Pioneer of reconciliation programs to speak at
URI's Honors Colloquium

KINGSTON, R.I. -- September 26, 2000 -- Richard L. Deats, a longtime human rights and nonviolence advocate and a pioneer of reconciliation programs worldwide, will speak on "A Culture of Peace: From the Personal to the Global" as part of the University of Rhode Island's fall honors colloquium series, "Nonviolence: Legacies of the Past, Bridges to the Future."

He will speak in the Barry Marks Auditorium, Room 271 of the Chafee Social Science Center on URI's Kingston Campus, Oct. 3 from 7:30 to 9 p.m.

Deats has worked for The Fellowship of Reconciliation, the largest, oldest interfaith peace and justice organization in the United States, since 1972.

Before his current position as editor and communications director, Deats worked as executive secretary and director of interfaith activities. He has also taught social ethics at Union Theological Seminary in the Philippines.

A United Methodist minister, he has taught workshops and lectured on active nonviolence in over a dozen countries, including South Africa, Bangladesh, the Philippines, India, Haiti, Lithuania, Russia, and Israel. He has met with the PLO in Tunis, with Burmese liberation groups, and with indigenous movements in Ecuador. In 1986, he was part of an IFOR training project that contributed to the "people power" revolution in the Philippines. He has been active in the civil rights movement and was a member of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Federal Holiday Commission.

Deat's writings include the recently published Martin Luther King, Jr.: Spirit-Led Prophet. Deats received his Ph.D. from Boston University.

URI's Colloquium series runs Tuesdays from 7:30 to 9 p.m. and is free and open to the public.

For Information: Lynne Derbyshire, 401-874-4732,
Arthur Stein, 401-874-4059, Jan Sawyer, 401-874-2116,
Jennifer Smith, 401-874-2116