Activities by year:

Archive: Alternatives to Violence

A Humanities approach to exploring violence and its alternatives—of necessity starts from the foundational perspective of self and society—conceived of as simultaneously and inextricably separate and connected. Psychology, sociology and philosophy are approaches central to our understandings of the phenomenon of violence. Educational and other interventions intended to promote or make possible alternative actions and intentions must therefore focus on the issues of choice, will and disposition.

For the social group, whether family, ethnic group, religious community or nation, educational interventions that focus on alternatives and responses to violence must start with the individuals, but acknowledge that both the actions and intentions of these selves are conditioned and can be dominated both by the superficial and the deep structures that characterize the social world in which we live.

Our task, then, is to devise a means by which an exploration of self and society utilizing a Humanities perspective grounded in historical, philosophical, cultural, religious and psychological perspectives can lead us to (a) understand in a more sophisticated manner (beyond labels) the intercommunal or intracommunal violence that seems, at the start of a new millennium, to be looming as a replacement for the inter-state violence that has so dominated our past; (b) determine the degree to which Enlightenment ideals such as "empathy" or "sympathetic understandings" can be relevant antidotes to this violence and how they might be promoted through educational interventions; (c) devise a means of responding to this growth in communal violence at the level of the self through education and at the level of society through research and public awareness.

The following projects elaborate and continue the Institute's work in the cultural and social roots of violence.

2002-2003

Gandhi Commemorative Program 2002. Thakore Visiting Scholar Dr. James Lawson
Gandhi Commemorative Program 2003. Thakore Visiting Scholar Recipient War Child Canada
The Joanne Brown Symposium on Violence and its Alternatives 2002: "Technologies of Violence."
Violence and its Alternatives lecture series Fall 2002, Spring 2003, and Fall 2003: Robert Hackett: Violence and the Media; Margaret Jackson: Race and Gender: Perceptions of Girls about Violence in their Lives; Marlene Moretti: Aggression and Violence in Girls; Stephen Kline and Kym Stewart: Evaluating a Media Risk Assessment Strategy for Children and Adults; Ehor Boyanowsky: Hitting, Hurting and Having Fun; Michael Fellman: Twisting the Cross: Terrorism and the Construction of American Society; Douglas Cousineau: Structuring Violence: the Interaction among religion, Economics, War and Conquest; Stephen Ogden: The Necessity of Literature for a Humane Science; Kate Scheel: Violence and the Literature of War; Douglas Ross: Weapons of Mass Destruction and the End of War?
The Joanne Brown symposium on Violence and its Alternatives 2003: "Exile as an Alternative to Violence."

1998-2001

1998 Gandhi Commemorative Program. Thakore visiting scholar award recipient Marta de la Vega Torres.
1998 Surrey Art Gallery Exhibition: Hari Sharma, "Like the Mighty Ganges, Life continues to Flow."
1998 Surrey Art Gallery Symposium, "Nuclear Terror in the Economy of Scarcity": Asma Jahangir, Kildip Nayar, T. Sher Singh. Moderated by Ed Broadbent.
1999 Gandhi Commemorative Program. Thakore Visiting Scholar Thomas Berger.
2000 Gandhi Commemorative Program. Thakore Visiting Scholar Medha Patkar.
2001 Gandhi Commemorative Program. Thakore Visiting Scholar Lloyd Axworthy.
1999 G.P. Deshpande and K.N. Panikkar Lecture: "Death in Kashmir: Militarism, Communalism, and India-Pakistan Relations."
1999 Arlindo Marcal (Protestant Church of East Timor) lecture.
1999 Mochtar Buchori lecture: "Indonesia: Recent events in Indonesia and Prospects for Reform.
2000 The Joanne Brown Alternatives to Violence Symposium: "Systemic Violence: an Interdisciplinary and Comparative Approach to Understanding, Experiencing and Responding to Violence".
2001 The Joanne Brown Alternatives to Violence Symposium: "Violence, Trauma, and the Arts."
2001 February: Israel/Palestine Science for Peace Tour. Speakers: Jeff Halper and Salin Shawanreh.
2001 Tribute to Aung San Suu Kyi.

1996-1997

1996 March 5: Peace in the Middle East? Noam Chomsky, visiting speaker, in cooperation with Jews for a Just Peace, the Unitarian Social Action Committee, and the United Jewish Peoples Order. Ridge Theatre.
1996 February: Ed Broadbent, visiting speaker in the Problems and Prospects of Social Democracy series: Human Rights in the Age of Globalization.
1996 March 8: Ambedkar Collection, donation to SFU Library.
1996 Mordecai Briemberg, "Is the Peace Process Dead?" HC.
1997 Development funds for "One Day Seminar on Rene Girard," Dany Lacombe, French.
1997 Development funds for "The New Millennium": Not Everything Will Change; Not Everyone Will Notice," (photography exhibit), Hari Sharma, Sociology and Anthropology.
1997 East Timor and Indonesia (conference) "East Timor Perspectives on History and the Future;" "Perspectives on E. Timor and Indonesia; East Timor as a Canadian Issue;" "Freedom of Conscience — Religious Perspectives on Human Rights in Indonesia and East Timor;" Screening of "Bitter Paradise: The Sell-Out of East Timor," and Closing Address by Jose Ramos Horta (various locations in Vancouver).
1997 Judith Brown, lecture on Gandhi as Victorian Gentleman.
1997 Dr. George J. Aditjondro, Lecturer in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Newcastle University, NSW, Australia, "The Current Environmental Crisis in Indonesia", lecture.

