Students and staff interested in all areas of social justice gathered in the SUB Wednesday for the International Day of Peace.
The sixth annual UNM Peace Fair was put on by the Peace Studies Program, an interdisciplinary program in which students can earn a minor or a certificate.
Les Fields, Peace Studies director, said the Day of Peace provides a harmless place to talk about conflict.
“We want to create a safe place for students to talk about issues of conflict without any kind of contention around it, and have students talk about what it’s like to live in conflict,” he said.
Desi Brown, a Peace Studies adviser and instructor, said the fair was about bringing together different social justice groups on campus to meet each other. He said there are nearly 30 different social justice groups on campus and he wants them to coordinate and work together.
He says the goal of the Peace Studies program is to get people to think critically and ask questions.
“Peace is a really active word,” he said, “Most people are really reactive and don’t address the root of the problem in conflicts.”
The fair featured nine different groups, such as Justice for Mexican Asylum Seekers, Buddhist Club and UNM Fair Trade Initiative.
Savannah Guglielmo said she is currently taking a peace studies class and enjoyed seeing the groups available to students at UNM.
“I hope that people start recognizing peace around the world and start taking the steps necessary to achieve it, because we all share the same planet,” she said.
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