The “Peacebuilder” podcast, hosted by Patience Kamau MA ‘17, releases the second episode of its second season today. Kamau’s guest is Professor Catherine Barnes, who teaches strategic peacebuilding and public policy at ����Vlog’s Center for Justice and Peacebuilding.

The “Peacebuilder” podcast, in its second season, is a production of ����Vlog’s, as it celebrates its 25th anniversary. 

More than 6,500 listeners in 102 countries and 1,239 cities across the globe enjoyed Season I.The podcast is among just a handful covering the general peacebuilding field. It is available on, Apple Podcasts on iTunes, Spotify, Google Podcast, Stitcher, iHeart Radio, TuneIn and other podcast directories.

In the podcast, Barnes and Kamau chat about Barnes’ expertise in designing and facilitating deliberative dialogue processes, as well as current events including the military coup in Myanmar.

“Dr. Catherine Barnes has worked for conflict transformation and social change for more than 30 years,” Kamau says by way of introduction. “In many countries, she has worked with civil society, activists, diplomats and politicians, and armed groups to build their capacities for preventing violence and using conflict as an opportunity for addressing the systems giving rise to oppression and grievance.”

Their conversation begins with a deep dive into deliberative dialogue: what it is, when it’s useful, and what it has the power to do for a community struggling with conflict.

“The dialogue is very much about setting the conversation in this connection point – at a human level – between those who are involved and the perspectives that they have to bring. So that particularly if there’s been tension, conflict, or even indeed oppression, that you have this humanization of relationships,” Barnes explained. 

One of the early experiences that led Barnes towards this field of work was growing up in the Quaker Universalist tradition, in which congregants gather in silence “and seek the light of God moving within,” she said. They “have … this understanding that often in those spaces, there may be someone who feels moved to share something.”

Barnes went on to earn her doctorate in conflict analysis and resolution from George Mason University alongside Jayne Docherty, Barry Hart, and Lisa Schirch. She’s done conflict transformation work all over the world – including training deliberative dialogue process designers and facilitators in Myanmar. 

����Vlog the current violence in the country, Barnes said she feels “so heartbroken. I feel scared, scared for people who I have come to know and respect and, indeed, to love … I think it really does reveal in many ways how the zero sum nature of a power paradigm based on unilateral control and coercion is so hard to shift.”

“Are there resilience tools that you think are within the community that might help carry them through this?” Kamau asked.

“I always, always have hope,” Barnes replied. “I often will say that it’s actually, it’s within movements that you almost need these skills even more to try to think about, ‘how do we generate something that will be different in nature, different in kind than the old system that had been oppressive?'”

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September 2019

• A class of 22 new graduate students begin their first semester of studies.
• The new graduate students participate in CJP’s Grounding Day: an opportunity to begin to ground students in the history and current social, political, economic and environmental justice realities in Harrisonburg.
• Fidele Ayu Lumeya MA ’00 returns to the Democratic Republic of Congo to direct the Congo Ubuntu Peacebuilding Center.
• Talibah Aquil MA ’19 performs “Ghana, remember me…,” a multimedia production that sprung from her 2019 travels in Ghana as part of her capstone project on the themes of identity, race, trauma and healing.
• Twenty-one participants join STAR 1 on campus with Lead Trainer Katie Mansfield and Ayman Kerols MA ’16.

October 2019

• CJP’s 25th anniversary year kicks off with a “TenTalks” event at ����Vlog’s Homecoming and Family Weekend featuring Tammy Krause MA ‘99, Darsheel Kaur MA ‘17, and John E. Sharp, father of Michael J. Sharp ’05.
• Donna Minter, founder and executive director of the Minnesota Peacebuilding Leadership Institute and STAR Trainer, is honored with the Melanie Greenberg U.S. Peacebuilding Award of Excellence.
• Professor Johonna Turner, co-director of the Zehr Institute for Restorative Justice, gives the keynote address at a symposium on restorative justice hosted by the University of Richmond Public Interest Law Review. Attorney Brenda Waugh MA ’09 provides a talk on restorative lawyering and Suzanne Praill MA ’10, director of restorative justice at the Fairfield Center, contributes to a panel discussion.
• In collaboration with , CJP hosts Community Criminal Justice Days conference, bringing together community stakeholders for discussions and planning around reducing incarceration and recidivism in the local area.
• Howard Zehr, distinguished professor of restorative justice, is the featured speaker at the 2019 Vernon M. and Minnie I. Lynch Lecture at George Mason University.

November 2019

• CJP co-sponsors a conference in Mexico City on the intersection of gender and peacebuilding: “Construcción de Paz con Perspectiva de Género” at the University Iberoamericana, a Jesuit-affiliated institution. Alena Yoder, CJP’s program development associate, was a panel moderator. Vernon Jantzi, emeritus professor, and Jayne Docherty, CJP executive director, presented papers. 
• STAR trainers facilitate a workshop for the Grand Canyon National Park’s Public Lands for all Inclusion Summit to explore principles of restorative justice, trauma awareness, resilience, and truth and reconciliation and how those principles might be applied in the organizations and the workplaces. Read about STAR’s ongoing relationship with the National Park Service.
• Kajungu Mturi MA ‘18 facilitates a day of trauma and resilience training for ����Vlog’s Intensive English Program staff and instructors.
• Gilberto Pérez Jr. ’94 GC ’99, vice president for student life at Goshen College, wins his bid for a city council seat in Goshen, Indiana. He will be the first Latino council member in a city that is 33-34% Latino.
• A Zehr Institute for Restorative Justice features multiple speakers on engaging communities of faith in promoting restorative justice, along with specific avenues and resources for collaborating with Catholic parishes and ministries.
• Eighteen people participate in STAR 2 with Katie Mansfield and Lisa Collins.

December 2019

• Katie Mansfield and Jon Swartz MA ‘14 facilitate three days of STAR-based training for the Department of the Interior’s Office of Collaborative Action and Dispute Resolution, including Sigal Shoham MA ’13.
• ����Vlog recognizes Dawn Curtis-Thames MA ’20 and David Nyiringabo MA ’20, then second-year CJP students,  for their outstanding contributions to CJP and the larger university community. Read about their practicum studies.

