Fall 2026 Peace Week

Format: Virtual 

This virtual session explores how Global Social Witnessing and trauma-informed peacebuilding can support reconciliation in Kashmir and South Asia. Bringing together Kashmiri academic knowledge, collective-trauma expertise, diaspora engagement, and international peacebuilding experience, participants will examine truth-telling, psychosocial healing, restorative justice, and shared presence. The discussion includes lessons from the Philippine Truth and Reconciliation Commission and considers how these approaches could inform healing, dialogue, and hope in Kashmir. 

Speakers: 

• Rajkumar “Raju” Suryakant Bhatt, Founder and CEO, Global Mediation Team
• Dr. Al Fuertes, Professor, George Mason University; Commissioner for Psychosocial Support and Trauma Healing, Philippine Truth and Reconciliation Commission
• Kosha Anja Joubert, CEO, Pocket Project
• Dr. Samir Ahmad, U.S. Fulbright Scholar and Professor of Political Science, Gandhi Memorial College, Srinagar, India 

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Format: Hybrid 

Presented by the Office of the Dean, Carter School 

The webinar will explore the growing role of middle powers in mediation and peacemaking at a time when traditional multilateral mechanisms are increasingly strained by geopolitical polarization, declining trust, and institutional fragmentation. In particular, we want to ask whether middle powers are simply filling diplomatic gaps left by major powers and international institutions, or whether they are beginning to reshape the practice of mediation itself.

The event will bring together senior practitioners, diplomats, and scholars and is being organized under the framework of the Carter School’s role as Chair of the UN Academic Impact SDG16 Hub.

Speakers:

• Alpaslan Özerdem, Dean, Carter School
• Ellen Laipson, Director, International Security Program, George Mason University
• Ambassador Alp Ay, Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs
• Karim Soumana, Project Director, Global Order and Peacemaking, International Crisis Group 
• Will Davis, Director UN Information Center
• José Ramos-Horta, President of the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, Nobel Peace Laureate

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Format: Virtual 

The session will combine a broader presentation of the destruction in the northern pacific and a short documentary focused on the continuing story of the Bikinian people, their displacement from their homeland, the long-lasting impacts of nuclear testing, and their ongoing struggle for dignity, recognition, justice, and remembrance. Real footage from this year's 80th anniversary event, past interviews of Bikini Atoll residents, archival material, and cinematic visuals of land, ocean, people, will be used to invoke the memory & re-live the present. The goal is to create a short but powerful impression that honors the people of Bikini and helps audiences understand that this is not only a historical issue, but a living human rights story which currently intersects with Migration management and the broader Peacebuilding spectrum. 

Speakers:

• Pushpi Weerakoon, UN Frontline Peacebuilder/ Rotarian & Rotary Peace Fellow
• Chewy Lin, Marshall Islander, Multi Media Producer 

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Format: Virtual 

While often framed as a pathway to justice and inclusion, critical scholarship suggests that peacebuilding can reproduce colonial logics of hierarchy, external authority, and epistemic domination. This presentation aims to briefly expand the conversation surrounding modern peacebuilding, emphasizing its critiques as a secondary method of colonial actions and addressing the concept of redefinition in peacebuilding and larger society. By bringing decolonial critiques of peace into dialogue with research on authoritarian governance and digital power, it examines how international peacebuilding efforts may unintentionally consolidate elite control, legitimize illiberal institutions, and deploy digital tools that enable surveillance and data extraction rather than local agency. Moving beyond critique, the session asks what forms of peacemaking are possible when communities assert plural knowledge, democratic accountability, and digital sovereignty. In doing so, it speaks directly to the challenge of building just and sustainable peace in today’s fragmented world. 

Speakers: 

• Sadie Lockhart, GMU Graduate Student
• Jamie Sackett, GMU Graduate Student 

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Format: In-Person (Mason Square), Vernon Smith Hall 

In an increasingly polarized political climate, traditional methods of pushing for change, such as mass public demonstrations, direct legislative lobbying, or high-level political meetings, face growing friction, institutional pushback, and heightened safety risks for vulnerable communities. Yet, sustainable peace cannot exist without structural justice, making advocacy an indispensable component of the peacebuilding toolkit. This cross-sector panel brings together community organizers, academics, and practitioners working across advocacy, peacebuilding, and social justice to examine how advocacy itself is shifting. 

