Location: Graves Hall, 333 W. 10th Ave., Columbus, Ohio
Saturday, April 6, 8:45–10:15 a.m. Session 4: Workshops
Effective Organizing: Learning to Run Nonviolent Direct Action Campaigns (Part 1 of 2)
Room 1059
Recent research documents that nonviolent civil resistance campaigns have long been more effective than just using “normal institutional channels” such as elections, lobbying, and litigation, one-off mass protests, or violent rebellions when undemocratic power elites dominate a county’s economic and political life. This has been shown to be true in dictatorships, authoritarian societies, and formal or backsliding democracies like the U.S. How can you learn to organize powerful and effective movements in support of human rights, political freedom, social justice, and environmental sustainability? What skills are needed to build such movements? How might you become a more effective grassroots organizer and public policy advocate? This three-hour interactive workshop will tackle such questions and include story-telling, short presentations, group exercises, small and large group dialogue, and an inspiring case study video.
Presenters: Steve Chase, Manager of Academic Initiatives, International Center on Nonviolent Conflicts; Colins Imoh, University of Toledo
Listening: Part Capacity, Ability, Activity (Part 1 of 2)
Room 1063
Do you believe that sustainable transformative peace is possible? Do you believe that a form of personal justice is defined by each party’s self-expression, collaboration, and ability to influence both the process and the outcome of a conflict? Do you want an experience of this belief lived out for yourself, your students, your organizations? These questions and more will be explored together with the starting place being you. Through an exploration of heroes, symbols, and rituals with a focus on curiosity to find your capacity to be able to transformation communication into active conversations, we will explore concerns of transparency, acceptance, and power. In our process we will look at ourselves as we connect with and are influenced by conditions that can, but do not need to, limit our ability to listen. These conditions would include social needs, political expectations, communication skills, and economic variables. We look forward to exploring with you!
Presenter: D.G. Mawn, President, National Association for Community Mediation (NAFCM)
Changemaker Journey: How to Start and Advance as a Changemaker (Part 1 of 2)
Room 1069
We are going to design the ultimate peer-to-peer methodology to inspire you to start and advance in the Changemaker Journey. In this session, you will learn about the research conducted by Ashoka’s Youth Venture together with Ballard Center at Brigham Young University to identify significant patterns in a young Changemaker’s journey. The Journey contains 6 stages, and for each stage we will design the necessary experiences that students can create for other students to start and advance as Changemakers. Bring your energy, collaborative spirit, and creative juices because we’re going to have fun. Learning outcomes:
• Internalize the Changemaker Journey Methodology
• Explore ways you can support peers/students to start and advance in their changemaker journey
• Develop tactics to bring this into your environment
Presenter: Mentor Dida, Senior Ashoka Intrapreneur, Youth Venture Inc., Ashoka
Conflict Resolution for the 21st Century
Room 1187
This presentation will deconstruct advanced and basic active listening skills as utilized by professional police crisis negotiators for practical use by civilians of all ages. Specifically, there will be lecture style presentations on:
• How to have critical conversations
• De-escalation vs. Non-escalation
• Paralinguistic Communication
• Concepts on active listening
The presentation will provide an opportunity for all participants to practice the skills that are taught in an interactive video lesson on students in crisis.
Presenter: Rodney Chatman, Executive Director, Public Safety, University of Dayton
Youth as a Transformative Force for Sustainable Development
Room 1195
This session will explore the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Approaches and myths regarding youth participation and their transformative ability to drive change in their local context. The session will include group dynamics, open dialogue about youth challenges and experiences driving change and the 2030 agenda. The session will take as a case of study the 2030 agenda Citizens Ambassadors Program, an initiative mobilizing organized youth in the Latin American and Caribbean region 2030 Agenda sensitization, implementation, and monitoring processes.
