Brown Bag Lecture Series

After the Cradle Crumbled: Saving Cultural Heritage and Building habitus in Iraq and Syria

17 October 2025 - Iraq and Syria are considered the “Cradle of Civilization,” where the first cities and writing emerged thousands of years ago. In the summer of 2014, many of these cities were utterly destroyed or under threat of destruction by a terrorist organization. Dr. Greenfield’s presentation outlines the damage and how local and international archaeologists continue to fight back, continuing to document, excavate, and preserve ancient archaeological sites and cultural heritage.

• In-person in Room 225, or Register to attend via Zoom Webinar

Genocide with Nature: Children, Family, Culture, and the More-Than-Human in Canada, Cambodia, Armenia, and Rwanda

31 October 2025 – Dr. Andrew Woolford’s presentation introduces a comparative examination of how human groups form in partnership with more-than-human actors. Drawing on research on four genocides – those in Armenia, Cambodia, Canada, and Rwanda – it looks at how the groups targeted for destruction at these four sites previously shaped their collective existence in concert with key more-than-human counterparts (i.e., land, plants, waters, and animals).

• In-person in Room 225, or Register to attend via Zoom Webinar

Story as Soft Power in Peace Talks

27 November 2025 - In moments of negotiations, data can harden positions, but story softens the ground. In this lecture, Somia Sadiq (Narratives Inc. and Kahanee) examines how metaphors, ancestral memory, and sensory detail can bridge divides, and how mediators, planners, and peacebuilders can leverage the art of story to open new pathways for dialogue and healing.

• In-person in Room 225, or Register to attend via Zoom Webinar

Compassion in Public Service

31 January 2025 - Bob Chrismas Ph.D. served for over 40 years in various law-enforcement roles, including 34 years with the Winnipeg Police Service. In 2023, Bob became the founding Team Lead for Winnipeg's new Community Safety Team. In this new role, Bob has drawn on all of his experience and education to build a team with a culture and vision founded in compassion for vulnerable people while improving public safety.

• Compassion in Public Service (YouTube)

Interpreting Peace Agendas in Post-Conflict Business-Society Relationships in Colombia

11 October 2024 - How does the interpretation of ‘peace’ shape business for peace agendas? How do governmental and non-governmental approaches to peace impact peacebuilding in post-conflict Colombia? Maria Teresa Uribe (KEDGE Business School - Marseille) and Dr. Pablo Zapata (EAFIT University - Colombia) presented the findings of a recent empirical study that delves into the complex dynamics of business-society relationships in fragile post-conflict contexts.

• Interpreting Peace Agendas in Post-Conflict Business-Society Relationships in Colombia (YouTube)

PROFIT OVER PEOPLE: Examining the Consequences of Resource Exploitation in Nigeria

2 October 2024 - The Mauro Institute is pleased to welcome Nnimmo Bassey, Director of Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF) as part of Development and Peace’s  Solidarity Visit to Canada.  HOMEF is ecological minded, rooted in ideology of living in harmony with nature and the environment. HOMEF is focused on unearthing the systemic roots (social, political and economic factors) of environmental and food challenges.

• PROFIT OVER PEOPLE: Examining the Consequences of Resource Exploitation in Nigeria (YouTube)

MANUFACTURING IGNORANCE - Justice in the Age of Agnosis: Socio-Legal Explorations of Denial, Deception, and Doubt

4 October 2024 (11:30 am to 12:45 pm) – Emanating from their recently published co-edited book, Dr. Richard Jochelson and Dr. James Gacek led this panel discussion on an exploration of the human experience of coerced and forced ignorance on social, human rights and criminal justice related topics. The panel considered the ways in which people find themselves in social spaces without empirical clarity and understand that absence as satisfaction, stability, or perhaps even pleasure.

• Justice in the Age of Agnosis: Socio-Legal Explorations of Denial, Deception, and Doubt (YouTube)

Building Peace Research Capacity and Informed Policy-Making in West Africa

1 March 2024 – Dr. Tarila Marclint Ebiede, Co-founder and Director of the Conflict Research Network - West Africa. In his presentation, Dr. Ebiede shares the story of CORN – West Africa and provides preliminary findings of upcoming reports that catalogue the peacebuilding landscape in West Africa and consider the need for both international and West African collaboration in strengthening curriculum and research methodologies across the region.