Panelists will speak to specific ways their tactics have changed in response to today's constraints, from quieter community-based networks to digital tools and narrative strategies, favoring approaches that build power and protection quietly rather than through visible, public-facing action. Across their varied fields, advocacy is decentralizing, diversifying, and moving toward strategies that protect both practitioners and the communities they serve from unnecessary risk, all while keeping the cause moving forward rather than letting it stall under current limitations. 

Rather than dwelling on the obstacles behind this shift, panelists will focus on what these adaptations make possible, sharing the lower-risk paths and tools that are allowing their work to continue and even grow under pressure. Attendees will walk away with a practical understanding of how advocacy is being reshaped in real time, concrete ideas they can apply to their own work, and a clearer sense that advocacy has not disappeared. It has adapted, and it remains a vital, evolving force for structural change. 

Speakers: 

• Luz Chavez Gonzales, MA, UniServ Director, Montgomery County Education Association & Immigrant Rights Organizer, Founder of Student's FAIR
• Supriya Baily, PhD, Associate Dean for Academic Administration, Professor, & Co-Director, Center for International Education, Carter School, George Mason University

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Format: In-Person, George Mason University 

For current Mason Students Only. 

Join the Carter School Ambassadors for a cozy, informal gathering to kick off the Fall semester! Our community of students, faculty, and staff will share meaningful conversations on peace, conflict, and their experiences with the work the Carter School prepares us for. We'll have tacos and drinks for everyone to enjoy! 

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Format: Virtual 

This panel critically examines the role of non-state actors in the emerging conflict dynamics across Africa and its implications for peace, security and development on the continent and beyond. It engages with existing studies and debates on the changing nature, and trajectories of violent conflict linked to struggles for power, access to and control of natural resources and critical minerals, climate change and its attendant insecurities, extremist ideologies, banditry, and various forms of transnational trafficking. It interrogates the intersection(s) between deepening socio-economic inequalities in the context of demographic shifts and violent conflict, particularly the growing trend of non-state actors becoming more adept in the use of new technologies, social media and sophisticated weaponry in waging new forms of war in West Africa’s Sahel and the adjoining Coastal states, Central Africa, Sudan, South Sudan, parts of Ethiopia and Somalia. Apart from analyzing the current conflict trends and its impacts on Africa, the panel raises critical questions about the engagement of external and emerging powers with violent non-state actors, followed by the exploration of various potential pathways towards brightening the prospects for sustainable peacemaking and peacebuilding that are underpinned by equity and social justice. 

Speakers: 

• Dr. Yunana Ahmed, Gombe State University, Nigeria 
• Prof. Mahamadou Bassirou Tangara, Université des Sciences Sociales et de Gestion de Bamako (USSGB), Mali 
• Dr. Marion Ouma, University of South Africa (UNISA), South Africa  
• Dr. Louis Kusi Frimpong, University of Environment and Sustainable Development, Ghana 

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Format: Virtual 

Presented by Carter School Better Evidence Project 

This session will showcase the Better Evidence Project's development of a network hub devoted to the creation of a peacebuilding community of practice as well as specific youth-oriented peacebuilding projects from around the world, including Guinea, Kenya, Colombia and Tunisia. The highlighted projects will include ongoing projects from IREX Fellows and Rotary clubs with whom the Better Evidence Project is working. This workshop will also showcase a pilot peacebuilding network platform being developed by the Better Evidence Project team. 

Speakers: 

• Hiba Ghanmi, Project Officer at the Center of Mediterranean and International Studies, Tunisia
• Isabella Cuevas, Project Officer, Youth Initiative Kenya, Nairobi
• Jeffrey W Helsing, Research Associate Professor, Carter School and Executive Director, Better Evidence Project 

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Format: Virtual 

As societies become increasingly polarized and trust in institutions continues to decline, the question is no longer whether diversity exists—but whether diverse societies can continue to live, govern, and solve problems together.

This interactive session explores pluralism not simply as an ideal, but as an essential peacebuilding strategy for a fragmented world. Drawing on examples from government, civil society, education, and international peace processes, panelists will examine how pluralism can strengthen democratic resilience, rebuild public trust, and foster cooperation across political, cultural, religious, and ideological divides.

Participants will explore how institutions and communities can move beyond polarization toward meaningful engagement, and why sustaining pluralism requires more than tolerance—it requires courage, curiosity, and active participation.