1995

Joy Kogawa, Grace MacInnis Visiting Scholar Award 1994. In recognition of her literary achievements and the intensity with which she has spoken out against injustice and her contribution toward the Canadian Governments'steps to provide redress to Japanese Canadians in 1988, Joy Kogawa was invited to accept the Grace MacInnis Award for 1994/95. February 1995.
Fascism and the Spectacular State, a public forum dedicated to the critical examination of fascism, brought together artists, activist, and scholars to generate critical discussion about the various characteristic and consequences of fascism in its historical and contemporary contexts. The forum included film and video screenings, art exhibitions, lectures, panels and round table discussions.
Jones Boy Productions, performed at the Van East Cultural centre: a production focusing on addictions and abuse followed by a panel discussion with participants within the community. Teens from alternative high schools within the city were invited to attend at subsidized cost. March 1995.
Ed Garcia spoke on behalf of the Fascism and the Spectacular State Project and also at Burnaby Mountain Campus in March 1995, where he discussed his work with International Alert on Citizens' Peacemaking and addressed the topic of peaceful solutions to national and international conflicts.
Ivan Klima, the Writer and Politics in Central Europe. Ivan Klima, one of the finest writers of novels, plays and criticism in Central Europe today, visited Vancouver and spoke at SFU in March 1995.
The Minotaur: a theatrical co-production with inmates, ex-inmates, parolees, and the theatre community in Van. Sept. - Oct. 1995, produced by i.t. productions in cooperation with Stage Left Inmate Theatre, originating out of Matsqui Prison "Staying Out" Project.
Gandhi Ceremonies and the Thakore Visiting Scholar Award: Aung San Suu Kyi and The Canadian Friends of Burma, October 2, 1996 and Josef Silverstein: The idea of Freedom and the Political thought of Aung San Suu Kyi, October 6, '95, at Harbour Centre. In coordination with the Gandhi Commemorative program, and as part of the Leon and Thea Koerner Foundation Lecture Series. Josef Silverstein's lecture focused on the idea of freedom in Burma and the seeking of peaceful solutions.
Modernity: Challenge to Jewish Survival: a public lecture by Leonard Ehrlich, emeritus professor of philosophy, University of Massachusetts. Dr. Ehrlich's lecture introduced new and complex ideas about the fate of the Jewish people in modern times. October 25, '95, at Harbour Centre.
Public Forum: Changing the Law on Spanking, October 27-28, 1995, SFU, Harbour Centre. Public forum which brought together professionals from the fields of pediatrics, psychology, social work, criminology and the law, to present recent research on physical punishment of children, to explore educational initiatives that encourage alternatives to physical punishment and to discuss the initiates to repeal Section 43 of the Canadian Criminal Code.
Rajmohan Gandhi, from the Centre for Policy Research at New Delhi, spoke on Nonviolence and Nationalism: The South Asian Experience (in cooperation with the Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute. October 27, 1995.
Canada-Japan Forum, Nov. 23-25, 1995. Panel discussions focused on contemporary cultural practices, problems of identity and representation, and strategies for promoting change and social transformation.

1994

James L. Acord, Nuclear Sculpture, Environmentally and Socially Responsible Design: mixed media presentation looking at society's view of the nuclear age, the role of the arts in directing civilization's use of advanced technologies, and environmental restoration. March 1994 at Harbour Centre.
Writing Thru' Race, Writer's Union of Canada, A Conference for First Nations Writers and Writers of Colour. June-July 1994. Discussions, workshops and readings focusing on questions of appropriation of voice and culture and the overall subordination of First Nations writers and writers of colour. This conference provided a context for writers of colour to discuss race and writing, including such issues as colonization, appropriation, history, victimization, class, sexuality, first vs. second languages, advocacy, and subjectivity.
Shadows of Swastika: a symposium on Militant Hindu Nationalism in India with Jayant Lele, Queen's University, K.N. Panikkar, New Deli, and Tapan Kumar Raychaudhuri, University of Oxford, joined by Hari Sharma from the Sociology Department at Simon Fraser University. The discussion focused upon the destruction of India's Babri Mosque in December of 1992, its ramifications and the social political climate of India in the present. July 1994.
Gandhi Ceremonies and the Thakore Visiting Scholar Award, 1994, Dr. Ursula Franklin.
Phyllis Chesler, author of Women and Madness and Mothers on Trial gave a public lecture in November of 1994.
Spanish and Latin American Guest Speakers Series at SFU in 1994. The Institute supported a number of speakers in this series: Daisy Zamora, Nicaraguan Poet, The Brazilian Culture Forum, including Veronica Armstrong,Eduardo Coutinho, and Lidia do Valle Santos, and Galina Alexeeva.
Forbidden Fruits, panel discussions on homosexuality and censorship,October 1994. These discussions focused on the Little Sister's Book indurate Emporium and the BC Civil Liberties Association challenging of the Canadian government's right to seize, detain and ban books.

