"The Environment for Peace" will be the theme of the seventh annual Peace Studies Conference, coming to Lander University on Wednesday, Feb. 25.
"Peace cannot exist unless the environment is appropriate for it," said Lander Associate Professor of Environmental Geology Dr. Dan Pardieck, co-chair of this year's event, which starts at 1 p.m. in Room 150 of Lander's Science Building.
This year's keynote speaker is award-winning writer Patricia Martin Holt, author of "Committee of One: Making a Difference One Life at a Time," published by Matriarch Press.
Holt's book details the struggles of Palestinians displaced by a series of armed conflicts with Israel, and the determination of one Palestinian woman, Leila Wahbeh, to help them.
Holt met Wahbeh during a trip that she and her husband made to the Middle East in 1982, and the two have remained in touch ever since. "Someone had to tell her story, and it might as well be me," Holt has said.
Holt will be available for a book signing following her address.
Other highlights of this year's conference include "The Physics of Peace," by Ekaterina Michonova-Alexova, associate professor of physics and astronomy at Erskine College; "Change the Mission of the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency)," by UNC-Asheville Mathematics Instructor Dot Sulock; "Leveraging Social and Educational Opportunities in Virtual Worlds to Develop and Enhance Friendships with International Participants," by Lander Associate Professor of Accounting Steven R. Mark; and "An Environment for Peace Through Community-based Conservation," by Lander Lecturer of Biology Ann Butler.
All presentations are free and open to the public.
The conference has become a rite of spring for a growing number of people, according to Pardieck. "There's credibility that comes from doing things for a number of years and continuing it," he said.
He believes that the lively exchange of ideas characteristic of past conferences will be in evidence in this year's event, too. "I think it'll be a success," he said.