Winter 2018 Peace News Psychologists for Peace, interest group of the Australian Psychological Society
From the Editor In this edition:
Greetings PfP members!
Welcome to our Winter edition, a good time to hibernate (especially for • Psychologists for Peace Prizes and Awards 2018 those of us who live in the south), to enter the cave and go inward and to find some inner peace. • Conferences and calls for
In the last National Committee meeting held in June, our Committee papers decided to make contact with you all in order to get an indication of what • Prizes and research grants it is that you would like from your membership. Some of you have already spoken to a state representative already. And we appreciate the • Other links and resources feedback that we have received thus far. For those members who have been a bit more difficult to reach, please feel free to contact Winnifred or myself directly, should you wish to share your views about your Psychologists for Peace: membership; our newsletter; the PfP Facebook page; projects you would like us to be involved in; professional development opportunities you Working to promote peace in the world and prevent conflict would like to be part of; your interest in becoming involved in state or through psychological national committee matters; and/or anything else pertaining to matters research, education and of peace. advocacy.
Wishing you all the best during this time, Contact Us: [email protected] or Best wishes, Sara Cohen [email protected] [email protected]
Online: Psychologists for Peace Prizes and Awards 2018 groups.psychology.org.au/pfp/ The Psychologists for Peace Interest Group has two prizes and awards Newsletter contributions: open this year, and we encourage our members to promote them Please email any PfP news or through their networks: any other related articles, resources and/or links to 1. Psychologists for Peace Interest Group Project Award [email protected]
This award is made annually to assist a student enrolled in an Reader alert: Newsletter accredited fourth year psychology program or Masters by coursework readers who use an Apple psychologist program in carrying out an empirical project on a peace Macintosh computer may at related topic, or disseminating its findings. times experience difficulties opening hyperlinks and so URL More information, including details about the nomination process and addresses are provided and selection criteria, can be found here: may need to be manually https://www.psychology.org.au/About-Us/What-we-do/Awards-and- copied into the search engine scholarships/ig/Psychologists-for-Peace-Interest-Group/Psychologists- of your browser. for-Peace-Project-Award
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Conferences
August 4th - 5th 2018 Trajectories of radicalisation and de-radicalisation https://policy -futures.centre.uq.edu.au/event/session/686 The University of Queensland, St Lucia Campus Queensland , Australia
August 9th - 12th 2018 126th Annual American Psychological Association Convention http://www.apa.org/news/events/2018/apa -convention.aspx San Francisco, California, USA
October 5th -7th 2018 The 7th International Conference on Community Psychology ‘The Community in Motion: Building Diverse Spaces, Social Cohesion and Change’ Santiago, Chile.
October 24th - 26th 2018 Alliance for Peacebuilding ‘Harnessing Collective Action for Peace’ PeaceCon 2018 Washington, DC, USA
Calls for papers The Journal of Aggression, Conflict and Peace Research seeks papers for publication in future issues. For more information: http://www.emeraldgrouppublishing.com/products/journals/call_for_papers.htm?id=5984
Research Grants
Research grants are offered by The Avielle Foundation to encourage neuroscience, public health or clinical research institutional/organisational applicants to conduct research to better understand the etiologies, precursors, risk and protective factors, prevention strategies and consequences of violence to self and others. A link for more information: https://aviellefoundation.org/research/opportunities/research-grants/
Psychologists for Peace Prizes and Awards 2018 (continued from page 1)
2. Psychologists for Peace Interest Group Youth for Peace Project Award
Open to groups of young people aged 12-18, this prize is for projects that aim to build peace – at school, in families, communities or globally. For more details, see page 8 of this newsletter or the following link: https://www.psychology.org.au/About-Us/What-we-do/Awards-and-scholarships/ig/Psychologists-for- Peace-Interest-Group/Peace-Interest-Group-Youth-Award
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Other News International Society of Political Psychology Support Scholars in Turkey As you may be aware, over 1000 academics in Turkey put their name to a petition in 2016 questioning government policy regarding the Kurds. In response, President Erdogan put pressure on Universities to discipline or dismiss those who had signed the petition. Since the failed coup last year, the situation has further deteriorated, with President Erdogan moving to suppress anyone who has been critical of his actions. Teachers, academics and public servants have been stood down, and treatment has also included the confiscation of passports and criminal proceedings.
The International Society of Political Psychology (ISPP) has initiated a number of initiatives to support their Turkey members including a donation scheme. Academic freedom is critical. And so ISPPs Scholars Under Threat Fund will be used to support academic scholars in Turkey who have been impacted by the recent actions taken by the country’s government.
