As part of its Tolstoy Lecture Series in Global Nonviolence, Mahatma Gandhi Center for Global Nonviolence will host a visit to JMU by Dr. Johan Galtung, founder of the academic discipline of peace research and one of the leading pioneers of peace and conflict transformation in theory and practice.

Professor Galtung will give a public lecture titled “On the Coming Decline and Fall of the U.S. Empire.”

The lecture will be held in ISAT/HHS 2301 at JMU. The ISAT/HHS building is just east of I-81 on Carrier Drive.

The lecture is free and open to the public.

About the Speaker:

Johan Galtung is the founder and Director of TRANSCEND (Creative Conflict Transformation by Peaceful Means). TRANSCEND is a global network of scholars and activists conducting conflict analysis and mediation in various trouble spots. He is Rector of TRANSCEND Peace University.

An experienced peace worker and Professor of Peace Studies, he is widely regarded as the founder of the academic discipline of peace research and one of the leading pioneers of peace and conflict transformation in theory and practice. He has played an active role in helping mediate and prevent violence in forty-five major conflicts around the world over the past four decades and is author of the United Nations’ first ever manual for trainers and participants on “Conflict Transformation by Peaceful Means: The TRANSCEND Approach” (2000). He has taught Peace Studies at the University of Hawaii, University of Witten/Herdecke, University of Tromsoe, University of Alicante, University of Ritsumeikan, and the European Peace University, among many others. Professor Galtung established the Peace Research Institute, Oslo in 1959, the Journal of Peace Researchin 1964, and co-launched the Nordic Institute for Peace Research in 2000.

He has published more than 1000 articles covering a wide-range of fields, including peaceful conflict transformation, deep culture, peace pedagogy, reconciliation, development, peace building and empowerment, global governance, direct structural and cultural peace/violence, peace journalism, and reflections on current events, and more than 100 books translated into dozens of languages. His most recent books include Transcend and Transform, Searching for Peace the Road to TRANSCEND, Peace by Peaceful Means: Peace and Conflict, Development and Civilization, Collective Essays on Peace Research and Methodology, and 60 Speeches on War and Peace. He is currently finishing a book on the coming decline and fall of the U.S. Empire.

He is a consultant to several UN agencies and a constantly traveling trainer/lecturer. He holds numerous honorary degrees and awards, including the Right Livelihood Award (1987) and the Bajaj International Award for Promoting Gandhian Values (1993).

Professor Johan Galtung joined the international Advisory Board of the Mahatma Gandhi Center for Global Nonviolence at James Madison University in 2005.

About Tolstoy Lecture Series:

The Tolstoy Lecture Series in Global Nonviolence has been established at the Mahatma Gandhi Center for Global Nonviolence to celebrate the life and legacy of Leo Tolstoy. Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy (1828-1910) was a Russian novelist, social reformer, pacifist, Christian anarchist, vegetarian, and moral thinker. As a moral philosopher, Tolstoy was notable for his ideas on nonviolent resistance through his work The Kingdom of God is Within You (1893), which in turn influenced Mahatma Gandhi. The Tolstoy Lecture Series will bring distinguished scholars and practitioners to the James Madison University campus for lectures, seminars, panel discussions, and a variety of related interactions with students, faculty, and the community at large.

About the Mahatma Gandhi Center for Global Nonviolence:

visit, http://www.jmu.edu/gandhicenter

For further information, please contact the Mahatma Gandhi Center for Global Nonviolence at 568.6394 or Dr. Sushil Mittal, see contact information below.