This Webinar will examine the influences and relationships shared between the African American civil rights movement and the civil rights movement in Northern Ireland.

Speakers

Civil Rights and Race: Exploring US Responses to the Early Northern Ireland Troubles 

Dr Peter McLoughlin, Senior Lecturer, School of History, Anthropology, Philosophy and Politics; Mitchell Institute Fellow (Legacy), Queen’s University Belfast

Imperfect Parallels between the Civil Rights Movements in the USA and Ireland

Dr Kipton E. Jensen, Associate Professor of Philosophy, Director of the Leadership Studies Program in the Andrew Young Center for Global Leadership (AYCGL), Morehouse College

Then and Now: Ireland from the Perspective of a Millenial Scholar

Dr Justin McClinton, Morehouse College

Derry, Selma and International Solidarity

Don Mullan, Author, filmmaker, photographer and humanitarian

Moderator: Dr Kimberly Da Costa, Associate Professor, New York University  

Places must be booked in advance for this online event.  The meeting link will be sent prior to the webinar.  

This webinar is delivered in partnership with the African American Irish Diaspora Network and Morehouse College, Atlanta.

Biographies

Dr Peter McLoughlin

Dr McLoughlin works in the broad field of contemporary political history in Ireland and Northern Ireland, with a particular focus on the Northern Ireland problem and peace process. His most notable publication in this field is his book on the Nobel Peace Prize Winner, John Hume – John and the Revision of Irish Nationalism (MUP: 2010). Dr McLoughlin’s work also explores international and diaspora contributions to peace-making, and he will soon begin a research project as a Fulbright Scholar on the role of the US government and Irish-America in the Northern Ireland conflict and peace process.

Dr. Kipton E. Jensen

Dr. Kipton E. Jensen is an Associate Professor of Philosophy and the Director of the Leadership Studies Program in the Andrew Young Center for Global Leadership (AYCGL) at Morehouse College. Jensen is the coordinator of the AYCGL Higher Education in Prisons Initiative. He previously served as the assistant director of the International Comparative Labor Studies Program (ICLS). 

Jensen has published two books and numerous articles on Howard Thurman and the social justice leadership legacy at Morehouse College: Howard Thurman's Sermons on the Parables (Orbis Books, 2018) and Howard Thurman: Philosophy, Civil Rights, and the Search for Common Ground (University of South Carolina Press, 2019). 

Prior to coming to Morehouse College, Dr. Jensen taught philosophy at the University of Botswana (2004-2008). His research in Botswana on the role of traditional healers and faith communities in public health was published as Parallel Discourses: Religious Identity and HIV Prevention in Botswana (2012). 

In 2020 and 2023, Jensen led a cohort of Morehouse students to Ireland: Dublin, Derry, Donegal, and Belfast. 

Together with his colleagues from Morehouse and Dr. Niamh Hamill from the Institute of Study Abroad Ireland, Jensen contributed to an online course titled "Imperfect Parallels, Past and Present: The Civil Rights Movement in the USA and Ireland."

Dr Justin McClinton

Dr Justin McClinton is a systems theorist with a PhD in Education Policy and Leadership. Through a world historical and economics-based approach he studies how teaching and learning environments function.

In his role as visiting professor with Andrew Young Center for Global Leadership at Morehouse College, where he teaches courses on Black Leadership and Leadership theory.  He recently traveled to Ireland as a chaperone for the Imperfect Parallels study abroad program, that explores the similarities between the Irish and Black American battle for Civil Rights.

Don Mullan

Don Mullan is a bestselling author, filmmaker, photographer and humanitarian. He has written three major investigative books, all of which contributed to various official inquiries, including the new Bloody Sunday Inquiry.

He has co-produced three award-winning movies about the beginning (Bloody Sunday, 2002), end (OMAGH, 2004) and aftermath (Five Minutes of Heaven, 2009) of the Northern Ireland Troubles. He has produced three major international photographic exhibitions with NOKIA, including the world's first exhibition based entirely on mobile phone photography. 

His humanitarian work includes several concepts which seek to highlight human empathy, race amity and systemic change through non-violent.

These include:

• The Great Famine Project (1984 - ongoing);
• The Choctaw-Ireland Story (1988 - ongoing);
• The Christmas Truce Project (2008 - ongoing);
• The O'Connell Douglass Project (2012 - ongoing); and
• The Laudato Tree Project (2017 - ongoing).

Mullan has interviewed, amongst others, Dom Helder Camara, Mother Teresa, Rosa Parks, Desmond Tutu and His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

Mullan was Executive Producer on the award-winning feature documentary The Great Green Wall and is currently executive producing a series of environmental projects on the Climate crisis.