The Many Voices of Peace Studies: Celebrating 50 Years

David J. Schenker

David J. Schenker, associate professor in the Department of Classics, Archaeology, and Religion, has been with the University of Missouri about 30 years, and discovered early on he and Peace Studies had a commonality.

“My area of expertise is in Greek: ancient Greek language, culture, and literature,” he says. “And I was looking at ways to increase the curriculum to make it more interesting to a variety of people.

“I wanted to jazz it up a little bit, and at the time, Michael Ugarte was director of Peace Studies and he put out a call for the development of courses that would fit his program.  And there was actually money available for the development of courses that would fit Peace Studies; So I applied and got one of the grants for developing a course. It was called ‘Peace and Conflict in Ancient Greek Literature.’”

Peaceful Resolution of Conflict

“Material from that class has morphed into a variety of courses since then. So much of Greek literature, so much of what I teach and work with, has to do with conflict – whether it’s internal to a family, or whether it’s about large-scale warfare. There’s so much focus on war and so very little explicitly about peace.”

Schenker says at first Peace Studies was important because it gave him the opportunity and funds to develop his course. “Peace Studies was promoting values in some of their course development support that I was already trying to get across in some of my teaching.”

For example, Schenker says, “A lot of people see Homer’s Iliad as the promotion of militarism. Whereas it’s much more than that. It’s a consideration of war that presents a variety of complicated responses to it.  The epic is not often treated from the perspective of finding ways that it promotes peace, peaceful solutions, or cooperation. Much more often it’s taught as emphasizing conflict rather than cooperation, and that’s a narrow view of some of this material. I wanted to explore this approach in a class, and Peace Studies was supportive -- thinking about the causes of conflict and trying to get at the root causes of conflict in any number of different ways.”

Learning from the Experts

Schenker says it was Michael Ugarte who helped him grasp the full scope of Peace Studies, and the wide range of those interested in not only the program, but in peace overall.

After Ugarte retired, director John Galliher took over, and from there Schenker got more involved in planning and development by working with Galliher and Friends of Peace Studies. “I tried to encourage more membership,” Schenker recalls. “Galliher did a lot of work for the growth and development. He was excellent at fundraising and built up the resources of the Peace Studies program.”

Through Friends of Peace Studies, which Schenker has been a part of for about 25 years -- at first as “the young guy,” – he met members of the community who had been involved in such areas as international politics and diplomacy. “It was a distinguished group, and also a group that had some resources. They were separate from Peace Studies, but a supportive organization of community members who were raising money and organizing talks and events.”

He says Friends of Peace Studies were able to fund large events on campus, that brought with it community support and attention to the program. For example, Nobel Prize winners were invited. And came.

“They would come in for a lecture and then dinner with the Peace Studies faculty and Friends of Peace Studies,” Schenker recalls.

After Galliher stepped down, Schenker, who is on the Peace Studies Faculty Advisory Committee and has been for more than 20 years, chaired the search committee to find the next director Clarence Lo.

“Clarence immediately set about trying to organize the course offerings and establish a more clear-cut curriculum. Clarence also wanted to raise sufficient funds to hire a dedicated Peace Studies faculty member, someone not borrowed from one of the various other disciplines to teach Peace Studies courses. And he made excellent progress toward doing that.”

After Lo, Andrew Hoberek became director for a short time, but was called away to be chair of the School of Languages, Literature and Cultures, recalls Schenker. Then came the program’s current director, Daive Dunkley, whom Schenker also was involved in selecting.

New Director ‘Full-Speed Ahead’

“Daive is now going full-speed ahead with planning curriculum, disseminating funds to support students and faculty initiatives, and planning multiple public events, including a Peace Studies conference. So, I see a renaissance now of Peace Studies. Leadership is in great hands with Daive.”

Schenker says Peace Studies, in simple terms, exists to offer an alternative to so much in mainstream culture: instead of conflict, it emphasizes resolution and cooperation. But in fulfilling that mission, Peace Studies should cast a wide net.  

“We can start with my view that nobody really wants to fight, or there are very few people who want conflict. And the reason that people come into conflict is because they have a lack of the things they want or need, a lack of resources, primarily.

“And if those basic human needs are fulfilled, there will be less likelihood that even if some sort of demagogue does come along trying to stir up conflict, people won’t go along with it – not if they are content with what they have. So, for example, income inequality is directly tied to the Peace Studies mission. And climate change is something Peace Studies needs to be concerned about because that’s creating living conditions that are untenable in a large part of the world, conditions that are already leading to conflict.”

And if money were no object? Schenker would like to see the fulfillment of Lo’s attempts to hire tenure track faculty devoted primarily to Peace Studies. As a student of literature, he would like to see more novelists, poets, and essayists brought to campus under the auspices of Peace Studies. And, maybe not so dependent on funding. He hopes to see members of the younger generation following in the founders’ footsteps, fully onboard, fully passionate about the work of the program.

“For example, there is a group of students on campus currently working on climate change. That has really mobilized a lot of students, and I would like to see us in Peace Studies get even more involved with that branch of student activism.”