An urban studies expert and West Virginia University visiting professor who has studied extensively in Northern Ireland will talk about conflict and community at 10 a.m. Wednesday (Feb. 16) in the Rhododendron Room of the Mountainlair.

Dr. Jon Van Til, professor of urban studies at Rutgers University, will discussCommunity Innovation in Securing a Wholesome Future in Northern Ireland.”

Van Til studied in the country as a Fulbright Scholar and was the first Derry Chair of Learning on Community Innovation at the University of Ulster, Derry. Hes also WVU s Anna Dean Carlson Distinguished Visiting Chair in Social Science.

The northern river city of Derry, where he lived and worked for three months, is similar to Morgantown, Van Til said, both in its population and layout.

And while the conflict between the Protestants and Catholics that ripped the region for 30 years now seems surreal and distant, Van Til said the whole idea of communities in crises couldnt more familiar on our shores.

Especially, he said, in the wake of the Sept. 11 terror attacks and the most recent presidential election where opinionsand loyalitieswere more than divided.

You can look at �€~redstates versus �€~bluestates,he said.You can look at race, class and ethnic issues. The U.S. is a more seriously divided country, in many respects.

One way to heal the divide, he said, is by simply getting peopleto sit across the table and talk,which was the subject of a summer course he taught at WVU last year.

Social Work 693R,”Sustained Dialogue and Public Deliberation,”brought international leaders in the field here to explore the sociopolitical art ofsustained dialoguein which ongoing conversations are forged and nudged among parties in deep-seated conflict.

Theres nothing particularly unique in people not understanding each other,he said.Once you recognize the common problem, the answers become more universal.

Van Til is the author of nine books, including his most recent,Growing Civil Society ,(Indiana University Press, 2000). Hes presently at work on a 10 th book, Making Peace on the Homefront: Civil Society in the Northwest of Ireland.

He has led an annual study tour of Northern Ireland for Rutgers University since 2001, and will lead a team of 15 students and faculty there this summer. A separate WVU study tour is also being planned.

Van Tils appearance is sponsored by the Division of Social Work’s Nova Institute, a program of the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences at WVU .

Info: Dolly Ford in WVU ’s Division of Social Work at dolly.ford@mail.wvu.edu or 304-293-3501 extension 3102.