• Building Peace Research Capacity and Informed Policy-Making in West Africa (YouTube)

Decolonizing Social Work

2 February 2024 – Dr. Michael Yellow Bird, Dean, Faculty of Social Work, University of Manitoba. In this presentation, Dr. Yellow Bird shares a history decolonizing social work that dates back to 1979 when he was a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee. He discusses his academic work, writings, and efforts to decolonize social work practice and education over the last 45 years as an Indigenous social work scholar, leader, and administrator.

• Decolonizing Social Work (YouTube)

Extremism, Terrorism, and Misogyny in Canada

3 November 2023 - Ashley Haller, BA, MHR, Research Technician, Research and Education for Solutions to Violence and Abuse (RESOLVE), University of Manitoba. In her lecture, Ashley Haller explores the applicability of the labels extremism, violent extremism, and terrorism for misogynistic violence through the tragic events of the Montreal Massacre (1989) and Toronto van attack (2018) in Canada. Her research paper is available in Perspectives on Justice, Indigeneity, Gender, and Security in Human Rights Research (2023).

• Extremism, Terrorism, and Misogyny in Canada (YouTube)

Legal Spotlight: Federal Emergencies Act

20 October 2023 - Dr. Michelle Gallant, Professor, Faculty of Law, University of Manitoba. Allegations of lawlessness, political wrangling, mis (and dis-) information surrounding the February 2022 Convoy and the invocation of the Federal Emergencies Act tend to eclipse the relevance and function of law. In her presentation, Dr. Gallant excavates salient aspects of the legal story in connection with the 2022 public order emergency declaration.

• Legal Spotlight: Federal Emergencies Act (YouTube)

“But Where Is the Violence?” Reflections on Honouring Relationships and Troubling Academia

13 October 2023 - Dr. Lara Rosenoff Gauvin, Assistant Professor, Anthropology, University of Manitoba. Dr. Rosenoff Gauvin’s lecture dwells in the spaces between research, relationships, and responsibility. Specifically, she attends to questions around why her anthropological research in Northern Uganda should amplify community aspirations of reconciliation and ribbe kaka (clan unity), rather than exposing continuing internal divisions.

• “But Where Is the Violence?” Reflections on Honouring Relationships and Troubling Academia (YouTube)

The Attack of the Peacekeepers

3 March 2023 – Dr. Nathan Derejko, Assistant Professor and Arthur V. Mauro Chair in Human Rights and Social Justice, University of Manitoba. Dr. Derejko’s presentation explores the legal implications of so-called “robust” peacekeeping mandates, and investigates the conditions under which ‘peacekeeping’ forces operating during situations of armed conflict should be considered as a ‘Party’ to the armed conflict and therefore bound by and subject to International Humanitarian Law (IHL).

• The Attack of the Peacekeepers (YouTube)

So, I Lost the Mayor’s Race: What Now? What Unelected Citizens Can Do To Make Real Change in Winnipeg

17 February 2023 – Shaun Loney, Encompass Co-op and 2022 Winnipeg Mayoral Candidate. In his talk, Shaun addresses the question of what unelected citizens can do to effect real change, drawing on his experiences in creating and supporting social enterprises, using community bonds to launch a housing land trust, and the financing of renewable energy.

• So, I Lost the Mayor’s Race: What Now? What Unelected Citizens Can Do To Make Real Change in Winnipeg (YouTube)

The Impact of War on Journalism in Ukraine

13 January 2023 - Olga Tokariuk, Independent Journalist and Journalist Fellow, Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism (Oxford, UK). Olga Tokariuk’s lecture focuses on the impact Russian full-scale invasion had on Ukrainian journalists, their professional and personal life. Based on her own experience, interviews with her colleagues and research conducted since February 2022, she presented the challenges and opportunities Ukrainian journalists and media organizations are currently facing. Follow Olga Tokariuk on Twitter.

• The Impact of War on Journalism in Ukraine (YouTube)

Competing Visions of Secularism, Tolerance, and Inclusion

4 November 2022 Dr. Félix Mathieu, Assistant Professor, Political Science, University of Winnipeg. Dr. Mathieu offers an original interpretation distinguishing Canadian multiculturalism and Quebec interculturalism (from the perspective of political theory). The lecture and discussion touches upon Quebec Bills 21 (secularism) and 96 (reform of the Charter of the French language) and how they align with interculturalism in some ways, but clash in other ways. Based on research presented in his recent publication, Taking Pluralism Seriously.

