image of a white dove holding a bullet

2026 Peace in the Age of Forever Wars Symposium

2026 Peace in the Age of Forever Wars Symposium

April 3 - 4, 2026
Gladfelter Hall, 10th Floor, Global Studies Lounge

The relationship between war and peace is complex and uneasy. Sometimes, war and peace are understood as opposites, sometimes as symbiotic, such as when we justify going to war as a means of producing peace. The relationship between war and peace has become more fraught in the twenty-first century and stands in even greater need of examination and theorization. This symposium brings together scholars from the humanities and social sciences to present new scholarship on how to achieve and maintain peace in the age of forever wars. Our hope is to reexamine old frameworks and to bring to light new ones, to understand more deeply the core questions of peace and conflict in historical and transnational context.

Organizers

  • Lee-Ann Chae - Associate Professor of Philosophy, Temple University
  • Petra Goedde - Professor of History, Temple University

Keynote Speakers

  • Mary Dudziak - Asa Griggs Candler Professor of Law, Emory University School of Law
  • Samuel Moyn - Kent Professor of Law and History, Yale University
  • Graham Parsons - Visiting Professor of Philosophy, Vassar College

Participants

  • David Chan - Professor of Philosophy, University of Alabama at Birmingham
  • Mikkel Dack - Associate Professor of History, Rowan University
  • Christian DeVos - Visiting Assistant Professor, CUNY School of Law
  • Dario Fazzi - Professor of Transatlantic Environmental History, Leiden University and the Roosevelt Institute for American Studies in the Netherlands
  • Christin Hansen - Postdoctoral Research Assistant, Department of History – Modern History, University of Trier
  • Sari Kisilevsky - Associate Professor of Philosophy, Queens College CUNY
  • Jen Kling - Associate Professor of Philosophy, University of Colorado, Colorado Springs
  • Ryan Liss - Assistant Professor of Law, University of Western Ontario, Faculty of Law
  • Margot Minardi - Professor of History and Humanities, Reed College
  • Adam Stone - Doctoral Candidate, History, Rutgers-New Brunswick
  • Elad Uzan - Lecturer, Blavatnik School of Government, Oxford; Faculty of Philosophy, Oxford
  • Jessica Wolfendale - Professor of Philosophy, Case Western Reserve University 

Conference Schedule

2026 Peace in the Age of Forever Wars Symposium

Friday, April 3

10am

Refreshments/opening remarks

10:30am - 11:20am

Mary Dudziak,

“War and Peace in Time and Space – or – Peace as a Form of Privilege”

11:20am - 11:35am

Break

11:35am - 1pm

Panel I: Gender, War, and Peace
- Christin Hansen, Damned to Fail: Peace Agreements Without the Involvement of  Women: The WILPF and Its Criticisms of the 1919 Peace Negotiations”
- Jennifer Kling, “A Feminist Approach to Modern Imperialism and Peace”
- Adam Stone,“Contested Public Diplomacy: Women Peace Activists’ Conceptions of a World Beyond the Cold War in the 1980s”

1pm - 2pm

Lunch

2pm - 3:25pm

Panel II: Peace, Justice, and Human Rights
- Christian De Vos, “Beyond the Forever War: State Capture, Violent Peace, and Cooperative Accountability Structures"
- Ryan Liss, “Human Rights: Between Peace and Dignity”
- Sari Kisilevsky, “Peace is the Way”: Non-Violence and the Right of Self-Defense

3:25pm - 3:45pm

Break

3:45pm - 5:10pm

Panel III: Approaches to War and Peace
- Dario Fazzi, “War is Not Healthy for Children and Other Living Things’: The Socio-Ecological Impacts of America’s Forever Wars”
- Elad Uzan, “Ending War Through Compromise”
- Jessica Wolfendale, “Collateral Voices: Civilian Perspectives and the Ethics of War”

6pm

Dinner for conference participants

2026 Peace in the Age of Forever Wars Symposium

Saturday, April 4

9am - 9:15am

Refreshments

9:15am- 10:05am

Graham Parsons, “From Forever Wars to Wars Forever: Explaining America’s Undying Faith in War”

10:05am - 10:15am

Break

10:15am - 11:40am

Panel IV: Pacifism and Peace
- David Chan, “Is Asymmetric Peace Possible?”
- Mikkel Dack, “Manufacturing Peace: Innovation and Interconnectivity in Post-WWII Democratic Reconstruction”
- Margot Minardi,“Nineteenth-Century American Peace Reform and the Problem of ‘Utopian’ Peace”

11:40am - 12:10pm

Lunch

12:10pm - 1:00pm

Samuel Moyn,“Gaza, the Humanization of War, and the Politics of International Law”

1:00pm - 1:15pm

Break

1:15pm - 2:45pm

Roundtable with Samuel Moyn, Mary Dudziak and Graham Parsons

The symposium is sponsored by:

  • Center for the Study of Force and Diplomacy (CENFAD)
  • Dr. Todd Davis, Temple Alumnus
  • Temple University Faculty Senate
  • Office of the Provost
  • Institute for International Law and Public Policy, Temple University
  • Center for the Humanities at Temple (CHAT)
  • History Department, Temple University
  • Philosophy Department, Temple University
  • Political Science Department, Temple University
  • Temple University College of Liberal Arts (CLA)