January 2020

• Wayne Marriott MA ’18, a conflict coach and mediator based in Christchurch, New Zealand, receives the Resolution Institute’s 2019 Michael Klug Award for his support to the local community after the mosque shootings there last year.
• The 10-episode Peacebuilder podcast launches, featuring faculty and staff members reflecting on the program’s history and their own peacebuilding work.
• Twenty-two people, including 11 CJP MA students, participate in STAR 1 on campus with Katie Mansfield and Johonna Turner.

February 2020

• The fifth annual SPI Community Day welcomes about 100 participants to get a taste of Summer Peacebuilding Institute classes and hear from speakers on racial justice, including Chief Kenneth Branham of the Monacan nation and Frank Dukes, a professor at the University of Virginia.
• Professor Emeritus Barry Hart is the keynote speaker at a seminar organized by Initiatives of Change Sri Lanka in Sri Lanka, discussing the role restorative justice could play in restoring and healing wounded people to create a more just society.
• The Zehr Institute for Restorative Justice hosts a webinar on Equal Justice USA’s approach to the relationship between community and police in Newark, N.J., and how trauma-informed responses to violence that are community-driven can reduce harm for those most vulnerable and marginalized.
• Ten people join Kajungu Mturi MA ‘18 and Katie Mansfield at a STAR 1 training on campus.
• Katie Mansfield presents on a panel titled “Healing and Resilience: Taking a trauma-informed approach to delivering assistance” sponsored by the Peace and Security Workgroup of the Society for International Development-Washington Chapter. 

March 2020

• CJP staff and faculty start working remotely and moving academic classes online due to COVID-19.
• STAR provides three days of training for the George Washington Memorial Parkway.
• The 25th Anniversary Celebration, planned for the summer, is postponed for a year. The new dates are June 4-6, 2021. Alicia Garza, John Paul Lederach and sujatha baliga are among the scheduled speakers who plan to attend.
• Katie Mansfield launches the virtual community Dancing Resilience, through which participants all over the world meet via video conference multiple times a day to dance together. 
• The Zehr Institute for Restorative Justice hosts a virtual book launch for (Skyhorse Publishing, 2020), by Lindsey Pointer, Kathleen McGoey, and Haley Farrar.

April 2020

• SPI announces its move to an all-online format.
• Donors help to meet two $35,000 matching grants set up by two couples and gave generously during Lov����Vlog Day in honor of CJP’s 25th anniversary.
• Cole Parke MA ’12 and Emmanuel Bombande MA ’02 are named as 2020 Peacebuilder of the Year honorees.
• STAR releases the Care “Together” video series: conversations between Katie Mansfield, STAR trainers and practitioners. 

May 2020

• SPI 2020 marks the 26th year of gathering peacebuilders for mutual learning and support – online this year using video conferencing and other digital tools. Eleven courses are offered to more than 180 people across 60% of the world’s time zones. Read general news coverage here, and more specific articles about creating community online and the digital peacebuilding class.                       
• Sixteen CJP graduates representing nine countries receive their degrees. 
• Johonna Turner is one of the three faculty presented with ����Vlog’s annual Excellence in Teaching Awards.
• Christine Kindler MA ’17 receives the Berlin Fellowship from Humanity in Action.
• The new Master of Arts in Transformational Leadership is launched earlier than expected as CJP moves online. The degree with online, hybrid and residential options for working professionals includes courses in business and leadership and will continue to add courses from other programs at ����Vlog as electives.

June 2020

• SkyHorse Publishing releases a new edition of Carolyn Yoder‘s Little Book of Trauma Healing.
• STAR provides a webinar for Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency’s Service Coordinators and Case Managers on trauma and resilience.

July 2020

• STAR trains campus ministry professionals at the National Association of Campus Ministers virtual conference.
• An advisory group of STAR trainers and practitioners work with Katie Mansfield to recreate STAR for online delivery. The group includes Donna Minter, Crixell Shell, Ram Bhagat GC ’19, Lisa Collins, Meenakshi Chhabra, and Johonna Turner. Elaine Zook Barge MA ’03, Vernon Jantzi, and Carolyn Yoder provide additional input and insight.
• STAR announces registration for STAR online.
• Johonna Turner contributes a chapter to Colorizing Restorative Justice: Voicing Our Realities (Living Justice Press, 2020), a collection of 18 essays penned by practitioners and scholars of color.

August  2020

• STAR wraps up four webinars for National Park Service staff.
• CJP welcomes 30 new students for orientation. This includes nine students in the new MA in Transformational Leadership program, with online, hybrid and residential options.
• Planning continues for the CJP “25+1” anniversary celebration.

The inaugural Peacebuilder podcast features Barry Hart – a professor and practitioner who has been involved with ����Vlog’s Center for Justice and Peacebuilding (CJP) since its earliest days.

The podcast is just one of the ways the center is celebrating its 25-year anniversary. Hosted by CJP executive assistant and anniversary celebration committee chair Patience Kamau MA ‘17, the 10-episode series features faculty and staff members reflecting on the history of CJP and their own peacebuilding work. A new episode drops every other week on the Peacebuilder website.

In the episode, Barry Hart, professor of trauma, identity and conflict studies at CJP, reflects on his own beginnings in the field of conflict transformation and trauma work, definitions of trauma and trauma healing, how CJP has evolved since its inception, and where he sees it – and the entire field of justice and peacebuilding – growing from here.

Hart has “officially” taught here for 23 years, but first came on board as a summer workshop instructor in 1994. 

After graduating from Eastern Mennonite Seminary in 1978, Hart lived and worked overseas, developing a trauma healing and reconciliation program for the Christian Health Association of Liberia during the Liberian Civil War.

“I was very keen on trying to weave together what I understood could be brought from the outside … the people themselves were very resilient, amazing in their own right, and had skills and traditions that could help in their own healing process,” Hart recalls in the podcast.

CJP co-founder John Paul Lederach invited Hart to come present on his work during a Frontiers workshop (the Frontiers of Peacebuilding events were the precursors to today’s Summer Peacebuilding Institute).

“Coming back was really just part of what I wanted to do, and who I felt I was,” Hart says.

Hart has seen CJP through significant academic changes, like the inclusion of restorative justice and transitional justice curricula and the creation of the Foundations I and II courses. 

As for the future of the Center, Hart envisions CJP addressing the climate crisis and its intersecting issues more effectively.

