Mary King (professor)
Encyclopedia
University for Peace
The University for Peace was established in Costa Rica in 1980 "to provide humanity with an international institution of higher education for peace and with the aim of promoting among all human beings the spirit of understanding, tolerance and peaceful coexistence."At present, the UPEACE Costa...
.
Dr. King was awarded the Jamnalal Bajaj International Award for promotion of Gandhian values outside India in November (2003). Previous winners of the international Bajaj Prize include Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu
Desmond Tutu
Desmond Mpilo Tutu is a South African activist and retired Anglican bishop who rose to worldwide fame during the 1980s as an opponent of apartheid...
of South Africa, Professor Sir Joseph Rotblat
Joseph Rotblat
Sir Joseph Rotblat, KCMG, CBE, FRS , was a Polish-born, British-naturalised physicist.His work on nuclear fallout was a major contribution to the agreement of the Partial Test Ban Treaty...
of the United Kingdom, and Professor Johan Galtung
Johan Galtung
Johan Galtung is a Norwegian sociologist and the principal founder of the discipline of peace and conflict studies. He founded the Peace Research Institute Oslo in 1959, serving as its Director until 1970, and established the Journal of Peace Research in 1964...
of (Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
).
She is a graduate of Ohio Wesleyan University
Ohio Wesleyan University
Ohio Wesleyan University is a private liberal arts college in Delaware, Ohio, United States. It was founded in 1842 by Methodist leaders and Central Ohio residents as a nonsectarian institution, and is a member of the Ohio Five — a consortium of Ohio liberal arts colleges...
. Her Ph.D. in international politics is from the Aberystwyth University, Wales
University of Wales, Aberystwyth
Aberystwyth University is a university located in Aberystwyth, Wales. Aberystwyth was a founding Member Institution of the former federal University of Wales. As of late 2006, the university had over 12,000 students spread across seventeen academic departments.The university was founded in 1872 as...
.
Dr. King is Professor of Peace and Conflict Studies at the University for Peace
University for Peace
The University for Peace was established in Costa Rica in 1980 "to provide humanity with an international institution of higher education for peace and with the aim of promoting among all human beings the spirit of understanding, tolerance and peaceful coexistence."At present, the UPEACE Costa...
, which is affiliated with the United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
. She is a political scientist with expertise on nonviolent strategic action in acute political conflicts. King was in 2004-2005 Senior Fellow at the Rothermere American Institute
Rothermere American Institute
The Rothermere American Institute is an institution at the University of Oxford dedicated to the interdisciplinary and comparative study of the USA. It was opened in May 2001 by US President Bill Clinton and hosts regular conferences, lectures and seminars, particularly in the fields of American...
, the University of Oxford
University of Oxford
The University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...
, Britain
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, where she researched case studies of nonviolent struggle from British colonial records. She is also Distinguished Scholar at the American University
American University
American University is a private, Methodist, liberal arts, and research university in Washington, D.C. The university was chartered by an Act of Congress on December 5, 1892 as "The American University", which was approved by President Benjamin Harrison on February 24, 1893...
Center for Global Peace, in Washington D.C..
As a young student, she worked alongside the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Martin Luther King, Jr. was an American clergyman, activist, and prominent leader in the African-American Civil Rights Movement. He is best known for being an iconic figure in the advancement of civil rights in the United States and around the world, using nonviolent methods following the...
(no relation) in the U.S. civil rights movement and was a member of the staff of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee
Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee
The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee ' was one of the principal organizations of the American Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s. It emerged from a series of student meetings led by Ella Baker held at Shaw University in Raleigh, North Carolina in April 1960...
(SNCC). Her book on that four-year experience, Freedom Song: A Personal Story of the 1960s Civil Rights Movement (1987), won a Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Book Award.
Her book Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr: The Power of Nonviolent Action (1988), concerns nine contemporary nonviolent struggles of the 20th century. It was published and widely disseminated by UNESCO
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations...
in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
. Its second edition was brought out in New Delhi
New Delhi
New Delhi is the capital city of India. It serves as the centre of the Government of India and the Government of the National Capital Territory of Delhi. New Delhi is situated within the metropolis of Delhi. It is one of the nine districts of Delhi Union Territory. The total area of the city is...
in (2002) by the Indian Council for Cultural Relations and Mehta Publishers.
During the administration of Jimmy Carter
Jimmy Carter
James Earl "Jimmy" Carter, Jr. is an American politician who served as the 39th President of the United States and was the recipient of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize, the only U.S. President to have received the Prize after leaving office...
, King was a presidential appointee confirmed by the US Senate. She had global responsibility for the Peace Corps
Peace Corps
The Peace Corps is an American volunteer program run by the United States Government, as well as a government agency of the same name. The mission of the Peace Corps includes three goals: providing technical assistance, helping people outside the United States to understand US culture, and helping...
and several national domestic volunteer service corps programs. She has worked with President Carter for thirty-five years and remains a special adviser.
She is the co-author, with Casey Hayden (Sandra Cason), of a document entitled “Sex and Caste.” It originated from within the American civil rights movement. The document was published in 1966 by Liberation, the magazine of the War Resisters League. Sex and Caste has since been credited as one of the generative documents that launched second-wave feminism
Second-wave feminism
The Feminist Movement, or the Women's Liberation Movement in the United States refers to a period of feminist activity which began during the early 1960s and lasted through the early 1990s....
. Historian Ruth Rosen
Ruth Rosen
Ruth Rosen is a pioneering historian of gender and society, an award-winning journalist and a Professor Emerita at University of California Davis....
in The World Split Open: How the Women's Movement Changed America (2001) calls her a central figure in starting the contemporary women's movement of the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
.
With the assistance of a grant from the United States Institute of Peace
United States Institute of Peace
The United States Institute of Peace was created by Congress as a non-partisan, federal institution that works to prevent or end violent conflict around the world...
, she recently completed original archival research for a case study of a famous nonviolent struggle against untouchability in Vykom, Kerala, India, 1924–1925, which influenced the building of theory on the mechanisms of change in nonviolent civil resistance.
In May 2011, her alma mater Ohio Wesleyan University
Ohio Wesleyan University
Ohio Wesleyan University is a private liberal arts college in Delaware, Ohio, United States. It was founded in 1842 by Methodist leaders and Central Ohio residents as a nonsectarian institution, and is a member of the Ohio Five — a consortium of Ohio liberal arts colleges...
awarded her a doctor of laws (honorary) degree. In June, she received a James Lawson Award for Nonviolent Achievement. In July, Aberystwyth University made her a fellow.
Mary resides with her husband, Dr. Peter G. Bourne
Peter Bourne
Peter Bourne is a physician, anthropologist, biographer, author and international civil servant with experience in several senior government positions. He is currently chairman of the board of the American Association for World Health, and Professor and Vice Chancellor Emeritus at St...
, in Virginia
Virginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and Oxford
Oxford
The city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...
in the United Kingdom.