The Bunting Peace and Justice Speaker Series, made possible with a generous gift from Mary Catherine Bunting, hosts speakers and events that contribute to raising awareness about peace and justice issues.
The Call of Service: a Restorative Vision to Sustain Us
Howard Zehr
Thursday, October 11, 2018 at 7:00 pm in McGuire Hall
Widely known as "the grandfather of restorative justice," Howard Zehr is Distinguished Professor of Restorative Justice at Eastern Mennonite University's Center for Justice and Peacebuilding. He will speak with us about the importance of a restorative vision. He has led hundreds of events in more than 25 countries and 35 states, including trainings and consultations on restorative justice, victim-offender conferencing, judicial reform, and other criminal justice matters. Zehr has also used photography to explore issues of justice. A prolific writer and renowned scholar, his books include: The Little Book of Restorative Justice (2002, 2015); Changing Lenses: Restorative Justice for Our Times (1990, 1995, 2005, 2015); The Little Book of Contemplative Photography (2005); Transcending: Reflections of Crime Victims (2001); and Doing Life: Reflections of Men and Women Serving Life Without Parole (1996).
Race Relations in the Age of Trump
William Julius Wilson
Tuesday November 13, 2018 at 6:00 pm in McGuire Hall
Wilson, a renowned sociologist and the Lewis P. and Linda L. Geyser University Professor at Harvard University, will address the structural roots of urban poverty and current race relations. Wilson is the author of three award-winning books, The Declining Significance of Race (1978, 1980, 2012), The Truly Disadvantaged (1987, 2012), and When Work Disappears (1996). His other titles include Power, Racism and Privilege (1973), The Bridge over the Racial Divide (1999), There Goes the Neighborhood (2006, co-author), Good Kids from Bad Neighborhoods (2006, co-author), and, most recently, More than Just Race: Being Black and Poor in the Inner City (2009). This event is co-sponsored by Messina and the Center for Community Service and Justice, with financial support from the President’s Office. Photo credit: Martha Stewart.
Bearing Witness to Europe's Refugee Crisis
A. E. Stallings
Tuesday February 7, 2019 at 6:00 pm in 4th Floor Program Room
As an American poet and translator who lives in Greece, A. E. Stallings will address Europe's refugee crisis and read from her work. She has published four books of original verse: Archaic Smile (1999), which won the Richard Wilbur Award; Hapax (2006), which won the Poet's Prize and the America Academy of Arts and Letters' Benjamin H. Danks Award; Olives (2012), a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award; and her most recent work Like (2018),published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Her verse translations of Lucretius's The Nature of Things (2007) and Hesiod's Works and Days (2018) are published by Penguin Classics. She is a member of the America Academy of Arts and Sciences. This event is co-sponsored by the Center for Humanities, the departments of Classics, English, and Writing.
Fighting for Peace and Justice: The Armenian Genocide Case Study
Anthony Barsamian
Thursday April 9, 2019 at 6:00 pm. in 4th Floor Program Room
Anthony Barsamian, a lawyer, and a co-chair of the Board of Trustees of the Armenian Assembly of America, will address the Armenian genocide and the struggle for recognition and justice. He travels regularly to Armenia and serves on the Advisory Board of the Armenia Tree Project, a reforestation and rural development project, which has planted and monitored over 5.5 million trees in Armenia. Barsamian is currently President of the Massachusetts Council of Churches, the oldest Christian ecumenical organization in the US, founded in 1903, and the first Orthodox Christian and Armenian-American in this position. He also serves on the Political Science Advisory Board for the Social and Behavioral Science Department at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.