2010 was a busy year for Hamid Arsalan. He earned a master’s degree from the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding at Eastern Mennonite University, while also completing two degrees from the University of Virginia: a bachelor’s degree in international relations and affairs, and a master’s degree in public policy. Around the edges, he fit in a part-time ...More
This summer, Eastern Mennonite University’s Center for Justice and Peacebuilding (CJP) will introduce a new certificate program for restorative justice practitioners. The program is open to all interested in furthering their postgraduate educations and aimed particularly at mid-career pr ...More
In a new approach to promoting peaceful communities, graduate students at Eastern Mennonite University are leading conversation around an award-winning documentary about people who collaborated to paint massive murals in Philadelphia.
A unique twist to the documentary, Concrete, Steel and Paint, is that the painters include men incarcerated in a maximum-security prison as well as ...More
Thousands of men, women and children displaced and otherwise suffering from the impact of war in Jonglei – the largest, most populated state in South Sudan – may see their situation become less desperate as a result of mediation efforts led by Hizkias Assefa, a founding faculty member of the Center f ...More
Where there is a food emergency, agencies like the UN World Food Programme rightly devote the majority of their time, resources and attention to those suffering directly from a food shortage. But paying no mind at all to the needs of staff working for a relief agency like the WFP, says Ilaria Dettori, is a recipe for burnout and organizati ...More
Many of the 196 attendees at this year’s Summer Peacebuilding Institute (SPI) had survived devastating loss and trauma. Yet the final week of that gathering at Eastern Mennonite University began with an evening of infectious joy.
SPI learners – representing 43 nations over six weeks of sessions, May 6-June 14 – did line and contra dancing, ...More
In Olga Hamadi’s line of work as a human rights lawyer in West Papua, death threats are common.
Violence and human rights violations are plentiful and sorely overlooked, Hamadi said, and police and military personnel who victimize her clients often turn the blame on her. While there are many lawyers in West Papua – one of two Indonesian provinces on the Southwest Pacific isla ...More
Sun, unblemished beaches, friendly islanders who like to dance in grass skirts, slow pace of life. A great place to be a tourist. These images dominate the Western media in reference to the South Pacific.
“At once a sanctuary and playground, our magical resort [in Fiji] offers blissful reverie to those who seek intimate peace and quiet, or spirited adventure for thrill seekers,” read ...More
