Nobel recipient headlines Post-Conflict Recovery Week at JMU

Mary Wareham, part of a Nobel Peace Prize-winning team in 1997, will discuss efforts to ban weapons with artificial intelligence from 7-8 p.m. Monday, April 4 in Miller Hall, Room 1101 at James Madison University.

Wareham’s address will be the second event in the annual Post-Conflict Recovery Week sponsored by JMU’s Center for International Stabilization and Recovery. The week will begin with an opening reception and post-conflict art exhibition at 5 p.m.Friday, April 1 at Clementine Café in downtown Harrisonburg. The art show will feature works by students in JMU’s School of Art, Design, and Art History based on information about post-conflict recovery and will be part of First Fridays Downtown. Using art to convey complex post-conflict issues is a creative way to raise awareness in about major humanitarian crises.

Wareham, advocacy director of the Arms Division at Human Rights Watch and global coordinator of the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots, will give a talk titled “From Landmines to Killer Robots: Protecting Civilians by Advancing Humanitarian Disarmament.” She will discuss the Campaign’s current efforts to ban AI-technology weaponry before they come into widespread use. A reception will follow the speech.

From 1996 to 1997, Wareham worked for the Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation, assisting Jody Williams in coordinating the International Campaign to Ban Landmines. Williams and the ICBL jointly received the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize.

On Tuesday, April 5, Shaun Wright, assistant professor of media arts and design, will discuss the goals, process and impact of documenting humanitarian issues. He will share insights of several documentary films he and JMU students created in Srebrenica, Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2012.

The full schedule of events is available at jmu.edu/cisr/_pages/other/pcrw.shtml.

Post-Conflict Recovery Week is sponsored by JMU’s Center for International Stabilization and Recovery with support from the College of Business, department of graduate psychology, department of justice studies, department of political science, McClung Companies and Buffalo Wild Wings.