February 23, 2024, 9:30 a.m.-4:30 p.m.

This conference showcases the work of Ohio Higher Education Peace and Conflict Studies Programs in bridging divides in the state of Ohio, including peacebuilding and conflict resolution that builds bridges for understanding and civility in support of a healthy democracy through: dialogue across difference; media literacy; and enhanced understanding of diverse perspectives.  

Hosted by the Ohio Peace and Conflict Studies Network and the Peace Resource Center at Wilmington College, Wilmington, OH

Questions? ohiopcsn@gmail.com

Register for the conference here by February 8, 2024 (click link below and scroll to bottom of page): https://commerce.cashnet.com/WILMINGTONEMARKET

Recommended Lodging:

Hampton Inn. 3-minute drive to campus. (937) 382-4400) Special discount rate available for King and 2 Queen Bed Rooms. Please mention Wilmington College and OPCSN Conference. Hampton In Contact: Tonya Hunter

General Denver Hotel. Historical Boutique Hotel. 3-minute drive to campus. (937-383-4141)

Holiday Inn at Roberts Center. 10-minute drive to campus. 844-201-5501)

For additional lodging and local Information for Wilmington, Ohio https://clintoncountyohio.com/

Directions to Wilmington College and Campus Map

https://www.wilmington.edu/admission/visit-campus-2-2/map-directions

Conference Agenda (PDF) (Updated 2/16/24)

Give to the Ohio Peace and Conflict Studies Fund!

https://hudson.fcsuite.com/erp/donate/create/fund?funit_id=1891

Conference Agenda

(updated February 16, 2024)

Thursday, February 22, 2024 Special Exhibit Opening for “Life Stories” 6:00-8:00 p.m.

For those arriving to Wilmington the evening before the conference start, there will be a special exhibit Opening at the Wilmington College Quaker Heritage Center, Boyd Cultural Arts Center. The “Life Stories” exhibit features stories from women serving long and life sentences at the Ohio Reformatory, created and produced by incarcerated women of the Ohio Reformatory. “Life Stories” is a project of We Amplify Voices, Columbus, OH

Friday, February 23, 2024

Cost (Includes conference fees, light breakfast and lunch)

• $35 Non-Ohio College/University Personnel
• $25 Ohio College/Universities – faculty/staff/admin.
• $10 Ohio college students

9:30 AM – 10:30 AM

10:30 – 11:45AM

Opening Panel: Bridging the Divide: The State of the State

• Stephanie Dodd, Executive Director, Ohio Campus Compact (OCC)
• Nazek Hapasha, Policy Affairs Manager, League of Women Voters Ohio (LWVO)
• Bill Froehlich, The Divided Community Project, Moritz College of Law, The Ohio State University
• Sarah Freeman Woolpert, The Friends Committee on National Legislation

11:45 AM- 1:00 PM

Lunch for general attendees. Wilmington College Dining Hall, Pyle Center

Working Lunch for Ohio College and Universities with Peace and Conflict Studies Programs (Ohio Peace and Conflict Studies Network Collaborative Meeting)

1:15PM – 2:45PM: Workshops and Panels

Talk to Your Neighbors (I): How to Have Constructive Conversations in our Polarized Nation

PREVENTS-OH (Preventing Radicalization to Extremist Violence through Education, Network-Building, and Training in Southwest Ohio) is a project of the University of

Dayton’s Human Rights Center and Women’s and Gender Studies Program. Its aim is to promote democracy, peace, and security through the prevention of radicalization and targeted violence. The goal of this workshop is to provide you with practical tips and tools for organizing dialogues about difficult and polarizing issues, including those about immigration, race and ethnicity, gender and sexual minorities, gun violence, and other issues.

Presenters: Paul Morrow & Jamie Small, University of Dayton; Katie Brinkley, PREVENTS-OH Project Consultant; Students, University of Dayton

Deliberative Pedagogy and the Cultivation of Intrinsic Civic Identity and Using the Classroom To Bridge Divides

Boyd Cultural Arts Center (BCAC) 121

• Deliberative Pedagogy At The University of Akron, we have embedded deliberative discussion sessions facilitated by our funded graduate assistants into our undergraduate Intro to American Government courses. The goal of this initiative is two-fold. First, the grading rubric evaluates students’ ability to enact civil, deliberative interactions while resolving a divisive political issue, which allows them to practice an important civic skill set. Second, however, research shows that deliberative pedagogy, especially when peers expect each other to engage in reason-giving and deliberation around public issues, cultivates intrinsic civic identity and leads to long-term participation in public life throughout adulthood.

Presenter: Cherie Strachan, The Bliss Institute, The University of Akron

• Using the Classroom To Bridge Divides This student and professor panel presentation will provide the audience with tips on what works and what doesn’t work in an experiential-learning-focused course that emphasizes getting involved in campus and community life. A sample assignment will be discussed which was designed to teach students community building skills and addressing polarizing events. There are many student organizations at the University of Akron that serve as spaces for students from a wide variety of backgrounds to discuss important ideas, build skills for solving problems, develop programming for members and UA students/staff/faculty at large, and to connect to the larger community. In the assignment, students were asked to work with a diversity-focused student organization and plan an event that was open to the campus community (i.e. show a film, invite a speaker, lead a discussion). The goal of the assignment was to have students build connections with other students who work to make a difference on issues that address social justice, diversity, inclusion, and equity.

