About the Authors
Dr. Peter Gould was a member of the back-to-the-land movement in Vermont in the 1970’s. His first novel, Burnt Toast (Alfred A. Knopf) told the story of the commune movement in eco-fantasy form. In the 1980’s, Peter’s play “A Peasant of El Salvador” helped to build opposition across the U.S. to intervention in Central America.
While he was working on his doctorate at Brandeis, he taught both undergraduate and MFA classes in physical comedy and clown theory. During those years, he also founded a popular youth Shakespeare program, “Get Thee to the Funnery,” which has spawned new branches around Vermont.
Gould’s young adult novel Write Naked (Farrar Straus & Giroux) won the 2009 National Green Earth Book Award, for its environmental-stewardship content. That was also the year he began to teach PAX 120B, “Inner Peace and Outer Peace,” at Brandeis.
In 2017, Peter published his first work of non-fiction, Horse-Drawn Yogurt, True Stories of Total Loss Farm (Green Writers Press), and also received the Governor’s & Arts Council Award as Vermont’s Arts Educator of the Year. He also wrote the song “Mother of Exiles,” using the words on the base of the Statue of Liberty:
Peter brings his extensive theater and writing background to the class, encouraging honesty and non-violent communication in all students. He uses his clown-dharma theory and performance experience to teach positive problem-solving skills to the IP/OP community.
Dr. John Ungerleider is a Professor of Peacebuilding and Conflict Transformation at the SIT Graduate Institute in Brattleboro, Vermont. John founded and directs the SIT Youth Peacebuilding and Leadership Programs, which have served more than 11,000 young people from conflict areas around the world since 1990. Many youth groups come to the U.S. via State Department funded programs, from places including Iraq, Pakistan/India, Burma, Libya, Egypt, Tunisia, Liberia, Yemen, and Bangladesh. He has led trainings for youth program leaders in Israel/Palestine, Uganda, Northern Ireland, China, and Turkey. John has also trained adult leaders from multiple countries in the State Department’s International Visitors Leadership Program.
John is the founder of the Vermont Governor’s Institute on Current Issues and Youth Activism, as well as the Child Labor Education and Action (CLEA) project for Vermont teens to work locally and globally against oppressive child labor. He has been a visiting professor in Spain and Venezuela, an adjunct at Brandeis, and a lecturer at Hampshire College.
As a Fulbright Senior Scholar John facilitated conflict resolution activities in Cyprus. Currently, he facilitates a domestic violence accountability program with a group of men in the probation system in Vermont.
John created a manual for youth dialogue facilitators called “Let’s Talk About It.” He also wrote and performs a participatory musical “co-opera” about global warming: “Secret of the Seasons.”
