In early October, Chairperson of the Department of Peace and Conflict Studies and Assistant Professor Zulfiya Tursunova chaired a panel on “Re-imagining peace and justice through accountability, transnational activism, sanctuary movements, and decentralizing power” at the 2019 Peace and Justice Studies Association conference in Winnipeg, Canada.
Zulfiya also gave a talk on “Citizen-led Sanctuary Movements in North Carolina in the Context of Forced Displacement of Refugees.” She highlighted how grassroots community organizations create sanctuary spaces and foster human rights for citizens subject to deportation and family separation.
Cynthia James '20, a Peace and Conflict Studies major, also presented at the conference. In her talk, “Poetry as Nonviolent Peace Force Against State Oppression,” Cynthia examined how the poetry of Anna Akhmatova elegizes the catastrophic, state-sponsored human rights violations and brutality that the Russian people — and many other ethnic communities — experienced. Poetry carries the collective voice of truth. Through precarious veiled language of suffering and redemption, it creates not only a weapon of resistance and solidarity, but also a place to remember, mourn, and heal together.