Ethics event to feature Purdue scholar's discussion on preventing violence

KALAMAZOO, Mich.—A Purdue University expert will discuss how to organize to prevent violence when she speaks in early February at Western Michigan University as part of the Center for the Study of Ethics in Society's Spring 2017 Lecture Series.

Dr. Stacey Connaughton, director of the Purdue Peace Project, will speak at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 8, in 2028 Brown Hall. Her presentation, titled "Organizing to Prevent Violence and Build Peace: The Transformative Potential of Everyday Citizens in West Africa and Central America," is free and open to the public and will include coffee and dessert after her talk.

About the project

The Purdue Peace Project is a university-based, externally funded, political violence prevention initiative that does peacebuilding work in fragile states and conducts research to advance knowledge about political violence prevention at the local, community level. It convenes everyday citizens to help them address immediate threats of violence in their communities. Team members help local leaders devise and implement context-sensitive solutions and monitor and evaluate projects to maximize impact.

Besides minimizing the chances of short-term violence, the project aims to promote lasting peace. In addition, project members document their work and disseminate information to scholars and civic leaders to add to the body of knowledge about peace building.

Connaughton

Connaughton earned her doctoral degree from the University of Texas-Austin, master's degree at the University of Texas and bachelor's degree at Saint Olaf College. At Purdue, she is also an associate professor and associate head of the Brian Lamb School of Communication. Her research examines leadership and identification in geographically distributed contexts, particularly as these issues relate to virtual teams and organizations, political parties and peacebuilding.

Her published work has appeared in Small Group Research, the Journal of Communication, Management Communication Quarterly, Communication Studies, Communication Yearbook and many other scholarly publications. Her book, "Inviting Latino Voters: Party Messages and Latino Party Identification," was published in 2005. Her work has been supported by the National Science Foundation, the Carnegie Corp. and the Russell Sage Foundation. She has presented her research on virtual teams and virtual leadership to industry, military and higher education audiences and facilitated workshops and written guidebooks in the areas of virtual teams, leadership, team-building and strategic planning in the United States, Canada and China.

Connaughton's presentation is co-sponsored by the WMU School of Communication, which invited her to campus as part of the 2016-17 Visiting Scholars and Artists Program.

Upcoming presentations

• Feb. 22: Dr. Asha Noor, National Network for Arab American Communities, and Dr. Alisa Perkins, WMU assistant professor of comparative religion, noon, Lee Honors College Lounge, "How to Take on Hate: A Dialogue on Islamophobia and Race." This presentation is part of the Lee Honors College Lyceum Lecture Series and the Department of Comparative Religion's Islam in Global Perspectives Lecture Series.

• March 1: Panel discussion with moderator Tonya Krause-Phelan, auxiliary dean, WMU Cooley Law School, 7 p.m., 211 Bernhard Center, "Integrity in the Criminal Justice System."

• March 16: Dr. Kristopher Phillips, assistant professor of philosophy, Southern Utah University, 6 p.m., 213 Bernhard Center, "Do We Have a Moral Obligation to Study the Liberal Arts?"

• April 6: Winnie Veenstra Peace Lecture, Dr. Alexander Guerrero, assistant professor of philosophy, University of Pennsylvania, 6 p.m., 213 Bernhard Center, "Again Toward Perpetual Peace: World Government by Lottocracy."

For more information, go to wmich.edu/ethics.

For more WMU news, arts and events, visit wmich.edu/news.