The Duncum Center for Conflict Resolution and the ACU student chapter of Mediators without Boarders will host the ACU Conference on Peace Monday
Students, faculty and alumni will make presentations throughout the day. The keynote speaker, Dr. Kenneth Cloke, international mediator, will make three presentations. Cloke has mediated conflicts around the world.
The primary organizer of the conference is Dr. Garry Bailey, academic director for the Duncum Center. Bailey said he will provide introduction for the main speaker and will also making a presentation. Pam Horn, assistant to the executive director of the Duncum Center, is helping to coordinate the conference.
“This is our first year to hold the conference,” Horn said.
Horn said the keynote speaker, Cloke, will speak in Chapel on the topic “What You Can do to Stop Injustice.” Cloke will then speak at a Chapel forum at 3 p.m. in Hart Auditorium on the topic “A Conflict Revolution: Mediating Evil, War, Injustice and Terrorism.” He will conclude his presentations by speaking at a dinner in the University Church of Christ Family room at 6 p.m. His final presentation is titled “The Crossroads of Conflict: A Journey into the Heart of Dispute Resolution”
Bailey said the purpose of the conference is to “to encourage ACU students and faculty to be advocates for peace and justice around the world.”
He also said he hopes the conference inspires conversations around campus about what students and faculty can do to prevent injustices.
Bailey described Cloke as a “well-known scholar and practitioner of global peace and justice work.”
“Dr. Cloke has an amazing track record of resolving major conflicts in US organizations and many places around the world including Northern Ireland and Zimbabwe,” Bailey said. “He will be going to Greece next month to work with government agencies on immigration problems.”
Bailey said other conference presentations will begin in the Campus Center Living Room at 9 a.m. He said students in the Masters Program who are members of the ACU Mediators Beyond Borders Chapter will conduct a silent action of items from around the world.
“With the auction, students hope to raise funds for projects they are working on to do peacemaking work in places like Uganda, Croatia, Egypt and the Philippines,” he said.
Check in for the conference begins Monday at 8:30 a.m. in the Campus Center Living Room. Cloke’s first two presentations are free. Tickets for the dinner at UCC can be purchased at acu.edu/conflict. Registration includes dinner and lunch and discounts are available for students and alumni.
Bailey said anyone interested in peacemaking, mediation or global conflict intervention should attend the Conference on Peace.
He said the conference should have a positive effect on the ACU and Abilene communities.
“Conflicts are plentiful everywhere, but people with good peacemaking skills are not,” Bailey said. ” We hope the conference will bring awareness to ACU and Abilene of the importance of these skills. We also hope that the conference will demonstrate the value of opportunities participants have for education and training.”
Melany Cox and Katie Greene contributed to this report
