In Fall 2008, Reflections will publish a special issue on Peace: On the Frontlines of Non-Violence.  Our interest in creating such a special issues grows out of many different threads. For while the past six years has been marked by a “war on terror,” alliances of university faculty, community residents and students have been creating classrooms, publications, and programs based upon peace and non-violence. Although the immediate cause of such work might be seen as the Iraq War, there is a much longer and richer tradition of peace and non-violence work than can be captured by the current moment. Nor is “peace” a concept linked only to war. Communities must also respond to gun violence, hate crimes, and internal conflicts. Working for peace, then, can also stand for the overarching struggle to overcome violence and build harmonious neighborhoods. With this issue, we hope to explore the nature and significance of such work and to explore the obstacles of openly taking on unpopular or contentious conceptions of community.

To begin our consideration of this topic, we are please to feature Tom Kerr's "Between Ivy and Razor Wire: A Case of Correctional Correspondence." Kerr's describes a capstone senior seminar in rhetoric entitled Writing for Social Justice, Writing for Change, which included direct correspondence between students and inmates around the country.  The essay explores some of the many pedagogical challenges of teaching and learning in the long, dark and highly charged shadow of law and order ideology.  Excerpts from letters by both students and inmates are presented in the context of analytical reflections on the class.