In Brief
From Narrative to Dialogue
What began as part-time history professor Neil Caplan’s invitation to a colleague has grown into a three-day symposium on “Israeli and Palestinian Historical Narratives” sponsored by the Peace and Conflict Resolution Series.
The symposium will feature discussions and films intended to expose the role of historical narratives in the peace process. “I’ve always felt that as much as you go over the concrete issues of borders, refugees or sharing water, that is only part of the issue,” said Caplan.
“An even more serious obstacle is the way that each party is learning its own history and transferring it to future generations, without realizing that the other side is exposed to history in a totally different way.”
Caplan met Paul Scham, in Jerusalem, in 1999. At the time, Scham coordinated Israeli-Palestinian Research Cooper-ation at the Truman Institute for Peace of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Recently Scham co-edited Shared Histories: A Palestinian-Israeli Dialogue, a collaborative examination of narratives from both perspectives published in January.
Scham was an ideal guest for Caplan’s 200-level course “The Arab-Israeli Conflict,” now offered for the second year through Concordia’s History Department.
“The class is chock full of students who have a personal identification with one side or the other,” Caplan said. But by keeping a balanced perspective, he has so far avoided potential fireworks of the conflict sparking in the course, which has been picked up for the 2006-2007 academic year. Caplan also runs the Humanities program at Vanier College.
From March 19-21 Scham will be in dialogue with his friend, Khalil Jahshan, former Executive Vice-President of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Com-mittee and a lecturer at Pepperdine University, Washing-ton, D.C. The series of events will involve other professors and community leaders.
Classes in Communication Studies, Political Science and Religious Studies will also benefit from the series. Specific themes have been tailored to their needs. For event times, locations and information on the films presented, visit peace.concordia.ca
Talks by management gurus
The Concordia University Research Chair in Organizational Development Visiting Speakers Series will present three speakers over the next few weeks.
The series is organized by Steven Appelbaum, Professor of Management and holder of the Chair in the John Molson School of Business.
On March 24, social-organization psychologist Warner Burke will speak on organizational change, which he says is rarely a linear process.
On April 7, the speaker will be California-based crisis-management expert Ian Mitroff, on “Hurricane Katrina: The Management of a Disaster.”
The last talk in the series, on April 21, is by Sydney Finkelstein, on “Why Smart Executives Fail.”
All three talks will take place at 2 p.m. in Room GM-302, 1550 de Maisonneuve Blvd. W.
Exploitation across the Americas
On March 24, Concordia will host the second part of a two-day conference on the environmental damage caused by the exploitation of natural resources in the Americas.
The event, organized by the Comité Chrétien pour les Droits Humains en Amérique Latine, supported by the School of Community and Public Affairs, is focused on problems faced by local communities in areas rich in mining or natural gas, and alternative models for development.
The speakers will include Peter G. Brown from the Centre for Climate and Global Change Research of McGill University, who will give an overview on the overexploitation of natural resources in the Western world, and grassroots campaigner Hilaria Serrano, who will offer her testimony from the landless movement in Bolivia.
“Socio-environmental conflicts and self-determination - development issues on the American continent” takes place on March 24 at the J.A. DeSève Cinema, in the J.W. McConnell Library Building.
The event, which is bilingual, starts at 9 a.m. and is free. For the full program, see www.ccdhal.org.
-Irene Caselli