2022 Call for Proposals

Annual Conference of the Peace and Justice Studies Association

The Vocation of the Peacemaker

University of Mount Union, Alliance, OH

October 13 – 16, 2022

“Vocation is one’s response to a call from beyond oneself to use one’s strengths and gifts to make the world a better place through service, creativity, and leadership. To speak of vocation or calling is to suggest that my life is a response to something beyond myself.”

-Roger Ebertz, University of Dubuque [1]



At its fifty-third session, the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed 2001-2010 as the International Decade for a Culture of Peace and Non-Violence for the Children of the World (Resolution 53/25). Nearly a quarter of a century since that call, the struggle to create a culture of peace and non-violence continues in regional, national, and global contexts of escalating intolerance retreats from democracy, and competition for resources against the backdrop of a global pandemic and the ravages of climate change. Now more than ever, there are peacebuilding tasks for everyone if we are to reignite a global movement for a culture of peace, Martin Luther King Jr.’s beloved community.

It is in this context as peace scholars, practitioners, teachers, and activists that we are interested in reflections on, critical engagements with, and historical analyses of this deceptively simple question: What is the vocation of the peacemaker? How are we to identify and foster responses to this call – religious and secular – to shape our lives in response to that “something beyond ourselves”?

We return to UN Resolution 53/25 to further frame the disciplinary and interdisciplinary possibilities of finding and acting upon vocation to:

1- Foster a culture of peace through education
2- Promote sustainable economic and social development
3- Promote respect for all human rights
4- Ensure equality for all
5- Advance understanding, tolerance, and solidarity
6- Support participatory communication and the free flow of information and knowledge & democratic engagement
7- Promote international peace and security

We invite proposals that engage with the aforementioned topics in the following ways:

* Rethinking and transforming concepts of power
* Moving from the logics of force and fear to those of reason and love – MLK’s soul force
* Interrogating late modern consumer capitalism, models of economic growth
* Considering sustainability and the right use of resources
* Respecting the rights of all sentient beings and deconstructing hierarchies of human value
* Truth-telling, deep listening, justice, and healing
* The vocation of serving marginalized communities (e.g., LGBTQ+, ethnic and racial minorities, etc.)
* Rethinking/deconstructing “the enemy” and “welcoming the stranger”
* Replacing secrecy and manipulation of information (i.e., misinformation, propaganda, truth-telling)
* Education as gatekeeping/Considering alternative educational systems
* Replacing authoritarian structures of power created and sustained by cultures of war and violence
* Diplomacy, peacekeeping, disarmament, and military conversion
* The role and contribution of specific disciplines to the study and practice of peace and social justice

Submissions may include a range of formats:

1- Individually submitted papers (to be organized into panels by the conference committee)
2- Panels (3-4 individual papers or presenters linked thematically)
3- Films, creative works, art presentations
4- Roundtable discussions (interactive, facilitated discussion led by presenter(s))
5- Teaching and/or skill-building interactive workshops
6- Submissions are limited to 2 per person.

Submissions from teachers, students, activists, youth, and first-time presenters as well as academics are very welcome. The PJSA conference creates a welcoming community designed to facilitate the sharing of work and ideas across disciplines and vocations.

To submit your proposal, visit: https://www.peacejusticestudies.org/conference/2022-submit-your-proposal/

The deadline for submissions is May 15, 2022.

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[1] “What is Vocation?” Office of Campus Life, University of Dubuque. Accessed Jan 18, 2022