Carter Center fellow to speak at UNG/Gainesville Peacemaking Conference

GAINESVILLE - Maureen Erinne, an international doctoral fellow at the Carter Center in Atlanta, will speak during the University of North Georgia's Peacemaking Conference Thursday on the Gainesville Campus.

Erinne will speak about the Carter Center's ongoing efforts to broker peace between Sudan and South Sudan in a presentation made possible by a grant from the United States Institute of Peace (USIP). The presentation will be at 11:30 a.m. in room 3110A of the Martha T. Nesbitt Academic Building.

"The USIP grant not only made possible the guest speaker, but also provided for faculty adjudicators for a student peacemaking competition that took place this week," said Dr. C. Thomas Preston Jr., the primary investigator of the grant and a communications professor at UNG. "Additionally, the top seven students involved in the competition will receive small stipends from this grant."

As part of the conference, 27 students competed in a mock peacemaking competition, and 35 either competed in or judged an intramural debate competition. Both competitions focused on international topics. The peacemaking competition involved two cases, one involving Palestinian and Israeli water rights in Jerusalem, and the other involving China's effort to broker an oil deal between the Sudans.

USIP chose the UNG project because of its emphasis on engaging in nonpartisan conflict management in international situations and because of the international scope of UNG's institutional mission.

"USIP is pleased to support organizations like the University of North Georgia and their contribution to the national conversation around international conflict - and methods for resolving those conflicts nonviolently," USIP President Jim Marshall said.

USIP is an independent, nonpartisan conflict management center created by the U.S. Congress to prevent and mitigate international conflict without resorting to violence. As part of its congressional mandate, USIP devotes a portion of its budget to support organizations that will advance the field of conflict management by developing new techniques, establishing best practices, and professionalizing the field through education and training.