ORONO – The first international conference sponsored by the University of Maine’s Peace Studies program will be held June 18-20. “Peacemaking in the 21st Century: Inner Peace, Outer Action” is expected to bring activists, philosophers, musicians, dancers, artists and ministers to campus for the three-day event.

“With so much focus on war, we feel there also needs to be a parallel focus on peace and peacemaking in the 21st century,” Phyllis Brazee, a co-organizer of the event and director of the Peace Studies office, said Thursday in a press release. “And collectively, we in peace studies are aware that it isn’t all outer action, but it’s inner action that helps us better understand what peace is.”

The conference will be held at Jenness and Neville halls. Registration for all three days is $150 or $55 to attend for one day. On-campus housing is available. Scholarships that cover half the cost of registration are available, according to Hugh Curran, conference co-founder.

Each day’s events will include a morning ceremony and contemplative practice, keynote speakers in the mornings and afternoons and a variety of panel discussions throughout each day. Friday and Saturday evenings will include dinners and artistic presentations.

Afaf Stevens, a Baha’i, will be the keynote speaker on Saturday, June 19. The Baha’i religion, which espouses the unity of all faiths, has roots in 19th century Persia, now southern Iraq. Stevens has a bachelor of science degree in economics and two master’s degrees – one in international education, the other in world religions.

Stevens was born and raised in Iraq. She told a Portsmouth, N.H., newspaper two years ago that she attended divinity school to earn the academic credentials “to do and speak about the very same things I already did.”

She teaches courses in the Boston area on comparative religion and the status of women in Islam and the Middle East and Islam’s relationship with and contribution to Western Civilization. Her speech in Orono will cover many of those topics.

Motivated by the conviction that “education is the greatest door to women’s liberation from sexism and oppression,” Stevens established the Tahirih Peace Institute at the Boston Baha’i Center, which helps minority and immigrant women gain job skills and training in English, child development, cultural adjustment and negotiation and conflict resolution.

Other keynote speakers scheduled for the conference include Jonathan Wilson, founder of Hope magazine, Thomas Turay, a native of Sierra Leone who teaches at the Coady Institute in Antigonish, Nova Scotia, and Sulak Sivaraska, who has been nominated twice for the Nobel Peace Prize for advocating for social and spiritual transformation in his native Thailand.

“We’ve really put together a broad-based program rather than going in depth, because we wanted to let people see the array of arenas that peacemaking needs to be in,” Brazee said. “Many people define peace very narrowly and we’re trying to help demonstrate how broad peace and peacemaking is.

“You tell me – How do you define peace?” she asked. “We’re trying to help people envision a culture of peace. We’re hoping it will be inspirational, uplifting and informative.”

For more information about the event, call the Peace Studies Program at 581-2609 or to register, call 581-4094 or visit the conference Web site at http://dll.umaine.edu/peace.