Speaker:

Mercedes Allsop, Carter School, GMU

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Format: Virtual

In the Upper West Region of Ghana, WA, a group of High School students encountered an issue that seemed hopeless to the teachers. It was about one of their classmates – a teenage girl – who got pregnant and started dropping out of school, from her family, and from her future life altogether. But while adults abandoned the girl, her PeaceJam friends decided to help.

Applying the dialogue skills that the PeaceJam program provided them with, the teens were able not only to talk to the girl, to listen to her without judgment but also to make her family return to the discussion table. Through mediation, they helped restore relationships between the girl and her parents, making her return to school and to her family and her future life again.

No politician. No committee. Just youth, with the right tools.

Come prepared to:

• Listen to the hidden story of young Ghanaians who transformed conflict into trust within their communities
• Learn how to engage in actual dialogue and mediation that you will be able to apply immediately after leaving the room
• Get insight on how the global movement of Nobel Peace Laureate Kailash Satyarthi is being implemented right where you live, through young people like you, in schools and communities in Ghana
• Take away at least one concrete step you will implement in your own school or neighborhood

Peace-building does not require someone to become a president; all it requires is willingness to initiate the conversation.

If you are a student who has ever felt helpless due to conflict situations, or a leader looking for a movement worth joining, or an educator who knows that youth are part of the solution rather than part of the problem, this session was designed for you.

Come. Listen. Act. Lead. 

Speaker: Wisdom Addo, Executive Director - West Africa Centre for Peace Foundation 

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Format: Virtual

Presented by Carter School’s PiVot Peace Lab 

We'll introduce the work of our lab—from research to a convening space—and welcome students—from undergrads through PhDs—to get involved. Learn how you can contribute to the mission of addressing polarization, both in the U.S. and abroad, and have your research and practice highlighted by the lab! 

Speakers: 

• Dr. Daniel Rothbart, Director of PiVot Peace Lab, Carter School 
• Randy Lioz, Associate Director of PiVot Peace Lab, Carter School 
• Andrea Albamonte, Manager of PiVot Peace Lab, Carter School 
• Mary Tanner, Program Coordinator, DeLTA 

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Format: Virtual

In recent decades, Iran has experienced severe turmoil, marked by intense domestic protests and movements, foreign targeted assassinations, and most recently, the direct impact of two wars. This compounding friction has deeply altered the political and social fabric of the country, creating a dangerously polarized society. Today, Iran faces unprecedented internal fractures: from parts of the diaspora and citizens supporting external war for regime change, to radicals demanding a prolonged conflict in the hope of revenge; from those mobilizing for modern gender equality to those reinforcing conservative, traditional norms; and from advocates of universal free speech to those calling for an authoritarian figure—whether internal or external—to enforce stability. Consequently, the vital work of activists to cultivate dialogue, build trust, and forge new paths of nonviolent resistance has never been more challenging. While the divide used to sit primarily between a rigid state and its opposition, these opposing forces have now deeply permeated the general population. This talk will analyze these conflicting yet structurally similar societal currents in light of Iran's most recent socio-political developments. 

Speaker: Elaheh Pooyandeh, Peace Educator and Mediator, Iran 

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Format: Virtual

Hungry for Peace invites readers into the remarkable world of food as an active agent of conflict and connection. From community kitchens to food festivals and shared meals around tables, Dr. Elaine Mei Lien Pratley shows how food shapes tensions, sparks understanding and produces everyday peace. Through participatory fieldwork with young people in Melbourne, Australia, ordinary acts – eating consciously, sampling unfamiliar cuisines and reducing food waste – emerge as powerful, agentic gestures that negotiate conflict, build trust and nurture connection.

Blending feminist peace studies, food research and posthumanist theory, the book reveals how more-than-human actors – smells, ingredients, tables and atmospheres – participate directly in peace and conflict. It shows food practices not as background, but as lively collaborators in peacebuilding, offering new ways to understand, navigate, and shape conflict in our interconnected, entangled world.

This session is an interactive book launch where participants will also be invited into a space of personal storytelling and reflection. 

