Peace and Conflict Studies Institute (PACSI)

The goal of the Peace and Conflict Studies Institute (PACSI) is to promote education, research and practice concerning peace and conflict issues, in both the UMass Lowell and greater-Lowell communities. We focus on

• Conflicts at all levels—from local to national to global.
  
  
• Social injustice (based on race, gender, economics, sexual orientation, etc.) and environmental degradation and their connections to conflicts and violence.
  
  
• Positive alternatives to war and violence, such as conflict resolution—these are often best learned through participatory, "hands-on" activities.
  
  

We are pleased to announce that students can now obtain a degree in Peace and Conflict Studies at both the undergraduate and graduate level.

The 2011 Greeley Peace Scholar will be Leymah Gbowee, the executive director of the Women Peace and Security Network Africa, based in Accra, Ghana. She is a founding member and former coordinator of the Women in Peacebuilding Program/West African Network for Peacebuilding. She also served as the commisioner-designate for the Liberia Truth and Reconciliation Commission. In 2009, Ms. Gbowee was awarded the Profiles in Courage Award by the Kennedy Library Foundation. Ms. Gbowee is the central character of the award-winning documentary, Pray the Devil Back to Hell.

Leymah Gbowee will be the speaker at the sixteenth annual Day Without Violence, which has been held held every April since 1996. PACSI sponsors and cosponsors several additional lectures and discussions each semester.

We collaborate with a wide range of people and organizations, both on campus and in the wider community.