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2022 Notre Dame Student Peace Conference explores ideas for reimagining justice

The 2022 Notre Dame Student Peace Conference, the first-ever conference in a hybrid virtual and in-person format, engaged 118 individuals from 21 colleges and universities. Attendees represented institutions in 26 countries, including Austria, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, DR Congo, Ethiopia, Finland, France, Germany, Ghana, Indonesia, Japan, Jordan, Liberia, Mexico, Netherlands, Northern Ireland, Norway, Philippines, Qatar, Singapore, Spain, Sri Lanka, Trinidad and Tobago, the United States, and Zimbabwe.

The conference, a signature event of the University of Notre Dame's Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, is an annual gathering organized by students and for students. Its mission is to provide space for graduate and undergraduate students to dialogue about peacebuilding, social justice, and conflict transformation.

This year's conference was organized around the theme "Reimagining Justice." Events took place from April 8-9. University of Notre Dame students could attend select events in person on campus, while all other attendees engaged virtually due to the ongoing pandemic.

The conference was planned by a four-person committee made up of current peace studies sophomores. Committee members included: Francesca (Frankie) Masciopinto, Political Science and Peace Studies Major with Digital Marketing Minor; Khya Morton, Political Science and Peace Studies Major; Jocelyn Orlando, Management Consulting Major with a Peace Studies and Italian Minor; and Dane Sherman, American Studies and Peace Studies Major with Gender Studies Minor.

The conference schedule included 16 sessions featuring 43 presenters on topics ranging from the University of Notre Dame as a settler colonial institution, strategies for holistic peacebuilding, structural racism and racial justice work, the global impact of "fast fashion," and strategies for successful student organizing.

For conference planner Khya Morton, several sessions focused on addressing structural racism were particularly impactful.

"One highlight from the conference was the opportunity to sit in on the virtual panels and listen to the presenters interact with other scholars who do research in similar thematic areas and also to make connections to my coursework here at Notre Dame," said Morton. "Each presentation proposed solutions to (re)imagine a more racially-just society, so it was nice to draw those bridges between my classes and the topics discussed."

The conference also featured two keynotes addresses. On Friday, April 7, David Anderson Hooker, a former Kroc Institute faculty member and owner of CounterStories Consulting, presented the opening lecture exploring what it means to reimagine justice.

He explored the idea that most people operate with a "negative epistemology of justice," where they don't notice justice when it's present, but rather when it's absent. He went on to explore how concepts of justice must be expanded beyond ideas of simple inclusion, and move to addressing a status quo that is still papering over systemic inequalities.

"Justice is about completing creating a complete completely different narrative that creates the space where people where everybody can fully flourish."

For conference planner Jocelyn Orlando, Dr. Hooker's keynote was the highlight of the event.

"It amazed me how he could elicit a widespread understanding of compounding inequality and show the very problem with the term justice. Everyone's perception of justice is different, which is what makes it so hard to grasp and so hard to break the system of injustice."

On Saturday, student climate activist Carl Philip Dybwad, a current student at Sciences Po, presented the second keynote lecture titled "When We Take Up Space." He discussed the urgency and injustice inherent within the current global climate crisis, and urged students to get involved in advocating for better environmental policies.

"Our time is running out. But it's never too late to start, but I think the work for justice must start now."

For conference organizer Frankie Masciopinto, one of the highlights was hearing from attendees that the conference had provided a space unlike what they had encountered before.

Talking to some of the presenters and them telling me the conference made them feel like their voices were being heard in academia [was a definite highlight]," Masciopinto said.

About the Kroc Institute: Notre Dame’s Kroc Institute, part of the Keough School of Global Affairs, is one of the world’s principal centers for the study of the causes of violent conflict and strategies for sustainable peace.