LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Where do we go from here? Campus organizers pose that question and look for answers in a September commemoration of the United Nations’ International Day of Peace at the University of Louisville.
“International Day of Peace Commemoration: Where Do We Go From Here?” activities will run Sept. 20–21 in Ekstrom Library’s Chao Auditorium on Belknap Campus. The university’s Liberal Studies Program and the Peace, Justice and Conflict Transformation initiative are presenting the events.
The program begins at 5:30 p.m. Sept. 20 with a free, public talk by civil rights activist and author Vincent Harding, professor emeritus of religion and social transformation at the Iliff School of Theology in Denver. The historian helped organize and was the first director of Atlanta’s Institute of the Black World and is founder and chair of The Veterans of Hope Project, an educational initiative connecting religion, culture and democracy. Music and a reception will follow.
The Sept. 21 symposium will run from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. and includes speakers, art exhibits and posters of student research and peacemaking projects. Registration is encouraged by Sept. 15 because of limited seating; the $25 registration includes breakfast and lunch. To register, contact Janna Tajibaeva at 502-852-2247 or janna@louisville.edu. University students who register by Sept. 15 can attend free.
Friday topics and speakers include violence and public health, LaQuandra Nesbitt, Metro Louisville Public Health and Wellness director and UofL School of Public Health and Information Sciences faculty member; peace studies, Russell Vandenbroucke, director of UofL’s Peace, Justice and Conflict Transformation initiative; and restorative justice and adolescence, Susan Duncan, interim dean of UofL’s Brandeis School of Law. The luncheon talk on “The Demise of War?” is by author John Mueller, the Woody Hayes chair of national security studies at Ohio State University’s Mershon Center for International Security Studies.
“Hands across the Divide in Northern Ireland,” Northern Ireland and U.S. teens’ artwork from the Ulster Project International, will be displayed, as will “Return to the Land of Dragons: Photographic Impressions of Vietnam.” The photo exhibit is by Nashville, Tenn.-based U.S. Army veteran Michael Moryc from his return to Vietnam 40 years after serving there; he will discuss the images during his talk leading into a reception to celebrate the exhibit’s opening in Ekstrom Library.
For more information about the event or UofL peace-related studies, contact Russell Vandenbroucke at 502-852-8448 or rjvand01@louisville.edu or check louisville.edu/peace.
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EDITOR’S NOTE: Photos of Harding and Mueller are available by request.