Agora - Advancing Perspectives in the Conflict Field

Agora is an official student organization of the School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution. Agora exists to create an environment to socialize, network, and discuss current events, conflict theories, field involvement, and other relatable topics. The organization also seeks to provide student-to-student mentoring, scholarships, and the promotion of student accomplishment through awards, honors, and special recognition, among many other things. In essence, Agora is for students by students. Meetings are held every Monday night at 7:30pm in the Johnson Center Meeting Room B. Agora is open to all students at George Mason University.

That is Agora. That is the elevator speech that will show a clean, condensed, and inviting picture for all who read it. If you look at Agora’s webpage on S-CAR's website, or on Facebook, or on WordPress, you will see a variety of smiling faces, students, and events. So how do you really understand what Agora is? That is what you see for most organizations, so how is this one any different? Why are so many students getting involved, why has the number of members jumped from 5 to well into 100 in just one year? It all started with an idea.

In the fall of 2013, a core group of students came together. These students were mostly Conflict Analysis & Resolution students, as well as government and global affairs majors. At the helm was Joel Borgquist with Stephen Kakouris, Anthony Reo, Ramsay Boly, Amber Bergeron, Dylan Bates, Haris Fazliu, and Kelsey Laster, among a few others. The idea was that we had no community as undergraduate S-CAR students. Even George Mason in general has not had a real undergraduate organization to create community, recognize achievements, and allow undergrads to act on their ideas. So that fall the group worked tirelessly to build the foundation. This created Agora: an undergraduate organization dedicated to students with as little hierarchy as possible. There were five Archons (officers) with equal power yet different specializations to keep the organization smoothly functioning. Members have nearly as much power as they do, as the focus on the organization is dialogue, recognizing achievements, growing ideas together, and collaborating to create projects and initiatives that can have a real impact. It is a simple system, yet it is designed in a way that a member at any time can create a project. By becoming a member of Agora, they have a unified undergraduate community for support and collaboration.

At the heart of the organization are our weekly discussions. Nearly every week we have a member-approved topic of conversation. These have ranged from the current Ukrainian conflict to sexual violence. When you first step in to the room at one of these discussions the air is meant to be light, friendly, and energized with excitement for the conversation that is going to take place. Members of Agora have said that among others there are two overwhelming reasons they hold it in such high regard. The first is that the majority of the time you are there it feels like a real community. Students are friendly, will come up to you to strike a conversation, make jokes and get to know each other. The second is the discussions themselves. They are designed in a way that you sit in a circle with other students and give your thoughts, ideas, and perspectives to the topic. The discussion takes turns you would never anticipate. Yet you come out of it with a new perspective, new knowledge, and a drive to get more involved. One of the principles is that communication is the first step to real change. Bring a community together, create a dialogue, and take action. It can be seen as an extension of a classroom dialogue when the time is up and you want to keep having the heated debate.

Yet the discussions are only one point. As mentioned above each student as well as teams of students create their own initiatives. We have a monthly newsletter filled with articles, spotlights, and current events, as well as events throughout the semester, workshops in planning to provide real practice, and publicity to students’ articles to give them an edge in their career. Our shirts and other creative designs were completely student run. We have also created programs for mentorship, Class Representatives, and are in the process of creating S-CAR awards and scholarships. Most importantly, we have our first Agora conference on Polarized Conflict Between Parties on April 8, 2015 from 1pm to 4pm in Research 163. It will be an incredible panel discussion with a breakout group involving speakers from Congress, a Macedonian Parliamentarian, and other knowledgeable professionals.

Although Agora is young, the reception has been tremendous. It is an organization that fills a hole in the undergraduate community that includes S-CAR, psychology, sociology, biology, pre-med, law, global affairs, government, and so many other majors. We hope that more students are able to hear about and get involved in Agora. It has positively changed so many students’ experiences here at George Mason University. Though if there is ever a time when the organization shrinks back to just five members, it will still be just as special since it is not the amount of members involved but the feeling of community and the conversations that stem from the raw potential of students. Not to forget all of the incredible staff and faculty that are actively involved to keep it growing and succeeding as well. As go the pillars of Agora, may you go forward and succeed with wisdom, autonomy, and practice.