Metta Spencer (born 29 August 1931) is a Canadian sociologist, writer, peace researcher, and activist."On the Way to the Forum," in Kathryn P. Meadow Orlans and Ruth A. Wallace, Gender and the Academic Experience (Lincoln, University of Nebraska Press, 1994) pp. 157-172.World Who’s Who: http://www.worldwhoswho.com/views/browse.html?goto=Spencer%2C+Metta&goto_button.x=0&goto_button.y=0

Biography

After completing a Ph.D. in Sociology in 1969 at the University of California, Berkeley, Spencer joined the Department of Sociology at the

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution ...

’s Erindale College in 1971. She taught regularly in the university’s Peace and Conflict Studies Program, which she founded in 1989 and coordinated until her retirement in 1997. In 1976 Spencer authored the ''Foundations of Modern Sociology'' textbook, which was subsequently published in four American and seven Canadian editions. Spencer has specialized in peace and war studies, and has been active in the Canadian peace movement. As the founding president and director of the Canadian Disarmament Information Service (CANDIS), she published the monthly ''Peace Calendar'' from 1983 to 1985, when the publication changed to magazine format and took the name ''

Peace Magazine ''Peace Magazine'' is a Canadian magazine on disarmament and peacebuilding issues, published by Canadian Disarmanent Information Service (CANDIS). History and profile ''Peace Magazine'' was launched in 1985 as a continuation of an earlier CANDIS p ...

''. In 2009, Spencer organized th
Zero Nuclear Weapons
public forum in Toronto, jointly sponsored by four major Canadian peace organizations with which she has been involved since the mid-80s: Physicians for Global Survival
Canadian Voice of Women for Peace
the Nobel Peace Prize laureate organization Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs, and

Science for Peace Science for Peace is organization of scientists, engineers, social scientists and scholars working together to promote peace worldwide. It was co-founded by mathematical psychologist Anatol Rapoport, and physicist Eric Fawcett, both former profess ...

. She has also extensively researched peace and conflict in the former

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

and Eastern Europe. In 1997, she organized "The Lessons of Yugoslavia," a three-day Science for Peace conference at the University of Toronto. In 2011, she publishe
''The Russian Quest for Peace and Democracy''
the culmination of 28 years of research and hundreds of interviews with Russian politicians and activists.''Gorbachev at 80: reformer of Soviet Russia: Q&A with peace activist and Russia specialist Metta Spencer'

with CBC She argues that Western peace activists' influence on Russians including Gorbachev helped end the

Cold War The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...

more so than pressure from the US or

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two No ...

. More recently, Spencer has become involved in

climate change In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to E ...

activism (by chairing since 2007 a Science for Peace committee to study and campaign for carbon taxation policy) and has researched edutainment, or social change through storytelling.Paradigm Publishers: http://www.paradigmpublishers.com/Books/BookDetail.aspx?productID=128211 In her book ''Two Aspirins and a Comedy: How Television Can Enhance Health and Society'' (2006), she argues that television could be a force for health and social change.

Awards

* Confederation Medal awarded by Governor-General for Service to Canada, 1992 * Global Citizen Award, United Nations, 1995 * United Nations Association in Canada Award, 1999

Books

* ''Adolescent Prejudice'' (Co-author with Charles Y. Glock, Robert Wuthnow, and Jane Piliavin). New York: Harper and Row, 1975. * ''Foundations of Modern Sociology''. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1976. (published in four American and seven Canadian editions) * ''Two Aspirins and a Comedy: How Television Can Enhance Health and Society''. Boulder, Colorado: Paradigm Publishers, 2006. * ''The Russian Quest for Peace and Democracy''. Lanham, Maryland: Lexington Press, 2010.

Books edited

* ''Research in Social Movements, Conflict, and Change'', Vol. 13. Greenwich, Connecticut: JAI Press, 1991. * ''World Security: The New Challenge'' (Co-editor with Carl G. Jacobsen, Morris Miller, and Eric Tollefson). Pugwash Canada. Toronto: Dundurn, 1994. * ''Women in Post-Communism: Research on Russia and Eastern Europe'', Vol. 2 (Co-editor with Barbara Wejnert, with the assistance of Slobodan Drakulic). Greenwich, Connecticut: JAI Press, 1997. * ''Separatism: Democracy and Disintegration''. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman and Littlefield, 1998. * ''The Lessons of Yugoslavia: Research on Russia and Eastern Europe'', Vol. 3. Amsterdam, London: JAI Press, Elsevier, 2000.

References

External links

Website

Author-owned promotional site for ''The Russian Quest for Peace and Democracy''

Author-owned promotional site for ''Two Aspirins and a Comedy''

''Peace Magazine''

Archive of audio and video files and position papers from the Zero Nuclear Weapons forum

Metta Spencer archival papers
held at th
University of Toronto Archives and Records Management Services
{{DEFAULTSORT:Spencer, Metta 1931 births Living people Canadian sociologists Canadian women sociologists Canadian anti–nuclear weapons activists Nonviolence advocates University of California, Berkeley alumni Academic staff of the University of Toronto Place of birth missing (living people)