1993

Grace MacInnis Program with Shirley Williams, Jan., 23-27, 1993 who spoke on Social Democracy, Problems Democracies confront, and the European Community.
Smitu Kothari, Multilateral Institutions and Democracy, January 12, 1993
Alexander Vaschenko, Contemporary Russian Culture in the Changing Political Climate, on March 5, 1993, with a focus on the predicament of otherness in the literature of the Russian ethnics.
Spain and Latin America, The Two New Worlds Today, March 3-6, 1993 in Vancouver: focusing on new political relationship between Spain and Latin America, Mexican and Latin American culture, cultural relations between the Mexican and the exiled intellectuals from the Spanish Civil War, and included films, performances, readings, and lectures.
Don Grayston, Gandhi and Human Development Conference, Calgary, August 1993.
Don Grayston, Centre for Study of Religion and Society, Victoria, November 1993.
Don Grayston, American Academy of Religion Convention, Washington, DC Nov. 1993: a colloquium on violence and religion.
Thakore Visiting Scholar Award and Gandhi Ceremony 1993, Ovide Mercredi, Chief of the Assembly of First Nations.
Prison Education Research Project: Harvey Graff, October 15, 1993: seminar which looked specifically at the impact of liberal arts education on post-release lives of prisoner-students. Harbour Centre.
William Head on Stage, support for WHOS, production of Fathers in Victoria, October 1993.
Correctional Education Conference, October 1993, Whistler: lectures, panel sessions and workshops focusing on education in prisons, community based corrections, living skills, and humanities and theatre in prisons.
Support for Hari Sharma India Cultural Exchange, to develop cultural exchange with SFU, Oct.-Nov. 1993
David Newman, speaker, The Political Geography of Peace: Israel and the West Bank, Dec. 1993

1992

Jubilee Community for Justice and Peace: Listening to our Heart Beat Workshops Program, January 1992, in coordination with the Squamish Nation
Education Department, Project North and Talks Not Tanks: working towards understanding and living in solidarity with First Nations People -- lectures and workshops directed toward educating about the history, issues and culture of First Nations peoples.
Prison Education Theatre: production of HESS in London, June 1992, in conjunction with the first National Symposium on the Arts and Offender Rehabilitation.
Support toward the International Forum for the Study of Education in Penal Systems, 1992.
Global 2000 seminar, March 1992 with Douglas Roche.
New Europe Conference, Democracy and Capitalism in the West. March 1992
Correctional Education Association Conference, Orlando, July 1992, Steve Duguid.
Jubilee Community for Justice and Peace: Guatemala: Linking our Voices and our Roots, September 1992, Native Education Centre, Vancouver -- series of events linking the situation of indigenous people and refugees in Guatemala and Canada.
Gandhi Ceremony and Thakore Visiting Scholar: Douglas Roche international chairperson of Global 2000, 1992, for his work in the area of global security (the environment, economic development, and disarmament). Douglas Roche was Canada's Ambassador for Disarmament from 1984-1989.
Correctional Education Association Conference, Idaho, October 1992, Steve Duguid
Jorge Garcia, Los Angeles Latin American Conference, Oct. 1992
Ethnic Identities, Inglish, Nov. 13-14, 1992 at the Western Front, Vancouver. A conference on writing and ethnicity, gender and racism.
International Forum on Education in Prisons Conference in Leeds, England: support for Steve Duguid and Brian Burtch to attend. December 1992

1988-1991

Perspectives on the New Europe. A series of public talks and seminar which focused on the issues and changing realities in Central and Eastern Europe. Talks centred on: socialization, power, new national and ethnic movements, and human rights. April 1990.
Environment and Labour Project, March 1991, a SSHRCC supported workshop (Steve Duguid)
Correctional Education Association meeting in Idaho, August 1991, support for travel for Steve Duguid to attend.
Ernesto Cardenal, visiting speaker on Nicaragua Today, September 1991
Hungary 1956 Conference, 1988: Central Europe, Seventy years after, 1918-1988
Support toward prison theatre production of The Stranger at William Head Stage 1991 October and November.
Gandhi Ceremony and Thakore Visiting Scholar October 1991, Ed Broadbent: the award honoured Mr. Broadbent's public role in the area of human rights and the work of the International Centre for Human Rights and Democratic Development in Montreal, of which he is President.
Naval Arms Control Conference, November 1991, in conjunction with Doug Ross at Simon Fraser and the Centre for International Studies.