Dr. Carl Stauffer and Dr. Johonna Turner of the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding at Eastern Mennonite University will address “Justice from the Margins” at Bridgewater College on Tuesday, Nov. 10, at 7:30 p.m. in Cole Hall.
The endowed lecture, which is free and open to the public, is sponsored by the Harry and Ina Shank Peace Studies Endowment.
“Justice from the Margins” will focus on what peace and justice look like from the viewpoint of those who have suffered the most from violence and oppression. The presentation will highlight bottom-up forms of justice that are emerging from communities in the United States and Sierra Leone.
These approaches, said Stauffer and Turner, reflect new and old forms of accountability, prioritize healing and recognize that communities have the ability to sustain their own peace and development.
Carl Stauffer was born in Vietnam, and in 1975 fled with his family from the war-torn country to the Philippines. After completing his university education in 1985, Stauffer worked in the criminal justice and substance abuse fields. In 1988, he was ordained to the ministry and in 1994 became the first executive director of the Capital Area Victim-Offender Mediation Program in Richmond, Va.
Moving to South Africa with his family in 1994 under the auspices of the Mennonite Central Committee (MCC), Stauffer worked on peace accords, community-police forums, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and local community development structures. As the MCC regional peace adviser for the Southern Africa region from 2000 to 2009, Stauffer’s work took him to 20 African countries and ten countries in the Caribbean, Middle East, Europe and the Balkans.
Stauffer’s academic interests focus on how social narrative and narrative structure affect perceptions of justice, transitional justice (measures to redress human rights abuses that include criminal prosecutions, truth commissions, reparations programs and various institutional reforms), and post-war reconstruction and reconciliation. His research centers on the critique of transitional justice and the application of restorative justice systems.
Stauffer is an assistant professor in the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding at EMU.
Johonna Turner’s areas of expertise include restorative justice (an approach to justice that centers on healing, accountability and community involvement) and transformative justice (an approach to justice that prioritizes personal and social transformation). She is also involved in youth leadership development, community-based peacebuilding, and arts- and media-based approaches to social change.
Turner earned her Ph.D. from the University of Maryland where she also taught in the American Studies, African-American Studies, and Women’s Studies departments, and the Burns Academy of Leadership. She holds bachelor’s degrees in journalism and interdisciplinary studies from the University of Missouri, a graduate certificate in women’s studies from the University of Maryland, and a graduate certificate in Urban Youth Ministry from Fuller Theological Seminary.
For more than 15 years, Turner worked as part of arts collectives, community organizing coalitions and other social movement organizations to develop youth leadership, enfranchise marginalized communities and advance restorative and transformative approaches to safety and justice. In 2007, she was awarded a Justice Fellowship from the Open Society Institute to research strategies for neighborhood safety that do not rely on policing and incarceration, and to work with youth to promote community-led peacebuilding using arts and media.
Turner founded and directed the Visions to Peace Project, a multi-year youth leadership development and peacebuilding initiative with programs integrating arts and media production, youth organizing and trauma healing.
During her tenure with the Washington, D.C., public school system, she served as a high school English and special education teacher, elementary reading interventionist, after-school program coordinator and instructional leader. She also facilitated educational initiatives with institutions ranging from the Latin American Youth Center to the General Board of Church and Society of The United Methodist Church.
Turner, who is an assistant professor in the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding at EMU, is an alumna of the DeVos Urban Leadership Initiative, an intensive Christian leadership development program for urban youth workers.