The first student-run nonviolence conference, sponsored by Nonviolent On Campus, created a forum for students to react to their peers’ research on nonviolence. Nonviolent on Campus was formed in the fall of 2006 by seniors Eliza Kaye, Emily Zevon and Lindsey Lewis.
Lewis, the conference coordinator, explained that student presenters impressed academics with their papers at last spring’s M.K. Gandhi Institute’s nonviolence conference, ‘Toward a Nonviolent World.”
‘Students’ presentations were based in changes that were possible,” Lewis said. ‘We had something to move forward from.”
Lewis recognized the opportunity to move forward with a day that empowers student voices after subsequent discussions with Professor of Philosophy Robert Holmes. The presenters, junior James Womer and seniors Mathew Linton and Christopher Peters and Zevon were all former students of Holmes’s.
Over 30 students attended the all-day conference on Saturday, Oct. 25.
The presenters covered a range of material, and many addressed nonviolent alternatives to violent tactics.
Zevon analyzed how the Danish acted nonviolently during their resistance to Nazi Germany in World War II. She spoke on the issue and then opened up to questions from the audience members, many of whom shared their personal reactions to what they learned.
Lewis characterized the day’s discussion as both academic and personal.
Leber is a member of the class of 2011.
