Social Advocacy and Systems Change

Anthony J. Nocella, II, author, educator, and peacemaker, is completing his Ph.D. in Social Science at the Maxwell School at Syracuse University. He is currently an adjunct professor in Criminology, Sociology and Peace Studies at Le Moyne College and SUNY Cortland, and a Visiting Scholar in the Center for Ethics, Peace and Social Justice (CEPS), also at SUNY Cortland. As an interdisciplinary scholar, Nocella has interests in security, conflict and peace studies, cultural foundations of education, criminology, disability studies, critical media studies, critical animal studies, and environmental studies. He is also an associate with the Program on the Analysis and Resolution of Conflicts. Nocella holds an MA in Peacemaking and Conflict Studies, and a graduate certificate in mediation from Fresno Pacific University, and an MS in Cultural Foundations of Education, an Advanced Certificate in Women’s Studies, and an Advanced Certificate in Transnational Conflicts from Syracuse University. He has taught workshops in mediation and tactical analysis, and assisted in a number of legal committees in the Americas, including working with the Mennonite Central Committee (MCC), American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), and Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) in Colombia between 2000 and 2003. Nocella has published more than 25 scholarly articles, over 10 books, and co-founded more than ten active political organizations and serves on five boards. He has co-founded four journals – Green Theory and Praxis, Peace Studies Journal, Journal on Critical Animal Studies, and Journal on Terrorism and Security.

David Gabbard earned his Ed.D. in Educational Foundations from the University of Cincinnati in 1991 and currently holds the rank of Professor in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at East Carolina University, the largest teacher training program in North Carolina. With research interests focused on the political economy of schools and school reform, his works include Education As Enforcement: The Corporatization and Militarization of Schools (w/ Ken Saltman) (2003, 2nd Edition forthcoming in 2010), Knowledge and Power in the Global Economy: The Effects of School Reform in a Neoliberal and Neoconservative Age (2008), and Education Under the Security State (with E. Wayne Ross) (2008).

Lynn Olcott is a correctional educator in the Department of Correctional Services for New York State. She holds graduate degrees from University of Alaska and UCLA. Her career in health services management parallels her education career, with work in public health, family planning, long term care and environmental health. She is an adjunct instructor in the Education Department of SUNY Cortland. Prior to teaching in prison classrooms, she taught in American public schools and in Navajo schools. As a Peace Corps Volunteer, she trained elementary teachers in East Africa and helped manage a rehabilitation home industry that employed people with Hanson’s Disease. Olcott’s articles about correctional education have appeared in American Jails, the journal of the American Jail Association, and in the Phi Delta Kappan. They have been reprinted by Greenhaven Press and various annual editions of Educating Children with Exceptionalities. She is concerned about the high school drop out rate and the number of young people who end up in prison. She is involved in on-going research into the demographic and academic make-up of that group, as well as the motivation of young people who leave school before graduating and later become incarcerated.

Jose Palafox was born in Tijuana, Mexico, and grew up in San Diego, California. While in San Diego, he was involved in many DIY-political punk bands (Struggle, Swing Kids, and later on, Bread and Circuits). In 1995, he moved to the Bay Area and attended UC Berkeley for undergraduate and then graduate school (Comparative Ethnic Studies and Sociology). Currently, he is working on a new music project, Baader Brains. His political work, writing, and documentary film has focused on issues of migration, specifically relating to the militarization of the U.S.-Mexico border and the social movements along the California and Arizona border region. In 2001, he was the associate producer of the 28-minute documentary New World Border. He has published articles in Social Justice, Covert Action Quarterly, ColorLines, Z Magazine, Borderlines, Shades of Power, Left Turn, and Maximum RocknRoll. For the past eight years, he has taught in Chicano/Latino Studies and Sociology at UC Berkeley, Stanford University, Mills College, UC Santa Cruz, and University of San Francisco. Palafox has taught courses on the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands; Social Movement Theory; Gender, Globalization, and World-Systems Analysis; Theories and Methods in Comparative Ethnic Studies; Introduction to Chicana/o Studies. After teaching full-time for eight years, hedecided to take a break from it for a bit, and currently works in publishing at AK Press in Oakland, California.

Robin M. Smith is an Associate Professor of Special education at The State University of New York, New Paltz. Her research interests include Disability Studies, the ethical impact of policy and practice and practical implications, and disability humor. She received her Ph.D., in Special Education from Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY. She also holds a M. S. in Special Education from Syracuse University, a Master of Arts in Teaching French from the University of Chicago, and a B.A. from Antioch College, Yellow Springs, Ohio. She completed Foreign Studies at Universidad de Guanajuato, and Universite de Montpellier, Faculte des Lettres et Sciences Humaines. She has published over 25 articles and book chapters, and is a Disability Rights activist.