CULTURE, CONFLICT AND THE PEACE PROCESS

Scholars from around the world will gather at Bryn Mawr to discuss symbols of group identity as flashpoints for conflict and as potential building blocks of peace at a three-day conference to take place at Bryn Mawr Feb. 24-26. "Contesting Culture: Narratives, Dramas and Representing Identity," will explore ethnic conflicts in France, India, Northern Ireland, South Africa, Western Europe and the United States, focusing on the hypothesis that movement toward reconciliation is tied to the development of inclusive narratives, symbols and rituals.

Distinguished author Edward T. Linenthal, professor of religion and American culture and Chancellor's Public Scholar at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, will deliver the keynote address, "America's Haunted Racial Landscape: An Illustrated Lecture," on Thursday, February 24, at 7:30 p.m. in Rhys Carpenter Library, Room 21. The following morning at 9:30 p.m., the conference will resume in the Gateway Conference Room with a welcome from Bryn Mawr Professor of Political Science Marc Ross. The conference will feature 13 internationally renowned scholars in American studies, anthropology, art history, history, political science, religion and sociology.

Support for the conference comes from the following groups at Bryn Mawr College: the Center for Ethnicities, Communities and Social Policy, the Center for International Studies, the Center for Visual Culture, the 1902 Lecture Fund, the Peace and Conflict Studies Program, and the Political Science Department.

For more information about the conference program, visit http://www.brynmawr.edu/ethnicities/ConferenceProgram/. The Web site includes abstracts of conference papers as well as short biographies of the speakers.

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