The 2023 Notre Dame Student Peace Conference committee is pleased to announce this year’s conference, Voices: Naming War, Speaking Peace.
Over the past year, we have witnessed a resurgence of old tensions alongside new conflicts. Injustice, violence, and inequality affect individuals differently but have profound impacts in any society.
As current and future peacebuilders, we are tasked with understanding how belief systems, cultural histories, and collective values shape opportunities for peace and justice in contexts of both direct and structural violence. Whether these narratives are present in newspaper headlines, personal experiences, or academic scholarship, they amplify the voices of those who endure violence and struggle for peace.
Inspired by the 2022-2023 Notre Dame Forum: War & Peace, we have chosen this theme to help advance our thinking beyond the traditional dichotomy of war and peace and toward an illumination of how violence, conflict, and injustice affect our everyday lives no matter where we live.
We must embrace complexity and discern the unheard voices in narratives of war and peace if we are to establish societies truly committed to justice and peace.
How do we move beyond the traditional dichotomy of war and peace in order to establish just societies?
How do we as peacebuilders, scholars, and practitioners seek to understand the truth in complex conflict environments?
What do past and current conflicts and crises tell us about whose voices must be heard in order to promote peace and pursue justice?
The conference committee invites undergraduate and graduate students from all different fields of study to submit interdisciplinary proposals that address these questions or that demonstrate how their own work, practice, or scholarship advances the field of peace studies and its understanding of justice.
Students can propose innovative presentations or sessions of all types: research papers and posters; presentations on experiential learning; panel discussions; artwork, performance, and media projects; or other project formats.
We welcome proposals that highlight practice as well as those based on research. Strong proposals might engage with, but are not limited to, topics such as:
Conflict in Ukraine
Racial Justice
Ethnic Conflict
Peace Negotiations
Intersectionality
Role of Media
Environmental Peacebuilding
Global Health Inequality
Conflict Transformation
Strategic Peacebuilding
Religion and Peacebuilding
Erosion of Democracy
Afghan Resettlement
Nonviolent Resistance
Women and Conflict
Digital Peacebuilding
Restorative Justice
Grassroots Movements
Students are encouraged to review proposal requirements and accepted presentation formats before beginning the submission process.
The submission deadline is Friday, January 27, 2023. Proposals received earlier may be given preference in the review process.
Any questions about the submission process should be directed to the conference organizers at peacecon@nd.edu.