“If we can go forward with a real sense of care for each other, care for the planet in a way that, actually, has not only care but practical actions, then I think we’ve gone a long way. So 50 years from now, we may be known as the Center for Justice, Peacebuilding, and the Environment,” says Hart.

A time capsule of ����Vlog’s Center for Justice and Peacebuilding (CJP) is in the works – not to be buried, but uploaded. The artifact in question is a podcast, which will feature ten CJP faculty and staff members reflecting on the history of CJP and their own peacebuilding work. The 10-episode series is set to launch on Wednesday Jan. 22, 2020, with a new episode dropping every other week on the Peacebuilder website.

The podcast is the creation of Patience Kamau, a 2017 graduate of the program and also chair of CJP’s 25th anniversary committee, who wanted to give students, alumni, friends and supporters of the graduate program an in-depth look at where CJP has been, where it is now, and where it hopes to go.

“For the sake of posterity, this is emerging as a gem,” Kamau said. “These voices are here right now, many of them were here 25 years ago, and given the simple trajectory of life, are unlikely to be here 25 years from now.”

But why a podcast, specifically?

“It’s a way that a lot of people are consuming information these days. I think it’s a necessary long-form method of connecting with the audience,” Kamau explained, in contrast to the “fragmented” nature of social media posts. “When you’re doing it on podcasts, you can go into more depth, and you can connect with an audience in a different, more meaningful way.”

While the exact episode order is yet to be determined, Kamau said the pilot will feature Barry Hart. His interview acts as a primer to CJP, touching on elements like the Little Books of Justice and Peacebuilding series and curriculum design, which other interviewees then dive into more deeply. “It’s like passing on a baton,” Kamau said. 

She asked each interviewee the same questions, based on the 25th anniversary’s theme of “celebrate, reflect, dream,” but of course “each one of them goes down a very unique path based on their own careers and life experiences.”

Kamau is an avid podcast consumer – she subscribes to at least eight, and regularly listens to others beyond those. That gave her an ear for what makes for a good listening experience, as she went into the project having to teach herself about audio production by looking up internet guides and tutorials.

Alumni Michaela Mast ‘18 and ‘19 have also helped breathe life into the podcast. Mast, co-host of the climate justice podcast , which is sponsored by the housed at ����Vlog, has lent technical assistance. Mullet, whose scores have been featured in recent documentaries and video games, is composing original music for the episodes.The podcast’s audio mixing engineer is Steve Angello who works closely with Mullet.  

“There’s something organic about it, just doing the work in anticipation of what will emerge. It’s a work of art, where the overall beauty lies in paying attention to the details” Kamau said.

The episodes will be also available on Apple Podcasts on iTunes, Spotify, Google Podcast, Stitcher, iHeart Radio, and TuneIn.

Featured voices

Each episode presents an interview with the following CJP affiliates, listed alphabetically by last name as the exact episode order is yet to be determined.

• David Brubaker, dean of ����Vlog’s School of Social Sciences and Professions and longtime CJP professor,
• Jayne Docherty, executive director,
• Bill Goldberg, director of the Summer Peacebuilding Institute,
• Barry Hart, professor of trauma, identity and conflict studies,
• Katie Mansfield, Strategies for Trauma Awareness and Resilience (STAR) program lead trainer,
• Janelle Myers-Benner, academic program coordinator,
• Gloria Rhodes, professor of peacebuilding and conflict studies,
• Carl Stauffer, professor of restorative and transitional justice and co-director of the ,
• Johonna Turner, professor of restorative justice and peacebuilding and co-director of the , and
• Howard Zehr, distinguished professor of restorative justice.

This year marks the 30th installment of the Lynch series, an annual lecture sponsored by the School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution which features “ground-breaking approaches to analyzing conflict and promoting peace,” according to its . 

Zehr will speak on “Human Rights Meets Restorative Justice,” examining some of the modern-day challenges of enforcing human rights and how the legal system can contribute to injustice.

The lecture is especially appropriate considering the strong ties between CJP and S-CAR. Three long-term faculty members Lisa Schirch, Barry Hart and Gloria Rhodes, as well as CJP Executive Director Jayne Docherty (also a long-term faculty member) earned their doctorates at S-CAR and several CJP graduates are continuing their doctoral studies at George Mason.

Previous Lynch speakers include John Paul Lederach, the co-founder and first director of CJP; the president of Malta, Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca; and Paul Butler, a professor at Georgetown Law in Washington D.C. and former federal prosecutor.

Read reflections by��Phoebe Kilby,��Mohammad Abu-Nimer,��Maryam Sheikh, Sanjay Pulipaka, Howard Zehr and Ruth Zimmerman, and Shyamika Jayasundara-Smits.

 ***

The threatening invasion of Iraq by the U.S. sent me seeking CJP. Clearly the many peace marches I had participated in in Washington were not effective. I thought at the time that CJP could teach me about peacebuilding and how to stop such war mongering by my country. But what I learned instead equipped me to confront a more personal issue — that I and my family were offenders in an insidious history of injustice carried out within the United States since its founding. CJP gave me many tools to address those injustices, though the journey continues.

Taking classes with my international classmates was fascinating and humbling. I learned about conflicts all over the world and how people were working to transform them. Jayne Docherty gave me the tools for conflict analysis. John Paul Lederach taught me the importance of “mercy, truth, justice and peace” (Psalm 85:10) for conflict transformation. I explored identity with Barry Hart, the importance of ritual and symbol in peacebuilding with Lisa Schirch, restorative justice with Howard Zehr, and Strategies for Trauma Awareness and Resilience (STAR) with Carolyn Yoder. Mostly I thought about the use of these concepts and skills to address conflicts and injustices in other countries or in the US where those conflicts and injustices were caused by other people – not by me, not by my family.

A few years after I graduated, I learned that CJP was exploring a new program called . The people coming together were descendants of enslavers and persons enslaved in the United States. They were talking about racial healing and reconciliation. That got me thinking. My father’s family had a long history in Virginia. Had they been enslavers? It did not take much research for me to learn that indeed they were. I knew that there were African American Kilbys living in Virginia. A Google search brought up the name Betty Kilby Fisher, who had written a book titled Wit, Will and Walls (Cultural Innovations, Inc., 2002). When I read the book, I suspected that my family had once enslaved hers. Her father and mine had grown up on farms less than a mile apart.

