The PEACE HISTORY SOCIETY is holding its biennial international conference from October 26 through October 28, 2023. Hosted by Gwynedd Mercy University, the conference is organized as a hybrid event with on-site and online presentations, exhibits, and more. The conference theme, "Peace & Protest, Past & Present," recognizes peace as an active process often expressed through dissent and protest rather than a passive condition signifying an absence of physical violence. It refers equally to nonviolent protest across a range of justice movements and to direct actions in support of peace and justice. The conference features:
- A Peaceful Superpower: A Roundtable Conversation about the World’s Largest Antiwar Movement, featuring David Cortright (former director of SANE), Carolyn "Rusti" Eisenberg (author of Fire and Rain: Nixon, Kissinger, and the Wars in Southeast Asia), Kate Hudson (former chair of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament), and Jonathan Hutto (author of Antiwar Soldier: How to Dissent Within the Ranks of the Military)--this plenary session will examine the movement to prevent and then oppose the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq;
- a keynote address by George Lakey, renowned Quaker peace and justice activist, and author of the memoir Dancing With History: A Life for Peace and Justice;
- a discussion moderated by historian Scott Bennett (author of Radical Pacifism: The War Resisters League and Gandhian Nonviolence in America, 1915-1963) with War Resisters League leaders Mandy Carter, Ed Hedemann, and Joanne Sheehan on the 100th anniversary of the WRL, accompanied by an exhibit on the history of the WRL;
- panels on the history of the Catholic Plowshares movement and war tax resistance in the United States, with reflections from activists who have participated in these forms of protest.
The full program is available here.
Registration is open now on the conference website, which includes information about local accommodations, directions to the Gwynedd Mercy University campus, and more. Please contact the conference organizers at [email protected] for any additional information.