The Herbert C. Kelman Seminar on International Conflict Analysis and Resolution presents:
Conflict Resolution Practice in Light of Collective Trauma and
Power Asymmetries
A virtual discussion with:
Pamela Steiner
Senior Fellow, FXB Center for Health and Human Rights,
Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
Thursday, April 29, 2021
12:00 p.m. – 1:00 p.m. ET (U.S. & Canada)
About the talk:
Pam Steiner will draw on learnings from her recently-released book, Collective Trauma and the Armenian Genocide: Armenian, Turkish and Azerbaijani Relations since 1839. The relations of these peoples have often been violent and existentially threatening, and hence comprised of major traumatic events. Steiner will offer analysis and proposals for change in such situations. The talk will also touch on some of the still potentially inspiring commonalities among these three peoples that were unsuccessfully promoted by historical actors aiming to improve intergroup relations.
Steiner will advocate that practitioners of conflict resolution explicitly take account of collective trauma in their work. She will also argue that one way of many for doing this is through instituting an additional kind of conflict resolution meeting to include a wider range and greater number of participants. Finally, she will briefly set the impact of conflict resolution work against that of powerful interests with investment in the status quo.
About the speaker:
Pam Steiner has convened and facilitated conflict resolution workshops for Jewish Israelis and Palestinians, and for Armenians and Turks. She is also a trauma psychologist and group psychotherapist in private practice. She is a great-granddaughter of Henry Morgenthau, US ambassador to the Ottoman Empire from 1914-1916, serving in Constantinople/Istanbul just before and during the most intense period of destruction of the Armenian people by the Ottoman government. Morgenthau became—and remains today —a hero to the Armenian people due to his persistent efforts to prevent the annihilation intended for them.
Steiner is a Senior Fellow at the FXB Center for Health and Human Rights, at the TH Chan School of Public Health, Harvard University.
About the Herbert C. Kelman Seminar Series:
The Herbert C. Kelman Seminar on International Conflict Analysis and Resolution series is sponsored by the Program on Negotiation, The Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, and Boston area members of the Alliance for Peacebuilding. The seminar considers ways to strengthen the capacity to prevent, resolve, and transform ethnonational conflicts.
For more information, contact Donna Hicks at dhicks@wcfia.harvard.edu.