Presenter: Rosario del Pilar Diaz Garavito, Executive Director, Millennials Movement; Organizing Partner, UN NGO Major Group Latin America Region
Saturday, April 6, 10:30 a.m.–12 p.m. Session 5: Workshops
Youth and Peace Informal Education – Experiences from the Middle East and North Africa
Room 1195
The greatest potential for progress in the MENA region lies with the youth. In all countries they represent a large proportion of the population, making them key agents for development toward freedom and peace. However, this potential is currently unexploited and even suppressed. Civil society organizations are harassed in their work region-wide, which strips the youth of possibilities to educate themselves about democratic transformations. This absence of knowledge to implement change was exploited by armed groups which lured young people into extremism. As result, a vicious circle evolved that exposed youth to violence and dragged them away from non-violent transformation concepts. Today, a significant number of young Syrians, Yemenis, and Libyans are affected by this and thus alienated from peaceful solutions. Due to the authoritarian and undemocratic climate, formal education is having trouble filling this gap. This opens the need for non-formal peace education by civil society. This session will cover the importance of teaching a culture of peace and how to transform the energy of young, violent people towards sustainable peace. The objective is to promote peaceful solutions for youth in the MENA region driven by civil society. The presenter will share his experience working with young people after the Egyptian revolution and how he managed to gather youth from different streams under the umbrella of one idea: to call for peace and renounce violence. Challenges faced and what peace education programs must encompass will also be covered.
Presenter: Khaled Emam, Executive Manager, Justice Call for Rights and Development, Egypt; Co-Chair, Global Partnership for the Prevention of Armed Conflict – Youth Peace and Security
Changemaker Journey: How to Start and Advance as a Changemaker (Part 2 of 2)
Room 1069
This is part two of a three-hour workshop. We are going to design the ultimate peer-to-peer methodology to inspire individuals to start and advance in the Changemaker Journey. In this session, you will learn about the research conducted by Ashoka’s Youth Venture together with Ballard Center at Brigham Young University to identify significant patterns in a young Changemaker’s journey. The Journey contains six stages, and for each stage we will design the necessary experiences that students can create for other students to start and advance as Changemakers. Don’t forget to bring your energy, collaborative spirit, and creative juices because we’re going to have fun. Learning outcomes include:
• Internalize the Changemaker Journey Methodology
• Explore ways you can support peers/students to start and advance in their changemaker journey
• Develop tactics to bring this into your environment
Presenter: Mentor Dida, Senior Ashoka Intrapreneur, Youth Venture Inc., Ashoka
Effective Organizing: Learning to Run Nonviolent Direct Action Campaigns (Part 2 of 2)
Room 1059
This is part two of a three-hour workshop. Recent research documents that nonviolent civil resistance campaigns have long been more effective than just using normal institutional channels such as elections, lobbying, and litigation, one-off mass protests, or violent rebellions when undemocratic power elites dominate a county’s economic and political life. This has been shown to be true in dictatorships, authoritarian societies, and formal or backsliding democracies like ours. How can you learn to organize powerful and effective movements in support of human rights, political freedom, social justice, and environmental sustainability? What skills are needed to build such movements? How might you become a more effective grassroots organizer and public policy advocate? This three-hour interactive workshop will tackle such questions and include story-telling, short presentations, group exercises, small and large group dialog, and an inspiring case study video.
Presenters: Steve Chase, Manager of Academic Initiatives, International Center on Nonviolent Conflicts; Colins Imoh, University of Toledo
Listening: Part Capacity, Ability, Activity (Part 2 of 2)
Room 1063
This is part two of a three-hour workshop. Do you believe that sustainable transformative peace is possible? Do you believe that a form of personal justice is defined by each party’s self-expression, collaboration, and ability to influence both the process and the outcome of a conflict? Do you want an experience of this belief lived out for yourself, your students, your organizations? These questions and more will be explored together with the starting place being you. Through an exploration of heroes, symbols and rituals with a focus on curiosity to find your capacity to be able to transformation communication into active conversations. We will explore concerns of transparency, acceptance and power. In our process we will look at ourselves as we connect with and are influenced by conditions that can, but do not need to, limit our ability to listen. These conditions would include social needs, political expectations, communication skills, and economic variables. We look forward to exploring with you!
