Kenapocomoco Peace Coalition Discusses Plans of Action, Promotes Diplomatic Practices
Marcus Zwiebel
The Kenapocomoco Peace Coalition (affectionately called “Kenapoc”) at Manchester is a dynamic organization that features numerous events and guests throughout the school year, with the intent to spread peace-related knowledge and promote diplomatic practices. The group is primarily located on the second floor of the Academic Center, in room 241, and meets every Monday evening at Professor Katy Gray Brown’s house to discuss social, environmental, political and other conscious issues. The group also meets in order to share announcements and to discuss plans of action with a variety of guests.
Gray Brown hosts Kenapoc’s meetings and is a professor of philosophy and peace studies, but the coalition also makes changes through the work of Manchester University’s peace studies coordinator, Zander Willoughby.
Willoughby, a recent alumnus of Manchester, accepted the one-year position after he graduated last spring. He explains that his main responsibilities include the logistics and planning in the department, as well as advising students and student groups, performing varied administrative work for the department and generally advocating for Kenapoc.
“The meetings usually host a great peace and justice-related guest,” Willoughby said. “The space allows for deeper-than-VIA-level discussions and it’s also an opportunity to connect students to each other and with great resources.”
The coalition is active not only on campus, but also draws individuals from around the world and from different disciplines to inform Kenapoc and other members of the Manchester community about peace and justice-related issues. Social work professor emeritus Brad Yoder is currently on a learning tour, which includes South Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Botswana and will be visiting Manchester imminently. Don Michaelson, a 1968 graduate of Manchester’s peace studies program and Iowa layer, will be visiting campus to discuss the midterm elections.
Willoughby also elaborates that Manchester will be reviving its chapter of Amnesty International, one of the largest human rights advocacies on the globe, and students will be able to participate in Amnesty International’s upcoming Write for Rights event. Write for Rights is a December event where students may write letters, emails, tweets, postcards and take photos for individuals across the globe whose basic human rights are being attacked.
Upcoming peace studies events on campus include “Unveiled: A One Woman Play” by Rohina Malik, which features five monologues that explore the perspectives of five different Muslim women. Willoughby also notes that mediation training, a favorite event of Manchester graduates, will occur during the first two weekends of February.
Students, faculty and staff interested in Kenapoc or peace studies may attend the Monday meetings at 9 p.m. at Gray Brown’s house, contact Willoughby or Caraline Feairheller, the coalition’s student president, and search on the organization’s homepage to learn more about the organization and its ongoing events or learn more information about peace studies as a discipline and advocative force.
“I have two main goals for my time as Peace Studies Coordinator,” Willoughby said. “They are to push conflict resolution training and education on campus and to broaden the understanding of peace studies beyond protesting—to show how broad of a field it really is.”