Below link to donate, or find out more about the situation: http://www.ispp.org/about/scholars_turkey
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in articles, podcasts and other resources contained in this newsletter do not reflect the official policy or position of the Psychologists for Peace Interest Group or any of its members.
Other News (continued)
Trajectories of radicalisation and de-radicalisation
The University of Queensland, St Lucia Campus th th Saturday 4 August – Sunday 5 August
This is a two-day interdisciplinary meeting bringing together a group of 50 international scholars on radicalisation and de-radicalisation. It is preceded and followed by five other satellite events that involve a variety of schools, institutes and centres at UQ.
Our National Convenor, Prof Winnifred Louis, is one of the organisers of this event, along with Prof Fathali Moghaddam, Prof Craig McGarty, Dr Catherine Amiot, Dr Emma Thomas, and Assoc Prof Adrian Cherney.
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Trajectories of radicalisation and de-radicalisation The University of Queensland, St Lucia Campus Saturday 4th August – Sunday 5th August Keynote Addresses Prof. Harvey Whitehouse: Ritual, Community, and Radicalisation Field research in anthropology has generated some compelling hypotheses about the role of ritual in creating group cohesion and fuelling intergroup conflict. In recent years, efforts have been made to test many of those hypotheses scientifically. This talk provides an overview of research conducted at the Centre for Anthropology and Mind at the University of Oxford, using a range of methods, from carefully controlled psychological experiments to the analysis of large longitudinal datasets. This research suggests that rituals not only demarcate cultural groups but varying the frequency and emotionality of collective rituals produces different scales and intensities of group alignment, suited to addressing distinct kinds of collective action problems. The research also helps to explain processes of radicalisation and other forms of extremism.
Fathali M. Moghaddam: How Groups and Nations Drive Each Other to Extremes I was in Iran in 1979 when Khomeini’s followers invaded the American Embassy and took 52 Americans as hostages. Four decades later, I am living in the USA, where President Donald Trump is keeping the country entrapped in a social psychological process I call mutual radicalisation, when two groups push each other to extremes. Nationalist Extremists and Islamic Jihad, and Gridlockracy in American politics both illustrate this dynamic, along with Israel-Palestine internationally. Mutual radicalisation is a universal collective process, in which rational individuals in both groups recognise they are moving in the wrong direction, but feel powerless to prevent the collective ‘stampede’. Second, collective radicalisation leads the groups to adopt a ‘your pain, my gain’ strategy. Third, mutual radicalisation leads to high levels of within-group conformity and obedience. Fourth, mutual radicalisation leads both groups to experience identity transformation. I end by outlining concrete steps for mutual de-radicalisation.
Register for: Psychology’s role in responding to community violence Gender and radicalisation: The Indonesian context Intergroup contact Translating PVE?CVE research into evidence-based policy. A research-policy-practice trilogue Social identity and groups network symposium Keynotes and welcome drinks: Psychological and anthropological perspectives on radicalisation and extremism Voices and perspective from community organisations on radicalisation and de-radicalisation
Or follow the link: https://policy-futures.centre.uq.edu.au/event/689/translating-pvecve-research-evidence-based-policy
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Resources
• Journal on Rehabilitation of Torture Victims and Prevention of Torture The World Psychiatric Association recently adopted a policy that bans psychiatrists’ involvement in any facet of interrogations, criminal or national security. The new issue of the Torture journal has the policy, accompanies by commentaries by bioethicist Steve Miles, and Director, Social Justice and Human Rights Program, Stephen Soldz. The key passage of the policy: "No psychiatrist should participate in the interrogation of persons held in custody by military or civilian investigative or law enforcement authorities. Participation includes intervention in the environment where the prisoner is held, advising on ways to confuse or debilitate the person to act against his or her will, doing psychological or medical examinations to certify the health of prisoners or detainees for interrogation, being present in the interrogation room, suggesting strategies, asking or suggesting questions, or advising authorities on the use of specific techniques of interrogation with particular detainees. "
More information can be accessed online via the following link: https://irct.org/index.php/publications/torture-journal/128
Other articles of interest accessible via the above link, include ‘Australian immigration detention and the silencing of practitioners,’ by April Pearman and Stephanie Olinga-Shannon.
• Memory Sites and Human Rights The Global Campus of Human Rights continues to grow its Open Learning Series with a new Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) on Memory Sites and Human Rights. This free course offers participants with multiple perspectives and examples of memorials that can help them develop and reinforce their critical understanding of a topic that is at the crossroads of history, arts, architecture, design, social just and human rights studies.
