Peace prize winner to speak at W&J
International mediator and peace prize winner Mary Montague returns to Washington & Jefferson College this fall with a public lecture, “Alien-Nation: Relationships and Reconciliation, Relationships that Transcend Separation and Disconnection” on Wednesday.
This free, public lecture begins at 7 p.m. in Allen Ballroom of Rossin Campus Center. The event is part of the J. Robert Maxwell ’43 Visiting Scholar Series.
Montague said that, in light of the “Brexit” decision in the United Kingdom and the Syrian refugee crisis affecting countries around the world, she plans to discuss the peacekeeping process in terms of immigration.
“Brexit has had profound negative effects on our own peace processes within Northern Ireland. It has exposed the fears of people, and the way people fear others,” Montague said. “At the moment in the United States, there is talk of fearing people coming into this country, and really the lifeblood and development of this country is people coming in through immigration.”
Montague, who has visited W&J twice before, is in residence at the college for the Fall 2016 semester.
Montague, of Belfast, Northern Ireland, has been a peace builder for 40 years. Montague has founded organizations that train peace builders throughout the world, and has led mediations and trained mediators in the Balkans, Kosovo, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and the Sudan. She is currently training Woman Peace Builders for projects in the Middle East, North Africa, and Asia. Montague designed and delivered mediative interventions addressing major contentious issues;
In 2015, she received peace prizes from International Mediators Beyond Borders and the Schwelle Foundation Bremen, Germany Peace Prize. This year, she is short-listed for the 2016 Berlin Peace Prize.