Nobel Prize Archives - 91��Ƶ News

Check Out Graduate Studies for Peacebuilding

Lora Steiner — Thu, 30 Aug 2012 19:10:03 +0000

Interested in a graduate education that increased the knowledge of a Nobel Peace Prize Laureate?

The at 91��Ƶ invites you to visit campus the week of Oct. 8-12, 2012, to meet the faculty, staff and students and get to know the place that thousands of peacebuilders around the world view as their second home.

Prospective students will be able to sit in on classes, tour the campus, and participate in events geared toward visitors interested in ways to sow seeds of peace and justice.

The Center for Justice & Peacebuilding, which began in 1994, offers master’s degrees and graduate certificates in conflict transformation, with concentrations in strategic peacebuilding, restorative justice, psychosocial trauma, organizational leadership and community development. , one of the 2011 Nobel Peace Laureates, earned a master’s degree in conflict transformation from the center in 2007.

For more information about the campus visit week, please contact CJP admissions coordinator at ctprogram@emu.edu or 540-432-4689.

Undergraduate opportunities

91��Ƶ also offers undergraduate degrees in and, focusing on peace with creation. 91��Ƶ undergrads have the unique opportunity to and the along with other opportunities.

Nobel Prize Winner Connected to Peace-Church Tradition

Bonnie Price Lofton — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 21:06:04 +0000

One of the three women receiving the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize, Leymah Gbowee, is closely connected with the “peace-church tradition” of the Mennonites.

Gbowee, who shares the prize with and , earned a master’s degree in conflict transformation from the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding (CJP) at in Harrisonburg, Virginia. She attended CJP’s Summer Peacebuilding Institute in 2004 and participated in a round-table for Strategies for Trauma Awareness and Resilience (known as “STAR”) in 2005.

91��Ƶ’s Center for Justice and Peacebuilding (CJP) was one of the first university graduate programs in conflict and peacebuilding field. CJP’s Summer Peacebuilding Institute, the first of its kind, has become a model for other peacebuilding institutions around the world.

Gbowee led a nationwide women’s movement that was instrumental in halting Liberia’s second civil war in 2003.

“Leymah Gbowee mobilized and organized women across ethnic and religious dividing lines to bring an end to the long war in Liberia, and to ensure women’s participation in elections,” noted the in making the award. “She has since worked to enhance the influence of women in West Africa during and after war.”

Starting in the 1990s

Gbowee’s links to Mennonites began in 1998, when she received training in “trauma healing and reconciliation” and then worked at rehabilitating child soldiers. Perhaps unbeknownst to her, the first trainings in this subject in Liberia occurred when , a Mennonite with trauma expertise, arrived in Liberia in the early 1990s, with funding from and what is now called , both based in the United States.

Hart trained Lutheran church workers who, in turn, trained Gbowee. Hart also arranged for , who became Gbowee’s friend and mentor, to earn a graduate degree in conflict transformation at 91��Ƶ. In 1998 Doe became one of the earliest master’s degree graduates from what is now called the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding, setting the stage for Gbowee to earn the same degree nine years later.

In her 2011 memoir, “,” Gbowee says she came to 91��Ƶ because it was “an American college with a well-known program in peace-building and conflict resolution. It was a Christian school that emphasized community and service.”

Responding to the Nobel announcement, 91��Ƶ President said: “The impact that Leymah was able to have, first in Liberia, then in West Africa, and now all over the world, shows that another, nonviolent reality is possible. This affirms the dreams and hopes of groups, educational institutions, and churches that are devoted to supporting peace work.”

“We plant what we call ‘seeds of peace’ as widely as we possibly can, usually through education in peace building theory and skills, and then trust that some of these seeds will bear fruit,” he added.

Seeds of Peace

The woman Gbowee calls her “true friend” and fellow founder of , Thelma Ekiyor, attended 91��Ƶ’s 2002 Summer Peacebuilding Institute, as did Gbowee’s first champion and employer in Liberia, Lutheran Reverend “BB” Colley, who attended the annual institute in 2000 and 2001. At Colley’s urging, Gbowee read “” by the well-known Mennonite ethicist John Howard Yoder.

Gbowee, who was named , is the central figure in a documentary co-produced by , “.” Completed in 2008, the documentary is part of a “” series to be aired over five successive Tuesdays in October 2011 on public television stations in the United States.

In her memoir, Gbowee credits with introducing her to the (WANEP), an organization that he co-founded and led after finishing his master’s degree at 91��Ƶ. (Doe received 91��Ƶ’s annual and now works for the United Nations. His daughter, Samfee, graduated from 91��Ƶ in the spring of 2011, overlapping for one year with Gbowee’s eldest son, Joshua “Nuku” Mensah, who enrolled in the fall of 2010.)