Speaker: Dr. Elaine Mei Lien Pratley, Founder of Peace Kitchen  

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Format: Virtual 

Since the program began in 2002, the Rotary Peace Centers have trained more than 1,800 fellows who now work in over 140 countries. Peace Fellow Alumni from Africa, Asia, Latin America, and North America will share their Peace Fellowship experience and the life and career path that it has enabled. These career paths have included founding community health services in Kenya for women impacted by domestic and other forms of violence; service as senior advisor to the Fund for Peace and numerous UN organizations, and serving as a frontline field level peace worker for the UN International Office of Migration, and securing a position at a multilateral development bank. Panelists will discuss the elements of the Peace Fellowship that were most important. They will also explore the kinds of additional support and resources that could better enable Peace Fellows and other students of peace and conflict resolution to launch into meaningful peacebuilding careers after completing their studies. One such resource is the Carter School Global Peacebuilders Action Network which can help Peace Fellowship Alumni and other peace program graduates connect with other peacebuilders globally as well as with opportunities for meaningful careers, funding for projects, and a vast collection of Peace building case studies and tools.

Moderator: Mari Clark, President Rotary Club of Washington Global, Chair Rotary District 7620 Peace Committee, and Faculty Affiliate, Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution 

Panelists: 

• Kathleen Doherty, Peace Fellow Alumnus President of the Board of the Rotary Peace Fellowship Alumni Association
• Pushpi Weerakoon, Peace Fellow Alumnus recipient of the Rotary International Alumni Service Award, cochair, Peace Committee, Rotary Club of Washington Global
• Carlos Guiza, Peace Fellow Alumnus, Rotary Club of Washington Global
• Ignatius Emeka Onyekwere, Peace Fellow AlumnusSenior Advisor on Resilience, Fragility and Human Security Initiatives at the Fund for Peace, Washington, DC, but based in Abuja Nigeria
• Jeff Helsing, Executive Director of the Better Evidence Project, Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution

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Format: Virtual

Women's safety is often viewed as a gender issue rather than a peacebuilding issue. Yet everyday harassment, exclusion, and violence shape how people move through public spaces, participate in society, and build trust within their communities. Drawing on fourteen years of Safecity's work across more than twenty countries, this interactive session will explore how community-generated data, local partnerships, and youth leadership can prevent violence before it escalates and strengthen social cohesion.

Through practical case studies, participants will examine how communities, governments, police, and civil society have worked together to create safer public spaces using data and collective action. The session will conclude with a facilitated discussion on the role of men and boys as allies in preventing violence and promoting gender equality. Participants will leave with practical ideas for fostering everyday peacebuilding within their own communities through inclusive engagement, shared responsibility, and community-led action.

Speaker: ElsaMarie DSilva, Founder of Red Dot Foundation Global and Rotary Peace Fellow 

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Format: Virtual 

Women veterans bring extraordinary leadership, resilience, and vision shaped by their service. This event celebrates the powerful ways women veterans translate military experience into peacebuilding, conflict resolution, mediation, reconciliation, post-conflict recovery, and how military service informs efforts to build peace. Join us for an inspiring conversation with women veterans and their innovative approaches to peacebuilding. 

The session will explore how women veterans have transitioned from military service into roles as peacebuilders, mediators, community leaders, or advocates, and how their experiences contribute to fostering peace and making a positive impact in an increasingly fragmented world. This is part of the Carter School’s alumni Women Veteran Leaders series.

Speakers: 

• Kellye Richardson, Assistant Director, Constituent Relations
• Rose Cardarelli, Ed.D., COL, U.S. Army Ret., CEO, Education for All Coalition
• Dayla Ramsay, PhD Student, U.S. Navy, Cryptologic Technician Interpretive (CTI2), retired
• Lisa Weatherington, former Deputy Chief, U.S. Army Medical Service Corps

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Format: Virtual 

What are the tangible effects of the elimination of foreign aid, the demolition of key humanitarian institutions central to peace building, conflict resolution and global order and the pillage of global institutions? This talk will offer reflections and analysis of the impact on support for peacebuilding efforts, institutions of the abandonment of the mission of USAID, the U.S. Institute of Peace, the U.S. Agency for Global Media and others. 

Speakers: 

• Alonzo Wind, Affiliate Faculty Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution; President Elect Rotary Club Global Washington; Retired Senior Foreign Service Officer
• Marc Gopin, Director, Center for World Religions, Diplomacy, and Conflict Resolution 
• Sara C. Sullivan, Ph.D. Principal Koko Consulting, Gaborone Botswana, Podcast Speaker and Author. Strategic Communications Expert, former Senior Strategic Communications Advisor Public Health Institute. 

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Format: Virtual 

Field education is essential for building trust, fostering inclusivity, and promoting teamwork and cooperation in the uncertain environment of complex communities. CRDC has, for the past 20 years, field-tested peacebuilding interventions that honor the great diversity of stakeholders in the lived environments of onsite visits globally. This session asks what is learned from onsite engagement of a radically inclusive nature in conflict zones. How is culture handled? How are diverse local communities handled? How do students self-reflect and perform as individuals and as a team under pressure, and what does it teach about theories of practice to be applied to conflicts globally? In-depth on-the-ground learning is the path to students' training, but what is being learned? 

