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They say fate works in mysterious ways, but sometimes a good idea sets it in motion--just ask Jonathan Plucker and Carrie Hill.
Conference specifics...Positive Approaches to Violence Prevention: Peacebuilding in Schools and Communities strives to give educators and community members practical strategies for building peace and removing threats to children's safety. The conference will begin at 7 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 13, and end at 2:30 p.m. on Sunday, Aug. 15. Confirmed keynote speakers include Arun Gandhi, director of the M.K. Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence; Ian Harris, University of Wisconsin Milwaukee, and executive secretary of the Peace Education Commission of the International Peace Research Association; Betty Reardon, Columbia University, the author or editor of several articles and books on peace education; Kevin Dwyer, president of the National Association of School Psychologists; and Russ Quaglia, director of the National Center for Student Aspirations. His Holiness the Dalai Lama, a Nobel Peace laureate, has also agreed to speak in conjunction with the conference. For more details and a current description of conference activities, call Katrina Daytner at (812) 856-8313, ext. 36220, or go to this Web site:
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 (Above) Photo by Heather Hill
(Below) File photo by Garrett Ewald  IUB doctoral student Carrie Hill (above left) and education professor John Plucker are the catalysts behind an August conference in Bloomington that will address peace-building in schools and communities. His Holiness the Dalai Lama of Tibet (at far right with Patrick O'Meara, dean for international programs, at the 1996 PeaceJam in Bloomington) will be participating. |
Plucker, assistant professor at the Indiana University School of Education's counseling and educational psychology (CEP) department in Bloomington, and Hill, a CEP doctoral student, had been bandying about the idea of combining their research interests into one project.
That idea is now a reality. Plucker and Hill are co-directors of one of the first conferences of its kind, Positive Approaches to Violence Prevention: Peacebuilding in Schools and Communities, slated for Aug. 13-15 at IUB.
The conference will feature several nationally and internationally known peace education and violence prevention experts (including His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet), dozens of workshops and opportunities for a diverse set of voices to exchange ideas on a topic that's been in the news all too often lately.
Following the conference, participants will have tickets to hear the Dalai Lama speak on the theme of fostering peace among young people at a public lecture slated Aug. 18.
The story of how the conference came together is one of perseverance, collaboration--and kismet.
Plucker's main field of study is creativity, while Hill has interests in nonviolence and peace education. "These fields appear to overlap substantially, so we started to look for ways to work together," said Plucker.
Through work with Students for Free Tibet in spring 1998, Hill had made contact with the India-based Foundation for Universal Responsibility of His Holiness the Dalai Lama. One day, her contact at the foundation sent a letter suggesting a collaboration between IU and the Dalai Lama.
"I walked into Jonathan's office and said, 'Look at this letter from India! We've got to do something about it!'" Hill recalled.
That set their minds reeling with ways to bridge the Dalai Lama's participation with their interests in creativity, nonviolence and peace education. "We started to dream that if we could do a conference or something similar, the Dalai Lama might be interested," Plucker said. Great minds think alike. Around the same time, the foundation contact wrote a message hinting at the Dalai Lama's interest in a conference.
Adding one more karmic twist to the mix, the Dalai Lama planned to be in Bloomington in August 1999 for a Kalachakra Initiation at the Tibetan Cultural Center."If that's not fate, nothing is!" Plucker said.
A chain of supportive and cooperative people across campus have helped make the conference a reality.
| It took collaboration and a little kismet to put together a conference on peace building. In mid-August, a conference on peace education and violence prevention in schools and communities will culminate with an appearance by the Dalai Lama of Tibet, who just happens to be planning a trip to Bloomington to perform a Kalachakra Initiation at the Tibetan Cultural Center. |
Take Les Coyne, for example. As director of summer sessions and special programs at IUB, he was one of the first to hear the idea. It was not a tough sell.
"We gave him a very short pitch," said Plucker, "and within 20 minutes, he was very excited." He credits Coyne with persuading him and Hill to think big. "We had the idea for a nice conference to get things started, very low-budget," said Plucker. "Les really planted the seed that if we're going to do it--it's a good topic, it's a good cause--do it. 'Don't just do a decent job,' he said, 'do a first-class job.'"
After speaking with School of Education University Dean Donald Warren, RUGS' Al Wertheim and PAGR's Christopher Simpson--all of whom were very encouraging--Plucker and Hill set about the weighty task of planning.
Although the two were excited about the possibility of the Dalai Lama's presence, they knew they had a great idea with or without him, and they didn't want the conference to necessarily hinge on his participation. In January, the Dalai Lama agreed to speak.
Although the Dalai Lama's participation will bring visibility, the two haven't lost sight of the original intent.
"Our whole point is to bring together a diverse set of voices that haven't necessarily been heard on the subject of violence prevention," Plucker said.
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