The Peace, War and Social Conflict Section of the American Sociological Association (ASA) presented Kent State Professor Patrick G. Coy with a career award: the Robin M. Williams, Jr. Award for Distinguished Contributions to Scholarship, Teaching and Service in the areas of peace, war, and social conflict.
The career award was presented to Coy in Montreal, Canada on August 15, 2017 at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association.
According to Dr. Lisa Leitz, the Chair of the Peace, War and Social Conflict section of the ASA, “Dr. Coy has been instrumental in the establishment of a new School of Peace and Conflict Studies at Kent State University. He has a distinguished record of scholarship that includes publications that developed innovative theory and research on peace activism. He is also the long-time editor of the peer-reviewed research series, Research in Social Movements, Conflicts and Change, including work that translates what scholars know about nonviolence to those who wish to make social change."
A professor at Kent State University since 1996, Patrick Coy has co-authored or edited 14 books and published over 35 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters. ‘
He has worked as a community mediator, as a human rights observer and nonviolent accompanier in Sri Lanka during the ethnic conflict, and co-led or been a member of peacemaking missions and delegations to Libya, to Iraq, and to the Soviet Union during times of international crises. Patrick Coy was formerly the national chairperson of the Fellowship of Reconciliation, a research fellow of the Albert Einstein Institution, the executive director of the Lentz Peace Research Laboratory, and a Fulbright Scholar in Botswana.
The long-time Director of Kent State’s Center for Applied Conflict Management, Dr. Coy is now the Director of Kent State University’s new School of Peace and Conflict Studies.