Presenter: D.G. Mawn, President, National Association for Community Mediation (NAFCM)
Peace and Conflict Studies, A Development Discourse for Future Career Prospects
Room 1187
Being a professional development worker and peace practitioner with expertise on peacebuilding and conflict resolution and having engagement with UNDP, the presenter will share opportunities for students who are considering studying peace and conflict resolution. The presenter will explain how to apply for jobs within sectors and institutions like:
• Government agencies, such as Ministry of
• Foreign Affairs
• International organizations, such as the UN and NATO.
• NGOs and aid organizations
• Research institutions
• Media
• Independent/Self-employment as conflict mediator
Being a national of a developing and politically unstable country (Bangladesh), the presenter will share their experiences and contribution to society and country. Expatriate jobs will be covered. Considering current world situation and global factors — for example, Rohingya influx, European migrants crisis, Middle East conflict, increasing trend of religious extremism and terrorism, ethnic conflicts, and political instability and violence — this field is important to address the challenges our world faces.
Presenter: Uchimong Chowdhury, Program Officer, Justice and Peacebuilding, UNDP Bangladesh
Saturday, April 6, 1–2:30 p.m. Session 6: Workshops
Elevator Pitch for Activists
Room 1059
The workshop covers how to craft and master delivering an affective elevator pitch for activists. This is a simple, but effective, five-step process that benefits users when communicating their social change ideals to potential followers, audiences, and donors. Question, Observation, Resume, Fact, and Call to Action (QORFC) are the theoretical guidelines that will be covered in order during the workshop.
Presenter: Tim Burgoyne, Assistant Professor of Management, Wilmington College
A Law Student’s Perspective: Facilitation and Mediation of Interpersonal and Community Disputes
Room 1063
The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law’s Program on Dispute Resolution trains law students to engage in collaborative problem solving to resolve complex community and traditional legal problems. Facilitated by Moritz faculty, law student panelists will share their experience
• Mediating interpersonal and legal disputes in Moritz’s longstanding mediation clinic
• Designing and running a complex 20-person simulation which asks participants to use conflict resolution concepts to consider how to engage stakeholders and plan in advance of a community crisis
• Working on an initiative designed to develop a community spirit which residents share despite political polarization.
Presenters: Kandis Sargeant, Moritz 3L; Latifa Dabaja, Moritz 2L; Ayesha Cotton, Moritz 3L, Michael E. Moritz College of Law, The Ohio State University
Facilitator: Bill Froehlich, Langdon Fellow in Dispute Resolution, Michael E. Moritz College of Law, The Ohio State University
Mediation Speed Dating – The Importance of Core Skill Building for Successful Mediation in a Fast-Paced Court Program (Part 1 of 2)
Room 1069
Participants will be guided through exercises on active listening, separating interests and positions, and how to reframe interests to move parties toward possible resolution. Mediation in the marketplace takes on many different forms and can often be a hybrid of the basic styles of directive, facilitative and transformative models depending on where mediation is practiced. In this interactive workshop, I will discuss how I use the core conflict resolution skills to effectively mediate in a fast-paced court that doesn’t allow for much time for a truly facilitative process. Honing the use of active listening, framing and reframing, interest identification, and rapport building becomes essential in order to merge a directive and facilitative style that allows for transformation of the parties.
Presenter: Erika N. Jefferson, Adjunct Professor, Cuyahoga Community College; Mediator, Cleveland Housing Court
Promoting Peace through Museum Exhibits
Room 1187
Museums are considered the most trustworthy source of information in America, rated higher than local papers, nonprofit researchers, the U.S. government, or academic researchers, according to research conducted by the American Alliance of Museums. Because of this, museums have an obligation to get it right. How the museum chooses to portray history has a huge impact on public policy, social justice issues, and shaping the historical narrative of the nation. This panel, led by Public History Professor and Curator at the Dayton International Peace Museum Rachel Ellison, and Ed.D. Candidate with a focus in Holocaust education Caroline Winstel-McLeod, will discuss how museums can portray the past in order to build a better, more peaceful future.
