Congressman Lewis’s graphic novel, March: Book One—co-written with Andrew Aydin and illustrated by Nate Powell—was chosen for this year’s Mason Reads program, which gives a common book to all incoming first-year students.
For Mason’s School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution, the choice of March proved a perfect opportunity for a book discussion to generate conversation around social justice and civil rights. The event, held on September 20, was organized in recognition of International Peace Day.
The discussion brought students together with faculty to explore the themes of racial and social justice portrayed in the book.
Desarai Egerton, an S-CAR undergraduate student who also participated in the book discussion, found the book’s theme of nonviolent resistance especially powerful. “That really goes along with conflict resolution, because we try to be peacebuilders,” she said.
September’s book discussion was just one of many events and initiatives this fall that drew deeply on the work that the S-CAR community is doing on racial and social justice.
On September 26, Georgetown Law Professor Paul Butler gave the 29th Annual Lynch Lecture, which is organized each year by S-CAR on the Arlington campus. His speech, titled “Chokehold: Policing Black Men,” drew on his book of the same name and explored how the police’s targeting of Black men for incarceration and violence is built into the criminal legal system in the U.S.
From left to right: S-CAR Dean Kevin Avruch, Vernon M. and Minnie I. Lynch Chair Susan Hirsch, and Georgetown Law Professor Paul Butler. Photo by: Ryan M.C. Chiu/S-CAR.
Butler’s lecture was the second in this five-year effort; last year’s Lynch Lecture brought the President of Malta to George Mason University to make the case for challenging the patriarchy in government and business.
Toward this effort, Hirsch has been teaching Butler’s article “Stop and Frisk and Torture-Lite: Police Terror of Minority Communities” for several years.
“That piece really allowed me to bring together concern I had about conflict in the U.S., particularly as it related to policing, with things that we’re teaching about extremism, torture, profiling, and securitization,” Hirsch said.
Other S-CAR professors have also incorporated Butler’s work into their syllabi. S-CAR’s incoming PhD cohort kicked off their Introduction to Conflict Analysis and Resolution (CONF 801) course this fall by reading Chokehold, reflecting upon its themes in a short paper, and attending the lecture.
“I saw this as a great way to get incoming doctoral students to engage with his argument in multiple ways,” said Associate Professor Terrence Lyons, who teaches the course.
For Shakiyla Sincere, an S-CAR PhD student in CONF 801 whose doctoral studies focus on “crafting an intergroup-dialogue-based intercultural competence training for law enforcement to curb racial bias in community policing,” the Lynch Lecture provided an opportunity for the S-CAR community to focus on issues in the U.S.
“I think we talk a lot about international conflict, but not so much about national conflict,” she said. She believes that “talking about race” and “demystifying ‘others’” is essential to getting rid of stereotypes.
The Fall 2018 incoming master’s students also started their S-CAR journey with an introduction to Butler’s work. In this semester’s Foundations of Conflict Analysis and Resolution (CONF 600) course, taught by Associate Professors Leslie Dwyer and Agnieszka Paczynska, students read the transcript of a keynote address that Butler gave at Northwestern University. Students were also encouraged to attend his lecture.
“Butler’s work provides students with a compelling illustration of key concepts of structural violence and social inequality, and reinforces just how crucial it is that the conflict analysis and resolution field engages with racial injustice,” said Dwyer.
S-CAR, which recently debuted master’s concentrations in Social Justice Advocacy and Activism (SJAA) and in Inclusive Conflict Engagement (ICEN), is home to a number of initiatives that address issues of justice, equality, and inclusivity.
S-CAR faculty also explore issues of inequality, racial and social justice, and structural violence in their research and practice. During her opening remarks at the Lynch Lecture, Hirsch highlighted the work of Assistant Professor Tehama Lopez Bunyasi, who is working on a book on white privilege; Professor Richard Rubenstein and Professor Daniel Rothbart, who recently published books on structural conflict and systemic humiliation, respectively; Druscilla French Cumbie Professor Sara Cobb, whose current work explores race- and class-based extremism in the U.S.; and Assistant Professor Arthur Romano, who focuses on “engaged practice and writing on peace education and violence-effected communities,” according to Hirsch.
Georgetown Law Professor Paul Butler (left) and S-CAR Assistant Professor Arthur Romano (right) chat during a reception before the 29th Annual Lynch Lecture. Photo by: Ryan M.C. Chiu/S-CAR.
In his work, Romano maintains a strong focus on social justice—and on nonviolence in pursuit of it. His practice includes the training of trainers in nonviolence and developing diversity; social justice and conflict resolution workshops that are “attentive to power”; and supporting The Truth Telling Project, which is a “grassroots, community-centered effort” to amplify discussion of structural violence in the U.S. He uses experiential education to help connect theory and practice in a way that helps learners—whether they are activists, government officials or S-CAR students—more fully grasp systemic issues like racism.
Romano also conducts workshops for hip-hop artists as part of the State Department’s Next Level program, and he incorporates arts-based pedagogies into his work.
It was the power of art—in this case, comic books—that inspired Andrew Aydin, Congressman Lewis’s Digital Director and Policy Advisor, to suggest that the Congressman write the graphic novel that became March.
“The arts cultivate that fire and desire for students to be inspired within this program,” said Leslie Durham, an Undergraduate Academic Advisor and Program Coordinator at S-CAR who helped organize the HyperBole Youth Poetry Slam with Split This Rock at Mason this past February.
Aydin, who addressed George Mason University on October 11 alongside Congressman Lewis, said that March was written to show that the civil rights icon is a “real human being” and to “instill a social consciousness” in youth around the nation.
For Al Dabous, it was the human story at the center of March that was particularly impactful.
According to her, “that immense bravery from someone grappling with concepts like equality at such a young age basically tells us there’s no excuse” for ignoring racial and social inequalities.
If this fall’s activities at S-CAR are any indication, the school is giving students not only an understanding of these inequalities but also the tools needed to rectify them.