Nonviolence Research Fellowship: Summer 2012

(Update: We had a wonderful response and a very difficult selection process. We wanted to take everyone! Nonetheless, 3 Fellows have been selected for this summer’s program. Stay tuned to hear more about their exciting and practical research. )

(Quick look: “Research for a Nonviolent Future”; mid-June until mid-August; Applications due March 25, 2012; Petaluma, California; up to 3 awards: $2,000 and summer housing)

A word from Michael Nagler, President of the Board of Directors

I am very pleased to announce our summer fellowship, Research for a Nonviolent Future.  It should not take much to persuade ourselves today that nonviolence is a survival skill that we ignore out our peril.  What may be less obvious is that among its many dimensions nonviolence is a science, a field of study, which as such has been as yet badly neglected.  We can send men to the moon, Martin Luther King pointed out, but we cannot get along with one another here on Earth.  What would an economy of peace look like?  What is the evolutionary endowment — and yes, there is one — that enables the human being to “offer” nonviolence, as Gandhi put it?  And by what logic do others to whom it is offered respond?  What have been the “best practices” that allow nonviolence to do its healing work in one or another situation?  How can we train ourselves to use them?

These questions and others like them are among the most vital for the survival and fulfillment of the human experiment.  The program we are offering this summer will give a select group of talented young men and women the opportunity to advance our understanding of these very questions.  They will be involved in a crucial service of human knowledge, for there are still few universities, research groups, or think tanks that deal with them.  Far fewer than we need.

When I was working to establish the Peace and Conflict Studies Program at UC, Berkeley, my colleagues would often challenge me with the question, ‘what career will the students be preparing for’?  Well, for nothing less than the most important ‘career’ to which we are all called: the career of using our talents and capacities for the advancement of humanity.  But in this case humanity stands at a critical juncture where what lies before us is either extremely dark or entails a promise almost too bright to believe.  What these young people will be researching is nothing less that the key to unlock that bright promise. (Michael Nagler, Petaluma, California, January, 2012)

Ready to apply? The deadline is March 25, 2012.

The Metta Center for Nonviolence, in an effort to advance nonviolence education worldwide, will award up to three fellowships for the Summer of 2012 (mid-June until mid-August).  Fellows will pursue a research question of practical value to the field of principled, Gandhian nonviolence while spending three days a week interning with the Metta Center in Petaluma, Ca. Applicants should have positive, previous experience in conducting and completing research.  The Metta Center welcomes applications from individuals around the world. While we have identified 3 key areas for research this summer (history, education and science (see below)), we encourage applicants with a specific research goal to propose their idea to us for consideration.