Working it Out: Support Networks for Academic Writers

Saturday, June 25, 2:00 - 3:00 p.m.

Presenters: S.Y. Bowland, Education and Conflict Resolution Practitioner; Roberto Chene, Director of the Center for Intercultural Leadership Training and Conflict Resolution (Albuquerque, NM); Beth Roy, Founder of the Practitioners Research and Scholarship Institute (PRASI); Dr. Linda James Myers, Professor of Psychology, Ohio State University, and Mary Adams Trujillo, Professor, Intercultural Communication and Conflict Transformation, North Park University

Under the best of circumstances, the writing process is full of challenges! Some may be personal, but many are institutional. The good news is that research has demonstrated that support networks increase the likelihood of academic and literary success. In this interactive workshop, presenters offer strategies for working through personal, institutional, and cultural barriers to completion from a group of published authors who have extensive experience with the dissertation writing process and have developed a model to help writers build networks for success.

About the Presenters:

S.Y. Bowland earned her Bachelor of Arts Degree in Social Relations in 1978 from Colgate University in Hamilton, NY and her Jurist Doctor Degree in 1981 from the National Law Center at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. She has served as an education and conflict resolution practitioner since the early 1980's. Over the years S.Y. has worked in higher and professional education, including: Morehouse School of Medicine's Family Practice Development Program, Tuskegee University's School of Business, Colgate University, Columbia College's Master of Arts in Conflict Resolution, Syracuse University's Summer Conflict Resolution program, Vanderbilt University, and William & Mary. She has co-chaired the board of the National Conference on Peacemaking and Conflict Resolution and has served as the director of the Practitioners Research and Scholarship Institute. She was a member of the editorial review team of the Conflict Resolution Quarterly; written contributions to T. Jones and D. Kmitts (Eds) Does it Work? The Case for Conflict Resolution Education in our Nation’s Schools (Washington, DC: CREnet. 2000); “Living Knowledge”, Conciliation Quarterly (Winter 2004, Vol. 23, No.1); “A Few Good Mentors”, a publication of MCC U.S. (Summer 2000, vol.19., No. 3). She is contributor and co-editor of an anthology of writings by practitioners in the field of conflict resolution published by Syracuse University Press, entitled, Re-Centering Culture and Knowledge in Conflict Resolution Practice, edited by Mary Adams Trujillo, S. Y. Bowland, Linda James Myers, Phillip M. Richards, and Beth Roy. An interview with Dr. Bowland can be found here.

Roberto Chene holds a BA in Philosophy, an MA in Pastoral Theology, and has done postgraduate work in Social Welfare Policy at Brandeis University. He is the director of the Center for Intercultural Leadership Training and Conflict Resolution in Albuquerque, N.M. He is deeply rooted in the Chicano-Latino community and has taught "Cross-Cultural Education "and "Latinos and Public Policy" at the University of New Mexico. He consults with many organizations in Multicultural Organizational Development and is currently working with two major religious organizations as they initiate programs to eliminate institutionalized racism. He has conducted trainings, presentations, and lectures throughout the US and has worked in Mexico and South Africa. Roberto is motivated by his deep commitment to transform relationships of dominance into relationships based on equality. He is currently working on a book of reflections and lessons gleaned from his more than thirty years of practice in the building of multicultural community.

Dr. Linda James Myers, is Professor of Psychology at Ohio State University. She specializes in psychology and culture; moral and spiritual identity development; healing practices and psychotherapeutic processes; and, intersections of race, gender and class. Internationally known for her work in the development of a theory of Optimal Psychology, Dr. James Myers has conducted trainings England, South Africa, Ghana and Jamaica. She is the author of numerous articles, book chapters, and five books, including: Understanding an Afrocentric World View: Introduction to a Optimal Psychology; and, most recently, co-editor of Recentering Culture and Knowledge in Conflict Resolution Practice. She has received numerous honors and awards for excellence in research and scholarship, including being named DistinguishedPsychologist by the Association of Black Psychologists; the Bethune/WoodsonAward for Outstanding Contributions in the Development of Promotion of Black Studies from the National Council of Black Studies; Oni Award by the International Black Women’s Congress; and, the Building to Eternity Award from the Association for the Study of Classical African Civilization, among others. Professor James Myers is a recipient of the O.S.U. College of Arts and Sciences Outstanding Teaching Award, a member of the national honor societies of Phi Kappa Phi and Psi Chi, a past president of the Association of Black Psychologists, and Chairman of the Board of Directors for the National Association for the Education of African American Children with Learning Disabilities.

Beth Roy, PhD, is a long-time mediator in the San Francisco Bay Area. Trained as a sociologist at University of California, Berkeley, Beth teaches there in the Peace and Conflict Studies program. She writes books on social conflict, most recently 41 Shots….and Counting: What Amadou Diallo Teaches Us About Policing, Race, and Justice (Syracuse University Press, 2008). Her dissertation research was published with the title Some Trouble with Cows: Making Sense of Social Justice (University of California Press, 1994). In 1999, she completed a study of racial dynamics in America, focused through oral histories with people involved in the desegregation of Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. That work appeared in print as Bitters in the Honey: Tales of Hope and Disappointment Across Divides of Race and Time (University of Arkansas Press, 1999). Beth is a founder of the Practitioners Research and Scholarship Institute (PRASI), a network of writers dedicated to supporting academic and other professional authors to regard lived experience as the basis of research and to write their knowledge for publication. She co-edited Re-Centering Culture and Knowledge in Conflict Resolution Practice.

Mary Adams Trujillo received her Ph.D in Communication Studies from Northwestern University and is currently a professor of intercultural communication and conflict transformation at North Park University in Chicago. She has previous professional experience in the mental health, higher education administration, and conflict resolution fields. As a consultant, she offers skills and strategies to individuals seeking to change cultural systems. Her publications include articles, essays, and the anthology, ReCentering Culture and Knowledge in Conflict Resolution Practice (Syracuse University Press, 2008). She counts among her most significant contributions the fact that she is a mother of five daughters and grandmother to five grandchildren.