Carolyn Byrd and Bill Sulzman listen as Paul Burke of Citizens for Peace in Space makes a point about the future of the peace movement.

Avoiding conflict and building peace were two of many topics raised during a two-week Peace Happens symposium on campus in April. “Nonviolence means humanizing everyone across the globe and having a sense of social respon-sibility and compassion,” says Devon Little ’05, who developed the symposium’s concept.

The symposium featured lectures, a film series, movement workshops, and panel discussions that focused on topics from medical care for civilian victims in war zones to building inner peace through meditation. “Nonviolence can be strategic action that brings a large-scale regime change,” says Little. “We also looked at the potential of theater to bring change; we looked at the media, at faith, and at what faith and activism have in common.”

The symposium brought highly acclaimed speakers such as Gino Strada, the founder of the Italian humanitarian medical organization Emergency, and Patricia Verdugo Aguirre, a leading figure in the post-dictatorship Chilean movement seeking truth and justice who contributed to the indictment of Pinochet.

Head Resident of the Italian House Mauro Saachi helped organize the Peace Happens symposium.

“The people who came to Peace Happens wanted to know what to do about the suffering they see around them,” says Little. “That is not an easy question, because it’s both systemic and personal.” Members of the local community joined CC students and faculty for the symposium’s 32 events, bringing attendance to about 1,600 people. “Peace Happens was needed and meaningful to people, especially here and especially now,” says Mauro Saachi, head resident at the Italian house, who handled logistics for the symposium.

Saachi hopes to turn Peace Happens into an annual year-long effort with a dialogue-based event each block and a week-long symposium each spring. “When I heard someone say they had been waiting for 25 years for something like Peace Happens, I realized that we touched a lot of people,” says Saachi.