The Justice and Peace Studies (JUPS) program celebrated its 10-year anniversary as a major and honored the retirement of its founding director with a panel of graduates and professors Oct. 25.
JUPS, an interdisciplinary program in the College of Arts & Sciences focused on researching global conflict and the means to achieve peace and justice, was founded in 1994 by Professor Mark Lance and offered minors to students. The JUPS major program began in Fall 2014 and the Class of 2025 has 40 graduating seniors.
Andria Wisler, teaching professor and director of the Center for Social Justice, moderated the panel, which featured Guillermo Barriga (SFS ’11), a JUPS graduate and coordinator for the Metro Migrant Education Program in Aurora, Colo.; Kathleen Godfrey (SFS ’03), a JUPS graduate and director of the Aspen Institute’s Justice, Society, and Democratic Institutions Initiative, which works on collective activism and justice; Lauren Reese (COL ’12), a JUPS graduate who has worked in peace studies and social change strategy; Andrew Willis Garcés, a former JUPS adjunct professor and longtime organizer in Southern-based movements; and Lance.
During the event, Elham Atashi, director of and teaching professor in the JUPS program, also announced the inauguration of the Founders Award, a $2,000 prize recognizing contributions to the field, in what she said would both recognize the impact students have and celebrate Lance’s legacy.
Lance, who is retiring this year and transitioning to emeritus status, said he founded the program out of an interest in bridging activism and academia.
“I had two separate lives — I was an activist and organizer, and I was an academic,” Lance said during the event. “I didn’t anticipate those having anything to do with one another.”
Lance said the JUPS program at Georgetown University has formed a strong community, giving him new hope for solving global issues.
“It just keeps your soul alive. It keeps you having hope for the future,” Lance said. “It’s like you see that the world sucks in so many ways, but you also see there’s this pipeline of people who are going to fight that. I got very lucky with my job.”
Garcés said the JUPS program has always been focused on supporting and caring for students.
“Maybe we came for something else, and what we found was a whole lot of nurturing,” Garcés said during the event. “That ended up being a huge throughline for a lot of the students and faculty of JUPS.”
Barriga said JUPS helped him to develop his own code of ethics and shape what he wanted to do with his life, including being vegan and dedicating his life to social change.
“Being part of the program helped me realize how I wanted to live my life and my ethics,” Barriga said.
Reese said the program’s unique approach to education allowed her to appreciate and participate in diversity at Georgetown, helping her find her place at the university and social movements.
“One of the things that was most amenable to me about the JUPS program was the ability to shape my own path through the interdisciplinary approach to this discipline,” Reese said at the event.
“Coming at it with a core foundation of values and nonviolence and justice allowed me to bring that lens into the different areas of interest that I had, looking at the interconnected global aspect of social justice,” Reese said. “I always joke around that I thought I got an SFS degree but on my own terms.”
Julianne Meneses (CAS ’25), the student program assistant for JUPS, said the program has shaped how she views her place in the world.
“What makes JUPS truly unique is its commitment to core values,” Meneses said at the event. “The program teaches us to view the world through a lens of equality, compassion and consideration for others, qualities that serve as a powerful foundation for any future that we choose to pursue.”
Reese said that while JUPS was not designed with one career path in mind, it ensured that she built a career focused on the program’s values of justice in theory and practice.
“I resonate so much with the language of developing people that have a responsibility to the world because I left JUPS knowing that whatever I did in life, I needed to feel like I was having a positive impact on the world,” Reese said.
Lance tearfully concluded the panel, saying the JUPS program greatly changed his life and that he is excited for the next generation of JUPS students.
“I hope all of these wonderful panelists push further than my generation could, and I hope all you students push further than they do,” Lance said.
“You all are my hope for the world, and I consider myself unbelievably lucky to have been a part of this community, to have fought with you, to have worked with you, to have celebrated with you and sometimes cried with you,” Lance added. “However long I have left, I will still be in the struggle, in whatever role is useful, but it’s your struggle now.”