• Competing Visions of Secularism, Tolerance, and Inclusion (YouTube)

Green Technologies Exacerbate Exploitation in the DRC

14 October 2022 Fr. Jacques Nzumbu SJ, Jesuit Central African Province. In partnership with Canadian Jesuits International, Fr. Jacques Nzumbu SJ shared his experience in understanding the harmful impact of green technologies on human rights, conflict, and inequality in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Fr Nzumbu proposed solutions to both address climate change and not worsen the inequality between the Global North and South.

• Green Technologies Exacerbate Exploitation in the DRC (YouTube)
• Lecture Handout: CJI Green Justice: Human rights and energy transition

From Child Soldier to War Criminal: The Story of Dominic Ongwen

23 September 2022 Dr. Kjell Anderson, Director of the Master of Human Rights Program and Assistant Professor of Law at the University of Manitoba. Dominic Ongwen was abducted by Ugandan rebel group the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) at the age of 9, becoming a child soldier, and eventually a commander responsible for a range of atrocities. Ongwen was recently convicted by the International Criminal Court. Dr. Kjell Anderson will discuss his research, which informs the dilemma posed by prosecuting a man for the same crimes that he is himself a victim.

• From Child Soldier to War Criminal: The Story of Dominic Ongwen (YouTube)

Canadian ‘Freedom Convoy’- What It Is and What It Isn't: A Perspective

18 March 2022 (11:30 am to 12:30 pm CDT) - Dr. Kawser Ahmed, Executive Director, Conflict and Resilience Research Institute, Canada. The ‘Freedom Convoy’ has garnered national and now international attention for its three weeklong demonstrations in Canada. The protesters had a two-fold demand: to end COVID-related mandates or for the federal government to step down. Researchers studying the convoy have received substantial amounts of digital data that hint at a bigger issue in Canada at play. In his lecture, Dr. Kawser Ahmed will shed light on the findings.

• Canadian ‘Freedom Convoy’- What It Is and What It Isn't: A Perspective (YouTube)

Preventing Violent Extremism While Protecting Human Rights?

11 March 2022 New Date (12:00 pm - 1:00 pm Winnipeg time) - Dr. Chuck Thiessen, Coventry University (UK). The use of international peacebuilding and development as delivery vehicles for preventing violent extremism (PVE) initiatives is a recent and pivotal change inside many international organizations. However, two major challenges for human rights exist. This lecture will critically assess the ability of international organizations to prevent violent extremism while promoting human rights.

• Preventing Violent Extremism While Protecting Human Rights? (YouTube)

Resonant Violence - Affect, Memory, and Activism in Post-Genocide Societies

29 October 2021 (11:30 am to 12:30 pm CST) - Dr. Kerry Whigham, Assistant Professor, Institute for Genocide and Mass Atrocity Prevention, Binghamton University; Director of Research and Online Education, Auschwitz Institute for the Prevention of Genocide and Mass Atrocities. From the Holocaust in Europe to the military dictatorships of Latin America to the enduring violence of settler colonialism around the world, genocide has been a defining experience of far too many societies. In this lecture, Dr. Whigham explores both the enduring impacts of genocidal violence and the varied ways in which states and grassroots collectives respond to and transform this violence through memory practices and grassroots activism.

• Resonant Violence - Affect, Memory, and Activism in Post-Genocide Societies (YouTube)

Our Shared Future: Windows into Canada’s Reconciliation Journey

22 October 2021 – Dr. Laura Reimer, Research Affiliate, Arthur V. Mauro Institute for Peace & Justice. Our journey for reconciliation in Canada is, in many ways, just beginning. Dr. Reimer's lecture draws upon contributions to her recent publication Our Shared Future: Windows into Canada’s Reconciliation Journey to share the collected thoughts and deeds of dedicated and respected reconciliation practitioners in our country.

Order Now! Our Shared Future: Windows into Canada’s Reconciliation Journey is now available for pre-order in paperback.

