Chico Peacemakers: CSU, Chico’s Peace Institute members (from left) MaryAnn Latimer, Cathy Growdon, Lee Walker-Hirschbein, Ron Hirschbein, Diane Imhoff, and Tom Imhoff.
Photo by Tom Angel/Chico News & Review.
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Peacemakers
The newly formed Peace Institute at CSU, Chico responds to war and injustice
by CASEY HUFF
Diane Imhoff needed to talk about peace. It was October 2001—the attacks of 9/11 had changed the world, and war drums were already beating loudly. Along with sorrow and anguish, she felt that most public discussions following the attacks focused so much on revenge or retribution that it was hard to talk about peaceful ways to respond to any act of aggression. “When you listened to the media, they always talked about war. And being patriotic meant that you had to go to Afghanistan and Iraq and kill people,” she said. “I kept asking, ‘How can we do things differently?’”
Diane and her husband, Tom, a philosophy professor at CSU, Chico, began meeting with a few friends to try to make sense of the attacks and the United States’ response. They formed an informal reading and discussion group to talk about the horrors of war, the complexities of ethnic conflicts, and the prospects for peace. “We were looking for a place to talk about how we might solve these problems without using bombs,” says Diane. And they talked about how to normalize the word peace—to show that peace activism was another brand of patriotism. The group included MaryAnn Latimer and Thia Wolf from Chico’s English department, Latimer’s 24-year-old daughter Elizabeth, Tracy McDonald from Chico’s management department, and Pamela Spoto from Shasta College in Redding, California.
“I think it’s important that we analyze the worldview that glorifies war and vilifies peace—and calls peacemakers unpatriotic,” says Spoto of her desire to act on the frustration and despair she felt at the time. “Voices of peace have been marginalized and silenced. It’s way past time to hear these voices from the margin. Starting a conversation would be good.”
So they talked, they shared food, they comforted each other—and they started to plan action. One of the first things they did on campus was to form course links between Tom Imhoff’s philosophy class on peace and the English composition courses taught by Latimer and Wolf. Then the group began to think of other actions they could take to make a difference.
You may say we’re just dreamers
“We talked about a peace institute probably three years ago,” says Spoto, who earned her master’s degree in English at CSU, Chico in 1972. They wrote up their goals and reviewed mission statements of similar groups. A little more than a year ago, they invited Lee Walker-Hirschbein and her husband, Ron Hirschbein, to join them. Ron, a philosophy professor, has been teaching courses on war and peace at CSU, Chico for 20 years. “Ron has worked a lot nationally and internationally on peace,” says Spoto. “He was able to accelerate our group’s work to begin a peace institute.”
Ron Hirschbein, founder of the University’s interdisciplinary peace studies program, is now director of the new Peace Institute at CSU, Chico. He lists as an important motivating force a 2003 lecture by Chico alum Kelly Candaele (MA, Psychology, ’80), a journalist and filmmaker best known for his Emmy Award-winning documentary, A League of Their Own, about professional women’s baseball during World War II. Candaele, a former student of Hirschbein’s, was on campus as a Distinguished Visiting Lecturer to discuss the Irish peace process. He had reported on the Irish peace talks during the Clinton administration, and, in his lecture, shared with a large Chico audience his perspectives on what made that process work. Candaele also offered his support for a peace institute and provided additional inspiration for Hirschbein and the others to launch what is often a long, complex process of administrative approval for new programs.
But we’re not the only ones
Hirschbein and friends weren’t the only ones on campus willing to give peace a chance. Sarah Blackstone, dean of the College of Humanities and Fine Arts, and Scott McNall, university provost, quickly added their support for the institute, and it was officially approved in August 2004. Blackstone is now a member of the institute’s advisory board.
Hirschbein’s international reputation in peace studies made it easier to gather this support. In 2001–2002, he served as the president of Concerned Philosophers for Peace, the largest international organization devoted to philosophic studies of war and peace. He has been a visiting professor of peace studies at UC Berkeley, UC San Diego, and the United Nations University in Austria. He is the author of numerous articles and three books on social justice and international policy: Voting Rites: The Devolution of American Politics, What If They Gave a Crisis and Nobody Came: Interpreting International Crises, and most recently, Massing the Tropes: The Metaphorical Construction of American Nuclear Strategy.
“Getting the institute established was surprisingly easy,” says Hirschbein. “What also helped enormously was the President’s Visiting Scholars program. And Kelly [Candaele] has been extremely good to us.” With funding from the President’s Visiting Scholars program and the Hodgkins Peace Studies Lecture series, Hirschbein organized the institute’s first Fall Peace Festival in October 2004. Planned as an annual event, the festival featured James Sterba, Notre Dame scholar and member of the Joan B. Kroc International Peace Institute, who addressed the question of whether the war in Iraq qualifies as a “just war” in his lecture, “The War in Iraq: A Moral Assessment.”
