Mary King

Nationality: United States

Prize-winning author and political scientist Mary King is Professor of Peace and Conflict Studies, University for Peace. She is also Distinguished Scholar, the American University Center for Global Peace, Washington, D.C. In November 2003, she was given the JAMNALAL BAJAJ International Award for promotion of Gandhian valves outside India, joining the ranks of previous awards to Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Professor Johan Galtung, and Sir Joseph Rotblat . In 2004, she will additionally be visiting Research Fellow at the Rothermerc American Institute, University of Oxford, England.As a student, King worked alongside the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (no relation), in the student wing of the U.S. civil rights movement. She was one of what the New York Times called "a tiny handful" of white, female "heroic, unsung organizers of the Southern civil rights movement." Her book on that experience-including her account of Christmas in jail in Atlanta in 1963-Freedom Song: A Personal Story of the 1960s Civil Rights Movement (New York, William Morrow, 1987), won her a Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Book Award in 1988. The four years that she spent at the vortex of the civil rights movement mark the start of lifelong study of nonviolent strategic action in political conflicts. Her latest book Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr: The Power of Nonviolent Action (Paris, UNESCO, 1999, and New Delhi, Indian Council for Cultural Relations, 2002) covers nine nonviolent struggles of the twentieth century and is being re-published in New Delhi in 2003. During the Carter Administration, King had world-wide responsibility for the Peace Corps, then in sixty countries. In the years since, she has acted as a special adviser to former President Jimmy Carter on the Middle East. She holds a Ph.D. in international politics from the University of Wales at Aberystwyth.

Responsibilities at UPEACE

• Academic adviser to the Africa Programme, including curriculum development, academic workshops, and planning
• Teaching students in the Gender and Peace Studies Department, and
• Advise the Rector on a variety of issues as requested, including the Academic Advisory Council, research, outreach, and planning.

OHIO WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY, DELAWARE, OHIO, USA

• B.A. English Literature

UNIVERSITY OF WALES AT ABERYSTWYTH, UK

• Ph.D. International Politics

Courses/Subjects Taught
History of nonviolent movements, theories and methods of nonviolent struggle, peace and conflict studies, gender studies, history of political ideas, gender and building peace, international politics, and U.S. civil rights movement.

Work Experience
Summary: Political scientist. Practitioner of international relations for twenty-five years, requiring personal contact with heads of state and government ministers in 120 developing countries. Since 1984, special adviser to former President Jimmy Carter on the Middle East. Former senior U.S. official with worldwide responsibility for the Peace Corps, then in 60 countries. Authority on nonviolent political movements─an outgrowth of her work a s a young student alongside the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (no relation) in the U.S. civil rights movement. Prize-winning nonfiction author. Her article, “Sex and Caste,” co-authored with Casey Hayden, appeared in Liberation magazine of the War Resisters League, in April 1966, and was a catalyst in spurring the contemporary U.S. women’s movement. The American historian Ruth Rosen in The World Split Open: How the Women’s Movement Changed America, calls King a central figure in starting the U.S. women’s movement.

• 2001– Professor of Peace and Conflict Studies, UPEACE.
• 2004 Senior Fellow, University of Oxford, Rothermere American Institute, England.
• 1997– Distinguished Scholar, American University Center for Global Peace, Washington, D.C.
• 1999–2001 Professor of International Politics, St George’s University, Grenada, West Indies.
• 1996–98 Fellow, Albert Einstein Institution, Boston.
• 1992– President, Global Action, Inc., Washington, D.C., nonprofit research organization
• 1990–92 Expert consultant, ABC London News Bureau and BBC, London.
• 1984– Special adviser to former President Jimmy Carter, acting as his personal emissary to political and business leaders in the Middle East of the region.
• 1977–81 Deputy Director, Action, Washington, D.C. Global responsibility for the Peace Corps (60 countries), VISTA (Volunteers in Service to America), Foster Grandparents, Retired Senior Volunteer Program, other national volunteer-service corps programs. Managed $400 million in appropriations. Senate confirmation.
• 1977–81 Member, United States delegations to five multilateral UN world conferences:
• 1968–72 Program Officer (GS-13), U.S. Office of Economic Opportunity, or War on Poverty, Washington, D.C. Personally managed $30 million in federal grants.

Courses/Subjects Taught
History of nonviolent movements, theories and methods of nonviolent struggle, peace and conflict studies, gender studies, history of political ideas, gender and building peace, international politics, and U.S. civil rights movement.

• 2001– Professor of Peace and Conflict Studies, UPEACE.
• 2004 Senior Fellow, University of Oxford, Rothermere American Institute, England.
• 1997– Distinguished Scholar, American University Center for Global Peace, Washington, D.C.
• 1999–2001 Professor of International Politics, St George’s University, Grenada, West Indies.
• 1996–98 Fellow, Albert Einstein Institution, Boston.
• 1992– President, Global Action, Inc., Washington, D.C., nonprofit research organization
• 1990–92 Expert consultant, ABC London News Bureau and BBC, London.
• 1984– Special adviser to former President Jimmy Carter, acting as his personal emissary to political and business leaders in the Middle East of the region.
• 1977–81 Deputy Director, Action, Washington, D.C. Global responsibility for the Peace Corps (60 countries), VISTA (Volunteers in Service to America), Foster Grandparents, Retired Senior Volunteer Program, other national volunteer-service corps programs. Managed $400 million in appropriations. Senate confirmation.
• 1977–81 Member, United States delegations to five multilateral UN world conferences:
• 1968–72 Program Officer (GS-13), U.S. Office of Economic Opportunity, or War on Poverty, Washington, D.C. Personally managed $30 million in federal grants.

