 |
Responding to the Whole of Conflict in the 21st Century: Challenging Conventional Identities
Thursday, October 7, 2009 Atlanta, GA
Has ADR/CR been relegated to the margins of the more complex conflict situations whether these be poverty, scarce resource distribution, persistent and organic organizational conflict, identity groups engaged in intra state conflict, or other complex dynamics? While there always will be a need for third parties to provide intervention responses to the genre of interest-based disputes, the “field” needs to develop the capacity to engage these conflicts at the structural level where complex interdependencies exist and where the genesis of many conflicts lie. To do so, practitioners need to determine if iconic knowledge skills, and abilities (KSAs) that have been the staple of the provider community since its inception, are adaptable for these more complex and protracted social conflicts (PSCs). Or will the provider community be called upon to create new KSAs that challenge conventional images and identity of the intervenor? The latter carries implications for how we imagine ourselves and the ethics that guide our practice.
Wallace Warfield is an associate professor of Conflict Analysis and Resolution at the Institute for Conflict Analysis and Resolution (ICAR) at George Mason University. He is a reflective practitioner, trained in the area of public administration and public policy, making use of a full range of theory in the analysis of conflicts and various approaches used to manage, mitigate, and resolve such conflicts. He teaches laboratory-simulation, practicum, and theory courses and his field work has involved interventions and training in complex, multi party conflicts involving communities and organizations in the United States and abroad. Along with other ICAR faculty, he has conducted research and training projects in conflict settings in Africa and South America. In the latter case, the focus has been on conflict zones of peace in Colombia.
He is on the Editorial Board of Negotiation Journal and also is the author of a number of publications in the field of conflict analysis and resolution. He is a past president of the Society of Professionals In Dispute Resolution (SPIDR) and a member of the Board of Reference of the Conflict Transformation Program at Eastern Mennonite University.
Prior to his affiliation with ICAR, Dr. Warfield served as a Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the Administrative Conference of the United States (ACUS). At ACUS, he was responsible for helping Federal agencies build alternative dispute resolution processes into their administrative systems, developing and implementing training for government contracting offices, boards of contract appeal judges, administrative law judges and others in the Federal sector. Before his work with ACUS, Dr. Warfield worked for the U.S. Department of Justice’s Community Relations Service holding the positions of Acting Director and Associate Director for Field Coordination in the national office and Acting Regional Director, Deputy Regional Director, and mediator in the New York office.
Before joining the Department of Justice, he served as the Deputy Director of the Lower West Side (New York) Community Corporation and prior to that, he was a street gang worker with the New York Cit Youth Board.
A roundtable comprised of expert panelists will engage in discussion with Wallace Warfield following his keynote address. Panel Members: • Robert Benjamin, Adjunct Faculty: Straus Institute for Conflict Resolution at Pepperdine University School of Law, Southern Methodist University’s Program on Conflict Resolution, Washington University, GWB School of Social Work.
• Homer C. LaRue, Professor of Law, Howard University, Chair-Elect, ABA Dispute Resolution Section
• Joyce Neu, Mediation Expert, United Nations.