Presenters: Robert L. Peralta, Ph.D. Director of the  Center for Conflict Management and Professor of Sociology, The University of Akron and Aaron Booker, The University of Akron

Simmering Campus Tension | An Immersive Simulation

Simmering Campus Tension | An Immersive Simulation

Boyd Cultural Arts Center (BCAC), T. Canby Jones Meeting House

During this session participants will participate in an immersive simulation which simulates simmering tension and unrest on a college campus. Participants will play university, student, and resident roles. During the debrief participants and facilitators will unpack lessons for bridging divides on campus.

Presenters: Ben Wilson, Anna Croyts, and Shelby Daniels, Ohio State University, Moritz College of Law, Divided Community Project

Panel: Faith-based Dialogue, Conflict, and University Responses

Enhancing Interreligious Understanding at a Jesuit University: Creating a neutral space for all religions under the roof of a Jesuit Catholic university is the main mission of the newly established Tuohy Center for Interreligious understanding. I would like to present the programs and events we developed in our first semester to work towards this goal. Information about our programs can be found at www.jcu.edu/tuohycenter and www.instagram.com/tuohycenter

Presenter: Semiha Topal, Tuohy Center, John Carroll University

Israel, Palestine, and Me: Dialogue on Campuses: This presentation addresses multiple campus-based dialogue projects, from one off events to year-long extended discussions, that address the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and related US intergroup tensions.

Presenter: Johanna Solomon, Center for Peace and Conflict Studies, Kent State University

Jewish Peacemaking in a Time of War: The Israel-Hamas war is presenting new forms of activism and discourse around Palestinian advocacy. This is presenting difficulties as commentators navigate the lines between licit targets of protest and pressure, speech tagged or taken as antisemitic, once unthinkable left advocacy of decolonial violence, and hardened lines around allyship and solidarity. Over the last months, my efforts in instigating projects and loose coalitions of interested citizens, students, and organizations has had mixed results. This presentation demonstrates some anecdotes and observations that might result in more theorizing about Jewish peacemaking in a time of war.

Presenter: Elliot Ratzman, Religion/Jewish Studies, Earlham College 

Presentation-Cincinnati EquaSion and Braver Angels: Models for Peaceful Coexistence in a Divided World

EquaSion: This presentation will examine the human relations work of EquaSion, Greater Cincinnati’s most inclusive interfaith organization. People of faith increasingly employ interfaith dialogue in a variety of forms to promote interfaith understanding and religious freedom and peacefully address some of the most consequential social and political issues of the day. EquaSion is a nongovernmental organization that serves as a model for interfaith dialogue and community building at a time when Americans are experiencing tremendous division.

Presenter: Marlaina Leppert-Wahl, Wilmington College & EquaSion and Maraya Wahl, EquaSion

Braver Angels: This presentation will provide an overview of the bridging the divide work of Braver Angels. Braver Angels is leading the nation’s largest cross-partisan, citizen-led social movement. Through community gatherings, national & local debates, Braver Politics, Braver Network, and grassroots volunteers all working together, we offer America ways to overcome the bitterness of our partisan divide. Polarization has been growing in our country for over 40+ years and is at a point not seen since the 1850s.  It takes each of us working together to bridge this divide. Braver Angels is active in all 50 States and is led on the grassroots level through active, working Alliances.  There are over 100 active Alliances in the US.  Our organization also hosts an annual convention that brings in delegates from throughout the US. 

Presenter: Beverly Horstman, Braver Angels Ohio Initiatives Lead

2:45PM – 3:00 PM: Break

3:00 – 4:30PM: Workshops and Panels

Talk to your Neighbors (II): Addressing the Problem of Mis- and Disinformation

PREVENTS-OH (Preventing Radicalization to Extremist Violence through Education, Network-Building, and Training in Southwest Ohio) is a project of the University of

Dayton’s Human Rights Center and Women’s and Gender Studies Program. Its aim is to promote democracy, peace, and security through the prevention of radicalization and targeted violence. This second PREVENTS-OH workshop focuses on strategies for identifying and responding to mis- and disinformation. Participants will be introduced to the SIFT methodology for assessing digital content, practice techniques of lateral and vertical reading, and co-envision ideas for bringing these skills into educational settings. Please note: participation in the first PREVENTS-OH workshop is NOT required for participation in this second session.

Presenters: Paul Morrow & Jamie Small, University of Dayton; Katie Brinkley, PREVENTS-OH Project Consultant; Students, University of Dayton

Identity-Based Conflict | Tools for Mutual Support and Connection

This session will focus on issues emerging from the war in the Middle East. Already OSU’s Divided Community Project has developed ideas for students to extend support to one another during divisive events (see https://go.osu.edu/dcpexs). DCP will share additional tools and resources for students and faculty to use during, and following divisive, identify-based conflicts.

Presenter: Bill Froehlich, Ohio State University, Moritz College of Law, Divided Community Project

Rights and the Unhoused in Dayton, Ohio

This session will look at human rights through the lens of those facing homelessness. This session will look at the importance of the CIVIL right to counsel and ways to combat the criminalization of homelessness. Presenter will share national, state, and local approaches to ensuring those without housing are able to fully participate in democracy.

Presenter: Katherine Rowell, Sinclair Community College

Partnering with Palestinians

The Lion and Lamb Peace Arts Center at Bluffton University will share how they organized and set up a virtual exchange between Bluffton students and University students in Gaza during COVID as an alternative to traditional in-person cross-cultural experiences. The session will include reflections from participants in the exchange from Gaza and the US.

Presenters: Paul Neufeld Weaver & Tareq Abuhalima, Lion and Lamb Peace Arts Center at Bluffton University

PARTNERS