Imagining Peace in the 21st Century Archive (2019-2020)
Organizers Heading link
Joaquín M. Chávez, UIC History
Andreas Feldmann, UIC Latin American and Latino Studies & Political Science
This working group seeks to engage in a reflection on the social and historical relevance of peace processes. Our goal is to develop a broad debate that captures discussions both at the academic and political level. What are the ideas informing peace processes? What are some of the most relevant scholarly approaches in the study of peace processes, conflict resolution, and related themes? What can we learn from the comparative study of recent peace processes and mediations conducted by the United Nations and other international actors such as European Union, Norway and Switzerland, among others, in a variety of regional settings? These are some of the larger questions that this panel seeks to address. Faculty and students from any discipline are most welcome to join this conversation.
November 7, 2019 from 3:30 - 5 PM
Oliver Stuenkel is an Associate Professor of International Relations at the Getúlio Vargas Foundation (FGV) in São Paulo, a columnist for EL PAÍS and Americas Quarterly, and a commentator for Globonews. His research focuses on Brazilian foreign policy, Latin American politics, global order and emerging powers. He is the author of the IBSA: The rise of the Global South? (Routledge 2014), The BRICS and the Future of Global Order (Lexington, 2015) and the Post-Western World: How Emerging Powers Are Remaking Global Order (Polity, 2016).
March 6, 2020, 12 – 2PM
Mallika Kaur Presents Book: Faith, Gender, and Activism in the Punjab Conflict
Location: University Hall 1550
Punjab was the arena of one of the first major armed conflicts of post-colonial India. During its deadliest decade, as many as 250,000 people were killed. This book makes an urgent intervention in the history of the conflict, which to date has been characterized by a fixation on sensational violence—or ignored altogether. Mallika Kaur unearths the stories of three people who found themselves at the center of Punjab’s human rights movement: Baljit Kaur, who armed herself with a video camera to record essential evidence of the conflict; Justice Ajit Singh Bains, who became a beloved “people’s judge”; and Inderjit Singh Jaijee, who returned to Punjab to document abuses even as other elites were fleeing. Together, they are credited with saving countless lives. Braiding oral histories, personal snapshots, and primary documents recovered from at-risk archives, Kaur shows that when entire conflicts are marginalized, we miss essential stories: stories of faith, feminist action, and the power of citizen-activists.
Mallika Kaur is a lawyer and writer who focuses on human rights, with a specialization in gender and minority issues. She received her BA from University of Chicago; Master in Public Policy from Harvard University, and her Juris Doctorate from the UC Berkeley School of Law, where she currently teaches skills-based and experiential social justice classes.