MU | Peace Studies
I n 1970 , Manchester switched from a quarter system of three 12-week terms to a 4-1-4 calendar with a three-week January interim . This provided an ideal opportunity for off-campus immersive study and travel . That shift also changed the life of Manchester Professor Kenneth Brown , a national peace studies pioneer who directed the peace studies program at Manchester .
He went on to lead study trips on 32 of those interim January sessions , traveling with small groups of students . The goal , he said , was expanding global awareness through involvement in service , peace and justice issues .
“ We sought activities that drew us away from a tourism perspective ,” he said in a 2010 speech in Japan . “ We witnessed the deep poverty of Haiti , living in an orphanage in Port au Prince . We picked coffee beans on the steep mountainsides of struggling growers in Chiapas , Mexico . We listened to the agony of widows , nearly deaf from shelling and heartbroken from losing husbands and children to U . S . -sponsored Contra attacks in Nicaragua , where we helped build cooperatives and houses during four Januarys in the 1980s .”
He took students to Northern Ireland to learn about civil strife there and traveled to the U . S . South to examine the civil rights movement at home .
“ We studied at the Gandhi Institute near his Wardha Ashram in central India . We ’ ve crawled through the Viet Cong tunnels dug outside Ho Chi Minh City during the American war in Vietnam ; and meditated in the field at Mi Lai where villagers were murdered by U . S . troops . We have built Habitat for Humanity houses in Jamaica and in Texas near the Mexican border , and we re-roofed hurricane-damaged houses in the Caribbean ,” he said . “ I cannot overstate the importance of such experiences in bonding with students who seek ways to change the world and change ourselves in a consumerdriven age . It is education of the heart as well as of the head . It has been my life .”
That legacy thrives today under his daughter , Katy Gray Brown ’ 91 , Manchester professor of peace studies and philosophy and director of the Peace Studies Institute .
“ These intersessions encourage students to explore a larger world and their own assumptions about it ,” she said . They learn about conflicts and injustice , and what actions will make a difference .
In recent years , domestic trips have been interspersed with international travel , she said . Groups traveled to New Orleans in 2020 , civil rights sites in 2022 , and to Florida in 2023 , in a collaboration with environmental studies to study climate disruption .
Every effort is made to make trips affordable . January travel courses and other peace studies trips are supported by gifts dedicated to these purposes .
What does the future hold ? In January 2024 , Kenya is the destination , at the invitation of Manchester graduate Angi Yoder-Maina ’ 94 .
As for January 2025 , the peace studies director says that she welcomes all suggestions .
( See Transformational Journey )
Since 1970 , peace studies January session courses have traveled to : England , Mexico , Colombia , Cuba , the Bahamas , Nicaragua , the U . S . Virgin Islands , Brazil , Honduras , Guatemala , Northern Ireland , Scotland , Ireland , Haiti , Vietnam , Thailand , Jamaica , India , Costa Rica , Palestine , Israel , and Turkey ; to communes and intentional communities , civil rights sites , and areas in the U . S . challenged by poverty and environmental crises .
TOP : Angi Yoder-Maina ’ 94 shared a photo from the 1991 Nicaragua trip . BOTTOM : In 1990 , peace studies volunteers traveled to St . Croix
– Anne Gregory in the U . S . Virgin Islands , replacing roofs after Hurricane Hugo .
18 |