Plowshares Institute’s Legacy to Continue through Seminary Program

After more than three decades of cultivating global peace through mediation, case-based conflict transformation training, and intensive international travel seminars, Plowshares Institute’s co-founders, the Rev. Dr. Robert and Prof. Alice Evans, plan to expand the International Peacemaking Program at Hartford Seminary. The Plowshares Peacemaking Fellows Program will support two IPP participants in each of the next three academic years beginning in September 2015.  The Evanses and the Plowshares Board of Directors have decided to culminate the organization’s work through a set of special grants to selected international partners to empower and sustain their peace education initiatives.  The Plowshares Peacemaking Fellows program at Hartford Seminary is the product of one of these grants.

About Plowshares Institute:

Plowshares Institute has worked in the field of transformative education for more than thirty years.   Plowshares:

• Served as consultants for national and international peace commissions, parliaments, and community organizations on five continents;
• Partnered with social justice and peace organizations internationally to train religious, community and government leaders in creative conflict intervention, mediation skills and to build networks of local trainers.
• Developed global understanding focused on north-south relationships through transformative travel seminars.

Plowshares was twice nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by members of the South African parliament for conflict transformation training programs in the 1990s and empowering leaders to work together. Plowshares Institute has conducted similar training in more than 30 countries including a three-year program with urban leaders in 10 cities in the United States.  Plowshares most recent focus has been on China, Northeast India and South Africa. Throughout its history, Plowshares made valuable and sustainable impact by leveraging its expertise in innovative mediation methodologies, especially the use of local case studies, its extensive international experience, and mutually beneficial partnerships with change agents around the world.

About the International Peacemaking Program and the Plowshares Fellows:

In each of three years beginning in 2015, two Plowshares Peacemaking Fellows will be accepted to participate in Hartford Seminary’s groundbreaking International Peacemaking Program. This program has brought to Hartford more than 30 young leaders from countries with religious conflict for a year of study and capacity development. The Plowshares Fellows will be selected from candidates who have leadership skills and constructive experience with conflicts in their country of origin and deep commitment to directly apply their new skills and insights to their country or region upon return.  The program is intended for younger peace advocates who seek to invest in developing their peacebuilding skills. Candidates from countries where Plowshares has recently focused its peacemaking education work—South Africa, China and northern India—are particularly encouraged to apply.

Those selected to be Plowshares Peacemaking Fellows will benefit from the distinguished dialogue and leadership-building tradition of Hartford Seminary combined with the skills-based peacebuilding expertise of Plowshares Institute

For more information or with questions about the International Peacemaking Program or becoming a Plowshares Peacemaking Fellow, visit this link or contact Jonathan Lee, Coordinator of Peacemaking Scholarship Programs at tdemo@hartfordinternational.edu or (860) 509-9512.