Speakers: 

• Adina Friedman, Adjunct Faculty, Carter School 
• Christel Gopin, Associate Director, Center for World Religions, Diplomacy, and Conflict Resolution 
• Marc Gopin, Director, Center for World Religions, Diplomacy, and Conflict Resolution 

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Format: Virtual

Presented by Carter School’s Sustainable Peace Lab 

What does peace look like in Southeast Asia and how is it sustained? This session brings together scholars and activists who will share their firsthand experiences of living through crises, reconstruction, and transformation in Southeast Asia, particularly in Myanmar, Vietnam, and Singapore. Each panelist will focus on the contextual characteristics, unique processes, and peacebuilding mechanisms.

Each of these contexts is different – Myanmar remains in crisis, Vietnam is in reconstruction, while Singapore has markedly transformed itself. However, the role of identity in peacebuilding processes is clear. Drawing on further evidence on identity transformation and expansion, the panelists will engage in a dialogue to critically discuss the durability and challenges of piecing together peace in each country and across the region.

Speakers:

• Dr. Pau Sian Lian (Waseda University; Yale University) is a political scientist and activist working on federalism, reconciliation, and the political history of Myanmar.
• Dr. Cao Thi Minh Chau (Waseda University) is a researcher and educator focusing on reconciliation, sojourner and acculturation processes, and Vietnamese diaspora studies.
• Dr. Nguyen Viet Du (Waseda University; Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena) is an early-career researcher working on education, identity, and peacebuilding.
• Dr. Rita Z. Nazeer-Ikeda (Waseda University; George Mason University) is a comparative educationist whose work focuses on decolonization, reconciliation, and peacebuilding.

Moderator: Rita Z. Nazeer-Ikeda

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Format: Virtual

Artificial intelligence is transforming how people learn, communicate, and engage in conflict. As AI reshapes the landscape of peacebuilding, from misinformation and algorithmic polarization to digital diplomacy and emerging technologies, educators and practitioners must rethink how we prepare the next generation of peacebuilders. This thought leadership session will explore how AI can enhance peacebuilding education through personalized learning, immersive simulations, ethical decision-making, and digital collaboration, while addressing the risks and responsibilities that accompany these technologies. Participants will examine how higher education can responsibly lead innovation in preparing peacebuilders for an increasingly digital and fragmented world.

Participants will:

• Explore how AI is transforming peacebuilding education and practice.
• Examine the opportunities and ethical challenges of AI-enabled learning.
• Discuss innovative approaches to preparing peacebuilders for digital and hybrid conflict environments.

Speakers: 

• Alpaslan Özerdem, Dean, Carter School
• Jeff Helsing, Executive Director, Better Evidence Project
• Ramesh Sepehrrad, Visiting Fellow, Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution | Technology & cybersecurity executive | Scholar-practitioner 
• Nicola Shelley Willaims, Visiting Scholar, Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution

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Format: Virtual 

This panel engages in a critical interrogation of ways in which global disruptions shape, and mirrored in the crises of citizenship which continue to be deepened by post-pandemic economic dislocations, widening social inequality and poor governance in Africa. It draws on thematic and case studies to analyze how African citizens are navigating and renegotiating their identities within fractured and fragile societies by seeking to reclaim and defend them in ways that are either exclusionary or inclusive, or by engaging in intense contestations in the face of socio-economic decline, pauperization, marginalization, violations of the rule of law, and perceived historical or social injustices. The key question posed by this panel relates to how Africans confront the challenge of constructing a cohesive sense of unity within a fragmented world as well as Africa, where waves of Afrophobia and in extreme cases, xenophobia animate struggles for power and resources. The panel also seeks to unpack how political mobilization by hegemonic and counter-hegemonic forces using populist ideologies, social media and new technologies feature in the ongoing struggles marked by inclusion or exclusion, including attempts to advance or resist the marginalization, exclusion or removal of segments of society, labelled as outsiders, or non-citizens. It also interrogates the marginalization and expulsion of other Africans considered as “undocumented migrants” or non-citizens from some African states, partly mirroring the expulsion of African “illegal immigrants” from other regions of the world. This trend raises critical questions about the options facing African states and regional organizations, as well as global multilateral organizations in responding to the crises of identity and citizenship in an era of global disruptions by laying a new normative basis and practices for equitable, inclusive, just, and sustainable peacebuilding. 

