Friday, 11 October 2019, 9:00 AM-5:30 PM
Conference events on Friday take place in the Pittenger Student Center.
9:00-9:20 AM
Cardinal Hall B
Welcome and Introductions
- Dr. Maureen McCarthy, Dean of the Ball State College of Science and Humanities
- Dr. Abel Alves, Professor and Chair of the Department of History
- Dr. Michael Wm. Doyle, Assoc. Professor Emeritus and Director Emeritus of the Public History Program and the Oral History Workshop
9:20-10:00 AM
Cardinal Hall B
“We Gave Peace A Chance—So Can You: The Vietnam Moratorium Committee at Ball State University, 1969-1971”
- Dr. Mary (Munchel) Posner, Clinical Psychologist, and lead organizer of the Ball State Vietnam Moratorium Committee in 1969-70
10:10-11:20 AM
Cardinal Hall B
First Panel Session
“Picking up the Pieces: What Antiwar Activists Did Right and What Went Wrong—Lessons for Leaders of Today’s Social Movements”
Dr. Elizabeth Agnew, Associate Professor, Ball State Philosophy and Religious Studies, and scholar of social and peace activism, Chair/Moderator. Panelists include:
- Dr. George Wolfe, Professor Emeritus and past Director of the Ball State Center for Peace and Conflict Studies, author of three books and over 50 articles on activism, nonviolence, religion and science
- Dr. Sarah Vitale, Associate Professor, Ball State Philosophy and Religious Studies, and Chair, Muncie Resists
- Christine Satory, MFA, Assoc. Prof., Ball State School of Art, and lifelong art educator and artist-activist
- Markie Oliver, a Muncie-based social activist affiliated with The Order of Ecumenical Franciscans, a lay religious order
David Harris
11:30 AM – 12:20 PM
Ballroom
Keynote Address
Livestream
A veteran antiwar activist, now journalist and author, Harris has published eleven books including Dreams Die Hard: Three Men’s Journey through the Sixties, and Our War: What We Did in Vietnam and What It Did to Us.
He began his career as a civil rights activist helping the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee organize black voters in Mississippi during Freedom Summer in 1964. Soon after he marched against U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War, was elected president of the Stanford University student body, and founded the anti-draft organization The Resistance. Refusing induction, Harris was sentenced and served nearly two years in prison, during which time his son Gabriel (with spouse and folksinger Joan Baez) was born.
A former contributing editor at the New York Times Magazine and Rolling Stone, Harris continues to advocate for peace and social justice causes.
12:30-1:30 PM
Music Lounge
Luncheon Banquet (by invitation only)
- Dr. John Emert, Dean of the Honors College, Ball State University, and Professor of Mathematical Sciences
The luncheon banquet is in honor of the keynote speaker; event organizers; panel session presenters and chair/moderators; co-sponsors; and selected faculty and administrators of the Honors College, the College of Science and Humanities, and the Center for Peace and Conflict Studies; the Departments of Communication Studies, English, History, Psychological Sciences, and Philosophy and Religious Studies; and University Libraries Archives and Special Collections.
12:30-1:30 PM
Browsing Lounge
Activist Fair & Poster Session
What better way to commemorate the legacy of the VMC than to feature today’s activist organizations and projects?
Learn more about presenting at the Activist Fair and Poster Session.
Posters will be on projects completed by Ball State students and faculty; interactivities, such as the folding of paper peace cranes ; unstaffed table displays will be accessible during the other times of day.
1:30-2:45 PM
Cardinal Hall B
Second Panel Session
“From ‘War No More’ to ‘The Forever War’: Activism for Peace and Social Justice after Vietnam”
Gerry Waite, M.A., a Vietnam veteran, Ball State Lecturer Emeritus in Anthropology and Research Fellow in the Center for Peace and Conflict Studies (CPCS), Chair/moderator. Panelists include:
- David Harris, conference keynoter
- Lawrence H. Gerstein, Ball State George and Frances Ball Distinguished Professor of Psychology-Counseling, Director of the CPCS, and Co-editor, Journal for Social Action in Counseling and Psychology
- Mark H. Massé, Ball State Professor of Journalism Emeritus, narrative nonfiction author of three books, including Inspired to Serve: Today’s Faith Activists (2004), and novelist
- Eliza Roark, Ball State Graphic Design major, co-chair of the Progressive Student Alliance, and president of the Green Action Team
3:00-4:45 PM
Cardinal Hall A
Third Panel Session
“Coming Home: Student Military Veterans from Vietnam to the War on Terror”
Chair/moderator Dr. Michael Wm. Doyle
Panelists include:
- John Mann, a Vietnam combat veteran of the U.S. Army and Ball State alumnus
- Benner Davenport, a Vietnam veteran of the U.S. Army and Ball State/VMC alumnus
- Greg Lane, Marine Corps veteran (GWOT) and president of Ball State’s Student Veterans Organization
- Troy Lenhart, a senior Social Work major at Ball State, served during the 1990s with the U.S. Navy; he deployed to the Persian Gulf during Operation Desert Storm
- Devin Hamilton just completed his B.A. in Telecommunications at Ball State; he served with the U.S. Army in 2004-09, and did two tours in Iraq
5:00-5:30 PM
Ball State Arts Quad
in front of the David Owsley Museum of Art
Memorial and Closing Ceremony
- Remarks by event co-organizers Gerry Waite, Veterans for Peace, in honor of all whose lives were sacrificed in battle and its aftermath from the Vietnam War to the present
- Ball State/VMC alumni Charlie Heitkamp and Dr. Mary Posner, the latter on the significance of the thousand-plus origami cranes that she and other volunteers folded and which will be displayed on the Arts Terrace.
- Phil Orth, Ball State/VMC alumnus, who performed at every local VMC protest demonstration 50 years ago, will lead the gathering in song.