Peace as a Global Language International Conference 2023

ORGANISING COMMITTEE

Roberto Rabbini
Toyo University 


Roberto has beeen a national member of The Japan Assocciation of Language Teachers for 23 years and has presented at numerous conferences and served on several of his university's committees.  Researching various EFL areas, such as cross-cultural psychology and bilinguistic development, he has published in a number of journals. He has also solo and co-written popular textbooks for independent and large publishers, including the first of its kind by Cengage that focused on alternative media global issues. Additionally, Roberto helped to establish the first EFL podcast in Japan, which maintained a global audience of 17,000 at one point. Another field of research interest to him is that of personal development, which includes under its broad umbrella the subjects of positive psychology, motivation and personal interaction skills with specific emphasis on approaches to developing effective public speakers and presenters. Roberto is currently Associate Professor at this year's PGL conference host:  Toyo University's Faculty of Information Networking for Innovation and Design.  



Zane Ritchie
Josai University


Originally from New Zealand, Zane has lived and worked in Japan for over twenty years. He has been involved in the university scene in Japan in several capacities, including as a graduate student, a member of staff, and is currently teaching in the Faculty of Contemporary Policy Studies at Josai University, where the last PGL conference was hosted. Current research areas include: examining non-Japanese resident resilience and welfare following the tsunami of 2011 in the towns of Kessenuma and Ishinomaki, the Christchurch rebuild following the 2010/2011 earthquakes, virtual learning environments and blended learning, content-based instruction at the territory level in Japan, and the use of technology in teaching.

Kazuya Asakawa
Meiji Gakuin University


Kazuya is currently a research fellow at PRIME, International Peace Research Institute, Meiji Gakuin University, Japan, and a retired professor of Tokaigakuen University. He has developed teaching materials on topics including: peace, human rights, environment and development issues, promoting participatory methodologies in foreign language education. His current interests are the integratation of peace education into local contexts and international peace trends. As a board member of Bridge for Peace (BFP), he conducts workshops for youth groups, colleges and high schools in Japan, the Philippines, Korea and Thailand. He also belongs to GPPAC, Global Partnership for Preventing Armed Conflicts Peace education reference group and also Global Campaign for Peace Education. His team has translated international documents into Japanese such as Learning to Abolish War(Hague Appeal for Peace), Peace Education in Northeast Asia: A Situational Analysis(APCEIU) and others.



Paul Duffil
Rikkyo University 

Paul is a Lecturer at Rikkyo University's Center for Foreign Language Education and Research. He’s taught in courses at nine universities (and university-level institutions) in four countries; was awarded the 2009 Isaac Roet Prize for his interdisciplinary research while studying as graduate student,; and has served as academic peer reviewer and a member of the publishing committee of several books and journals published by Oxford University Press, Rikkyo University, the Peace and Development Foundation (Pakistan), and Springer. His research and teaching focuses on Peace and Conflict Studies, linking conflict resolution, peacebuilding and human rights (with a regional focus on Palestine-Israel), global career studies and "future-proofing" university education, social justice simulations at the university level, and academic English. Outside of academia he has worked as a professional human rights campaigner for the Australia Palestine Advocacy Network; served as the President of an NGO (the Hokkaido Association for the Japan Exchange and Teaching Program) dedicated to international exchange, intercultural and English language education, and foreign resident support; and provides evidence-based policy advice (focused on human rights and peacebuilding in Palestine-Israel) to governments, political parties, and community groups. He began studying peacebuilding and conflict resolution as a teenager as a student of Aikido which he has since gained a teaching qualification in.



About Peace as a Global Language 

Peace as a Global Language (PGL) was conceived in the anxious year following ‘911, by teacher activists in Japan. Wanting to emphasize peace, feeling very sad and worried,” they envisioned “a healing conference devoted entirely to social awareness and socially aware teaching”. PGL conferences have been attended been activists, aid professionals, academics and students, from inside and outside of Japan since 2002. PGL also organised a tour and conference at the Management University of Africa, in Nairobi in 2016, taking a group of ten teachers from across Japan, the first step on the way to making PGL truly global in nature. In 2017, PGL worked with Mount Kenya University to bring scholars and researchers from outside of Africa to the beautiful city of Kigali for the Emerging Issues in English Education and Language Conference as part of an education tour to East Africa.