“Stories of Reconciliation” will allow TCU students to attend a discussion of peacemaking in divided countries with TCU’s visiting scholar Michael McRay Thursday evening.

According to their website, “Stories of Reconciliation” is put on by TCU’s Discovering Global Citizenship program in order to increase internationalization at TCU, particularly through programs related to developing countries and communities where the institution has minimal engagement.

McRay is part of Discovering Global Citizenship’s Quality Enhancement Project, or QEP, and is considered a visiting scholar.

McRay spent three months traveling between Israel-Palestine, Northern Ireland, Rwanda and South Africa where he wrote and learned about those who seek peace in these dangerous countries.

“Northern Ireland, South Africa, Rwanda, and Israel-Palestine are possibly the quintessential images of civil conflict in the last 50 years,” McRay wrote in his blog.

“Today, as the potential for violent conflict often simmers beneath the surface of these societies, groups and individuals commit themselves to disrupting the spirals of vengeance and animosity.”

This isn’t the first time McRay spent three months traveling foreign countries. He has done similar trips five times before, spanning from Vienna to the West Bank to Belfast.

“We are attempting to pioneer a new pedagogical model of visiting scholarship,” McRay wrote. “Traditionally, visiting scholars spend their time on the university’s campus; in our experiment, the visiting scholar (me) will go abroad [before] engaging with students.”

Below is a map showing where Michael McRay traveled for three months.

McRay has been partnered with TCU students. At 12 p.m. Wednesday he will be visiting with students in Smith 104B to talk about the power religious communities can have on reconciliation, in addition to presenting “Stories of Reconciliation” on Thursday.

Dr. Rima Abunasser, an english professor at TCU, will be hosting McRay in a discussion of how regional turbulence can result in reconciliation.

Students are welcome to come, listen and join in on the conversation at 6 p.m. Thursday in the Brown-Lupton University Union Ballroom.