MONTREAL/March 7, 2005—
As part of the ongoing Peace and Conflict Resolution series, Concordia University will present 2 lectures by Dr. Erik Doxtader, professor of communications at the University of Wisconsin.
The first lecture, A Mystery of Faith in the Works of Words, will take place on Wednesday, March 9, at 9:30 a.m. in room CC-125 on the Loyola Campus (7141 Sherbrooke St. West). The second, Reconciling Judgement: Truth, Amnesty and Reparation in South Africa, will take place on Friday, March 11 at 2:30 p.m. in room LB-608 of the J.W. McConnell Building (1400 de Maisonneuve Blvd. West).
South Africa is remarkable for its relatively peaceful transition from Apartheid to democracy. Under Apartheid, white rule and racial separation were enforced through a body of laws and the gross violation of human rights by police and security agencies. Central to the transition process to a non-racial democracy based in “one person, one vote” was the creation of a Truth and Reconciliation Commission that provided victims with an opportunity to tell their stories and confront their oppressors.
Ten years after its formation, South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission has inspired substantial imitation and provoked significant controversy, particularly because it offered amnesty to perpetrators in exchange for their full disclosure of human rights violations. While defended as a model for how some societies can heal the wounds of atrocity and promote democratic human rights, it is not clear how or how well the Commission actually fulfilled the objectives of its “unique experiment.”
Doxtader will also consider the more fundamental question: “What is reconciliation?” This question is a source of historical puzzlement about how to make history and a site of contemporary political dispute over what is required to turn deep divisions into the bonds of “unity in difference.”
Through his lectures, Doxtader will provide his audiences with ways of understanding reconciliation that go beyond such usual categories as justice and forgiveness, by calling attention to its character as a wager on and an invitation to a democratic future. While the South African model may not be universally applicable, the South African experience provides a rich opportunity for learning about the place of reconciliation in democratization.
For more information about this lecture contact Dr. Maurice Charland, professor of Communication Studies, at (514) 848-2424, ext. 2546. For updates on the Peace and Conflict Resolution series, contact Laurie Lamoureux-Scholes at peace@alcor.concordia.ca.
Peace and Conflict Resolution web site
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Source :
Tanya Churchmuch
Senior Media Relations Advisor
Concordia University