Other festival events included an inaugural concert; the films Full Metal Jacket and The Fog of War, followed by discussion; a presentation by Candaele, who discussed his PBS documentary on the life of former Swedish prime minister and peace activist Olaf Palme; and symposiums on terrorism and reconciliation. Based on the strong attendance at all of the events, the festival succeeded in bringing together people from the region interested in these issues.
The festival’s purpose reflects a goal of the Peace Institute: to address the two-part question “What are the causes of war and the prospects for peace?” The institute plans to do this by bringing together the academic resources of CSU, Chico, local schools and colleges, and the institute’s national affiliates, including scholars from around the country serving on the institute’s advisory board. Other goals include developing internships for students to work in local organizations devoted to conflict resolution, facilitating the development of peace education in local schools, and promoting interdisciplinary studies that integrate war and peace studies, conflict resolution, and genocide studies.
Peace Institute members hope to forge connections with schools at all levels in the region. Spoto, for example, launched a forum series, “Talking about Peace and Conflict in the 21st Century,” at Shasta College this fall. And they’re getting help from Chico business owners Michael Thomas and Cathy Growdon. Growdon has been especially effective in raising money to help the new institute expand its reach into the region.
Just imagine all the people
Hirschbein is determined that the institute not “preach to the converted.” “It’s very, very important not to be what I call ‘peace fundamentalists’ and to exclude people with other perspectives,” says Hirschbein. “In fact, it’s vital for the organization to be as inclusive as possible.”
This view is reflected in the institute’s mission statement: “Committed to diverse approaches to minimizing the danger of conflict, the institute will draw from a wide spectrum of prominent authorities in planning its lectures, conferences, curriculum development, and outreach. … Our understanding of peacemaking is broad and inclusive. Peace is not merely the absence of war; it ultimately involves the melioration of poverty and injustice, expansion of human rights, and respect for ideological and racial diversity.”
That respect for ideological diversity was evident in one highly emotional symposium at the festival, “Reconciliation: A Dialogue,” featuring a discussion between a Vietnam combat veteran and a conscientious objector to the Vietnam war. Several audience members were moved to tears as the presenters shared the emotional toll of their decisions during another American war that deeply divided the country.
Sharing the whole world
The institute also aims to establish an academic minor and, eventually, a major in peace studies. Program faculty, with input from the institute’s advisory board, are still developing the curriculum for the minor. The board includes Candaele; Paul Churchill, chair of the Peace Studies program at George Washington University and president of Concerned Philosophers for Peace; Ian Harris, chair of the Department of Educational Policy and Community Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and executive secretary of the Peace Education Commission of the International Peace Research Association; and Gael Hodgkins, professor emerita of religious studies at Humboldt State.
Hirschbein believes that it’s vital for diverse views to be included. “Many colleagues will be responsible for the curriculum,” he says. “I would hope it resembles the War and Peace general education theme, which is constructed around diverse perspectives and contesting views. It includes a full aviary of hawks and doves.” Of his own teaching he says, “I’ve team-taught courses with a combat veteran and a retired army major,” and, in his Roots of War course, he tells students that he’ll present views so diverse, he’s sure to have “something to offend everyone.”
Hirschbein regularly invites speakers who hold different views from his own to speak to his classes. One such guest lecturer was CSU, Chico political science professor Jim Jacob, who teaches courses on terrorism for the U.S. Department of Defense.
“One of the reasons I have greatly enjoyed being a guest lecturer in Ron’s classes,” says Jacobs, “is the climate of free intellectual inquiry he creates. His students seem to look forward to my presence, and I have found their questions to be probing, wide-ranging, and intellectually curious. Ron’s open intellectual curiosity has influenced the way his students approach intellectual inquiry. I can’t remember ever receiving a hostile question from Ron’s students—tough ones and good ones, sure—but never any I would consider over the top, and this is somewhat surprising given the strong emotions that American foreign policy currently engenders.”
Hirschbein would remind anyone concerned about indoctrination that conservatives such as Patrick Buchanan oppose the war in Iraq and U.S. military adventurism in general, a view shared by many Peace Institute members. “For those who don’t share this view,” notes Hirschbein, “we offer a congenial environment for dialogue and reconciliation.”
“While I probably take a harder line about the current war on terrorism than Ron does,” Jacobs explains, “I think he and I share many common feelings about the causes of terrorism and the role of American policy in the Middle East in provoking the recent rise in terrorism… I have greatly enjoyed our dialogues over the past years.”
Living life for peace
Tom Imhoff, a member of the institute’s advisory board and coordinator of CSU, Chico’s Peace Studies general education theme, believes that these courses help students respond to their concerns about war. “It helps students better understand conflict and how to deal with conflict without resorting to violence,” he says. “The idea of peace studies is to figure out how to see situations and events from the vantage point of those you disagree with. Doing this can give you insights into their fears and help you figure out how to deal with those fears in a nonthreatening way.”