“WANEP, based in Ghana, emphasized using nonviolent strategies and encouraged women to join the effort to address problems of violence, war and human rights abuses,” wrote Gbowee.

WANEP supported the launch of , the organization through which Gbowee and her colleagues conducted the campaigns that played a key role in ending the civil war in Liberia. (This organization is the predecessor to Gbowee’s current organization, Women, Peace and Security Network Africa.) The WANEP-launched women’s network—plus , the grassroots movement led by Gbowee—laid the groundwork for the election of fellow Nobel Laureate Ellen Johnson Sirleaf as president of Liberia, the first woman president of an African nation.

WANEP is now led byof Ghana, a 2002 graduate of CJP.

CJP Teachings Credited

Gbowee’s memoir credits two of the founding professors of CJP, and , with strongly influencing her through their writings and teachings.

“I read Martin Luther King Jr. and Gandhi and the Kenyan author and conflict and reconciliation expert Hizkias Assefa, who believed that reconciliation between victim and perpetrator was the only way to really resolve conflict, especially civil conflict, in the modern world. Otherwise, Assefa wrote, both remained bound together forever, one waiting for apology or revenge, the other fearing retribution.”

As Gbowee began to attend international meetings pertaining to peace and feeling the need to “speak with more knowledge and authority,” she says, “I began amassing books on conflict resolution theory: ‘’ and ‘,’ both by .”

In May 2004, the summer after the Liberian peace accords were signed, Gbowee came to 91��Ƶ to attend classes at its annual Summer Peacebuilding Institute. “Those four weeks were another transformative time for me,” she says in her book, noting that she studied with Assefa at the institute and with, “who taught me the concept of ‘restorative justice.’”

“Restorative justice was… something we could see as ours and not artificially imposed by Westerners. And we needed it, needed that return to tradition. A culture of impunity flourished throughout Africa. People, officials, governments did evil but were never held accountable. More than we needed to punish them, we needed to undo the damage they had done.”

Women in Peacebuilding at 91��Ƶ

In June 2011 at 91��Ƶ, Gbowee participated in a by-invitation conference on the needs of women peacebuilders around the world. Participants included filmmaker Abigail Disney of the United States, of Fiji, of Afghanistan, and , a Kenyan-Muslim woman of Somali ethnic origin who received the 2007 Right Livelihood Prize. (Abdi died in a car accident after returning to Kenya in July 2011.)

“As a direct result of this conference, we will be launching a women and peacebuilding program at our ,” says , executive director of CJP.

The announcement from 91��Ƶ on the Nobel Peace Prize award can be found at .

Vintage Physics Chart Installed in Science Center

Jim Bishop — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 04:00:00 +0000

It looks like something out of a Jules Verne novel.

John L. Horst, professor emeritus of physics at 91��Ƶ, recently salvaged from storage a large chart depicting "principles of electromagnetic radiations," dated 1938. Horst taught at 91��Ƶ from 1967 until retiring in 2004.

John L. Horst examines the framed principles of electromagnetic radiations chart that now hangs in the Suter Science Center. A photo from 1943 of students in M.T. Brackbill’s physics lab is displayed to the left of the chart. (Photo by Jim Bishop)

According to Horst, the 3 1/2-foot by 5-foot "elegantly complex" poster originally hung on the wall behind the lecture deck of the late M.T. Brackbill’s "creative, quirky" physics classroom in the basement of the old administration building.

Brackbill taught science and many other courses at 91��Ƶ from 1919 to 1956. He died in 1963.

Edited by Nobel Prize Winner

The chart was edited by Arthur H. Compton, who shared the Nobel prize in physics in 1927 for the Compton Effect, a scattering experiment that demonstrated that x-rays are photons that have quantum particle properties. He later showed that cosmic rays are photons from deep outer space.

A sidenote: Compton’s mother was a Mennonite from Ohio. He attended Bluffton (Ohio) College (now University) for a year in the early part of the 20th century.

The chart moves the observer from top to bottom with "a flurry of ideas, depicting how various parts of the spectrum are generated," Horst noted.

"Many applications – from astronomy, chemistry, engineering, medicine and physics – are part of the spectrum, with everything related to existing technologies of 1938," he said.

Physicist James Maxwell first described the wave theory of electromagnetic spectrum in the late 19th century. The particle theory of the spectrum emerged with the development of quantum mechanics in the early 20th century.

Modern Look, Striking Colors

"The color scheme is striking and excellent for its day," Horst said. The graphic arrangement is amazing considering the creators had no computer assistance back then."