9th Critical Issues in Communication Series: Communication, Conflict, and the Search for Peace
Passport Credits Available for Each Event

Voices from the Front Lines of Global Conflict
April 17, 4-7 pm, Garden Conference Rooms AB, 333

“Is Peace a Reality in Kashmir?” Varghese Chakkummootil Oommen, Christian theology and Islamic Studies Scholar. Varghese, currently pursuing graduate studies in Social Justice in Intercultural Relations at the School for International Training, was working as the acting coordinator of the Conflict Transformation Team of the Henry Mar Social Justice in Intercultural Relations at the School for International Training Institute, an NGO situated in Hyderabad, India. He worked with divided groups to create a platform of trust and respect in some of the violent torn parts of India (Kashmir, Jammu, Nagaland, Manipur, Assam etc.). He has worked over the past five years to develop peace constituencies with student leaders, grassroots, women groups in these regions.

“Can you hear what I am saying? Grassroots dialogue in Israel-Palestine.” Shiri Barr, Israeli Peace Activist and Dialogue Facilitator. Shiri Barr, after completing a bachelor degree in social ecology in Australia, returned to Israel to work in promoting understanding between Jews and Palestinians living in neighboring communities in the north of Israel. Together with others she is developing a spiritual-political approach to peacemaking, inviting people on all sides of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to re-humanize each other, understand the deeper obstacles to peace and find ways to overcome them. Shiri is currently a Peace Fellow in the SIT Graduate Institute in Brattleboro, VT, where she is studying in the MA program in Conflict Transformation.

“What is Peace Journalism and How Does it Differ from Mainstream Media?” Kimberlye Kowalczyk, Peace Journalist. Kimberlye Kowalczyk was born and raised in Kyoto, Japan to a Korean mother and an American father. She is a trained peace journalist through Transcend and has worked in the field for the last five years with Kyoto Journal (Japan), Women's Feature Service (India), and as a reporter onboard Peace Boat (international). She is currently studying for an M.A. in Conflict Transformation at the School for International Training Graduate Institute.

War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits are Spinning us to Death
April 23, 4-6 pm, Scanlon Banquet Hall

Documentary film narrated by Sean Penn and featuring Norman Solomon, author of a book by the same title.
Discussion following screening with film’s director and producer, Loretta Alper, and assoc. producer: Jason Young, WSC Communication Alumnus.

Norman Solomon is a nationally syndicated columnist on media and politics. He is the founder and Executive Director of the HYPERLINK "http://www.accuracy.org" Institute for Public Accuracy, a national consortium of policy researchers and analysts. His columns have appeared in such publications as the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, Newsday, the New York Times, the Boston Globe, and USA Today. Solomon has appeared on The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, and CSPAN's Washington Journal and Book TV, and has been a guest on various National Public Radio programs. His last book, Target Iraq: What the News Media Didn’t Tell You, has been translated into German, Italian, and Hungarian.

“A superb, visual form of investigative journalism,” Howard Zinn

“Highly recommended,” Library Journal

“Compelling…A keen analysis of how war has been made easy by well-oiled propaganda techniques.” BuzzFlash.com

“Searing” San Francisco Chronicle

“Chilling and persuasive,” the Nation

“One of the top 10 documentaries of 2007,” John Griffin, Montreal Gazette

Understanding Rwanda and the Role of National and International Media
April 30, 4-6 pm, Scanlon Banquet Hall

Prof. Jean-Marie Higiro, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Communication, Western New England College; adjunct professor Westfield State College, Dept. of Communication. Professor Jean-Marie Higiro was former director of the Rwandan Information Office (ORINFOR). ORINFOR is a public agency that manages Radio-Rwanda, Rwandan Television, the Rwandan Press Agency and two weekly government newspapers under the oversight of the Ministry of Information. A scholar in the area of western media coverage of Africa and a former leader in the development of Rwandan communication policies, Professor Higiro’s most recent publication is “Rwandan Private Media on the Eve of the Genocide” in a 2007 book, The Media and Rwanda, (ed. Allan Thompson, Pluto Press).

Annual Awards Dinner
The department’s annual awards dinner will be held on the evening of Friday, May 2nd: students, alumni, family and friends are all invited. Additional details will follow, but please save the date!

John Paulmann, Chair
Professor John Paulmann has been elected the next chair of the department: his term will begin in July 2008 and run for three years.