa Association and will discuss "Meeting the Millennium Development Goal on Reducing Hunger in Africa," on Monday, Oct. 11 at 4:15 p.m. in the Forum South Lounge.
BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES FOR LECTURERS:
- Yossi Alpher is a former senior official in the Israeli Mossad and the former director of the Jaffe Center for Strategic Studies at Tel Aviv University. Currently the co-editor and co-creator of bitterlemons.org, an Israeli-Palestinian Internet dialogue site, which he launched in collaboration with Ghassan Khatib, now the Minister of labor in the Palestinian Authority.
Alpher is also an active member of Israel's Council for Peace and Security, an organization of retired senior officials from the Israeli military and their counterparts in the Israeli intelligence community. He also lectures and writes extensively on Israel-Palestinian efforts to achieve peace, as well as on security issues, and is widely considered one of Israel's foremost authorities on the subjects.
- Sari Nusseibeh, is the former PLO Commissioner for Jerusalem Affairs and president of Al-Quds University in East Jerusalem. A philosopher by training and author of numerous books and articles, Nusseibeh was a member of the steering committee of the Palestinian Negotiating Team for the 1991-1993 Palestinian-Israeli peace talks, and also served as chairman of the technical and advisory committee for the negotiating team.
In 2003, he co-launched "The People's Voice" with Israeli Ami Ayalon -- a non-partisan civil initiative working to mobilize grassroots support for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Nusseibeh has been honored with numerous international awards for academic and peacemaking achievements, including a Woodrow Wilson Fellowship, The Foundation for the Middle East's Peace Award, the Terni San Valentino Peace Award, and the Seeds of Peace Award.
- Christopher R. Dowswell is a member of the United Nations Millennium Development Project Hunger Task Force and special assistant to President Norman Borlaug and director of communications, Sasakawa Africa Association.
A graduate of Colorado State University with a Masters of Science in Agriculture and Resource Economics, Dowswell has worked with the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center, the U.S. Agency for International Development, The World Bank, The Rockefeller Foundation, and was head of information services for the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center.
Projects to be undertaken by the new Peace Studies Program will be to bring speakers to campus to discuss the causes of conflicts and strategies for resolving them peacefully on the international, national, and local levels; initiation of a peer-mediation project on the college campus; support for incorporation of peace and conflict-resolution topics into Grinnell College courses; sponsorship of summer internships with peace-related organizations for Grinnell College students; and support for ongoing mediation programs in the local community.
The Peace Studies Program at Grinnell College has been initiated thanks to a generous gift to the College from the Iowa Peace Institute, which was a nonprofit organization founded in 1986 and dedicated to peace and conflict resolution and located in Grinnell until its closure in 2003. In its early years, the Iowa Peace Institute emphasized international peace-building projects, and later the IPI turned its attention to programs of mediation and conflict resolution within the State of Iowa.
MEDIA CONTACT:
Dann Hayes, Director of Media Relations, 641-269-4834
|
