Any Star Wars fans out there? At the recent AALS ADR WIP conference, Noam Ebner (Creighton) and I unveiled our new project — an edited collection of essays tentatively titled Star Wars and Conflict Resolution.

We are in the call for proposals stage, seeking 300-word proposals for short chapters (4000-5000 words). We plan to build on the model that has successfully generated similar books in other areas, such as The Ultimate Star Wars and Philosophy (Wiley-Blackwell, 2015) and Star Wars Psychology (Sterling, 2015). Once we have a set of chapter abstracts, we will reach out to publishers. Check out the full call for proposals here.

Our goal is to share the insights and knowledge of the conflict resolution field with the general public, ranging far beyond those who find their own way to our classrooms. Pop culture opens a gateway to this audience, and Star Wars provides a particularly forceful (!) vehicle for this purpose, given that Star Wars is one of the most widespread cultural phenomena of our time, and conflict and its resolution are central to all of the saga’s narrative themes. The book will bring the conflict resolution community’s intellectual weight and signature trait of playful creativity to bear on Star Wars. Beyond reaching a wide audience, we believe that a substantively rich book, written in a light, humorous tone and animated by passion for conflict resolution and for Star Wars, will invigorate the conflict resolution field and diversify its educational materials.

If you’d like to participate but don’t know much about Star Wars, consider enlisting a colleague, student, or former student as a co-author! This project could be a wonderful opportunity to work with someone else.

Interested? Please send a description of your proposed chapter in about 300 words, along with your short bio or CV, to Noam Ebner ([email protected]) and Jen Reynolds ([email protected]), by December 31, 2019. Feel free to reach out to us with any questions — and as always, may the Force be with you.