Between them, they've written books, taught courses and led religious nonviolence organizations – all in the name of peacemaking. Now Duffey, associate professor of theology, and Harak are collaborating to create a Center for Peacemaking at Marquette. ,”
Michael Duffey and the Rev. Simon Harak are no strangers to nonviolent activism and peacemaking scholarship.
Between them, they've written books, taught courses and led religious nonviolence organizations – all in the name of peacemaking. Now Duffey, associate professor of theology, and Harak are collaborating to create a Center for Peacemaking at Marquette.
The center's theme is "Exploring the Power of Nonviolence" and has a target opening date of July 1, according to Duffey.
To start the center's work, Duffey said, "It would be wise to first of all focus on the undergrads and then get as many faculty involved as possible." The interdisciplinary minor in justice and peace, which Duffey coordinates, will also expand to a free-standing major in the College of Arts & Sciences.
Opportunities with the major will include observing a non-governmental organization at work over the course of a summer as a type of internship, according to Duffey.
According to Harak, director-designate, the center's practice is based on a spiral of praxis, helping students refine thinking skills through a continual cycle of research, action based on workshops and skill training and reflection.
To increase Marquette's nonviolence and peacemaking resources, which Harak said are greater than those of other Jesuit universities, the center will bring in an annual peacemaker-in-residence for one to three weeks. Students will have the chance to attend forums and lectures during this time, and the resident will meet with student groups and be integrated into courses for that semester, according to Duffey.
Another center-sponsored idea Duffey and Harak are entertaining is a Peace Circle. This group would gather monthly for prayer, a meal and what Duffey calls "a growing out of community."
"It's not just the community coming into the center, but the center growing out," Duffey said.
The center's action plan has been possible thanks to a donor's sizable gift, which Duffey hopes will place Marquette among other universities with expertise in peacemaking programs. Duffey and Harak are working with the marketing department, University Advancement and other people interested in Catholicism and peacemaking, to secure additional funding.
With such detailed blueprints, there will be a host of ways for students to work for peace with the center, according to Duffey and Harak.
Harak said he hopes it will be a source of creativity through which students can bring talents together and build peace.
"Students here have talents that you can't always spot in the classroom," Harak said. "Poetry, music, sculpting, performance arts, banjos, guitars. These things are about creating, the opposite of war, which is destructive. You can be against the war, but you have to be for something."
Peter McCuskey, co-chair of JUSTICE and a sophomore in the College of Arts & Sciences, said the center would unify often isolated student groups that share some common goals.
"It can encompass more than the name implies," McCuskey said. "It can grow to be more of a center for activism for Marquette. It's an exciting concept.
The activist groups on campus are divided, and sometimes they compete for numbers at events. The center can act as a unifier, a voice for the issues addressed by separate groups that have a political or activist bend."
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