S-CAR's Annual Welcome Dinner

On September 8, 2012, the School for Conflict Analysis held its annual Welcome Dinner, open to all faculty, staff, and students. The dinner provided an opportunity for friends, colleagues, and acquaintances of past years to come together and express their projections for the future of S-CAR, with fresh and innovative input from new scholars and practitioners.

The event began with an introductory speech by Solon Simmons, and from there it was established to be much more than a simple reunion and meet-and-greet. Richard Rubenstein had the opportunity to introduce the school’s faculty members, and Julie Shedd acknowledged the full variety of the visiting scholars that were present for the evening. While this dinner was a fun and engaging social experience to those who attended, S-CAR benefited in more ways than one. The sheer diversity of cultures and intellectual backgrounds present at the banquet afforded an opportunity to draw on various conceptions of what the conflict analysis and resolution field should be, and subsequently enabled S-CAR to capitalize on innovation.

Perhaps the best term to capture the meaning of this event was ‘resonance.’ To gauge what resonated with each attendee when they thought of S-CAR and the role the school plays in the practical and academic worlds, Lisa Shaw invited those who attended to discuss the terms that came to mind when they thought of the school. Members of each table then selected one or two terms that resonated for their group and shared them with the larger audience. Among the terms proposed, it seemed that the phrasing was extremely important in revealing how attendees advocated for a practice-oriented future informed by theory and knowledge. This builds on the practical foundation S-CAR has constructed over the years. Examples include: ‘hope for our home,’ ‘infiltration of conflict,’ ‘honor the past,’ ‘crossroad of theory, research, and practice,’ ‘pragmatic and successful,’ and ‘evolving and relevant.’ This interactive conceptualization of the inherent nature of the school both diversifies and focuses future initiatives that S-CAR’s students, staff, and faculty may choose to engage in.

Using the Welcome Dinner as a springboard, S-CAR as a community must delve headlong into this very realizable future. As is to be expected, our community will do this first by analyzing the past, then resolving to build on its success.