Dr. Rita Guerra is a Postdoctoral Fellow, Center for Psychological Research and Social Intervention Lisbon University Institute, Portugal. Dr. Guerra is interested in intergroup relations among racial majority and minority youth and contact-based interventions to reduce prejudice in childhood. In her research, she studies how children's minority/majority status influences their emotional responses to intergroup contact.

She will present findings from her study of White and Black Portuguese children showing how the salience of different group representations during contact (e.g., as "one group identity" or "dual identity") influences the appraisal systems children use to interpret intergroup encounters, which trigger positive and negative intergroup emotions, and in turn, positive and negative behaviors toward other groups.

Dr. Jill Irvine is the Presidential Professor and Director of Women’s and Gender Studies at the University of Oklahoma. Cynthia Enloe and others have argued that while war has a devastating impact on women it can also open up space for a reconfiguration of gender relations. But, under what conditions can a more egalitarian postwar order be achieved?

This study of women’s organizing during war and post war reconstruction in Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo attempts to answer this question. To what extent, I ask, have women’s organizations achieved their goals of political transformation and gender equality? In what ways have they shaped the post war processes of refugee return, reconciliation and human security? In seeking to understand strategies and their impact, I focus on the interplay between structure and agency—examining the ways in which domestic and particularly international actors and forces shaped the strategic choices of women’s organizations and activists.

Dr. Daniel Bar-Tal is the Branco Weiss Professor of Research in Child Development and Education at the School of Education as well as the past director of the Walter Lebach Institute for Jewish-Arab Coexistence through Education at Tel Aviv University, Israel. His research interests lie in political and social psychology, studying the foundations of intractable conflicts and peace-making.

He has authored over two hundred papers in social and political psychological journals and books. In 1991 and again in 2009, he received the SPSSI Otto Klineberg Intercultural and International Relations Prize and in 2000-2001 he was awarded the Golestan Fellowship at the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities and Social Science. In 2006, he received the Alexander George Award from the International Society of Political Psychology for the best book in Political Psychology, as well as the Peace Scholar Award from the Peace and Justice Studies Association for distinguished scholarship in the study of conflict and peace-making.

Dr. Glendene Lemard is Research Assistant Professor, Health Policy & Management, the School of Public Health and Health Sciences at University of Massachusetts Amherst and the Managing Director for the Greater Springfield- University of Massachusetts Amherst Partnership. Jamaica is a small island developing state with one of the highest murder rates in the world. It is a democratic society with a stable system of government and many of the murders stem from interpersonal disputes such as acts of revenge, robberies and drug or gang-related activity. There is much discussion on the root causes of violence in the country but empirical analyses of the patterns in killing tend to reveal issues not readily seen or acknowledged by the society.

This presentation will examine the patterns of killings in Jamaica since independence in 1962 up to 2007 and will discuss the implications for health and development. The presentation will also examine the underlying factors that impact the growth in violence in the country which include the class structure, inequality and distinctions in access to opportunities. It will also examine social norms and mores that promote a culture of violence. Seemingly, "nonsensical killings" as in the case of some reprisals and many mob killings may in fact have patterns not readily apparent that suggest a rhyme and reason for such action. The information garnered can help to inform strategies to boost violence prevention efforts which will also be discussed.