In 2024 the Centre for Peace Studies adopted a new name, Centre for Global Peace, Justice and Health. The revised Centre mandate and name maintains the original Centre’s focus on peace studies, while amplifying the intersections in peace and justice studies.
Formally established in 1989, the Centre for Peace Studies at McMaster grew from the shared concern of scholars and physicians about the dangers of the Cold War. This collaboration initially led to the introducing of an undergraduate course in Peace Studies, and ultimately to the Combined Honours BA program and Minor in Peace Studies (now Global Peace and Social Justice). It also gave rise to public education initiatives, including the Bertrand Russell Peace Lectures and the Mahatma Gandhi Lectures on Nonviolence, as well as other lectures and conferences on peace advocacy, social justice education and peace through health.
The revised Centre name places the research of the Centre directly in conversation with researchers working in the field of social determinants of health and health equity studies. McMaster University continues to maintain a global reputation for innovation in Health Sciences, and our Centre has been strengthened by its strong connection to the Faculty of Health Sciences from its origin. For a number of years, it worked in a local partnership with the Canadian Centres for Teaching Peace to facilitate the Annual Conferences on Peace Education in Canada, which provided opportunities for participants to exchange knowledge and develop critical skills for nonviolent social change. The Centre’s focus on peace education has also been an important part of its projects in areas of conflict; for example, the Afghanistan project resulted in introducing peace education into the national curriculum and getting 40,000 copies of a peace education book into Afghan schools.
The Centre for Global Peace, Justice and Health continues to develop expertise in researching and applying ways to build peace through health initiatives and facilitating informed discussions on the inequities in health research and public health policy. Both locally and globally, the Centre for Global Peace, Justice and Health explores and applies strategies for educating for a culture of peace.
Many of our researchers work in collaboration with the Population Health Research Institute, the Bertrand Russell Archives, the Institute for Globalization and the Human Condition, the Gender and Social Justice Program and the Centre for Human Rights and Restorative Justice. This unique opportunity for cross-Faculty collaboration is a vital component of the history and ongoing work of the Centre.
The Centre’s work is founded on a history of community partnerships, including those with Hamilton’s Gandhi Peace Festival, Mahila Shanti Sena, and Physicians for Global Survival. Our ongoing work will continue these valued partnerships while developing new connections with community groups and leaders, both to amplify their work and initiate new projects with publicly accessible outputs.
Centre members will benefit from their interactions with both local and international researchers, practitioners and activists who are regularly invited by the Centre to offer workshops, seminars, class visits and public lectures.
Our focus
We are focused on advancing research, knowledge dissemination and interdisciplinary collaborations in three areas, especially as these areas impact peacebuilding locally and globally:
Environmental and Climate Justice
The Environmental and Climate Justice focus area explores developing research on the climate emergency and environmental health through a human rights and peace studies lens.
Topics include environmental determinants of health, environmental rights, sustainability, and social activism.
The impacts of the climate emergency and environmental disasters disproportionately affect racialized and other marginalized communities. These same communities are also making significant advances in climate emergency education and social activism. This focus area will explore these topics on a local scale within the McMaster and greater Hamilton communities, on a national scale as researchers explore case studies across Canada, and on a global scale through international partnerships.
Focus Area Lead: Ingrid Waldron
Global Social Justice
The Global Social Justice focus area explores social movements, the root causes of social injustices, and the prevailing social activism addressing such injustices, with a focus on displacement, diasporas, globalization and transnationalism.
Topics include transnational identities, refugee studies, gender and sexuality, diaspora studies, migration, transitional justice, and conflict transformation.
Social justice and human rights movements are occurring locally and in communities around the world every day. Research on the structures and history underlying issues of human rights, as well as experiences of displacement and diaspora, can help us better understand the inequities in contemporary society and can lead us toward localized and practical ways to address injustices and support vulnerable populations. This area will also support scholarship of teaching and learning as it relates to equity and justice-oriented pedagogies.
Focus Area Leads: Alpha Abebe and Aytak-Akbari Dibavar
Health Equity
The Health Equity focus area employs a peace studies lens to investigate the intersectional determinants and impacts of health issues on marginalized and racialized communities, as well as issues in community and societal health.
Topics include health injustices, health interventions in conflict zones, mental health, Indigenous health, inequities linked to the COVID-19 pandemic, migrant health, and health advocacy and health education.
In the past, the Centre has hosted multiple “Peace Through Health” conferences at McMaster University, bringing together practitioners and researchers from around the world to discuss the significant relationship between conflict, peace, and health. We are committed to continuing the Centre’s legacy of facilitating ongoing dialogue among global networks of peace and health experts to deepen understanding of the health sector’s capacity in promoting peace and health equity.
Focus Area Lead: Chandrima Chakraborty
A Humanities Approach
The Centre will leverage the capacity of the Humanities to contribute to the well-being of people and their communities. Humanities disciplines help us to understand histories, cultures, languages, and other determinants of human behaviour that shape perceptions, concerns, and assumptions about science, health, and wellbeing. Our attention to context, complexity and diversity will complement and advance research capacity of McMaster researchers and students across all Faculties. It will connect, stimulate and support faculty and students across the various Faculties to engage in interdisciplinary discussions on inequities in research, public policy and strengthen EDI work on reducing barriers, and support better outcomes for all.
Objectives
- Connect researchers across campus to lead innovative research and knowledge mobilization projects that develop links between academic research and community advocacy addressing the Centre’s three focus areas.
- Amplify the work of affiliated researchers, educators and community leaders, and increase the capacity of the Humanities and Social Sciences to contribute to existing conversations and initiatives at McMaster.
- Maintain existing community relationships and foster new partnerships with community groups, educational institutions, and non-governmental organizations through workshops, seminars, and public lectures.
- Engage in public education initiatives (e.g., workshops, conferences, community-led teach-ins) derived from research developed within the Centre on both historical and current issues by offering on campus and off campus communities knowledge to create social change, foster peaceful coexistence, and encourage active participation for justice and equity.
- Maintain reciprocal connections with the Global Peace and Social Justice academic program at McMaster to encourage student engagement in Centre activities and provide valuable student learning opportunities by translating research results into innovative curricula.
- Cultivate collaborations across Research centres, Institutes and Departments at McMaster University, and further the Centre’s connections with Health Sciences.