The Many Voices of Peace Studies: Celebrating 50 Years

Tola Olu Pearce

Tola Pearce initially arrived from Nigeria to the U.S. in 1964 to go to college, where she obtained three degrees, graduating in sociology and specializing in medical sociology at the PhD level.

After teaching for 15 years at the Obafemi Awolowo University in Nigeria, she took a sabbatical, came back to the USA and decided to stay. In 1994, Pearce secured a joint appointment in the Department of Sociology and the then-Women’s and Gender Studies Program (WGST) at MU. Her introduction to Peace Studies began at that time. She retired in 2017 as an emerita professor.

“When I was hired, Jim McCartney (1936-2012) was the chair of sociology and he emphasized that my task was to be a comparativist and bring additional international perspectives to the department,” she says. “My area of specialization is Africa, but I also focus on problems of developing nations, colonization, globalization, and the longstanding relationship between the West and nonwestern nations.”

Pearce says the 50-50 split between sociology and WGST (now a department) worked out well, and she was able to teach and cross-list courses on human rights, race relations, social inequalities, and the sociology of health and illness at both the undergraduate and graduate levels.

Several of her courses were electives and students were definitely exposed to nonwestern perspectives in class. “With all my courses, I inject a comparative perspective. For example, in my human rights course, students begin to understand that concepts and perspectives taken for granted here – such as personhood, family, human rights, land rights – are constructed differently in other cultures.

“How is a person defined in any culture? American individualism has absorbed the idea ‘I think therefore I am.’ Yet in much of Africa, cultures begin with the group and the idea ‘I am because we are,’ a distinctly different approach to personhood. But one cannot deny that there is hierarchy or inequalities in African societies. In fact I come from an ethnic group (the Yoruba) that is traditionally very hierarchical. However, our perspectives on rights and obligations differ from those of the West, given that the definition of ‘person’ differs. It’s important for students to be aware of such things and review the implications.”

Introduction to Peace Studies

Pearce recalled that when she arrived, she was given an office next door to John Galliher (1937-2019) in sociology. He was at the time director of Peace Studies, a position he held for 16 years. Galliher asked if she wanted to participate in the Peace Studies Program.

“I didn’t know anything about Peace Studies, or its impact on campus, but I took John up on his offer and became involved. First I joined the association known as ‘Friends of Peace Studies,’ and I also gave guest lectures in Peace Studies courses, was on the Faculty Advisory Committee for a while, and still attend Peace Studies presentations on campus. Peace Studies has brought some of the most engaging guest speakers to this campus over the years.”

Though retired, Pearce currently teaches two courses each fall semester: “Gender and Human Rights in Cross-Cultural Perspective,” a WGST course cross-listed with sociology and Peace Studies and “Race, Gender, Class, and US Policy,” a Black Studies course cross-listed with sociology.

She is also co-editor (with Richard Hessler, emeritus sociology) of the Peace Studies journal: The International Journal of Conflict and Reconciliation. This is a multidisciplinary peer-reviewed journal supported by the College of Arts and Science. It was inaugurated in 2005 as The University of Missouri Peace Studies Review, printing two issues a year (fall/spring) under the co-editorship of Daryl Hobbs and Charles Cowger.

The journal could not be sustained in print, therefore Friends of Peace Studies decided on online publications. Pearce and Hessler became co-editors for the online version and initiated several changes including the name change.

A webmaster, Hugh Emerson, an environmental specialist at Mizzou, was hired to help with the developments. The online version, which began in 2011, is published once a year in the fall, and can be viewed currently HERE. The journal attracts international submissions as well as articles from local symposia in Columbia.

For instance, the 2013 issue featured selected and peer-reviewed papers from an MU symposium on the 1994 genocide in Rwanda that was organized by Afro-Romance Institute. Over a three-month period, more than 800 people were murdered during violence against the Tutsi in Rwanda. Other publications have dealt with the analysis of social institutions in the process of reconciliation (the Balkans, Ireland, Turkey), and forms of resistance in society.

“The journal does have a global reach as intended,” Pearce says. “Dick Hessler and I added new sections to the journal format, including the section on ‘Research Notes’ which allows scholars to showcase ongoing research for review and comments. The new Peace Studies director, Daive Dunkley, has given the journal an additional boost by suggesting that it move from its present website to the Peace Studies website. The move is now in process and will give the journal more visibility and credibility.

A Touch of the Personal

Pearce explained that she often injects personal experiences when discussing issues or concepts in class. One major example is the experience of colonization. Nigeria was a British colony from 1914 to 1960. Born in 1944, she was 16 when the country became independent, one year before she graduated from high school.

Under the British, many aspects of life were not under Indigenous control – including the political, educational, economic, and legal systems. Christianity was introduced and many students were educated in private missionary schools. For her secondary education, Pearce was sent to an Anglican missionary boarding school at the age of 12.

Other Christian missions also established boarding schools. However, one must remember that the point of colonization was political control in order to extract economic resources, she adds. It was not for the benefit of the colony, but for the enrichment of colonizers. Much of Africa is still struggling under the impact of colonization, its aftermath, and now the lack of good local leadership. There is constant upheaval, economic crises, and civil unrest.

“My involvement with the Peace Studies Program has exposed me to similar problems across the globe. As I noted earlier, I have learned a lot from the types of guest speakers from all over the world that Peace Studies tends to invite on campus,” Pearce concludes.