Tag Archives: youth

Youth and Religion: Potential Linchpins for Peace

Today I moderated a live streamed panel discussion, Youth and Religion: Potential Linchpins for Peace. The panel featured an outstanding lineup of youth and religion experts and leaders: Imrana Alhaji Buba, Founder of Youth Coalition Against Terrorism, USIP Generation Change Fellow, and Nigerian youth leader; Aubrey Cox, Senior Program Specialist on Youth at the U.S. Institute of Peace; and Melissa Nozell, Senior Program Specialist on Religion & Inclusive Societies at the U.S. Institute of Peace. The three of them authored the USIP Special Report, Implementing UNSCR 2250: Youth & Religious Actors Engaging for Peace.

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Peace Frequency Podcast – Community Based Peacebuilding Series

This month I had the great privilege of helping co-facilitate and design the USIP online course, Community Based Peacebuilding: Engaging Youth. The main instructor for the course was Dr. Alison Milofsky, who is a brilliant, dynamic and gifted facilitator. Part of the course experience involved four great interviews on the Peace Frequency podcast. Alison and I co-hosted these episodes and were able to bring some great stories and perspectives into the course.

Peace Frequency w/ Guest, Mark Brimhall-Vargas. In this episode we explored the different definitions and types of dialogue and discussed some of the important complexities involving race, class, gender, sexual orientation and other dimension of identity.

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Peace Frequency w/ Guest, Ariana Barth. In this episode Ariana shares her experience facilitating dialogues with youth who come from communities engaged in intense identity based conflicts.

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Peace Frequency w/ Guest, Dominic Barter. In this episode we speak with one of the world’s most well-respected practitioners of dialogue who sheds light on concepts such as community, relationship, justice, and conflict.

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Peace Frequency Special Episode w/ Guests, Arthur Romano, Elavie Ndura, Nadine Bloch, and Kazu Haga. In this special episode we celebrate and interrogate the legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr. by speaking with four scholars, practitioners, and activists who have immersed themselves in nonviolent movements in unique and distinct ways.

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Peace Frequency w/ Guest, Jeff Guerra. In this episode we speak with a Colombian DJ and producer whose music is helping build and spread messages of peace across lines of cultural, racial, and ethnic difference.

Peace Frequency Podcast – Conflict Analysis Series

During the month of November, I had the pleasure of helping facilitate a United States Institute of Peace online course on conflict analysis. Throughout the month the main instructors in the course, Jeff Helsing and Matt Levinger, gave learners a look into some of the basic principles of conducting a conflict analysis and the various frameworks that aid individuals and organizations in doing this work. We interviewed several amazing peacebuilders on the Peace Frequency podcast and heard them share how their experiences in the field have shaped their understanding of conducting an effective conflict analysis.

Peace Frequency w/ Guest, Candace Karp. In this episode we hear about some of the lessons Candace learned working for the United Nations in Afghanistan and Israel/Palestine.

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Peace Frequency w/ Guest, Sharon Morris. In this episode we learn about Sharon’s work with youth and the difficulties that come with conflict analysis in that it can open up festering wounds of a community harmed by violence.

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Peace Frequency w/ Guest, Lisa Schirch. In this episode we dive into the origins of the peacebuilding field, the various definitions of the practice, and the diversity of conflict assessment frameworks utilized by various organizations.

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Peace Frequency w/ Guest, Matt Levinger. In this episode we look at USIP’s conflict assessment framework and some of the guiding principles behind conducting an effective and sensitive conflict analysis.

 

6th International Vietnamese Youth Conference (DaiHoi6)

From August 4th – 7th I attended the 6th International Vietnamese Youth Conference (DaiHoi6) organized by the Len Duong International Vietnamese Youth Network. The conference was held in the Philippines and brought together approximately 100 Vietnamese youth from around the world (Australia, United States, Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam, Belgium, Canada, Great Britain, France, Germany, and Norway). The theme of this year’s conference was, “Access Now! Digital Activism for Social Change” (download full program).

While there, I also facilitated two workshops both focused on nonviolent struggle. The first was titled, “Why Nonviolent Struggle?” and it explored the strategic elements of nonviolent action that movements have used throughout history. The second was called “Case Studies from the Arab Spring,” and looked at nonviolent struggle within the context of the recent uprisings throughout the Middle East and North Africa. Other workshops offered at the conference focused on topics such as internet circumvention, leadership skills, digital activism inside Vietnam, and social media for social change. Continue reading to learn more about the workshops I facilitated and some of my take-aways from the workshops I attended.

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The Social Revolution

This week I gave a couple a couple talks at Rutgers University.  I was invited by Dr. Kurt Shock, who is an associate professor of sociology and global affairs at Rutgers and is one of ICNC’s academic advisors.  I first spoke in his colloquium course, where I gave a presentation titled, The Social Revolution: Digital Media, Cyber-Pragmatism, and Nonviolent Movements, which I will outline in greater detail later in this post.  The second presentation I gave was to his undergraduate class on social movements, where we looked at the role of the internet and social media in social movements more broadly.  In both presentations I used the uprising in Egypt as a case study in exploring these themes.

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