Speakers: 

• Dr. Sebastian Paalo, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Ghana 
• Prof. Beza Dessalegn, Center for Peace and Security Studies, Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia 
• Medina Moosa, University of the Western Cape, South Africa 
• Dr. Silindile Nanzile Mlilo, Global Migration Institute, Toronto Metropolitan University, Canada   

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Format: Virtual 

A presentation and discussion drawn from field experience on the ground, distinguishing between peacekeeping, humanitarian aid, peacebuilding, and conflict transformation. Examining core principles and ethical challenges in contexts like Gaza, Afghanistan, and Iraq, among others, and reconciling the delivery of humanitarian assistance with public advocacy. 

Speakers: 

• A. J. Alonzo Wind, Affiliate Faculty; President Elect Rotary Club Global Washington, retired Senior Foreign Service Officer. 
• Ana Manuela Mot, former Rotary Foundation Peace Fellow; World Bank

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Format: In-Person (Mason Square), Vernon Smith Hall 

In an era of deepening polarization and institutional distrust, most people have quietly concluded that genuine conversation across differences is no longer possible — or that it isn’t meant for them. This session is a direct challenge to that conclusion.

Drawing on decades of peacebuilding research and the emerging field of facilitator-free civic dialogue, this session brings together a Visiting Scholar at the Carter School and the founder of Paxior — a structured dialogue platform designed to match strangers across political, cultural, and ideological difference — to explore one of the most urgent questions in the field: what does it take to move transformative dialogue from a specialist practice to a civic habit, and can technology help us get there faster?

The session opens with a brief conversation between the presenters on what the research tells us about dialogue across difference — when it works, when it fails, and what conditions allow ordinary people to surprise themselves. Participants are then seated in groups of four and invited to sit a live Paxior Table: a thirty-minute structured conversation using role cards and talking tokens, with every person in the room in conversation simultaneously. No observers. No spotlight. Just structure, curiosity, and thirty minutes.

What consistently emerges from these tables is not just civil exchange but something deeper: awe at their own capacity to connect, a genuine sense of relationship with strangers, a weakened feeling of powerlessness, and the humanizing insight that comes from finally understanding why someone believes what they do.

A facilitated full-room debrief closes the session, moving from personal experience to field-wide question: how do we scale this? Paxior’s app-based matching platform and the Alliance for Peacebuilding’s network infrastructure represent two complementary answers — and together they point toward a future in which structured civic dialogue is as accessible as a dinner reservation.

Participants leave not just having heard about dialogue across difference, but having lived it — and having glimpsed what it might look like at a million tables. 

Speakers: 

• Chip Hauss, Senior Fellow for Innovation and Board member, AfP
• Anni Amberg, Founder, Paxior 

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Format: In-Person (Mason Square), Vernon Smith Hall 

Over the past two decades, the US government has invested significant effort in building the tools, strategies, and institutional capacity needed to prevent and respond to violent conflict and fragility overseas. Yet a persistent gap remains between this rhetoric and the realities of implementation. At the same time, a parallel challenge has emerged closer to home: rising political violence within the United States itself. As polarization deepens and incidents of violence across the US increase, policymakers and practitioners are being forced to reckon with the reality that fragility and conflict risk are not confined to distant conflict zones.

This panel brings together peacebuilders, transitional justice actors, and violence prevention experts to explore what's working, what isn't, and what can be learned by examining these challenges side by side. Panelists will discuss the barriers to effective implementation abroad, the drivers of political violence at home, the need for transitional justice in both, and whether a more integrated, evidence-based approach to prevention can help bridge the divide between policy ambition and on-the-ground impact. 