But what should I do with this information? I consulted with CTTT co-founder Will Hairston, who told me that I should contact Betty. Now that was a scary thought. But my CJP experiences gave me the courage to try. If my classmates from Israel, Palestine and Lebanon could talk to each other, then I should be able to do this. On Martin Luther King Day 2007, I sent Betty an email.  She responded, “Hello Cousin.”

Since then, we have participated in CTTT together and learned more about our families. Historical records confirm that my family enslaved hers; DNA analysis shows we really are cousins. I have seen Betty show me mercy as we share the difficult truth of our families’ relationship and seek peace together. I have tried to make amends for the injustice of my family and my own treatment of African Americans through the establishment of a college scholarship endowment for Betty’s family. John Paul Lederach’s “mercy, truth, justice and peace” inspired this work as did Howard Zehr’s concepts of restorative justice. I watched as rituals used in STAR helped my cousin Betty face the many traumas she experienced when she and her brothers desegregated their high school. I learned that my own identity is linked to whiteness and privilege.

It may sound as though I have figured this all out, but the journey continues as I learn from Betty and our family and together we strive for that balance between peace and justice that CJP teaches us to seek.

Phoebe Kilby retired in 2014 having worked for eight years as associate director of development for ����Vlog’s Center for Justice and Peacebuilding, where she also earned a graduate certificate in conflict transformation. Coming to the Table, a national racial reconciliation organization, was initially sponsored by CJP and was an affiliate organization from 2012 until recently (the organization is now sponsored by Restorative Justice for Oakland Youth in California). A past CTTT president, Phoebe is a member of the organization’s Reparations Working Group and co-facilitates a local group in Asheville, North Carolina.

She and her African American cousin, Betty Kilby Fisher Baldwin, published their story in a book of CTTT stories, Slavery’s Descendants (Rutgers University Press, 2019), and were featured the month after the book was released in a.

In addition to her grad certificate, Phoebe holds a BS in botany and Master of Environmental Management degree, both from Duke University.

To share comments or connect with Phoebe, use the comment box below.

We’d love to hear and share your personal reflections about CJP at 25! To celebrate, reflect and dream with us, click here!

A v who has worked in conflicts around the world, including in the Middle East, Ireland, Colombia, Sri Lanka, she is an associate at the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs in Harvard University. Hicks’ development of the dignity model and its importance to leadership has expanded her impact beyond the peacebuilding world. She is the author of Leading with Dignity: How to Create a Culture That Brings Out the Best in People (Yale University Press, 2018) and Dignity: Its Essential Role in Resolving Conflict (Yale University Press, 2011).

Hicks was the second of four Horizons of Change luncheon speakers at SPI. [During the first luncheon, Tecla Namachanja Wanjala MA ’04 was honored�� as CJP’s Peacebuilder of the Year.]

On May 28, she addressed a crowd of faculty, staff and international attendees, including a group of 54 Brazilian judges, attorneys and restorative justice practitioners. Her talk was simultaneously translated into Portuguese.

She was introduced by Barry Hart, a professor of trauma, identity and conflict studies at the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding who also teaches and researches about dignity in various contexts. Hart noted that Hicks has visited ����Vlog before and her work is taught in several graduate courses.

Dignity violations were an ‘unspoken conversation’

The concept of dignity arose from Hicks’ long experience with conflict resolution facilitations, during which she observed a telling phenomena —“an invisible, emotional tsunami”— that often hindered negotiations.

“This unspoken conversation ��and emotional turmoil was preventing the parties from signing on to an agreement even when they knew it was in their best interests to come together and compromise,” she said. “We needed to have a different conversation, to stop talking about the politics and start talking about the anger and the resentment and being treated as less than human.”

These emotional wounds were trauma-based, but Hicks found that trauma wasn’t a useful word. Dignity, however, was. “The questions they were essentially asking were about dignity: ‘How dare you treat us this way? Can’t you see we’re human beings? Can’t you see we are suffering?’

Over time, Hicks learned how to encourage those in conflict negotiation to talk openly about how their dignity had been violated, perhaps over years or decades. This eventually led to a model of conflict resolution with a deep foundation in understanding dignity consciousness — the idea that we are all of inherent worth as human beings. “Each of us wants to be treated with dignity,” she said. “When we’re not, we suffer, and when we are, we flourish.”

Educating leadership is key to progress

Recent studies in neuroscience have proven that wounds to one’s dignity are just as physically and emotionally traumatizing as a wound that bruises or draws blood, she said, yet they’re not visible. Humans need to be reminded on a daily basis “of how precious we are … that we are fragile and need to be handled with care.”

During the Q and A session, Hicks was asked to how she understands the forces of oppression and power at work. Though she said that restorative justice, peacebuilding and diversity training is one way to confront structural indignities, Hicks has lately focused on educating leaders.

“As leaders, we have the power to disempower others or we can empower others,” she said. “This is what we have to come to terms with. We have decide how we will use that precious power. The only antidote is to have people in positions of authority understand this. It’s an educational enterprise.”

Next speaker

• Tuesday, June 11:��Jodie Geddes�����Ի�����are members of Coming to the Table, an organization that started with 20 people at ����Vlog in 2006 and has grown to thousands in 12 states. They recently co-authored��The Little Book of Racial Healing, which came about during the 2016 restorative justice conference held on campus at ����Vlog.

To register for a Horizons of Change lunch ($20 for non-SPI participants, $16 for ����Vlog faculty and staff), please contact��Alison D’Silva��������dsilvam@emu.edu.

Titled “Cultivating a Justice-Oriented Community,” the Feb. 15 event will include a morning plenary speaker, workshops, opportunities for networking, and a catered lunch presentation.

“This year’s emphasis on local efforts and locally adaptable tools will enhance the facilitation, leadership and organizational skills for working in any community,” said SPI director Bill Goldberg. “And the lunch from local sandwich shop Gray Jay Provisions will be delicious!”

The annual event is modeled after the Summer Peacebuilding Institute, which is held on campus every May and June. Since 1994, more than 3,200 people from 120 countries have attended SPI, gaining concrete strategies and practical skills for cultivating a world organized around principles of justice, equity and dignity, and rooted in right relationship with our planet and with one another. This summer’s four sessions will focus on topics such as the nature and dynamics of conflict and violence, truthtelling and racial healing, trustbuilding, circle processes, peacebuilding approaches to violent extremism, and more.

