Famous visitors, unique creative contributions and impactful work were among the highlights of the year鈥檚 top news stories from 91短视频鈥檚 Center for Justice and Peacebuilding.
Click here to view the university’s top news list. A couple of the articles below appear on that list, too.
And here’s our Top Photos of 2020.
MOST READ: 鈥楶eacebuilder鈥� podcast episode previews
Approximately 2,400 readers tuned in for previews that we published to promote separate episodes of the inaugural season of the 鈥淧eacebuilder鈥� podcast. This ambitious endeavor of our 25th anniversary celebration was the creation of Patience Kamau, a 2017 graduate of the program and also chair of CJP鈥檚 25th anniversary committee.
Over the 10-episode series, she sat down with CJP faculty and staff members to reflect on the history of CJP and their own peacebuilding work.
Cumulative unique downloads of Season One totaled approximately 6,310, according to analytics provided by Kamau. Most people are finding the podcasts through Apple Podcasts, Spotify and directly from the Peacebuilder website.
Look for the first episode of the second season in February.
2. P谩draig 脫 Tuama鈥檚 visit
More than 2,000 unique pageviews to our preview coverage heralded the immense interest in poet, theologian and conflict mediator P谩draig 脫 Tuama and his September 2020 virtual visit. For a limited time, you can still view recordings of his seven appearances over the five-day residency, including events hosted by the seminary, NPR affiliate WMRA and JMU鈥檚 Furious Flower Poetry Center. His visit was the result of some visionary dreaming and the leadership of CJP staffer Patience Kamau MA 鈥�17, who chaired the planning committee and moderated many of the events. 脫 Tuama spoke on a wide range of topics, including a discussion specifically for the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding on 鈥淚nsights and Mistakes from Ireland for Isolated Times.鈥�
3. CJP鈥檚 25th anniversary and Alicia Garza
An announcement that activist Alicia Garza would headline CJP鈥檚 summer anniversary celebration drew 1,500 reads. She was to be the featured speaker at an evening gala during what promised to be a full weekend celebrating CJP鈥檚 25 years of global impact.
The event was cancelled and rescheduled for June 2021. Alicia Garza is still slated to speak.
Now billed 鈥�25+1,鈥� the event will be all virtual.
Check out www.emu.edu/cjp/anniversary as plans are unveiled.
4. STAR founder updates 鈥楲ittle Book鈥�
It is no surprise that an updated edition of a 鈥渓ittle book鈥� that already had a worldwide following and global impact would be of interest to our readers. Our profile about Carolyn Yoder and the new edition released by Skyhorse Publishing in June drew approximately 700 readers. The article featured a photo of Carolyn holding translations of the book. In the past 15 years since the first edition has been published, the book has been translated into Portuguese, Korean, Burmese, Spanish, Russian, and Dari and other languages are in process.
The core concepts of the Little Book of Trauma Healing are based on the curriculum of the Strategies for Trauma Awareness and Resilience program (STAR), which Yoder, as the first STAR director, created with faculty of 91短视频鈥檚 Center for Justice and Peacebuilding in the wake of Sept. 11, 2001.
5. CJP draws record class
Who is joining us? More than 500 readers were definitely curious as CJP welcomed 30 new graduate students from around the United States and across the world to their first full semester in master鈥檚 degree or graduate certificate programs. We also heard that reading about this new class of amazing 鈥渟tudents who are colleagues鈥� affirmed some interest among donors to contribute to scholarships and grant funds.
6. Faculty work
Here鈥檚 four articles on our faculty, who are active as scholars and practitioners, that garnered a total of more than 1,200 reads:
- Professor Johonna Turner and her contributions both scholarly and otherwise to Colorizing Restorative Justice: Voicing Our Realities, a collection of 18 essays penned by various authors of color: practitioners and scholars of restorative justice who 鈥渆xplore the issues of racism and colonization within the field,鈥� according to publisher Living Justice Press鈥檚 website.
- Professor Carl Stauffer鈥檚 guest appearance on the 鈥淒angerous Love鈥� podcast.
- Professor David Brubaker鈥檚 publication of When the Center Does Not Hold, a guidebook for leadership in troubled times, co-written with three 91短视频-linked co-authors, including Carolyn Yoder, the founding director of 91短视频鈥檚 (STAR) and author of Little Book of Trauma Healing (SkyHorse Publishing, 2020).
- A racial justice project in a local church that involved faculty, alumni and current students as circlekeepers.
7. Peacebuilders of the Year
Sharing recognition of our alumni is one of the most rewarding parts of producing CJP news, and our readers are always pleased to hear when a light shines upon the work of those within CJP broad network. CJP itself honored two peacebuilders this past year, Cole Parke and Emmanuel Bombande, with the annual Peacebuilder of the Year award, expanded to two recipients in recognition of the center’s 25th anniversary.
We鈥檇 love to hear your top news of 2020 in the comment box below. Happy New Year!
Special thanks to web analyst Joshua Lyons for his contributions to this article.