Speakers: 

• Wes Rist, Deputy Executive Director, Mass Atrocities Prevention Center
• Mike Brand, Director, Human Security Project and Adjunct Professor, Georgetown University
• Yasmin Chubin, International Justice Attorney 
• Wai Wai Nu, Founder and Executive Director of the Women’s Peace Network 
• Darin Johnson, Professor of Law, Howard University School of Law

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Format: Virtual 

This session is part of the monthly “Peace Talks” series presented by Rotary District 7620 Peace Committee

Stanton Elementary School serves Black American children from very low-income families with little education and limited economic opportunities in South East Washington DC. They live in an environment where deaths from gun violence are common, including shots fired at the school while children were attending classes. Many children and their parents are dealing with trauma from the deaths of loved ones as mothers struggle to feed their children and keep a roof over their heads. Stanton students’ average scores in standardized achievement testing are only in the 27th percentile. Time4Us2GetInvolved, a coalition of community leaders, healthcare experts, and advocates, is reframing gun violence as a public health crisis and stressing the economic, social and psychological impact on affected families, particularly children. Through a collaborative partnership with the Rotary Club of Washington, DC, this coalition is implementing a prevention-focused initiative addressing youth violence, trauma, and community health. The panelists will discuss the importance of early intervention and describe ongoing preventive measures such the debate club, and drama as well as tutoring of Stanton Elementary School students, and counseling for their parents. Another topic for discussion is the professional mental health work needed to help children deal with trauma from losing loved ones. Panelists will also examine the systemic issues underlying the poverty, lack of education, and resulting youth frustration and anger at the lack of opportunities that too often ends in gun violence and deaths. The chair of this panel and the Peace Committee of the Rotary Club of Washington DC, Kenneth Barnes, has channeled his own grief and trauma at the loss of his own son to gun violence into his dedication to reduction of gun violence in DC. 

Moderator: Mari Clarke, Chair, Rotary District 7620 Peace Committee, President Rotary Club of Washington Global, Faculty Affiliate Carter School  

Opening Remarks: Arthur Romano, Associate Professor, Director of the Program on Urban Peacebuilding, Carter School 

Panel: 

• Kenneth Barnes, MS, Rotary Club of Washington DC Peace Committee Chair; Co-Chair Rotary District 7620 Peace Committee
• Kamal Ali, Chairman Ben’s Chili Bowl Foundation
• Dr. William Lawson, MD, PhD, DLFAPA — Founder & Director, Institute for Reducing Disparities LLC; Immediate President, Senior Psychiatrists Inc.
• Donnie Show, Past President Rotary Club of Washington DC
• May Yoneyama O’ Brien, Rotary Club of Washington DC; Board Member, National Museum and Center for Service
• Linda Solomon, Rotary Club of Washington DC; Board Chair Rotary Foundation of Washington DC

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Format: Virtual 

What happens when people begin with listening rather than persuasion?

In an era of polarization, environmental conflict, and social fragmentation, meaningful one-to-one conversations remain one of the most powerful—and underutilized—tools for peacebuilding. Drawing on lessons from our Colorado-based Geographies of Hope podcast and field experiences spanning North America, Africa, and beyond, this interactive session explores how listening creates pathways for understanding, trust, and collective action.

Through stories shared by adventurers, community-based activists, Indigenous citizen scientists, OpenStreetMap contributors, educators, and environmental leaders, participants will examine how dialogue can bridge cultural, political, and geographic divides. Examples will highlight collaborative efforts surrounding natural resource management, citizen science, community mapping, environmental stewardship, and local resilience.

The session will combine storytelling, discussion, and practical exercises designed to help participants develop deeper listening skills and foster meaningful conversations across differences. Participants will leave with concrete strategies for building relationships, facilitating dialogue, and creating their own “geographies of hope” within communities, organizations, and networks. 

Speakers: 

• Dr. Karen S. Barton (Geography, GIS, and Sustainability, University of Northern Colorado) and Host, Geographies of Hope podcast

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Format: In-Person (Arlington), Vernon Smith Hall 

Presented by Mason Exhibitions 

Military service is often made visible through uniforms, ranks, rituals, and institutional structures. Yet the emotional, psychological, social, and moral dimensions of service—and the wounds that persist beyond the battlefield—are often more difficult to recognize and locate. In a world marked by increasing fragmentation, polarization, and social division, understanding these experiences becomes an important part of building more empathetic, resilient, and democratic communities.

This panel, organized by Mason Exhibitions, brings together curators and participating artists from a trilogy of veteran art exhibitions on view across George Mason University's three Northern Virginia campuses during Fall 2026. Through artistic practices, storytelling, and public programs, these exhibitions explore the complex geographies of memory, trauma, care, identity, and healing stemming from the Vietnam War up through the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. The panel will examine how art can function as a form of witness, dialogue, peacebuilding, and lifesaving.

