Outreach

The international and domestic outreach that the Center for Peace and Conflict Studies has qualified it as an institution of its own. The world has changed as a result of the changes brought about by staff, volunteers, and our work. We continue to act upon the injustices in the world as a force of good that works towards change.

Past events

Ralph Bunche Summer Institute

For over 15 years, the Ralph Bunche Summer Institute (RBSI) has been dedicated to educating Metro-Detroit and international (Windsor, ON) high school students. Participants and leaders convened each summer on the campus of Wayne State University to engage in curricula of conflict resolution, youth non-violence, anti-bullying diversity/multiculturalism, public history, social justice, community policing/law enforcement, civic engagement, youth leadership development and international relations.

Peace in the Streets Conference

We believe passionately in the power of ideas, community efforts, education and conversations to change attitudes, lives and ultimately the world. Our mission is to provide a two-day event that helps plant the seed to build a movement toward creating a more peaceful society. 2022 will be the fourth event of its kind in which we work hard to hear from trailblazers leading workshops to provide insight and skills that our attendees can take back into their own communities. By hearing from their stories, learning from organizations that are on the front line and inspiring the youth to pursue projects, we hope to invoke inter-generational change, minimize the negative behaviors that impact the people around us and innovate solutions to be implemented into our very own backyards.

• 2019

  The second annual "Rotary Peace in the Streets Conference," in collaboration with and sponsored by the Rotary Clubs of Detroit, Windsor and Ann Arbor, was scheduled for October 25-26, 2019 at Wayne State.

  The focus of this event will be on projects and practical solutions to problems of violence, including human trafficking, inter-cultural relations, immigration, neighborhood empowerment and indigenous rights.
• 2018

  On April 20-21, 2018, the Wayne State Center for Peace and Conflict Studies put on a conference discussing the root causes of violence in our communities. Hundreds from around the world joined together for this event. Check out the trailer here and watch all the videos during the event.

  Violence in our communities has become a pressing concern for young and old alike.  Whether crime, drug, or weapon-related, whether ethnic, social, or political in nature, the manifestations of violence, particularly in our urban streets, has taken a grave toll on individuals and families and is especially tragic and troubling for young people.

  That message was brought out loud and clear by the high school and college-age students who attended last spring's Rotary Global Peace Conference in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The youth in attendance very much appreciated hearing about the causes, consequences and potential remedies for international and civil wars, but also alerted the organizers that the one thing they missed and that has deep and close-up personal meaning for their lives, is "Peace in the Streets."
  
  Therefore the Rotary Club of Detroit, in partnership with the Center for Peace and Conflict Studies at Wayne State University, has scheduled a "follow-on" Peace in the Streets symposium and Peace Weekend for April 2018.  We have invited noted experts to present their insights on three key dimensions of this topic: "Peace in the Hood;" "Peace in the Home;" and "Peace in the Schools." Important dialogue with youth will be built into the conference programming.

  On neighborhood violence, we will consider issues of crime, "gangs," ethnic and racial groups and police-community relations, all extremely timely and pressing these days and associated with protest movements, political and public controversy.  Dealing with issues at home, we will cover domestic and intimate partner violence (and the associated warning signs), family disputes and inter-generational relations. Moving to schools, we consider issues of bullying, suicide prevention, diversity and anger management. All of these topics will be covered in plenary keynote presentations and breakout workshops allowing for significant dialogue with youth in attendance.

  The aim is to help the audience understand the roots of these dangers and threats and to discover potentially constructive solutions and prevention strategies applicable to their own lives. In this way, we hope also to nurture a sense of unity among those in attendance, in the spirit of Rotary's efforts to foster peace both at home and abroad.

  As an expression of such unity and a hopeful example to the community, the conference will culminate during the afternoon of Apr. 21 with a human chain demonstration of "Hands across the Mile Roads," literally linking citizens from the city of Detroit and its "inner ring" suburbs in a demonstration of unity along six main roads that divide communities. In its evident social and political polarity today, America needs to recall our common humanity and the chain of hands will symbolize this strength and gain significant media coverage. 

  Friday, Apr. 20

  • Peace in the Hood
  • Keynote: Prof. Carl Taylor and Q&A
  • Panel/workshops: Skill-building and aspects of neighborhood peace
  • Noon-conference keynote: Pastor Barry Randolph, Church of the Messiah, Detroi
  • Campus: Hands Across Mile Roads nnactment
  • Peace in the Home
  • Keynote: Kristi Edmunds
  • Panel/workshops: Skill-building on aspects of domestic peace
  • Dialogue
    • The Human Effects of Immigration
    • Michigan United and Immigrant Survivors Youth Dialogue

  Saturday, Apr. 21

  • Peace in the Schools
  • Keynote: Barbara L. Jones
  • Panel/workshops: Skill-Building and Aspects of Peaceful Schools Police-Community Relations
  • Keynote: Dr. Izzeldin Abuelaish, Hands Across Dividing Lines
  • Hands Across the Mile Roads
  • Travel to "Birwood Wall" in Northwest Detroit to see and understand the historic symbol of racial polarization, with comments by noted social historian Jamon Jordan.

