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Reducing Racial Stereotyping and Violence by Police: The Victimization of Roma People in Europe
Thursday, February 11th
12:30pm - 2:00pm
Conference Room 5183
Steve Wessler will discuss his project with a European IGO to develop and implement a training curriculum for police to motivate officers to work effectively with Roma people while complying with human rights standards.
Stopping Roma to check identify papers, conducting violent raids on Roma communities, engaging in forced evictions of entire communities. Roma people, perhaps Europe’s most discriminated group, have been the the target of racial & ethnic bias and violence for centuries.
Steve will discuss this project and the difficulty of engaging in conflict resolution when both sides are not in the room. He will describe his recent field visits to meet with Roma and police in 3 European countries.
We will discuss together the similarities and difference between the issues facing Roma in Europe and Black communities in the United States.
1 Credit Course:
Feburary 12th thru 13th 2016
Steve has been engaged in human rights and conflict resolution work for over 23 years. He will be teaching a 1 credit course at S-CAR, Conflict Resolution for the Long Haul, on February 12rd thru 13th 2016.
Course Description: Providing students with skills and strategies to engage in CR in the human right field over a career without burning out or becoming too distant from the emotional content of conflict. Students will develop these skills through in class discussion and through practice sessions.
• Avoiding becoming the caricature of the "fly-in expert: Learning strategies for preparing for CR in places you have never been through focus groups and interviews
• Telling Stories: The use of stories in CR can motivate participants to rethink their perspectives on conflict and also give you a sense of continuity as you bring your experience and wisdom from past work to new situations
• Responding to Difficult Questions, Comments or Outbursts: How we respond to difficult comments and questions are pivotal events in CR. We will practice skills for responding in the moment.
• Coping with Vicarious Trauma: Learning skills for understanding and coping with the wrenching stories of emotional and physical trauma we hear in human rights and CR work.
Short Bio and Contact Information:
Steve has worked in the human rights field for over 23 years, first directing a state wide hate crime investigation and enforcement unit, than founding a human rights NGO, and now consulting with NGOs and IGOs. He has engaged in conflict resolution on issues of race, nationality, religion and sexual orientation across the US and in Europe, including in Northern Ireland and Kosovo. The participants in his CR work range from youth to police officers to religious leaders to NGO staff to the general public. Steve teaches courses on human rights at the College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor, Maine. Steve lives on Mount Desert Island, Maine.
If you have questions please email me at [email protected]