Included in the $50 Community Day registration cost ($25 for ����Vlog faculty, staff and students) are a waiver code for the SPI application fee, a copy of a Little Book of Justice and Peacebuilding, lunch, morning coffee and pastries, and two 90-minute workshop sessions.

The morning plenary speaker will be associate professor of teacher education Kathy Evans, on the work of restorative justice in educational contexts.

“Children who learn about justice grow up to become adults who promote justice,” she said. “Children who learn to resolve conflict in their classrooms become adults who know how to resolve conflict and promote peace in our world.”

The lunchtime presentation, titled “Rewilding Justice: On Sourdough and Transcending Incarceration,” will feature Soula Pefkaros of Gray Jay Provisions, a Harrisonburg sandwich shop and market. Pefkaros earned a master’s degree in conflict transformation with a restorative justice concentration at ����Vlog’s Center for Justice and Peacebuilding, and is completing her doctoral degree in depth psychology at Pacifica Graduate Institute.

Workshop options and presenters include:

• “Strategies for Trauma Awareness and Resilience,” presented by Joy Kreider, a curriculum writer for InnerCHANGE: An order of Christians among the poor;
• “Circle Processes in Schools: An Interactive Introduction to the Why and How,” presented by Kathy Evans;
• “Transformational Leadership for Organizational Change,” presented by Dave Brubaker, director of the MBA and masters of organizational leadership programs and an associate professor of organizational studies at ����Vlog;
• “Local Responses to Violent Extremism,” presented by Lisa Schirch, North American research director for the Toda Institute and an advisor with the Alliance for Peacebuilding; and
• “Trustbuilding in Organizations and Communities,” presented by Barry Hart, professor of trauma, identity and conflict studies at ����Vlog.

For more information or to register, visit the Community Day website.

The forum, which takes place in the Caux Palace overlooking Lake Geneva above the city of Montreux, began in post World War II Switzerland. It welcomes approximately 1,500 people to its annual events from across civil society, government and business sectors to be inspired, equipped and connected, and promotes building bridges across societal and other divides with the aim of building “a just, sustainable and peaceful world,” its website says.

Its approach includes reflection and storytelling – and inviting participants to serve the community by helping with tasks at the center. The sharing of menial tasks at the Caux Forum gives participants “a unique way to connect with each other …, places everyone on equal footing and breaks down silos,” its website says.

The forum’s conferences, which took place between June 28 and August 11, included titles such as “Addressing Europe’s Unfinished Business,” “Towards an Inclusive Peace” (TIPS), “Just Governance for Human Security,” and “Ethical Leadership in Business.”

CJP professor and Caux Scholars Program academic director Carl Stauffer was the restorative justice keynote speaker for TIPS.

Other CJP staff and alumni who participated in this summer’s Caux Forum conferences and programs included:

• Mohammed Abu-Nimer, a former Summer Peacebuilding Institute instructor and a professor at the School of International Service at American University and founder of the , also spoke at the TIPS conference.
• Aaron Oda MA ‘16 was a lead facilitator for the Peace and Leadership Program, which offers training and experience for addressing global change.
• Jonathan Rudy GC ‘01, SEM ‘01, senior advisory of human security for the Alliance for Peacebuilding, was a speaker during the “Just Governance for Human Security” conference, for which Ferdinand Vaweka Djayerombe MA ‘06, president of Pax Christi Montréal, served as a technical liaison.
• Diana Tovar Rojas MA ‘17, CJP’s peacebuilding network coordinator, led a circle processes training in the TIPS conference and represented CJP at a peace fair.

Professor Barry Hart previously served as academic director of the Caux Scholars Program and is a current member of the International Council of (IofCI), a worldwide movement seeking the transformation of society. The Swiss IofC organizes the forum.

At least eight other CJP graduates have participated in past Caux events, according to Stauffer and Hart.

[Since attending ����Vlog, the couple, formerly known as Anita and Cristian, have begun using their Jewish names.]

Channah completed a master’s degree in religion at , but also took courses through the (CJP), including . ��

David, who studied law in Chile, attended CJP and earned a . There he also assisted professor with , a storytelling project for survivors of domestic violence, and professor with the ongoing translation into Spanish of his book Changing Lenses.

Earlier this year, Channah finished a master of theology degree from the , and the couple has since moved to Hamilton, Ontario, where Channah is beginning her doctoral studies at and David is looking for opportunities to develop processes of dialogue in the Jewish community about the ongoing conflict between Israel and Palestine.

While at ����Vlog, the pair collaborated on various projects, one of which was offering coping with past trauma and the pressures of a new country and being ostracized due to immigration status. The workshops were built on the idea that doing art — painting, drawing, photography, poetry and more — would help participants reflect on their experiences.

For Channah and David, facilitating reflection was a natural extension of their own experiences at ����Vlog, where personal reflection was central to their formative coursework.

“For us, having that time of introspection and learning at ����Vlog is what made us what we are today,” Channah reflected recently. “There are so many key aspects of who we are and that will never leave us that were borne out of ����Vlog.”

Attuned to trauma

Two years after they were married, Channah and David experienced the physical trauma of an 8.8-magnitude earthquake in Chile in 2010. But they are also attentive to historical and societal trauma, including their own, and ����Vlog was a place where they could explore, share and grow from their experiences.

Both Channah and David were raised in Christian families with Jewish ancestry, and have since — together — chosen Judaism. That wasn’t a quick or easy transition, and it put them in touch with their own families’ historical trauma stemming from the Inquisition long ago and subsequent discrimination and persecution.

More immediate, though, was the trauma of growing up under the rule of the dictator General Augusto Pinochet.

David remembers checking his family’s household garbage to make sure no evidence of black market items or political dissent could be be found by anyone who might look through their trash.

“You were always scared of saying what your political views were because you didn’t know who you were talking to, and if something you said would go back to the army,” Channah said. “There were a lot of people who were paid by the dictatorship to spy on other people.”

Such threats meant that homogeneity was valued highly: not standing out was safer. Channah said that translates into “‘Don’t be anything that makes you stand out and be different, because you could be in danger.’ Even though that’s not the case anymore, that’s how trauma works. The traumatic stress is still there.”

