Elizabethtown College will host Dr. John Reuwer, adjunct professor of conflict resolution at St. Michael’s College in Vermont, for a “Lecture on Nonviolence: Power for Peace and Justice,” focusing on the potential that nonviolence has to trump violence.
Reuwer will discuss the history, science and current practice of nonviolence which allows for a world of freedom, justice and peace.
“I compare violent to nonviolent methods of conflict resolution in 4 categories – the human cost in morbidity and mortality, the economic cost, the environmental cost, and the moral/cultural cost. Most people vastly underestimate the cost of dependence on violence in all these categories,” Reuwer said.
Reuwer is an adjunct professor of conflict resolution and has been practicing nonviolence for 30 years, including involvement in peacekeeping missions in high-conflict zones and in inner cities. As a former emergency physician, he wanted to understand why violence is so prevalent in today’s world and he wanted to look at ways of preventing it.
“The great majority of human conflict is resolved, or at least managed, in nonviolent ways – most frequently through talking things out (negotiations), or just letting it go. Tougher conflicts might require a third party as mediator, arbiter, or someone else to bring in new ideas, change the balance of power, or otherwise keep a conflict from becoming destructive,” Reuwer said.
Reuwer teaches courses about nonviolent action and nonviolent communication as ways to approach conflict resolution. He also serves on the Cure Violence Harrisburg task force, which implements a public health intervention as a complement to the law enforcement agencies in Harrisburg.
“There is increasing scientific evidence that nonviolent methods are more effective in many situations,” Reuwer said.
“One always has the power to limit how much violence they contribute to the situation, which effectively limits the overall level of violence in the world in a way that a violent response cannot.”
The lecture is sponsored by the Elizabethtown College Peace Fellowship and will be held on Wednesday, Oct. 17 at 7:30 p.m. in the Susquehanna Room in Myer Hall. Contact Kay Wolf, wolfk@etown.edu for more information.