Ithaca College

 Peace Action Ithaca College is hosting a virtual panel discussion Friday, May 1st, at 7:00 PM EST to explore the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the global landscape for peace and human rights going forward. The panelists will provide their perspectives on how the coronavirus is affecting trends in rising authoritarianism, deteriorating multilateralism, and the shifting balance of power between the United States and China. There will also be a brief question-and-answer period at the end.

The guests include: Chip Gagnon, Professor of Politics at Ithaca College and long-term Visiting Scholar at the Judith Reppy Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies at Cornell University. Bruce Knotts, Director of the Unitarian Universalist Office at the United nations. Joseph Gerson, Director of the Peace and Economic Security Program at American Friends Service Committee.   See below for each person’s bio.   Event Information: Time: May 1, 2020 7:00 PM - 8:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada) Zoom Meeting URL: https://zoom.us/j/93416883537?pwd=VDNZNVdkSFFZSWNjb1BxSzRFUVhxQT09 Meeting ID: 934 1688 3537 Password: 2ztMJ3   Chip Gagnon has taught politics at Ithaca College since 1996, and he is a long-term Visiting Scholar at the Judith Reppy Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies at Cornell University. He is the author of the book The Myth of Ethnic War: Serbia and Croatia in the 1990s, which won the American Political Science Association’s Prize for the Best Book on European Politics and Society as well as the Best First Book Award of the Council for European Studies. He also co-edited the book Post-Conflict Studies: An interdisciplinary approach with Keith Brown. Chip Gagnon earned his undergraduate degree at Georgetown University in Washington, DC, majoring in European Studies.  After working in France, Germany, and Washington DC for several years, he enrolled in Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs, where he earned his Masters in International Affairs.  He then entered the PhD program in Political Science at Columbia, writing his dissertation on “Ideology and Soviet-Yugoslav Relations 1962-1969.”  He also earned certificates in East European and Russian/Soviet Studies at Columbia.   Bruce Knotts is the Director of the Unitarian Universalist Office at the United Nations. He was born and raised in Southern California. He got his Bachelor’s Degree in History from Pepperdine University and his Master’s Degree in International Education from the Monterey Institute of International Studies; both in California. Bruce was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Ethiopia. He worked for Raytheon in Saudi Arabia and on a World Bank contract in Somalia, before he joined the Department of State as a U.S. diplomat in 1984. In 2004, Bruce was elected to the Board of Gays and Lesbians in Foreign Affairs Agencies (GLIFAA). Bruce retired from the Foreign Service in 2007 and joined the Unitarian Universalist Office at the United Nations as its Executive Director at the beginning of 2008.   Joseph Gerson serves as President of the Campaign for Peace, Disarmament and Common Security and as director of the American Friends Service Committee’s Peace and Economic Security Program and is Vice-President of the International Peace Bureau. He plays a leading role in building collaborations among U.S., Asian, and European peace and nuclear weapons abolition movements, most recently serving as lead organizer for the World Conference: Abolish Nuclear Weapons; Resist and Reverse the Climate Crisis; and for Social and Economic Justice.  His program work focuses on challenging and overcoming U.S. global hegemony, including its preparations for and threats to initiate nuclear war and its military domination of the Asia-Pacific, Europe and the Middle East. Joseph has been interviewed by and published in numerous outlets including the BBC, Voice of America, the Boston Globe, and Associated Press.  He is also the author of the renowned Empire and the Bomb.  He received his Doctorate in Politics and International Security Studies from the Union Institute and College.   Peace Action is the largest grassroots peace organization in the country. It is dedicated to promoting the non-violent resolution of conflict, the abolition of nuclear weapons, halting the global spread of conventional arms, building a human rights culture and supporting human needs instead of militarism. You can visit its website at  https://www.peaceaction.org.