Two students from Hirschbein’s upper-division course, The Causes of War and the Prospects for Peace, appreciate this approach. Chad Dupin-Koby, a junior criminal justice major, describes one benefit: “This class has opened my eyes to many things. It has made me think about my views much more closely. I’ve changed my views on some issues and found better supporting arguments for others. I think open discussion of any topic will have the same results.”
Senior Jennifer LaFleur—a history major with minors in philosophy, linguistics, and classical civilization—says her interest in history comes from wanting to understand the world she lives in, “where it came from, where it might be going.” That’s what the war and peace course is all about, she says. “I have been most impressed by the litany of speakers that Ron has brought into our class,” remarks LaFleur. “We have, because of this approach, been able to have a different style of discussion every week, hearing and questioning a different perspective.”
LaFleur also enjoys the way the course challenges her. “The texts and the speakers in this course deal refreshingly with the complexities of the world—with the view of America from the outside, with the humanity of those we are told are our ‘enemies.’ These are aspects of reality I miss in the mainstream news and media, and I was glad to see them recognized.”
It’s easy if we try
LaFleur and Dupin-Koby are among many students attracted to the peace studies program. In fall 2004, 106 students were enrolled in the War and Peace theme courses. “We really have quite a bit of interest among students for this course of study,” says Tom Imhoff. “They are troubled by what they see around them: the misunderstanding, the anger, the attempts to control other people. Many have been socialized by their parents and teachers to work out their differences without resorting to coercion, but they find themselves in a social and economic system that often depends on power and force to overcome resistance. A peace institute attempts to tap into this desire for dialogue over coercion.”
Imhoff and Hirschbein hope that this desire for dialogue leads students to work for constructive change. Dupin-Koby and LaFleur seem to understand that practical peacemaking takes more than earnest discussion and a catchy peace ballad.
“As far as the prospects of peace and harmony, don’t hold your breath for the people of the world to suddenly hold hands and start singing,” says Dupin-Koby. LaFleur talks about balancing her cynicism and optimism. “I believe, I really do, in the great potential of humanity,” she says. “This faith only makes it more tragic to witness the constant inundation of evidence that we are not able to realize it.”
We hope some day you’ll join us
Students in the Peace Studies courses learn about injustice, corruption, and failed policies—but they also learn about triumphs of justice and hope—and how to respond to injustice and inequity. “I hope students will come away with a better understanding of themselves and of their world,” explains Imhoff. “If this happens, we can hope that students will be better able to negotiate that world and see ways through the fear, anger, and greed that so often leads to violent conflict.”
LaFleur and Dupin-Koby have learned that understanding the complexity of conflict isn’t an excuse for stunned complacency—it can also be a call to action. “I am becoming more inspired to personal and community activism,” says LaFleur. “I am constantly re-convincing myself not to give up. I am the only person I truly control, and I must believe my choices make a difference. Communities, lobbies, parties, governments—they are all made of individuals. If individual action is abandoned, then so is group action—and any hope of changing people’s minds and people’s lives.”
Dupin-Koby has had a similar response to Hirschbein’s course. “This class has taught me that there is hope in human nature,” he says. “There are people out there who dedicate their lives for the small differences. Don’t walk by that guy getting pushed around when you could easily give him a hand. Stop and help that lady get the groceries to her car when she is obviously struggling. And don’t sit by and let your country (wherever you’re from) do something wholly unacceptable. The leaders might not get the idea at first, but they’ll come around when enough people show disapproval about the same issue.”
LaFleur agrees, saying that “doing nothing guarantees that nothing will get done.”
The world can live as one
Diane Imhoff and six friends began searching for answers, or at least some place to start, following the 9/11 attacks. They could have chosen to wallow in despair or be paralyzed by fear. Instead, they chose to do something. And CSU, Chico has a Peace Institute as a result.
“We didn’t realize what we could do,” says Diane Imhoff. “It’s a dream—if we give students a chance to think about these issues, and teachers a chance to teach about them, it can make a difference. That’s what I want for my children.” 
Imagine
Peace Institute Goals and Objectives
• Bring researchers offering diverse perspectives to campus to present lectures, workshops, and courses.
• Sponsor an annual fall peace festival featuring distinguished speakers, forums, films, and music.
• Co-sponsor the annual Hodgkins Peace Studies Lecture.
• Organize CSU, Chico conferences on peace education and research.
• Develop internship opportunities for CSU, Chico students concerned with peacemaking and conflict resolution.
• Mentor colleagues at CSU, Chico, community colleges, and high schools who desire to include a peace education component in their curricula.
• Encourage and facilitate the development and delivery of peace education at the K–12 level.
• Promote interdisciplinary studies integrating inquiry in war and peace studies, conflict resolution, and genocide studies.
• Create a speakers bureau to serve the CSU, Chico service area.
• Support local agencies such as the Chico Peace and Justice Center.
• Develop a minor and a major in peace studies.
For information about how you can support the Peace Institute, contact Ron Hirschbein at 530-898-5122 or rhirschbein@csuchico.edu. |
