On 7 and 8 June, the academics from Newcastle University and Northumbria University are jointly hosting a conference celebrating ‘Two Centuries of Peacemaking’. The event marks two anniversaries: the bicentenary of the foundation of the Peace Society (the first major peace organisation in Britain) and the centenary of Britain’s enactment of conscription during World War One (raising the issue of conscription during wartime). Furthermore, the conference forms part of various activities in the run-up to the 50^th anniversary of Martin Luther King’s visit to Newcastle.

The two day conference features a diverse and stimulating set of talks, with twenty-eight panellists as well as four keynote speakers: Martin Ceadel (Professor Emeritus in Politics, University of Oxford) on the Peace Society; Kate Hudson (General Secretary, CND) on peace activism in twentieth-century Britain; Thomas F. Jackson (Associate Professor, University of North Carolina) on Martin Luther King and non-violence; and David Cortright (Director of Policy Studies, Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies) on ideas of peace.

The event’s first day includes a Peace Fair that is open to non-delegates, at which local initiatives working on peace and conflict resolution will run small information stalls. It’ll be an exciting opportunity for a dialogue involving academics and practitioners, and there’ll even be a bit of music!

For further information and the conference programme, feel free to visit the blog of Northumbria University’s ‘Histories of Activism’ research group or the web pages of Newcastle University.

There are two ways of registering for the conference:
· Full conference participation (includes the peace fair)
· For the Peace Fair only (includes Kate Hudson’s keynote)