Cris Toffolo
Professor Political Science St. Thomas University
Previously Aired On: October 6, 2007 - Archive Not Currently Available
Cris Toffolo is an Associate Professor in the department of Political Science and she also teaches in the Justice and Peace Studies Program at the University of St. Thomas. She teaches conflict resolution, political theory and Third World comparative politics. Areas of research and interest include:
Pakistan, human rights, anti-racism work, and third world development and contemporary political thought.
While on sabbatical in South Africa she was a Senior Researcher with the Center for Rights and Responsibilities Across Society (CARRAS) and conducted research on anti-racism training programs and economic policy. She is currently helping to develop college level curriculum for PeaceJam. Cris is a former member of the executive board of the national Peace and Justice Studies Association, and former board chair of the Higher Education Consortium for Urban Affairs (HECUA). For that organization she has also developed curriculum and served as a program reviewer. Since 1991 she has served as the Pakistan Country Specialist of the South Asia Coordination Group of Amnesty International (USA).
She has studied and taught in Japan, Nigeria, Pakistan, France, Guatemala, Northern Ireland,
Bangladesh and South Africa. Primary teaching areas are political theory, conflict resolution
and Third World comparative politics.
Her publications include: The Arab League (forthcoming with Chelsea House); Emancipating Cultural Pluralism SUNY Press, 2003; and numerous articles. Cris has studied and taught in Japan, Nigeria, Pakistan, France, Guatemala, Northern Ireland, Bangladesh and South Africa.
Her education includes a Ph.D. & M.A. in political thought from the University of Notre Dame (1995);an M.A. in Science and Technology Policy from George Washington University (1986); and B.S. from Alma College (1983).
Recently, the University of St. Thomas revoked an invitation to Nobel Peace Laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu who was scheduled to speak on campus to a group of high school students as part of a PeaceJam event sponsored by the University’s Justice and Peace studies program. The reason given for the revocation of the invitation was that Tutu was deemed to have said things in a previous speech that might be considered hurtful to certain Jewish people about Israel.
Professor Toffolo who Director of the Justice and Peace program says that the Archbishop was not scheduled to even talk about Israel and that even if he did mention the issue, controversy should not be excluded as it is a valuable part of education. Professor Toffolo was relieved of her position as director of the Justice and Peace program after speaking out against the administration’s revocation.