Panelists will discuss key questions emerging from the exhibitions:

• How do veteran artists visualize wounds that are emotional, psychological, social, or moral rather than purely physical?
• What role can art play in healing, remembrance, and community-building?
• How can artistic practice foster dialogue across generations, social and cultural backgrounds, and experiences of conflict?
• In what ways do exhibitions generate public spaces for understanding the human consequences of war and the possibilities of peaceful societies?

Background

The conversation will feature the curators and artists involved in three major veteran art exhibitions:

1. As You Were

• Gillespie Gallery, Fairfax Campus
• Curated by CAP (Ret.) Moira McGuire, former Director of Healing Arts Programs at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, this exhibition features seventeen veteran artists, including a Gold Star spouse and a caregiver. Through diverse artistic practices, the exhibition reflects on service, sacrifice, resilience, caregiving, and the ongoing journey of life after military service in Iraq and Afghanistan.

2. What Remains?

• Mason Exhibitions Arlington
• Curated by artist Cheryl Edwards, this exhibition brings together intercultural artists who served during the Vietnam War. Drawing from both public and private collections, the exhibition explores memory, witness, loss, and the enduring impact of war across generations and communities.

3. In Her Image: Art by Women Veterans

• Buchanan Partners Gallery, SciTech Campus, Manassas
• Curated by Steven Luu, this exhibition examines the evolving experiences of women in military service. Through artworks by women veterans, including works from Mason Art Collection, the exhibition highlights questions of visibility, leadership, representation, and belonging within military and civilian life.

These exhibitions reveal how art can help map the often-invisible landscapes of veteran experience while opening pathways toward healing, understanding, and peace. By examining the intersections of memory, care, identity, and community, the panel contributes to broader conversations about how societies can address the afterlife of war, wounds, and healing through art. 

A guided tour of the gallery will follow the formal presentation. 

Speakers: 

• Donald Russell, Director, Mason Exhibitions & Provision Library for Art & Social Change Moira McGuire, CAPT, former Chief of the Arts in Health Program at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center
• Cheryl Edwards, Curator & artist
• Steven Luu, Curator, artist, & former combat medic
• Soojung Paek, PhD student, Cultural Studies

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Format: Virtual 

This roundtable asks whether contemporary peacebuilding, despite its language of justice and reconciliation, can reproduce the very structures of domination it seeks to overcome. In a fragmented world shaped by polarization, displacement, authoritarianism, climate insecurity, and digital surveillance, peacebuilding often operates through unequal relationships of expertise, funding, governance, and knowledge. The session brings decolonial critiques into conversation with questions of power, technology, and local agency, asking how peacebuilding can avoid becoming a tool of hierarchy, extraction, and control. Rather than rejecting peacebuilding, the discussion explores what forms of peace are possible when communities insist on plural knowledge, democratic accountability, and justice.

Facilitators: 

• Silvestre Acedillo, Founder of the Consortium, Host of Roundtable
• Sadie Lockhart, Co-Facilitator 
• Jamie Sackett, Co-Facilitator  

Speakers:

• Dr. Al Fuertes, Faculty Sponsor, GMU | Commissioner, Truth & Reconciliation Commission, Philippines
• Dr. Sangeeta Mahapatra, Research Fellow, German Institute for Global & Area Studies
• Dr. Catherine Sobrevega, Mennonite Central Committee, Laos
• Jonathan Rudy, Peace Education, Mindanao Peacebuilding Institute | Global Partnership for the Prevention of Armed Conflict (GPPAC)
• Dr. Mohammed Abu-Nimer, Professor of Peace and Conflict Resolution, American University School of International Service 

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Format: In-Person (Mason Square), Vernon Smith Hall 

An Interactive Experience with Diego Carneiro 

As Peace Week comes to a close, internationally acclaimed conductor, cellist, and Rotary Peace Fellow Diego Carneiro invites participants into a unique and immersive experience that explores the transformative power of music, storytelling, creativity, and human connection in building peace.

Blending personal stories, live cello performance, audience participation, and meaningful dialogue, this interactive session examines how the arts can transcend cultural, political, and social divides, creating spaces for empathy, healing, and shared understanding. Rather than a traditional presentation, participants will become part of a reflective journey that celebrates our common humanity and the role each of us plays in fostering peace.

Join us for an inspiring conclusion to Peace Week that is designed not only to be thought-provoking, but deeply memorable—leaving participants with renewed hope, meaningful connections, and a lasting reminder that peace is experienced as much through the human spirit as it is through words.

Session Format

• Interactive conversation
• Live cello performance
• Storytelling
• Audience participation
• Reflection and dialogue

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