Check this webpage for a description of the course and when the next intake will take place: https://www.canvas.net/browse/eiuc/courses/memory-sites-human-rights
Podcasts, videos and other links of interest
• Weather alert Four Corners program
Watch a Four Corners episode of how Australia’s warming climate is changing the way we live and work.
http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/weather-alert/9511070
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Podcasts, videos and other links of interest (continued)
• What good did the apology do?
Ten years ago, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd delivered an unequivocal Apology, to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities devastated by the practice of forced removal of children from their families. Though morally demanded and politically long overdue, there were dynamics at play that undermined its moral force. http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/theminefield/what-good-did-the-apology-do/9443490
• Who bears responsibility for vast inequality?
Yascha Mounk is a lecturer on political theory in the Department of Government at Harvard University. In this podcast he explores issues around inequality and wealth disparity, structural disparity personal failure/individual responsibility, moral terrain, mutual accountability http://mpegmedia.abc.net.au/rn/podcast/2017/12/mld_20171227.mp3
• In Defense of housing
David Madden, Assistant Professor in Sociology at the London School of Economics explores the housing affordability crisis, the political and economic structures that have produced it and what response might be required to address the issue.
http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/blueprintforliving/in-defense-of-housing:-the-politics- of- crisis/9546068?utm_source=sfmc&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=%5bradio_smfc_24_03_18_R N_df_!n1%5d%3a125&user_id=8526c4fc318e74a6c5df6e297491d78ea70ad1120c50cb1bdbf1c6228fa1 8353&WT.tsrc=email&WT.mc_id=Email%7c%5bradio_smfc_24_03_18_RN_df_!n1%5d%7c125&utm_co ntent=http%3a%2f%2fwww.abc.net.au%2fradionational%2fprograms%2fblueprintforliving%2fin- defense-of-housing%3a-the-politics-of-crisis%2f9546068
• Stephen Davis: Life as an international peace negotiator
International peace negotiator, Stephen Davis, has worked as an advisor to several democratic presidents of Nigeria, and travelled to Northern Nigeria earlier in the year, to look at how programs can be built to skill local women and girl following their release from captivity by the Islamist terrorist organisation, Boko Haram http://www.abc.net.au/radio/programs/conversations/stephen-davis-rpt/9740820
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Podcasts, videos and other links of interest (continued)
• Julia Gillard on gender and power
Since leaving politics former Prime Minister Julia Gillard, has campaigned for women’s leadership as well as good education for disadvantaged children. In an interview with Laura Tingle at the Sydney Writers Festival, Ms Gillard discusses the barriers for recruiting female leaders and how their performance is judged differently to their male counterparts:
http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/bigideas/gender-and- power/9836348?utm_source=sfmc&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=%5bradio_smfc_08_06_18_RN _df_!n1%5d%3a125&user_id=8526c4fc318e74a6c5df6e297491d78ea70ad1120c50cb1bdbf1c6228fa1835 3&WT.tsrc=email&WT.mc_id=Email%7c%5bradio_smfc_08_06_18_RN_df_!n1%5d%7c125&utm_content =http%3a%2f%2fwww.abc.net.au%2fradionational%2fprograms%2fbigideas%2fgender-and- power%2f9836348
Book review In his book, On Borrowed Time, Emeritus professor of politics and renowned public intellectual and journalist, Robert Manne, collates a collection of essays that comment on a range of pertinent subjects including climate change, asylum seekers and WikiLeaks. The poignant title of this work is made clear in his personal first chapter where he shares his challenges around his 2016 diagnosis of throat cancer.
In the Queensland Reviewers Collection, Dr Kathleen Huxley writes:
“This book which was a pleasure to read is an extremely well- written compilation of essays which, whilst being polemic at times, offers detailed vision into some of the most important political issues of our times.
Newsletter contributions If you are interested in contributing to this newsletter in the way of articles, book reviews, interesting links, resources or any PfP news and updates, please email Sara Cohen: [email protected]
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Youth for Peace Project Award 2018
Psychologists for Peace (an Australian Psychological Society Interest Group) is excited to announce the Youth for Peace Project Award 2018
Groups of young people (aged 12-18) are invited to undertake a project that builds peace - at school, in families, in communities, or globally.
Go to https://www.psychology.org.au/about/awards/pfp-project/ for further details and for resources to support your project
Awards: First prize certificate with $1000 Up to two Highly Commended certificates with $500 each Closing date – Tuesday 30th October 2018
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