Selected Honors and Awards:
2003 Awarded the Jamnalal Bajaj International Award in Mumbai (Bombay), India.

Professor Mary King receiving the Jamnalal Bajaj Foundation International Award for promoting Gandhian values outside India, in Mumbai (Bombay) on Tuesday, 4 November 2003. Previous winners of the International Award include Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu of South Africa, Nobel Peace prize winner Professor Sir Joseph Rotblat of the United Kingdom, and Professor Johan Galtung of Norway. Jamnalal Bajaj was Mahatma Gandhi’s silent financial partner, during the Indian independence struggles. The Bajaj Prize consists of a citation, a trophy, and a cash prize. For more information about Mary King CLICK HERE

Named for Mahatma Gandhi’s silent financial backer, the prize recognizes the promotion of Gandhian values outside India. P revious winners include Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu of South Africa, Nobel Peace Prize winner Professor Sir Joseph Rotblat of the United Kingdom, and Professor Johan Galtung of Norway .

1992 Inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame, Seneca Falls, New York.

1989 Award for Distinguished Achievement—the highest recognition given by her Alma Mater, Ohio Wesleyan University.

1988 Winner of a Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Book Award for her book, Freedom Song: A Personal Story of the 1960s Civil Rights Movement

Selected Boards and Commissions:
1998– Adviser appointed by the Government of India.

1989–94 Member, International Commission on Peace and Food (successor to the Brandt, Palme, and Brundtland Commissions).

1980– Board of Directors, theArca Foundation, private philanthropic foundation

1993– Board of Selectors,The Jefferson Awards (American Institute for Public Service).

1989– Board of Directors, Amideast Educational and Testing Service, Washington, DC

1980–91 Board of Directors, Save the Children Community Development Federation.

Books:
Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr: The Power of Nonviolent Action. Paris, UNESCO, 1999. 529 pp. Second edition, New Delhi, Indian Council for Cultural Relations and Mehta Publishers, 2002.

Freedom Song: A Personal Story of the 1960s Civil Rights Movement. New York, William Morrow, 1987; Quill paperback, 1988. 546 pp. (A 1988 Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Book Award was given to the author for this book.)

Publications ─ Partial List of Articles, Chapters, and Special Lectures

Women’s Policy Journal of Harvard (Summer 2002: 11-27), ‘Women and the Building of Peace: Muslim-Hindu Women’s Resistance to Militarization of Kashmir, and Israeli Women Seeking an End to Military Occupation of Palestinians’.

Journal of American History (December 2000: 1127-28), review of Timothy B. Tyson’s Radio Free Dixie: Robert F. Williams and the Roots of Black Power.

The [First] Palestinian Intifada: A Program of Nonviolent Struggle, chapter in The Middle East, ninth edition (Washington, D.C., Congressional Quarterly Press, 2000).

CNN’s ‘Cold War’ series, appearance, episode 19, Freeze, 28 February 1999; also on BBC.

‘The Power of Nonviolent Action and the Culture of Peace’, speech to XI World Congress of Psychiatry, Hamburg, Germany, 6 August 1999.

C-Span lecture, ‘Martin Luther King’s Letter from Birmingham City Jail and Its Continuing Impact’, C-Span tape no. 88840, 29 August 1997.

Los Angeles Times Book Review, 12 November 1989, review of Ralph Abernathy’s And the Walls Came Tumbling Down.

‘Nicaragua’s Economy Still a Mystery to U.S.’ San Jose Mercury News, 25 August 1985.

‘So that the Sacrifices of 1964 Will Not Have Been in Vain’, Los Angeles Times, 12 July 1984.

‘Assault on World Hunger Begs for U.S. Attention’, Washington Star, 7 April 1981.

‘Peace Corps Health Programming and Health Policy in Developing Countries’, American Journal of Public Health (April 1981: 408 B9).

‘People Not Money Can Save Lives’, Sunday Times [London], 24 February 1980.

‘Responding to the Refugee Dilemma’, Christian Century, 2 July 1980.

‘A Nation Overwhelmed by Refugees’, Newsday, 17 September 1980.

________ and Casey Hayden, ‘Sex and Caste’, Liberation (War Resisters League), April 1966.

Selected Biographical Listings and Memberships:
Authors’ Yearbook

Contemporary Authors

International Biographical Centre, Cambridge, England

From Suffrage to the Senate: An Encyclopedia of American Women, ed. Suzanne O’Dea Schenken (Santa Barbara, California: ABC-Clio, 1999, vol. 1, pp. 379-380).

Who’s Who in the 21 st Century

Who’s Who in America

Who’s Who in American Politics

Middle East Studies Association

Women in International Security

Women’s Foreign Policy Group