New President's Note
Welcome to 2023 Peace Work by Your Division 48 President
Written by Dr. Robin Lynn Treptow
Edited by Aashna Banerjee
Children need peacetime. Good people, places, and practices emerge when a child’s world is peaceful. We must make our world the best it can be for children. This means we help people around the globe live well with one another so children everywhere have what they need to thrive. I am a clinical and developmental peace scholar. This dream of a more peaceful world for children requires work—virtues of calmly standing against war and of opening ourselves to others’ worldviews.
As your 2023 Division 48 President I first want to congratulate Dr. Violet Cheung on her 2022 presidency year. It has been a pleasure to work under Violet—and to learn from her quiet and competent style of transforming relationships, and of making things happen. In the coming 12 months I hope to build on the stability Violet has nurtured among our leadership. From that base, I desire to engage you as members in three practical initiatives. First, I would like us build broad and lasting collaborations with global peace organizations and university peace studies programs. To jump-start that effort, I have accepted a March 2023 invitation to speak to scholars in Pakistan about my robust pacifism theory (2013 & 2014). Second, I want us to experience robust give-and-take among ourselves and across D48 groups, e.g., The Peace Psychologist team, working groups, students and early career folks. My ideal is that every one of us have a living network of six or seven colleagues within the division and across 2-3 existing groups. Third, I urge us to nest our peace efforts with and alongside social justice workers in other APA Divisions. This might look like joining a division whose interests align with ours, shared Program hours, tuning into their peace initiatives, and knowing division leaders by name and face.
Robust pacifism aims for good living at every level (Treptow, 2015, 2016, & 2017). It has at its core a norm that envisioning a goal is the first step to achieving it. We yearn to see, hear, feel, taste, smell, and move in places where peace’s rule matches reality. We dismantle barriers within us that keep us from working towards peace. During my D48 Presidency I plan to help us all live out increased awareness of war’s effects—to help ordinary people stand against fighting. The tactics are ‘altruistic chagrin’ (Treptow, 2013) whereby we refuse to praise war and fighting even if others still think it right to kill enemies. We pair this stance with ‘openness to the other’ (Fowers & Davidov, 2006). Finally, we apply common virtues (e.g., justice, transcendence; Peterson et al. 2006) as peace-making tools to transform how we think and live.
Our division has a great capacity for hope—bold magnanimity tempered by humility. We have a wonderful executive committee of bright, committed, and scholarly members who advocate for peace. Together, we can turn "Petens pacem para bellum” (to have peace, make war) into "Si vis pacem, para patcum” (to have peace, make peace) via ‘pragmatic optimism’. I invite us to put forth virtue, authenticity, and trust in our mutual work for peace. As a leader-to-member affiliate, I have an open-door policy. Please reach out via WhatsApp (calls or text)—or email (rtreptow@email.fielding.edu) with ideas, encouragement, challenges and places of growth. I’ll be over-the-top ecstatic if we can enter 2024 with twice our current member base—and everyone feeling eager and energized for the bulk of the peace work before us! Si vis pacem, para pactum.
Dr. Robin Lynn Treptow
406-899-1548 (WhatsApp calls or text messaging)