Visions of Peace

Visions of Peace celebrated young people's understanding of the United Nations' Convention on the rights of the child. More than twenty schools from Southern Michigan contributed art in a variety of media to inspire and illustrate hope for the world's future.  

Visions of Peace was the idea of former Director of the Center for Peace and Conflict Studies Lillian M. Genser who believes that through the arts, people can connect with their own humanity. When Ms. Genser retired from her long tenure at the helm of the center in 1990, an endowment was created to fund an annual scholarship devoted to the teaching of Human Rights and Peace through the Arts. The internship was centered on the rights of the child convention. Deanne Bednar, an artist and art teacher from Orchard Lake, MI was the first educator who coordinated the first Visions of Peace and was instrumental in its initial success. Marilyn Zimmerman, associate professor at Wayne State University had served as curator of Visions of Peace since 2000.  

The Visions of Peace exhibition was made possible thanks to the Lillian M. Genser Internship for Peace and Human Rights through the Arts, as well as the dedicated staff at the Swords Into Plowshares Peace Center & Gallery in Detroit where the children's art exhibition was first featured spring and summer 2001. For the second time in its history, Ann Arbor residents were able to enjoy this amazing collection thanks to the efforts of the volunteers from Ann Arbor's Artists for Peace, an off-shoot of Ann Arbor Area Committee for Peace and the contribution of the Ann Arbor City Hall and the Hands-on Museum, who kindly provided space for the venue.

U.S.-Japan Project

A life-changing ten-day study tour of Japan in May 2016 for ten Detroit-area K-12 educators and school board officials, commemorating the 70th anniversary of Peace in the Pacific, culminated a year's worth of preparatory work and learning in the "Discovering Japan" project. In addition to their in-depth understanding of Japan-American relations, the trip allowed the participants, individually and in teams, to develop specific classroom curricular units and innovative future learning plans on aspects of that relationship, ranging from educational approaches in the two countries to the meaning of peace. 

Participants represented the cities of Detroit, Pontiac, Ann Arbor, and Troy Michigan schools. Two of the participants, from Detroit's Osborn High School and Troy's Athens High School, resolved to begin an urban/suburban student study and exchange program in 2017 with Japanese counterparts. The tour's detailed itinerary included stops in Tokyo, Kyoto, Shiga Prefecture and Kusatsu (Michigan's sister province and Pontiac's sister city), and culminated in Hiroshima just three days before the arrival of President Barack Obama. Indeed while in Hiroshima the group received publicity and was quoted in the Los Angeles Times whose Beijing correspondent was there to meet the President.

• Preparing for the trip

  After an initial meeting and orientation, the group participated in monthly preparatory meetings and seminars leading up to the Japan trip itself. These sessions dealt with Japanese culture, history, politics, geography and society, international relations, East-West encounters, communication styles, language, technology, nuclear issues, cuisine and what to expect along with what would be expected during a visit. 

  Key presentations were given by Dr. David Magidson and Mr. Ueda, who discussed aspects of Japanese culture, communication style, customs and practices. These meetings also dealt with team-building and preparation related to Japan in general and the specific research teams and agendas.

• Community mini-conference and participant research presentations

  During the project's day-long concluding mini-conference on which the educators presented their curricular research reports to a community audience of about 60 people (civic officials, family members, students, faculty and staff), nearly all the participants cited their experience in Hiroshima as life-altering. The educators presented to a positive and receptive audience during the day-long mini-conference on June 17, with a community audience at the Damon J. Keith Center for Civil Rights at the Wayne State University Law School.

  Teacher pedagogical reports ran the gamut of peace and cultural-related studies including:

  • "An Honest View of Peace & Conflict between the US & Japan – Past, Present and Future" for use in high school Japanese curriculum
  • "A Japanese Cultural Fair for Special Education Students"
  • "Teaching Kids About Peace: Recommended resources" comparing the Holocaust, Hiroshima, and Rwanda
  • "Was the use of the Atomic Bomb the best way to end WWII? Cold War, Non-proliferation, and the Current Debate"
  • "International Tour Proposal – Japan: Land of the Rising Sun" for students of Detroit's Osborn Collegiate Academy of Mathematics, Science and Technology