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PJSA Issues Statement Condemning Arizona Immigration Law

As one of the leading professional organizations in the fields of Peacebuilding, Conflict Studies, and Social Justice, the Peace & Justice Studies Association (PJSA) has issued a strong condemnation of Arizona’s new immigration law, SB 1070. Joining with other academic and educational associations in related fields, we believe that the law is draconian and ill-advised, and that its application threatens to inflame anti-immigrant sentiments and undermine constructive solutions to the challenges faced by communities in Arizona and across the nation.

Below is a statement unanimously endorsed by the Board of Directors of the PJSA, which has been delivered to Arizona Governor Jan Brewer calling upon her to rescind this unjust law. In so doing, we recall the words of Martin Luther King, Jr. in his landmark essay Letter from a Birmingham Jail, following the teachings of St. Augustine: “‘An unjust law is no law at all.’… Any law that degrades human personality is unjust.” SB 1070 is such a law, and accordingly we join with myriad others in calling for its immediate rescission.

(Postscript: the PJSA is presently part of a consortium of professional/academic associations united in opposition to SB 1070 and related state policies; a joint statement is being prepared, and a group press conference will be held at the Arizona State Capitol on Wednesday May 19, 2010.)

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News from the Field

Peace Studies Take Off!

Reprinted recently by the New York Times, an investigative news article summarizes the growth and development of the field: "Peace studies, incorporating anthropology, sociology, political science, theology and history, aim to uncover the roots of conflict, transform the underlying causes, develop preventive strategies and teach resolution skills. More than 400 universities and colleges worldwide now offer undergraduate or graduate degrees, as well as individual courses and certificates. Most peace studies degrees are conferred at undergraduate level. The Peace and Justice Studies Association, a group for scholars in the field, says student enrollments in university-level courses have surged in recent years."

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Divisions Over Peace Studies

A featured article appearing in Inside Higher Ed discusses the implications of a new USIP report on the relationship between academic programs and employment outcomes: "Randall Amster, executive director of the Peace and Justice Studies Association, agreed with the findings and lauded the report’s recommendations for bringing more field-based education to the classroom and for employers adjusting the way in which they engage the programs' graduates. 'The [PJSA] would encourage a synergistic approach in which the perspectives of graduates in the field are invited straightforwardly into the policy-making and organizational frameworks developed by peace-related employers,' he wrote in an e-mail. 'I would further urge that the field develop with due regard not only to needs of organizations and employers, but also to those of the graduates themselves and the academic institutions.'"

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