This page features archival information and video footage from select Peace and Conflict Studies Symposium events in recent years.

The Right to Peace: Growing Up with Conflict

Austin Community College hosted a symposium to raise awareness of global and regional struggles children face at the fourth annual Peace and Conflict Studies Spring Symposium, “The Right to Peace: Growing Up with Conflict.”

The event was free and open to the public.

“Children are not in a position to affect their environment. Many of our own students have faced major conflict in their lives,” says Dr. Shirin Khosropour, ACC professor of psychology and director of the college’s Peace & Conflict Studies Center. “Collectively, we as adults are responsible for creating safe environments where they can thrive.”

The symposium included two panel discussions exploring the conflicts homeless, immigrant, and refugee children face as well as conflict children face in school.

Co-sponsored by the college’s Mexican American/Chicano Studies and the University of Texas at Austin’s Latin American Studies, the event featured expert panelists including Sheerin Abbas-Hall of Austin Children’s Services, Dalell D. Mohmed of KinderUSA, and Barri Rosenbluth of SafePlace.

Participants will discussed the effect of immigration and absent parents on children and families in a screening and discussion of the film Al Otro Lado (To the Other Side).