Earlham School of Religion’s Xavier Johnson, Colleen Wessel-McCoy, and Lonnie Valentine will serve as panelists at the annual Peace & Justice Studies Association Conference at the University of Mount Union in Alliance, Ohio in October.
The theme of this year’s PJSA Conference is “Vocation of the Peacemaker.”
During the “Issues in Peace Education” panel, Johnson, ESR’s assistant professor of practical theology, will speak about “Teachers’ Use of Restorative Justice to Develop Staff Community in a K-8 School Environment.”
The Faith and Peacemaking panel will also feature Johnson, who will be joined by Wessel-McCoy, ESR’s new professor of peace and justice studies, and Valentine, ESR’s emeritus professor of peace and justice studies. They will speak on the following topics, respectively:
- Partnering with God: Vocation and Peace-Building
- Freedom Church of the Poor: Nurturing the Call of Peacemakers
- The Vocation of the Anti-Peacemaker: A Religious Studies View of Trumpism
The PJSA Conference, which is scheduled for October 13-16, will feature speaker Ethelbert Miller,a writer, and literary activist. He is the author of two memoirs and several books of poetry. He is also a two-time Fulbright Senior Specialist Program Fellow to Israel.
Most recently, Miller was given a grant from the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities and a congressional award from Congressman Jamie Raskin of Maryland in recognition of his literary activism. He was awarded the 2019 Literary Award for poetry by the Black Caucus of the American Library Association for his book, If God Invented Baseball.
Another featured speaker is Bryson Davis, who is currently an instructor of sociology and criminal and restorative justice at Malone University, and an Innovation Fellow at Stanford University’s Hasso Plattner Institute of Design.
The Peace and Justice Studies Association (PJSA) serves as a professional association for scholars in the field of peace and conflict studies. PJSA is dedicated to bringing together academics, educators, and activists to explore alternatives to violence and share visions and strategies for peacebuilding, social justice, and social change. Students, faculty, and peace & justice practitioners are invited to participate in the conference.
For more information about the annual PJSA Conference, visit https://www.peacejusticestudies.org/annual-conference/.
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