Even though Pinochet’s rule ended in the 1990s, David added, the government was still considered “transitional” as late as 10 years ago, and he described the ongoing environment as one not welcoming of minorities, hugely divided along economic and political lines, and subtly violent.

“That kind of violence is invisible, if you look just superficially, but it’s really strong and it has really deep roots in the culture,” he said.

Not just a defining language

It was in that context that David trained in Chile as a human rights lawyer, motivated by “growing up seeing too many injustices against the people I loved, and a kind of rebellion against the imposed narrative of oppressor/oppressed that I experienced,” he said. “I thought that through justice this dynamic could be changed.”

But it wasn’t until coming to ����Vlog that his current foundation for peacebuilding was established, and as a CJP graduate student, David says, he learned the language that has since defined his life.

“I lacked a lot of the language about peacebuilding, of conflict transformation,” he said. “I realized that justice is just one element in the process of social transformation and part of what, as a society, we should do so as to aim to build healthy communities.”

“I don’t know if the people at CJP see the magnitude of the training that they are providing,” he added, “but without that I couldn’t be working in the healthy way I’m approaching the society, the community where we are working right now. All those peace concepts within the Mennonite tradition are really important for us, even if we are not Mennonite — even for people of different religions, different traditions.”

Being educated at ����Vlog in that new language of peacebuilding, though, was not solely technical. “You have this safe environment where you can speak about your background, where you can relate with other people of other traditions. That was a powerful energy in our journeys,” he said.

Contributions to Biblical studies

Channah also credits her time at ����Vlog with bringing her academic Biblical studies into focus, in part thanks to the advising of professor , known for his work in trauma, identity and conflict studies.

Hart was David’s practicum advisor — and became friends, he said — and when Channah asked him to be her thesis advisor, he was “honored, and intrigued” by the thesis topic: the relationship between religious meditation, Hebrew chant and the trauma healing process. He said Channah has an ability “to see and explain complex spiritual and psychological relationships — for the purpose of self-understanding and from a desire to help others traumatized by violence of all kinds.”

While there are many who are exploring the intersection between psychology and Biblical studies, Channah said, she seeks out themes of resilience and dignity, themes that at ����Vlog she realized were central in her own life starting in her childhood.

“Growing up a Latina was a difficult experience, with all the machismo and the sexism and really not feeling like I was a first-class citizen,” she remembers. As a 10-year-old child traveling with her father, a Baptist pastor who visited seminaries and attended conferences with Channah and her three-years-younger brother in tow, people would ask her brother what he wanted to be when he grew up.

“I was not looked at at all,” she said. “It was subtle, but it told me, ‘You don’t really matter. You don’t get to have choices, because you’re not a man.’”

When she decided to attend college, people asked her, “Why would you want to do that?” When she decided to pursue a master’s degree, she was asked, “Well, isn’t that a little too much?”

Even today some in her extended family still don’t understand why she’s entering a doctoral program. “It still doesn’t fully register that women are just as capable as men. It feels so ridiculous to even say it, because of course they are,” she said.

Somehow, though, even way back as a child, something was driving her, something she can’t really pinpoint. It could have come from having also spent several of her formative years living in Canada and seeing a different form of society — or, she wonders, “Was it the Shekhina, the Hebrew name for divine presence, for the energy of God? I wonder if it can be that.”

Spiritual director and Eastern Mennonite Seminary professor Kevin Clark noted a “particular resiliency” in Channah, and the “interplay of her own inner narrative and the context around her which emerged as resourceful and creative engagement,” he said. “I appreciated the integrity with which she asked the questions of experience and the Holy, immersed at times in the silence of prayerful awareness which, in turn, inspired artistic expression and a discerned way forward.”

Whatever it was that was moving her, when Channah — and David — eventually came to ����Vlog, they immersed themselves in the community, earning not just graduate degrees but also “the respect of many for their deep spiritual wrestling and personal integrity,” Hart said. “We were given a gift when they joined us.”

“There is something about ����Vlog’s openness and sense of safety it creates, and the inclusiveness of people from different parts of the world,” Channah said. “Even though we’re all so different, we’re on the same wavelength of creating community and peacebuilding, and that creates a sort of connection that really opened our eyes not just to learning about others, but to learning about ourselves and where we wanted our journeys to take us.”

“We have many, many cultural things in our family,” David added. “We are Mennonite, we are Jewish, we are Latin American, we are minority — but we are very proud that the Mennonite culture in us is key. We were changed by the Mennonite culture at ����Vlog.”

The 2016-17 magazine features articles on the theme of “Learning Through Theory and Practice,” focusing on the program.

• Academic programs director Jayne Docherty begins the thematic treatment with an and the unique collaborative process by which the curricula is re-visioned in response to changing global needs.
• Alumni , MA ’03, and , MA ’14, talk about impacts of CJP education on their work in the Middle East and Burundi, respectively.
• The second-year , when students merge theory and practice, is shared through four students.
• Learn about two new programs: the new , the first of its kind in North America, and the .

A sampling of articles about CJP programs

In addition to its academic programs, CJP also includes four programs that each receive individual treatment in the magazine: , , , and the .

• STAR Director and Professor help in Bosnia and Herzegovina about trauma and memory.
• Summer Peacebuilding Institute hosts a popular new class, “” with Professor .
• comprise the fourth cohort of the Women’s Peacebuilding Leadership Cohort.
• Zehr Institute hosts and experts provide in a variety of contexts.

Peacebuilder magazine is housed at �� The site also includes , who are encouraged to update their profiles regularly.

“We sought to bring together a cross-section of restorative justice practitioners, theorists and innovators,” said , co-director of the Zehr Institute and the project’s leader. “Some of the invitees were world-recognized in the restorative justice field, but others were invited to ensure that diverse and often-unheard voices would be represented.”

One-third of the 36 participants were from populations that are under threat socially and economically in their regions of the world. The genders were equally represented. One person was under age 21, though two other young adults had been expected to attend.

Conversing about RJ’s ‘revolutionary intent’

The idea behind the unusual mixture of invitees was to foster provocative conversation about the possibilities for restorative justice (RJ), particularly for addressing structural injustices, said Stauffer.

