Professor weighs in on "Women and Conflict" lecture series

When one sees a title “Women and Conflict”, you can only imagine the comical suggestion that there can’t be one with out the other, stereotypically. A different approach to conjoining the two topics was taken March 24 when UNCG hosted a lecture series, “Women and Conflict” in effort to educate, acknowledge, and inspire. The department of Sociology pulled together four strong voices to speak to the UNCG community. The night began March 24, 2010 at 7:00, in the Elliott University Center with Barbara Martinez Jitner, a filmmaker and human rights activist, giving a speech entitled “ Femicide at Our U.S. Border: To Be a Woman in Juarez Is a Death Sentence.” The lecture series was continued the next day, from 9 am to noon with speakers: Dr. Linda Burton from Duke’s Sociology Department, Dr. Kim Blankenship, from Duke’s Global Health Studies Program, and finally, Dr. Linda Brady, UNCG’s Chancellor.

To get a personal perspective and experience of the event, who better to ask than a male? Furthermore, who better to ask than a male who specializes in conflict? Dr. Kellett has written two books on the matter of conflict and teaches a course in the Communication field, CST 344, Conflict Communication at UNCG. Kellett took some time to interview with The Carolinian concerning his experience after attending the lecture series.

Kellett expresses his favorite portion of the lecture was the film Jitner showed, “depicting how injustice and exploitation in the borderlands affect women in particularly tragic ways.” Calling it “enlightening” he further suggests, “I think the big message from the film evening for me, was that and its possible to have an impact on policy and practices relating to some of the very difficult scenarios depicted in the film.  Jitner had steps that each of us could take to get involved and participate in trying to change the injustices portrayed.”  

Kellett’s other highly noted portion of the lecture was what he describes a “passionate and knowledgeable speech” given by Brady. “I thought that Chancellor Brady’s presentation did much to help us understand the changing role of women in diplomatic/governmental applications of conflict and peace skills.  Taken together these presentations showed the need for change both in terms of socio-cultural expectations of women in conflict resolution/transformational roles and the need to position justice at the heart of our understanding of social conflict.”  These are words spoken from a true professor of conflict.
Conflict Communication is a class based on conflicts within students own lives that they learn to discover solutions for if they are lucky, but for the most part understanding of these conflicts.  This course in particular is where Kellett spent time to encourage students to attend the lecture. “Its nice when campus events and a class you’re teaching connect. It’s important for students to hear perspectives and experiences broader and different from my own that I share in class.”  

Although a specialist in conflict, Kellett notes that there are very different ways of understanding and talking about something like conflict, from different disciplinary angles which are important for students to see. “My view is a communication perspective but there are many other approaches--political, sociological, film, and so on.”

The event was described as powerful, sad, moving, and thought provoking by Kellett’s students. Many attended due to a promise of extra credit and left with more than a few points to add to their average.