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20 Peace Sculptures J.B. Priestley Library |
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| i.
The Peace Sculpture:
There are two copies of this in the J. B. Priestley Library, on the
ground floor and in the Commonweal Collection room, on the second
floor. |
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Chris
Hoggett created both, he being the brother to David
Hoggett the first Commonweal Librarian (see
site 19). The word 'peace' is inscribed
on the base of the sculpture in fifty-three different languages. On
the original, smaller sculpture, in the Commonweal Collection room,
the base revolved to show the many names of peace. |
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| A
small electrical motor powered it - but the motor burnt out. Currently
the suspended dove is missing from this one (would the person who
took it, please return it!). |
| ii.
After the Storm: This is to be found in the University
library on the ground floor, this plaque was sculpted by Josephina
de Vasconcellos and presented in 1988 in memory of
Professor Ted Edwards,
the first Vice-Chancellor of Bradford University, 1966 - 1978. It
depicts white peace doves on a rose marbled background. |
| Ted
Edwards (1914 - 1996) promoted 'higher education
for all' and introduced a student voice on the University Council,
giving nine elected students considerable influence on the academic
life of the University: |
| 'He
declared to a national newspaper, on 8 March 1968: It is the duty
of students to rebel (against injustice, intolerance and exploitation)
but it is the duty of a university to see that this rebellion is illuminated
by reason and inquiry, and not by agitation and propaganda.' |
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and Views, Bradford University, 1996. Obituary) |
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was also interested in the balance of world power and the stance of
neutral and non-aligned third world nations. He was a champion of
the establishment of a School of Peace Studies (see
site 21), and siting it in Bradford. |
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| 21
Peace Studies, Bradford University |
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Bradford
University has a strong
commitment, endorsed in its royal Charter of 1966, to the application
of science, technology and social sciences to the welfare of the community.
In the early 1970's a small group of The Society of Friends
(Quakers) |
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seeking a British University in which to establish a peace studies
department. |
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found Bradford University sympathetic. The idea of a Department
of Peace Studies was 'born out of the realization that
an interdisciplinary approach to studying the causes of conflict,
and the conditions for more peaceful societies, was imperative if
we were to meet the global problems facing humanity'. (Undergraduate
prospectus, Department of Peace Studies, Bradford University) |
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1973, the Quaker Peace Studies Trust raised seventy-five
thousand pounds in six weeks to establish a Chair in Peace Studies
and the University matched this amount. The first Professor, Adam
Curle (1916 - 2006), was appointed that year. An international
group of eighteen students took the first postgraduate programme in
1974 - 75. From 1975 there were undergraduates too and a radical research
programme developed that has international renown. |
| Courses
cover all aspects of peace and conflict studies, social change and
international security. The Department has students from the UK and
from over thirty other countries across the world. They come because
of its high academic standard and also because it is a place where
staff and students are committed to putting the issues of peace and
justice into practice. |
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| 22
Interfaith Education Centre |
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| The
Interfaith Education Centre was established in 1983
by Bradford Local Education Authority. After some time
in temporary locations - a room at Bradford College
and then in Wapping First School- it moved |
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its permanent location in a former school building on Listerhills
Road, some half a mile west of the city centre. |
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foundation arose as a condition placed by the local faith communities
on the local education authority for the agreement and publication
of a new multifaith syllabus for Religious Education
in the Bradford District. This project had brought together local
members of the major world faith communities with teachers, trade
union officials and local government officers. Since then the Centre
has provided teaching support and resources for schools and the community
on the major world faiths, and on justice and peace, something vital
in a multifaith city with some sixty cultures. |
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Centre is to move again in 2008, twenty five years on, to be part
of the refurbished Great Horton Methodist Church building (on Great
Horton Road just outside the outer ring road). |
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