I have more than 25 years’ experience leading travel study projects for students in Ireland and South Africa, and my and my students’ experiences this January 2017 were some of the most positive and life-changing we’ve had. The Peace Studies field trips and Transatlantic Connections conference offered my students real life and also factual knowledge, not a bus window or television tourist view of Ireland. On the ground, the connections my students discovered between civil and human rights struggles in the U. S. (and particularly in the American South) and in the Republic of Ireland and N Ireland were profound and life-changing. Transatlantic connections conferences and peace studies travel are vitally important now more than ever, in my opinion.
Dr. Sandra L. Sprayberry
Robert Luckie Professor of English
Coordinator, Program in Human Rights and Conflict Studies
Birmingham-Southern Collge
Birmingham, Alabama, USA