At this week’s CGO, Harley and Liana shared about their recent trip to the Notre Dame Peace Conference. Describing the weekend as empowering, they shared that they were most inspired by the research other students were doing and the fact that the conference was organized by a few undergrads, not unlike themselves. If this conference could be organized and implemented successfully, what else would they/us/we do?! As Harley and Liana witnessed firsthand and the rest of CGO heard through their stories, undergrads have the power to make a huge difference in a tangible way through creativity with grants and innovative research. Even simply through conversations and small actions, anyone can play a role in creating a more peaceful world.
Their favorite breakout sessions focused on military policy and conflict resolution in the Middle East and involved a panel including ROTC students, a priest, a Peace Studies professor, and a few Masters students from different fields. The focus of this conversation was on the compatibility of ethics with any discipline and the power of breeding ethics into the military. Outside of the conference, University of Notre Dame has keenly focused on that relationship and offers “Round Table Talks” with ROTC and Peace Studies students. These weekly lunches foster important discourse and allow learning to occur on behalf of all parties involved. All students involved described the experience as invaluable and encouraged other schools to start.
Another stand out from the conference was a student who was combining his passion for computer science with peace studies and was creating a program to study the success of peace accords based on public opinion. This student, along with the conference itself, stressed the importance of peace studies as syncretic with any other major or passion.
Harley and Liana returned to us with new energy, inspired to create more change in our community here at UO. Whether this takes the form of a similar conference at our very own university sometime in the future, round table talks, or simply more interdisciplinary dialogue about peace, out actions can make a difference to help create a “sea of peace.”
We look forward to sending more Carnegies to this conference in future years. Thank you Harley and Liana for sharing!