In the prospectus for the three-year project submitted to the funder, , the organizers wrote: “On the social margins, there is growing research and experimentation with RJ as a tool for addressing structural harms and injustices. This project will explore and document these emerging practices in order to recapture the revolutionary intent of RJ.”

The organizers called attention in their prospectus to what they viewed as the danger of RJ settling into a “social service practice” centering on “repair at the micro-interpersonal level.” Instead, they wished to highlight the ways that RJ can “provide a coherent framework for transforming macro-social structures that cause harm.”

Aware that many of the 36 attendees at the first consultation would not have prior relationships with each other, the organizers devoted about half of the five days to exercises and facilitated conversations designed to establish trust and a common basis for exploring future possibilities. Senior graduate students at ����Vlog’s served as facilitators for the process.

Tough questions

First, the attendees prepared a history line of RJ, then they explored identity, power and privilege in the field. On the third day, they embarked on a discussion of best practices.

“We accepted the challenge of bringing together a highly diverse group, especially given that many of the participants are international leaders in the field, [being] accomplished researchers, authors, practitioners and facilitators in their own right,” Stauffer said.

“The challenge was heightened because the group grew beyond the original envisioned size of 20 to 25,” he added. “We needed to go well beyond 25 to have a true cross-section of voices, but it was difficult to develop coherence among three dozen people with strong opinions, especially in only five days.”

Yet the participants were largely positive in their final evaluations, he said, indicating that they had not regretted investing a workweek in wrestling with each other over tough questions, such as the extent to which RJ should be viewed as a social movement, as opposed to simply a set of restorative practices.

Stauffer did not pretend to be neutral on this last point. In his opening remarks to the group, he referred to the U.S. penal reform movement having been “co-opted.” In contrast, he said he hopes RJ continues to grow into a social movement in North America, with the aim of “transforming deep structural conflicts and injustices.” Toward this end, North Americans have much to learn from their international brothers and sisters about “large-scale applications” of RJ, he said.

Agreement on RJ’s core values

For a social movement to be successful, Stauffer told the group, it requires political opportunity, resource mobilization, a framing message, and critical mass (or a “tipping point”).

On the last day, in a final small-group presentation, a participant observed that the 36 attendees had largely agreed during the week on RJ’s core values, but not necessarily on how to practice restorative justice.

This first consultation will be followed next year by a public conference attended by up to 120 people. Next time, Stauffer said, his organizing team will work to create a conference format that moves participants more quickly into discussions on the future of the field, with a view of moving into a research and writing phase in the final year of the project.

Participants in the consultation

The 36 participants were:

1. Aaron Lyons, Fraser Region Community, Justice Initiatives, Canada
2. Ali Gohar, Just Peace Initiatives, Pakistan
3. Barb Toews, University of Washington Tacoma / Designing Justice+Designing Spaces, USA
4. , Center for Justice and Peacebuilding, ����Vlog
5. Brenda E. Morrison, Centre for Restorative Justice, Simon Fraser University, USA
6. Carl Stauffer, Center for Justice and Peacebuilding, ����Vlog
7. Carolyn Boyes-Watson, Center for Restorative Justice, Suffolk University, USA
8. Catherine Bargen, Restorative Justice Coordinator Crime Prevention and Victim Services Division, Government of British Columbia, Canada
9. Dan Van Ness, Center for Justice and Reconciliation, Prison Fellowship International, USA

10. , Center for Justice and Peacebuilding, ����Vlog and Atlanta (Ga.) consultant, USA
11. Fania Davis, executive director of Restorative Justice for Oakland (Calif.) Youth, USA
12. Cameron Simmons, youth worker with Restorative Justice for Oakland (Calif.) Youth, USA
13. Gerry Johnstone, University of Hull, UK
14. , Center for Justice and Peacebuilding, ����Vlog
15. Jeanette Martinez, Circle of Justice LLC, New Mexico, USA
16. Jennifer Graville , Community Conferencing Program, KBF Center for Conflict Resolution (Md.), USA
17. Jodie-Ann (Jodie) Geddes, Center for Justice and Peacebuilding, ����Vlog
18. Josh Bacon, James Madison University (Va.), USA
19. , ����Vlog
20. Katia Ornelas, Independent Consultant, Mexico
21. , (STAR), ����Vlog
22. Kay Pranis, Circle Trainer, USA
23. Kim Workman, Stout Research Centre for New Zealand Studies, Victoria, University of Wellington, New Zealand
24. Linda Kligman, Vice President for Advancement, International Institute for Restorative Practices, USA
25. Lorenn Walker, Hawai’i Friends of Restorative Justice, USA
26. Lorraine Stutzman Amstutz, Mennonite Central Committee, USA
27. Mark Umbreit, Center for Restorative Justice & Peacemaking, University of Minnesota, School of Social Work, USA
28. Matthew Hartman, Clackamas County Juvenile Department, Restorative Justice Coalition of Oregon, NW Justice Forum, USA
29. Mulanda Jimmy Juma, Africa Peacebuilding Institute, St. Augustine College of South Africa
30. Najla El Mangoush, Center for Justice and Peacebuilding, ����Vlog
31. Robert Yazzie, Chief Justice Emeritus of the Navajo Nation, USA
32. Seth Lennon Weiner, Porticus, New York, USA
33. sujatha baliga, Impact Justice, USA
34. Susan Sharpe, Advisor on Restorative Justice, Center for Social Concerns, University of Notre Dame, USA
35. Theo Gavrielides, The IARS International Institute and the Restorative Justice for All Institute, UK
36. , Strategies for Trauma Awareness and Resilience (STAR), ����Vlog

The facilitators were led by project manager , and included CJP graduate students Janine Aberg, South Africa; Michael McAndrew, USA; Jordan Michelson, USA; Mikhala Lantz-Simmons, USA; and Ahmed Tarik, Iraq.

The context she’d been immersed in as a graduate student in the with the (CJP) at ����Vlog (����Vlog) was very different than the context of the institute at Carlisle Barracks in Pennsylvania.

“The term ‘peacebuilding,’” she said, “is used frequently at PKSOI, but primarily to refer to activities done ‘post-conflict’ during ‘reconstruction,’ not to refer to activities all through the scale of different stages of conflict. This can make it challenging for stakeholders from dissimilar backgrounds to have productive conversations.”

