Q: Tell us about your current research, The Encyclopedia of Violence, Peace, and Conflict.
A: Two major projects are underway right now, the most immediate being a four-volume Encyclopedia of Violence, Peace, and Conflict. It has more than 270 chapters on topics from A to Z across a broad range of disciplines and from around the world addressing those three interrelated areas of research. I estimate it has about 2 million words total. This is the third edition of a multi-decade project and the final version should be published early in 2022.
This summer, I am finishing up my end of it, which involves everything from determining which topics to cover, finding authors, reviewing their chapters, and approving the final proofs for publication. It's been a lot like going back to graduate school because I am reading a broad range of topics and learning so much every day, but I am also able to interact with major scholars in my field around the world and that has been very satisfying.
Another important aspect of that project has been involving Mason Korea students as intern research assistants, helping me to find appropriate authors and updating sources from earlier versions of the encyclopedia. It has given me an opportunity to get to know some of our best students, to help them improve their resource skills, and to learn how a large project of this kind is put together.
The other issue I am working on is an effort to globalize social theory. Social thought in the modern social sciences is almost entirely based in European, plus some American, experience and research. That stream of social thought is only one of many, including South Asian, East Asian, African, Islamic, and indigenous social thought from around the world over the millennia. For several years now, I have been teaching a graduate seminar on global social thought, at Mason, the University of Texas, and the University of Chicago. I taught it this semester at Mason Korea as an undergraduate course and it was a bit of a struggle, but I am getting some excellent research papers that are provoking a great deal of thought. It has been so inspiring to work on this project in Asia and I have learned so much from my students, colleagues, and the cultural milieu of South Korea.
Q: Why is the encyclopedia important, especially in the field of peace and conflict resolution studies?
A: Perhaps the major issue facing humanity today is violence, if defined broadly as Johan Galtung has, with his triangle of direct, structural, and cultural violence. Conflict arises out of—and often results in—direct violence as we usually think of it, with war, crime, and assaults of various kinds. Beneath the surface, however, is the harm caused by how we structure society and the cultural themes like discrimination, racism, ethnocentrism, and sexism, that provoke and legitimate other kinds of violence. The millions of children killed annually by malnutrition are harmed by social structures like poverty and food distribution systems as surely as if they were shot with guns.
Too much of our research on violence takes place in disciplinary silos, with conflict theorists, political scientists, sociologists, psychologists, anthropologists, as well as international relations, and biomedical scholars, and others all studying the same topics from very different points of view and with a variety of methods. This project tries to compile in one place a broad range of research on violence and possible remedies for the problem. It will, of course, also be available online.
I recently added a fourth type, turning his triangle to a diamond with eco-violence. Originally, I thought of it as violence against nature, creating the climate crisis, but now we have seen nature reciprocating with the pandemic warning us against human disrespect for our ecosphere and highlighting our interdependence with each other and all other creatures and elements of our world.
Q: How is your research particularly relevant to current issues of race and social justice in the US and around the world?
A: Racism leads to inequality in opportunity structures, for example, and high rates of police brutality against people of color not only in my American homeland but also around the world. We have seen a historic uprising against racism in the United States and around the world in recent months. The COVID pandemic has also exposed many of us to inequities of our current system, which promotes widespread poverty and a climate crisis, along with inequalities in healthcare and opportunities. Efforts to address the kinds of violence that we face today are at the core of my research. I am hoping that the encyclopedia and global social thought projects will address some of the deeply embedded causes of violence and remedies and best practices of peacebuilding and non-violence that our collective research has highlighted.
There are societies in which there is almost no violence and there is heightened equality of opportunity for its members. We also have models for social change that have proven very effective in recent decades, calling upon the non-violent side of human nature and strategic planning for nonviolent resistance, as well as non-violent lifestyles, that can lead to heightened well-being and social justice for all of humanity.
Q: How long have you been at Mason Korea? What was the highlight of your time here?
A: My wife, Dr. Mariam Kurtz, and our three kids have been in Korea for 3.5 wonderful years. Our lives have been greatly enriched, our horizons broadened, and new opportunities opened. There are so many highlights, it is difficult to choose just one. I would say it is probably the relationships with colleagues and friends from Korea and around the world, and how they have taught us different ways of seeing, thinking, and problem-solving. We have been so enriched by our experience here and will be forever grateful to Mason Korea and our friends and colleagues here.
June 24, 2021
