Each year, the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict holds a week long course on nonviolent conflict and civil resistance at the Fletcher School for Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. Participants come from all over the world and from a variety of backgrounds. This year we had participants from 5 continents, 25 countries, speaking 18 different languages, and professionals and/or organizers involved in various nonviolent struggles around the globe in places like West Papua, Palestine, Egypt, Nepal, India, Burma, Russia, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Mexico, and several other places.
I attended the Fletcher Summer Institute (FSI) last year, but only for a couple days, so it was a real treat to be able to experience the program in its entirety. Also, being a staff member this year, as opposed to an observer last year, I had a lot more responsibility in helping develop, organize, plan, and facilitate the institute (during the week of the Institute, I put in 96 hours of work!).
This past week I spent three days in Atlanta, GA meeting and working with scholars, academics, and educators interested in teaching courses on civil resistance.
ICNC put together a two day workshop on the study and teaching of civil resistance with the input of some of the world’s top scholars in the field. Dr. Kurt Schock from Rutgers University presented his research on civil resistance movements for land reform in countries like India and Brazil. Dr. Cynthia Boaz from Sonoma State University presented on the role of women in civil resistance movements and looked specifically at the women’s movement in Iran among other struggles. Tom Hastings from Portland State University and blogger presented on the historiography of teaching and pedagogy of civil resistance. Howard Clark, Chair of War Resisters International, presented on the conceptual foundations of disobedience and protest. Stephen Zunes from San Fransisco University presented on current issues and controversies associated with civil resistance and looked at several cases, past and present, and some of the lessons learned from studying these movements. And Les Kurtz from George Mason University presented on various ways educators could structure syllabi for courses on civil resistance.
Today I was unanimously voted in as a new board member of the Democracy Matters Institute. Democracy Matters is an outstanding organization doing great work with young people on college campuses across the country. I worked for Democracy Matters for two years, first as a regional field organizers and then as the assistant director. It is an honor to stay connected with this organization in this new capacity and I look forward to contributing to their continued success.
Yesterday was the final class of the semester. This marked the second time my Dad and I co-taught the class, Education for International Development (see post from beginning of semester).
The last three weeks of the semester were dedicated to the students working together in teams to analyze development challenges within a particular country and then design an education/training program that addresses those challenges. My Dad and I use a fictional country called Afrinia – a country that faces a lot of challenges related to the topics we covered in the class – ethnic tension, inadequate access to education (particularly for women and girls), high levels of international debt, emerging from a civil war, monoculture economy, high rates of HIV/AIDS, and more.
Today I delivered a presentation at my Alma Mater, Middlebury College. The presentation was titled, “The Digital Duel: Resistance and Repression in an Online World.” It looked at the role of digital tools and social media in aiding and advancing nonviolent struggles around the world in places like Egypt, Colombia, Iran, Burma, and Ukraine. It also looked at how repressive governments are finding their own ways to clamp down on the use of these tools.
I was invited to speak by the Rohatyn Center for International Affairs, the Geography Department, and a former professor of mine, Guntram Herb. The whole experience was very cool because I actually took Guntram Herb’s Geography of Peace class back in 2002 when I was an undergrad. It was in that class where I first read the book, A Force More Powerful, which chronicles this history of nonviolent struggles throughout the 20th century looking at movements like the Danish resistance of the Nazis during WWII, India’s Independence Movement, the U.S. Civil Rights Movement, the anti-Apartheid struggle in South Africa, and several others. That class, and that book more specifically, introduced me to the strategic elements of nonviolent action as a way to affect political and social change. The book was written by Jack DuVall and Peter Ackerman, who are the two gentleman that founded the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict, where I now work. So, to go back to Middlebury to speak with students who are in Guntram Herb’s class and talk about the importance of the subject and how it inspired me to work in this field was amazing on a number of different levels.
Prior to the presentation I conducted some person-on-the-street interviews asking students for their thoughts on how they view digital tools and social media impacting social and political change. The whole exercise was designed to not only promote my presentation, but also demonstrate how easy it is to create and self-publish your own work, spread it through different networks online, and solicit increased participation from people in generating conversation about a particular topic. The video was shot using a Flip video camera and edited on iMovie.
When I came on board with ICNC in July 2009, one of my primary responsibilities was to help them finalize the development of a new website and get it launched. The site was built on the open source content management system (CMS), Joomla. In the process of putting this site together I learned a lot about this CMS and the thousands of extensions available for Joomla that can add to the functionality of the site. Joomla is a real testament to the innovation the is generated using open-source platforms and software.
In this capacity I will assist an excellent team of social and technological entrepreneurs in developing online classes designed to train people in the use of digital tools, online applications, and social media to advance and enhance work in the field around issues of human rights, peacebuilding, conflict transformation, and disaster relief.
This past weekend I had the honor of attending my third Democracy Matters student summit. This year I facilitated three workshops:
(1) Organizing 101: How to Organize S.M.A.R.T. campaigns – This workshop looked at five ways campus organizers can think about their campaigns strategically. The SMART model (slightly amended for the purpose of this workshop) asks if your campaign is Specific, Measurable, Advertised (adapted from achievable), Realistic, and Timebound.
(2) Winning Over Your Audience: Tips for Great Public Speaking – This workshop helped students organizers get comfortable speaking about money in politics and how it connects with other hot button issues.
(3) Interactive Audience Engagement Techniques – This workshops introduced students to a couple activities they can use to increase participation among their audiences.
This evening I was at WHYY in Philadelphia, PA to moderate a panel on the role of nonviolent resistance in the Orange Revolution. The discussion followed a screening of the documentary film, Orange Revolution.
I was joined on the panel with three other individuals. Steve York, the director of the documentary, spoke in depth about the struggle and what the experience was like shooting the film. Adrian Karatnycky, Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council and Managing Partner of Myrmidon Group LLC, spoke about some of the politics behind the Orange Revolution and the future of Ukraine. Mary Lord, Scholar in Residence at Pendle Hill, talked about the differences between nonviolence as an ethical and moral principle versus nonviolent action as a strategic means to achieve and wield political and social power.
I had been working a lot with WHYY and York/Zimmerman, Inc. (the film’s production company) in organizing this event. I was really happy with how it turned out.
This is a professional resume blog that highlights different elements of my career and provides more information about the skills, passions, and interests I bring to my work.
Daryn R. Cambridge 