• Our Shared Future: Windows into Canada’s Reconciliation Journey (YouTube)

Gendercide

1 October 2021 (3:30 pm - 4:30 pm Winnipeg) - Dr. Katerina Standish, Senior Lecturer, University of Otaga; Director of Research, National Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies (New Zealand). Gendercide includes deliberate life-ending acts and acts that deprive people of the right to live fully human lives because of their sex/gender identity. This illumination of gendercidal violence will include: androcide, transicide, queericide, femicide, Indigenous gendercide, feticide, and infanticide.

• Gendercide (YouTube)

Conflict Resolution and Peacebuilding in Asia

19 March 2021 - Dr. Stephanie Stobbe and Dr. Wendy Kroeker highlight the findings in two books from a new book series, Conflict Resolution and Peacebuilding in Asia. The books explore the many processes of resolution that are found in Asia, accounting along the way for the complex mix of distinct ethnic groups and their contrasting languages, cultural lineages, and practices. The goal is to move beyond the typical top-down negotiation styles to look at the wide variety of negotiation styles used by people in different parts of Asia.

• Conflict Resolution and Peacebuilding in Asia (YouTube)

The Predicaments of ‘Belonging’ in Kaduna State, Nigeria

19 February 2021 - Dr. Benjamin Maiangwa presented the findings of his newly published book detailing the uses and power of storytelling to explore the contested notions of belonging among the Fulani and other ethnic groups in Kaduna state, Nigeria. The book argues that these controversies center around Indigenous, nomadic, and autochthonous claims of belonging. Dr. Maiangwa identifies these differing notions of belonging as a major condition of violent conflicts in Kaduna and across various postcolonial societies.

• The Predicaments of ‘Belonging’ in Kaduna State, Nigeria (YouTube)

Perceptions of Ethnicity, Religion, and Radicalization among Second-Generation Pakistani-Canadians: Unity in Diversity?

5 February 2021 - Based on interviews with Pakistani-Canadians from various backgrounds, as detailed in his new book, Dr. Saad Ahmad Khan argues that radicalization is a complex and layered process stemming from multiple sources ranging from childhood experiences to the role of Saudi Arabia in exporting its brand of Islam. Individual, social, national, and international factors need to be addressed holistically, if radicalization of second-generation individuals is to be pre-empted and subsequent generations saved from the scourge of violence and terrorism.

• Perceptions of Ethnicity, Religion, and Radicalization among Second-Generation Pakistani-Canadians: Unity in Diversity? (YouTube)

Sex Industry Slavery in Present-Day Canada: Protecting Canada’s Youth

20 November 2020 - Dr. Robert (Bob) Chrismas details the findings in his new book, Sex Industry Slavery: Protecting Canada’s Youth by presenting first-hand perspectives on the problem of sexual exploitation and human sex trafficking: gut-wrenching stories that describe how many young women are coerced into oppressive relationships in the sex industry, often starting in childhood. Representing decades of collective knowledge, Sex Industry Slavery presents first-hand perspectives on the problem as well as proposes practical solutions.

• Sex Industry Slavery in Present-Day Canada: Protecting Canada’s Youth (YouTube)

‘Unwanted’ Peoples their Citizenship Struggles: Rohingya and Banyamulenge

13 November 2020 - Dr. Kawser Ahmed presents key similarities between two contested and violently displaced minority groups, the Rohingya of Myanmar/Bangladesh and the Banyamulenge of the Eastern DRC/Great Lakes region. Based on the findings of a joint collaboration between the Institute of Social Studies (ISS)-Erasmus, Netherlands and the Conflict Resolution Research Institute of Canada (CRRIC), he asks what role the international community can have to transform the conflicts.

• ‘Unwanted’ Peoples their Citizenship Struggles: Rohingya and Banyamulenge (YouTube)

Searching for the Disappeared: Vulnerability and Resistance on the Migrant Route

6 November 2020 - In 2019, the Mexican government estimated that 40,000 persons were registered as ‘disappeared’ among them thousands of Central American migrants. Central American women have organized local advocacy groups and a transnational protest movement to search for the disappeared and demand justice. Drawing from ethnographic research, Dr. Lisa McLean argues that the women’s strategies represent a form of grassroots peacebuilding that challenges the structural relations of power that lead to displacement and disappearance.

• Searching for the Disappeared: Vulnerability and Resistance on the Migrant Route (YouTube)