Monitoring semantics was just one of many skills Gehman practiced during what she calls a “cultural immersion” in the military environment. With her specific interest being the military-peacebuilding nexus in the Middle East and North Africa, Gehman was matched with a project covering the African Union Mission in Somalia. She worked under the supervision of retired Colonel Dwight Raymond, an expert on the protection of civilians in mass atrocities.

The experience gave her a better knowledge of the multi-dimensional, powerful stakeholders who engage in operations of war and peace: the U.S. military, U.S. government agencies, and multinational coalitions.

“I now have a basic familiarity with the principles and processes of United Nations peacekeeping, including issues like mandate implementation, force generation, and logistics for troop-contributing countries,” Gehman said.

The CJP Capstone Project

When it came time to choose her practicum experience, Gehman said applying to PKSOI was a good option to pursue her academic and professional interests. She had previously conducted interviews with veterans, participated in a workshop called “,” and joined veteran and fellow CJP graduate student Michael McAndrew .

Gehman also benefited from CJP’s connections to the institute. Her advisor, professor, had taken students to visit the institute. Additionally, CJP research professor has been a guest lecturer at the U.S. Army War College.

“Our faculty have strong connections with peacebuilding organizations around the world,” said program director and professor. “This helps our students find placements that fit their particular interests, and build skills and networking contacts.”

Students in CJP’s practice-oriented graduate program in conflict transformation culminate their coursework in one of three options for a capstone project. The organizational practicum, of which Gehman’s experience is an example, requires a 2-4 month commitment. A second option is the research-based practicum, which results in production of an article, book, exhibit or other project. A third option allows full-time CJP students to write a thesis. Students must make a presentation to the CJP community about their project.

2015 CJP Capstone Projects

In addition to Gehman (from Morton, Illinois, and a graduate of Wheaton College), the following graduate students presented capstone projects during the 2015 spring semester. All were awarded their degrees during the April 26 commencement ceremony.

Matt Bucher (Harrisonburg, Virginia; Messiah College, ����Vlog MDiv ’15) researched Anabaptist responses to Christian Zionism and sought to find Christian theology that is good news for Israelis, Palestinians, and Americans. Additionally, he worked at the in Harrisonburg, connecting with local church leaders and working to understand where and how ministers have developed their ability and skills for addressing congregational conflict. Project title: Pursuing Good Theology and Best Practices: Christian Zionism, Empowering Church Leaders and Self-Reflection.

��Ray Garman (Ocean City, New Jersey; Haverford College) conducted independent research on the role that meaningful productivity plays in post-traumatic growth. Project title:A Predicament of Being

Fabrice Guerrier (Port-au-Prince, Haiti; Florida State University) worked in the Advocacy Unit of the United Nations Office of the High Representative for Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States (). He focused on research and supporting numerous outreach and advocacy strategies essential to OHRLLS’ implementation of its programs of action, as well as mobilizing international support for the most vulnerable countries. Project title: Advocating for Vulnerable Countries in the 21st Century

Tony Harris (Annapolis, Maryland; Goucher College) worked as the global education graduate associate at the . His primary responsibilities included curriculum development and program design/implementation. He was also involved in planning special events and worked on various projects related to organizational development. Through his practicum, Harris also explored explicit and implicit theories of change specific to the organization. Project title: The Global Education-Peacebuilding Nexus: Pedagogies, Programs, and Possibilities

Jacob Kanagy (Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania; Eastern University​) served as a congregational consultant and member of a church governance reference team at a community mediation center. His experience led to exploration of the overlap and complexities of serving in both a secular and religious peacebuilding context as a mediator or facilitator. Project title: The Intersection of a Community Mediation Center,��Congregational Conflict, and a��Church Governance Project

Diane Kellogg (Staunton, Virginia; Geneseo State University) ​contributed to the development and implementation of the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding’s (WPLP). Confident that WPLP was making a greater impact in the participants’ home communities than most people were aware of, Kellogg explored how that impact could be measured and evaluated. Her video production introduced the program and its participants, and reported on the community-level impact of the women’s participation. Project title: Evaluation and Promotion of the Women’s Peacebuilding Leadership Program

��Bridget Mullins (Hudson, Ohio; University of Notre Dame) explored the role of theater in visualizing the roots of conflict and��re-discovering voice, body, self and the other.��In the process, she witnessed communities, both in Harrisonburg and in occupied Palestine, rehearsing the change they want to see in themselves and the world. ��Project title: Beautiful Resistance:��When Words Fail, Art Speaks��

Nate Schlabach (Millersburg, OH., Ohio State University) worked in the , an organization based in Washington, DC, that promotes better relations and understanding among the people and nations of the United States and the Asia-Pacific region. He was involved in writing, researching, and editing several of the center’s newly released publications on Japan and Australia, and he provided news and analysis for the “Asia Matters For America” website. Project title: The U.S.-Asia Relationship:��Why It Matters to America

Courses will combine online learning with in-class time, said , a CJP professor and co-director of the .

Instructors will include CJP professors Stauffer, and , and visiting scholars like David Anderson Hooker and Lorraine Amstutz-Stutzman. Online portions of some courses will include guest lectures from other experts around the world.

The 18-credit certification is designed to be finished within a year, or during successive sessions of CJP’s annual . Requirements are broken down into 12 hours of core courses on restorative justice and conflict analysis, plus six hours of elective courses.

The electives offer students a chance to dig deeper into topics such as transitional justice, trauma, critical race theory, community development, and healthy organizations.

By taking advantage of local opportunities for practice, the program will emphasize real-life experience in order to reinforce learning in the classroom. “The program is very practice-oriented,” said Stauffer. “We try to focus it around students’ interests.”

Recent examples of practice opportunities have seen students engaging in restorative justice research with the James Madison University Office of Judicial Affairs, organizing public screenings of restorative justice films with facilitated dialogue afterward, and working with the , a re-entry program for men coming out of prison.

Stauffer described the certificate program as “a great professional development opportunity and a step on the way to a master’s degree in restorative justice.” The Center for Justice and Peacebuilding is generally considered one of the top five graduate programs in the field, he said. Citing the program’s unique dual focus on theory and reflective practice, Stauffer referred to graduates as “prac-ademics.”

More information on the new certificate program is available on the CJP .