My research Conference...

A blog post I did for The David O. Mckay Center's blog

Aloha, guys! For my culminating project as an ICSMajor, I was able to do a Research Associateship with Professor Chad Fordand  was privileged to attend theUniversity of Wisconsin’s conference entitled, “Borders, Boundaries and Peace” onFebruary 28^th – March 1^st. I can tell you the chance thatI had to present and network at this conference was once in a lifetime.

The Conference washosted by the Wisconsin Institute for Peace and Conflict studies that spans allthe universities in Wisconsin. It was hosted in the University of Wisconsin –Milwaukee’s newly created school of public health, in one of the more run-downsections of Milwaukee. It was here that they completely refurbished a 200 yearold building and have received a Gold certificate from the internationallyrecognized green building program.  Itwas beautiful, and held many facets of public health and sustainability that Ihad not considered yet.

Many people presenting at the conference had deepconnections in the peacebuilding field. The CEO of the Alliance forPeacebuilding presented about how the nation is breaking down the barriers of peacebuildingand the growing field. We even had the US Program manager from the Institutefor Economics and Peace explaining their wonderful research in quantifying the peaceful effortsworldwide (you may be surprised to hear that the United States only ranksmedium in the Global Peace Index). Then the conference became veryinterdisciplinary. We had other Keynote Speakers from UWM’s center for WaterPolicy and UWM’s new dean of the School of Public Health. It was amazing to seehow so many different fields care deeply about the world wide efforts towardspeace building how great of a chance we have to get involved.

I was able to present during one of the Student parallelsessions. The sessions were divided into 8 categories, and my presentation fellunder the topic of Central and South American Hegemony. Knowing the conferencewas very interdisciplinary and many had never heard of some of the precepts Iwould be referring to, I kept the presentation simple and went right to “ChadFord’s Photorealistic Iceberg ^tm”. I explained the basis of theconflict I was covering; Chile and Bolivia’s fight for the sea, and then wentto the iceberg. The basic needs that I talked about and the need to get the twocountries to see each other as legitimate and important in the world economywere surprising for many and I hope I opened them up for new perspectives inpeacebuilding.

I enjoyed presenting and listening to everything that allthe speakers had to say. There were so many presentations I would have loved tolisten to, but didn’t have the chance. I came away with new perspectives and anew insight into peace building.

                At the conference, I was able tomeet Rob Ricigliano, Director of the institute of World Affairs at UWM. Ithappened to be that he was coming to do some mediation work in Hawaii and hadan open day to come present at BYU-Hawaii This Thursday, March 28, 2013. Hewill be presenting at 6 PM In the Mckay foyer. It is a great opportunity foryou not only to hear about his work in international mediation, books, andprofessional background, but also because The University of Wisconsin inMilwaukee has created a new Masters of Peace and Sustainability and will beopen for the first time beginning Fall 2014. I hope you’ll be able to make it!




Here's also a photo of Maria, the woman I had the chance to stay with while in Milwaukee: