Professor John Grayzel
Baha'i Chair for World Peace
Co-Chair of the Initiative on Education for Peace, Cooperation, and Development
Center for International Development and Conflict Management
University of Maryland

Q - Why a Semester on Peace at the University of Maryland? The Semester on Peace, as a thematic process, is an exercise in focused awareness-building. In this case, it is awareness that in today’s world we have become so inextricably interconnected, as minds, bodies and souls, that the fate of one and the fate of all are the same.

The Semester seeks to ask the question: How can we act in ways that mutually balance and benefit each other, rather than mutually destabilize and injure ourselves and others? At the same time, the Semester on Peace hopes to go beyond simply increasing our consciousness to mobilizing our consciences--particularly as members of a great university to act in association with each other, as well as individually, to promote a more just and peaceful world--a world where everyone has a role to play, everyone has a place, and where knowledge and actions are harmonized towards the common goal of a world of positively fulfilled potentials.

Q - It seems the entire campus is embracing this effort.

Truly the Semester on Peace is about connections--connecting the pieces of peace all over campus. Everywhere we look people are delighted to be a part of the Semester and are happy to share their activities and ideas and place them under the larger umbrella of peace.  We are discovering new sources of interest everywhere we go and are hoping that people will continue to contact us and connect with others working on the many aspects of peace here at Maryland.

Q - Give me some ideas of what will be happening.

This year’s First-Year Book, What is the What, is a part of the Semester on Peace and several events have been organized that complement the African theme of lost boys, child soldiers, and life in Africa in general. For example, the Music Department, the Dance Department, the First-Year Book, and the UMUC Marriott are all joining together to bring David Alan Harris, a Dance Movement Therapist, to campus. The Foreign Policy in Focus group is also looking for ways to work with us on campus with David and in other ways. Here we see quite a number of connections between university departments and a local business that may not have been made before.

The International Film Series at the Hoff Theater is featuring African films in its "In and Out of Africa" series. The series is also linked to the Semester on Peace. One of the films, War Dance, follows a group of schoolchildren from a refugee camp in northern Uganda to a national music competition and raises a fundamental issue for filmmakers confronting unimaginable suffering in war-torn African countries.  That peaceful pursuits transcend the suffering makes this film especially poignant for the Semester on Peace.

As you know, the University of Maryland has recently been designated as an Arboretum and Botanical Garden, and we are linking various activities to that and also to the upcoming Gardens of Reflection and Remembrance.

Q - How is our faculty at Maryland embracing the Semester on Peace?

Academically, we are beginning to link members of the faculty to each other in ways that are not typical.  The goal is to increase connectedness on the “grass-roots” level across departments. For example, Karen Bradley of the Dance Department will give a guest lecture in GVPT354, Peacebuilding, Post-Conflict Reconstruction, and International Development (part of the Minor in International Development and Conflict Management, CIDCM, which is part of the Semester on Peace) on Balinese dance during the lectures on the Green Revolution.

Marla McIntosh of Plant Sciences and the Arboretum will deliver a guest lecture on Urban Environmentalism in Jing Lin's HONR 229R class – “Transformative Eco-Education for Human and Earth Survival”.  And Jing Lin will give one lecture in Dr. McIntosh’s class.

We are very interested in hearing from other faculty about the possibility that they might give or host guest lectures on issues of peace from all angles in their classes.  We’ll be putting up a resource for faculty on our Semester on Peace website for this purpose when it is launched in early August.

We are also compiling course work related to peace in its many aspects, with the idea of putting together a guidebook for students wishing to study peace at UMD. Faculty and students are encouraged to nominate courses they feel would be useful to students seeking to study peace, broadly defined.

Q - What about performing arts?

The Clarice Smith Center's contribution to the Semester on Peace will be their September 17 and 18 performances of "The Trial of the Catonsville Nine," and there are activities planned around peace protests in general and the University campus at the time of the Viet Nam war. Other Take Five events at CSPAC also align with the theme of peace.

Q - Tell me more about the Interactive Dialog for Peace planned November 19.

The second Interactive Dialogue for Peace will be held at the Marriott Conference Center at UMUC and is entitled "Human Security in an Insecure World." The event will feature a panel of distinguished experts discussing human security as a concept that supplements traditional notions of international and national security. The Hon. Constance Newman, former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs and former Assistant Administrator for Africa of the USAID, will be a featured speaker. Part of what makes it an Interactive Dialogue is that audience members are invited to submit questions to the panel. This event, like most others in the Semester on Peace, is free of charge.

One of the real joys of the Semester on Peace from the point of view of the organizers has been making connections with so many wonderful and knowledgeable people who have given so freely of their time and efforts to make this series of events and activities a success. We very much look forward to hearing from others who would also like to connect under this peaceful umbrella.

Dr. John Grayzel, a former senior official with the United States Agency for International Development, began his tenure as Baha’i Chair for World Peace in January, 2006. Dr. Grayzel succeeds the inaugural holder, Dr. Suheil Bushrui, who held the position since 1993.

Dr. Grayzel holds a law degree from Stanford University and a doctorate in anthropology from the University of Oregon. He served for 27 years in the field of international development and conflict management, tackling senior Foreign Service assignments for the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). His work took him to various countries in Africa, India, and the Philippines, among other places. He also served in the U.S. Peace Corps.

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