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Thank you to everyone who was able to join the EPP Growth and Diversity webinar on Tuesday, January 24th. A special thanks to the presenters and organizers for their time and expertise! For those of you who missed it then, why miss it now? Click the link below to stream a recording of the webinar 

Stream here --> http://resolv.adobeconnect.com/p5yups31x4e/

In advance of the ACR EPP Diversity Webinar on January 24, Diversity panelist Don Edwards offers several observations:

I am going to try to meet my responsibility to my friends and colleagues by being as plain spoken as I can be in this thought piece. I basically believe there are people who like it mixed up and people who don't and no amount of talking about it is going to change that dichotomy. My Aunt Vivianne used to say all the time that she didn't want to be in anything with just colored people because "too much of the same thing is good for nuthin".

When Kevin Bryant asked me what I thought, my eyes did do a gigantic roll. But when he recently told me there were 80 persons already signed up for the webinar, I accepted that it was time for me climb into the saddle, sit up straight and nudge the horse forwards:

In advance of the ACR EPP Diversity Webinar on January 24, Diversity panelist Sarah Palmer offers several observations:

Thoughts about “How do we grow and diversify the field in a way that is meaningful and sustainable?”

In addition to Frank’s points another aspect of diversity is how we practice.  Consider a synonym of diversity, which is variety.  Is there variety and depth in how we practice our work in order to meet the needs of parties?  With intercultural groups where, for some parties, the relationships have a higher value than an actual agreement; where narrative and metaphor are the means to convey information; where what is unsaid can be more significant than what is stated; where near-term timelines are less important than a longer historical view, how do we learn and create skills that are responsive to this richness and in turn make our work meaningful? 

In advance of the ACR EPP Diversity Webinar on January 24, Diversity panelist Frank Dukes offers three ideas:

First: The term 'diversity' is problematic. My experience (in which the term is most often used in situations involving race as opposed to other demographics) has been that the term is largely a way of avoiding discussion about racial injustices and inequities that allows one to appear to be sensitive to such issues without needing to act on them. It reinforces the notion that such disparities are an exception to, rather than a consequence of, the nature of our nation's democratic practice to date. But 'diversity' has one redeeming potential value: for those who wish, it may be the converse, a way of shaping surreptitiously the conversation about race and justice without alienating people who might otherwise immediately dismiss your ideas.

The editors of Conflict Resolution Quarterly have identified some of the most influential publications on Dialogue and Conflict Resolution published over the past 7 years. 

Titles and bibliographic information are listed below along with links to the full text articles. Articles can be accessed for free by journal subscribers and ACR members (through the ACR website).

Using intentional, values-based dialogue to engage complex public policy conflicts
Susan OMalley Wade
Volume 21, Issue 3, Spring 2004, Pages: 361–379
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/crq.67/abstract

A brief reminder about this important venue for communicating the results of our research and practical experiences.

Conflict Resolution Quarterly publishes scholarship on relationships between theory, research, and practice in the conflict management and dispute resolution field to promote more effective professional applications. Conflict Resolution Quarterly is sponsored by the Association for Conflict Resolution.

Articles focus on any aspect of the conflict resolution process or context, but a primary focus is the behavior, role and impact of third parties in effectively handling conflict at all levels, from the interpersonal to the international. All theoretical and methodological orientations are welcome.

Association for Conflict Resolution

12th Annual Conference

September 12-15, 2012 | New Orleans, Louisiana

The next issue of ACResolution will focus on the theme of the varied professional and educational backgrounds and experience that mediators and other conflict resolvers bring to the field, and how those differences impact people’s practice.  The editor is seeking:

• articles by several practitioners who came to mediation from another profession (e.g. lawyers, psychologists, teachers, etc.) reflecting on how their previous work affects their conflict work.; 
• an article about the increasing number of people in the field whose education and experience is exclusively in conflict resolution; and
• a survey of whatever academic work has been published on these topics.

If you are interested in writing an article for the newsletter, please contact Bill Stempel as soon as possible.  Articles themselves will be due in mid-December.

The USIECR 2012 Call for Conference Presentation Proposals has been extended through November 7! The updated Call for Proposals is here.

For more information check out this blog post

The U.S. Institute for Environmental Conflict Resolution, a program of the Udall Foundation, invites you to share your knowledge at the seventh national conference ECR2012: “Working Across Boundaries.” The conference, organized in conjunction with several federal partners, will be held on May 22-24, 2012, at the JW Marriott Starr Pass in Tucson, Arizona.