The Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies honors this year’s International Day of Peace with a special presentation from one of its own — The Honorable Chernor Bah (M.A. ’11), Minister of Information and Civic Education in Sierra Leone, who will also receive this year’s Distinguished Alumni Award. Each year the Kroc Institute pays heed to the International Day of Peace (IDOP), established in 1981 by the United Nations General Assembly, by way of an event or panel discussion. The Institute also honors a Notre Dame graduate in peace studies annually with the Distinguished Alumni Award — someone whose career and life exemplifies the ideas of international peacebuilding. This year, the two events will merge. Using the 2024 IDOP theme “Cultivating a Culture of Peace” as a framework, Minister Bah will speak to his professional trajectory since graduating from the University of Notre Dame with a master’s degree in international peace studies. He will also address his current ministerial work with civic education related to cultural renaissance and decolonization, and the mindset shift necessary to rediscover our sense of identity and to see each other’s humanity. Minister Bah’s talk, "Intentional National Consciousness as critical tool for longterm Peacebuilding — A Sierra Leone case study," will discuss how national consciousness, the shared sense of identity among citizens, is essential for uniting a diverse nation like Sierra Leone. By examining the historical challenges stemming from colonial legacies, which fragment our national identity and contribute to social and political instability, this lecture will explore the crucial role of constructing and socializing an intentional national consciousness in long-term peacebuilding for Sierra Leone. In his lecture, Minister Bah will demonstrate how reconstructing these narratives purposefully and in citizen voices is critical to building a cohesive and peaceful society. Drawing lessons from countries including Rwanda, Germany, South Korea, Singapore, Sweden, and the United States, strategies emerge for reconstructing Sierra Leone's national consciousness through national dialogue, civic education reform, cultural revitalization, inclusive governance, youth engagement, and international collaboration. By embracing these strategies, Sierra Leone can build a more united, peaceful, and prosperous society. Just as a chain is only as strong as its weakest link, the strength (and positive peace) of a state is based on the power of its fictional narrative and the sense of ownership and pride that the citizens carry with them in their hearts. Originally published at kroc.nd.edu.

Now in its fourth year, the 2024 Accountability in a Sustainable World Conference, as the flagship event of ASWQ, continues to ask the hard questions and delve deeper into regulation, sustainability reporting, capital allocation, and performance metrics. The ongoing conversation will answer the immediate need for dialogue among academics and non-academics about sustainability, data and measurement, related assurance, high-quality information to inform responsible investment decisions, and accountability in setting personal, corporate, and public sector goals. This conference will focus on key concerns regarding assurance of a sustainable future: the changing sustainability reporting landscape, the politization of ESG, accounting for sustainability with a particular emphasis on carbon accounting, measurement and assurance, performance metrics, the new corporate focus on sustainability, the effects of carbon footprint information on consumer choice and thoughts from a younger generation. A main feature of the conference is to generate discourse between academics and non-academics, featuring high-profile, well-informed, often provocative speakers. Events are online and open to the public. Registration is required. Sponsored by the Center for Accounting Research and Education (CARE).

Join the Center for Social Concerns in the Coffee House for free food, fellowship and informal conversation around justice. Featuring AngLes Southern soul comfort food. Co-sponsors: Initiative on Race and Resilience; Procurement Services; and  University Operations, Events, and Safety.

Join the School of Architecture in welcoming the 2024 Driehaus Prize Laureate, Peter Pennoyer for the annual Driehaus Prize lecture.  Register here Originally published at architecture.nd.edu.

Now in its fourth year, the 2024 Accountability in a Sustainable World Conference, as the flagship event of ASWQ, continues to ask the hard questions and delve deeper into regulation, sustainability reporting, capital allocation, and performance metrics. The ongoing conversation will answer the immediate need for dialogue among academics and non-academics about sustainability, data and measurement, related assurance, high-quality information to inform responsible investment decisions, and accountability in setting personal, corporate, and public sector goals. This conference will focus on key concerns regarding assurance of a sustainable future: the changing sustainability reporting landscape, the politization of ESG, accounting for sustainability with a particular emphasis on carbon accounting, measurement and assurance, performance metrics, the new corporate focus on sustainability, the effects of carbon footprint information on consumer choice and thoughts from a younger generation. A main feature of the conference is to generate discourse between academics and non-academics, featuring high-profile, well-informed, often provocative speakers. Events are online and open to the public. Registration is required. Sponsored by the Center for Accounting Research and Education (CARE).

Longtime faculty fellow of the Kroc Institute, Sandra M. Gustafson draws on key insights from the field of peace studies (including positive and negative peace, as well as direct and indirect violence) in a rich study of US literature and culture in her most recent volume, Peace in the US Republic of Letters, 1840-1900 (Oxford, 2023). Exploring the early peace movement, Gustafson's book charts the rise of the peace cause in the works of William Penn and John Woolman, through the founding of the first peace societies in 1815 and the mid-century peace congresses, to the postbellum movement's consequential emphasis on arbitration. With the Civil War as the central axis, the volume includes readings of novels by James Fenimore Cooper, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and Nathaniel Hawthorne spanning the period from 1840 to 1865. It also explores fiction engaged with problems that arose in the aftermath of that war, including novels by Henry Adams and John Hay on political corruption and class conflict; works on the failures of Reconstruction by Albion Tourgée and Charles Chesnutt; and the varied treatments of Indigenous experience in Helen Hunt Jackson's Ramona and Simon Pokagon's Queen of the Woods. Each of these writers focused on issues related to the cause of peace, expanding its thematic reach and anticipating key insights of twentieth-century peace scholars. Lunch will be provided. Speakers:Sandra Gustafson, the William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of English; Concurrent Professor, Department of American StudiesAzareen Van der Vliet Oloomi, the Dorothy G. Griffin College Professor of English; Concurrent Professor, Romance Languages & Literatures; Director, Literatures of Annihilation, Exile & ResistanceSpencer French, Graduate student, Department of EnglishGeorge Lopez, the Rev. Theodore M. Hesburgh, C.S.C., Professor Emeritus of Peace StudiesOriginally published at kroc.nd.edu.