Presenters: Rachel Ellison, Curator, Dayton International Peace Museum; Caroline Winstel-McLeod, Ed.D. Candidate, Northern Kentucky University
Supporting Ex-Offenders: Creating Community with College Social Systems
Room 1195
This discussion will present current statistics about incarcerated students and the invisible numbers of those ex-offenders attending college. We will examine ex-offenders as a marginalized group struggling to belong in a community while facing dim prospects for success due to a lack of housing, employment, and education. Our focus will be the factor of the lack of social support offered in our communities and colleges. This session should benefit faculty, staff, and administration in any educational institution working on attaining completion as well as anyone with an interest in working to hire, to connect or to provide resources for those needing an inclusive community. In addition, join us for a unique look at current and previous felons through a lens of art and narration. Ex-offenders will participate in the discussion.
Presenter: Heidi Arnold, Professor of Communication, Sinclair Community College; Ex-Offender, TBD
Saturday, April 6, 2:45–4:15 p.m. Session 7: Workshops
Effective Activism: Mapping Tactics and Strategies, Allies and Opponents
Room 1059
Social change does not occur in isolation but must be a product of the social milieu it engages while remaining politically relevant, tactically innovative, and less vulnerable to repression, recuperation, and cooptation. Often those working on the front lines of social change find themselves engaged in a never-ending cycle of reaction, rushing to oppose the latest forms of violence rather than engaging in contestation on its own terms. In this session, individuals can get hands-on experience understanding how social movements grow, build, and enact change. Throughout the interactive workshop, participants will be encouraged to explore a variety of questions such as: What differentiates the strategy of direct action from that of representationism and electoral politics? What factors should be considered when determining whether a particular protest tactic is effective or ineffective, violent or nonviolent? What can the practice of mapping teach us about our strengths and weaknesses, and the opportunities and threats present? What role can organizational mapping — identifying influencers and understanding bureaucracies — play in this? How can we distinguish allies from opponents, and realistic solutions from false ones? What are the key steps in developing a social change campaign and what distinguishes disruptive, performative and symbolic action?
Presenter: Michael Loadenthal, Visiting Professor of Sociology and Social Justice, Miami University of Oxford; Executive Director, Peace and Justice Studies Association
Mediation Speed Dating – The Importance of Core Skill Building for Successful Mediation in a Fast-paced Court Program (Part 2 of 2)
Room 1069
Participants will be guided through exercises on active listening, separating interests and positions and how to reframe interests to move parties toward possible resolution. Mediation in the marketplace takes on many different forms and can often be a hybrid of the basic styles of directive, facilitative, and transformative models, depending on where mediation is practiced. In this interactive workshop, I will discuss how I use the core conflict resolution skills to effectively mediate in a fast-paced court that doesn’t allow for much time for a truly facilitative process. Honing the use of active listening, framing and reframing, interest identification, and rapport building becomes essential in order to merge a directive and facilitative style that allows for transformation of the parties once they’re back in the community.
Presenter: Erika N. Jefferson, Adjunct Professor, Cuyahoga Community College; Mediator, Cleveland Housing Court
A Business Degree With a Social Justice Edge? How Marketing and Social Justice are Becoming an Ever Converging Career Path
Room 1063
Marketing. Well there is a surprise. Not typically thought of as a career that deals with peace education and social justice, marketing is shaping the entire country’s thoughts on such issues as we speak. How do we use the tools of marketing to create a change in culture toward nonviolent, socially just activism? In this workshop we will explore the career of the marketer and the ways in which it has evolved into one of major interest for those looking to study peace education and/or social justice. Numerous examples of companies currently looking for this skill set will be given as well as guidance on the next steps you might take in looking further into the issues at hand. Issues of social justice are being used frequently to persuade consumers to buy products and trust brands. Gillette, Nike, and Chevrolet are just a few of the numerous companies urging us to act on social justice. The brands we wear and love are saying a lot to our peers about our feelings on issues of social justice. Past and current “societal” marketing successes and faux pas will be examined and open dialogue about the pieces themselves and the after-effects will be discussed. The Business Administration/Marketing major is evolving daily and with a new generation poised to take the reins it becomes increasingly important to see where the job description of “marketer” is headed. This workshop will be of value to anyone attending this conference.
Presenter: Sue Lucas, Assistant Professor, Wilmington College