The Peace, War and Social Conflict Section of the American Sociological Association (ASA) presented Patrick G. Coy, Ph.D., professor and director of Kent State's new School of Peace and Conflict Studies in the College of Arts and Sciences, with a career award: the Award for Distinguished Contributions to Scholarship, Teaching and Service in the areas of peace, war and social conflict.
The career award was presented to Coy in Montreal, Canada, on Aug. 15 at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association.
“Dr. Coy has been instrumental in the establishment of a new School of Peace and Conflict Studies at 鶹ý,” says Lisa Leitz, Ph.D., the chair of the Peace, War and Social Conflict section of the ASA. “He has a distinguished record of scholarship that includes publications that developed innovative theory and research on peace activism. He is also the longtime editor of the peer-reviewed research series, Research in Social Movements, Conflicts and Change, including work that translates what scholars know about nonviolence to those who wish to make social change."
A professor at Kent State since 1996, Coy has co-authored or edited 14 books and published more than 35 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters. He served as the longtime director of Kent State’s Center for Applied Conflict Management, which recently expanded to the School of Peace and Conflict Studies.
Coy has worked as a community mediator, as a human rights observer and nonviolent accompanier in Sri Lanka during the ethnic conflict, and co-led or has been a member of peacemaking missions and delegations to Libya, Iraq and the Soviet Union during times of international crises. He was formerly the national chairperson of the Fellowship of Reconciliation, a research fellow of the Albert Einstein Institution, the executive director of the Lentz Peace Research Laboratory and a Fulbright Scholar in Botswana.