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Conflict is not Logical:
Examining Entrenched Struggles, Movement, and Politics
S-CAR's Dialogue and Difference Project brings together students, faculty, staff and community members to discuss current controversial and important issues.
Research Hall Room 163
7:30pm - 9:00pm
Conflict can be studied from all aspects and disciplinary fields. Analysts, scholars, and practitioners spend a lifetime researching, assessing, and predicting the outcomes and causes of violence. One factor that is studied goes beyond what is often considered rational: emotion. Some say emotion is what makes us human and that it is not really possible to quantify it. How do you describe or indeed measure love, or rage, or despair? These feelings play an important role in conflict and influence us to, for example, become inspired and do great things or to endure horrific trauma. At this point we might begin to reconsider acknowledging the rationality or even the power of emotion in relation to contextual variables. This semester the Dialogue & Difference Project is holding a series of dialogues exploring the relationships between emotion and conflict. Through these discussions we hope to raise awareness on how powerful our emotions can be and how often they affect our choices. As the second part in the series the topic will be about entrenched conflicts, movements, and politics. Each speaker will specialize in one of the previously mentioned fields and will touch upon the use of emotion to achieve particular goals or outcomes. Examples range from the generations-longl conflict in Cyprus, to the emotionally-charged social movements over race in the United States, as well as to political campaigns and make use of emotions such as security fears. Following the panel presentations, facilitated small group discussions will explore current entrenched conflicts and examine the role of emotion in understanding, engaging, and addressing these complexities.
Interested in becoming a facilitator of difficult conversations?
Join the Dialogue and Difference Group!
Contact Patricia Maulden at [email protected]
for more information.