Awards
Chancellors Medal - 2008
On May 28, 2008 the Chancellors Medal, awarded by the university to “distinguished leaders, both in the public and the private sectors, and to outstanding members of our campus community, in recognition of meritorious service to the University and the Commonwealth” was presented to two Mitrovica Conference participants, Mr. Dragan Spasojevic and Mr. Sadri Ferati.
"In recognition of the determination of Mr. Ferati and Mr. Spasojevic to build a new bridge—and, by meeting in the middle, to serve as an example Chancellor J. Keith Motleyto both the Kosovar and Serbian communities they represent—the University of Massachusetts Boston is honored and proud to award the Chancellor’s Medal for International Peace and Reconciliation to each leader. In conferring this award, the university reaffirms these leaders’ commitment to seeking sustainable peace. We congratulate both men on their remarkable and historymaking achievement."
Convocation Booklet (PDF)
Prof. Padraig O'Malley, Mr. Dragan Spasojevic, translator Ivan Prosevic, Arban Abrashi, Minister Sadri Ferati, Dean Steve Crosby of the McCormack Graduate School for Policy Studies.
Citation, May 2009 (PDF)
The Chancellor’s Medal is among the highest awards offered by the University of Massachusetts Boston. In presenting it, we recognize distinguished leadership, meritorious service, and personal qualities of courage, fairness, and dedication to the enhancement of community, from local to global. The medal honors leaders who have demonstrated values we share—who are emblems of what, in some measure, we are, and beacons for what we strive to be. Among its past recipients are Queen Silvia of Sweden, Massachusetts Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino, and Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick.
Awards Received by Professor O'Malley
Peacemaker Award - 2010
The Peacemaker Award acknowledges the significant and sustained contributions by an individual or organization to the cause of peace. At its heart, the purpose of conflict resolution, and the goal of ACR, is to bring peace to troubled relationships, whether domestic, organizational, environmental, or international. This award recognizes efforts to bring peace through various conflict resolution approaches to ethnic, religious, and civil conflicts that have raged domestically and outside the United States. The Peacemaker Award was instituted in 2001. The Association for Conflict Resolution (ACR) is the largest professional association professional organization enhancing the practice and public understanding of conflict resolution.ACR works in a wide range of settings throughout the United States and around the world; Its members are mediators, arbitrators, educators and other conflict resolution practitioners.
Past Recipients:
2009: Ambassador John W. McDonald
2008: Lee H. Hamilton
2007: Information Not Available
2006: Information Not Available
2005: Information Not Available
2004: No Honoree
2003: Senator George Mitchell
2002: No Honoree
2001: Conflict Resolution Network Canada
Liberal International Prize for Freedom
The 2008 Liberal International's Freedom Prize is awarded to Professor Padraig O'Malley in recognition of his achievement of the conflict resolution work in Northen Ireland and South Africa. Mr O'Malley is a professor at the University of Massachusetts Boston who specializes in the problems of divided societies, such as South Africa and Northern Ireland. He has written extensively on these subjects and has been actively involved in promoting dialogue among representatives of differing factions.
O'Malley was named as the university's first John Joseph Moakley Distinguished Professor of International Peace and Reconciliation at the John W. McCormack Graduate School of Policy Studies; a Senior Fellow in the Center for Development and Democracy; and the founder and editor of the New England Journal of Public Policy for more than twenty years, a semiannual publication of the McCormack Graduate School. He is also a Visiting Professor of Political Studies at the University of the Western Cape in South Africa. He is the author of a number of prize winning books on Northern Ireland including The Uncivil Wars: Ireland Today(1983), Biting at the Grave(1990), and Shades of Difference(1990).
O'Malley spent time in Northern Ireland in the 1970s and 1980s, during 'The Troubles', a period of sectarian strife and violence. He became interested in the way that South Africa, also facing internal division, had gone from apartheid to a racially integrated democracy without a civil war. In 1992, he participated in bringing some of the South African figures in that transition to Boston, Massachusetts for a meeting with representatives of the factions in Northern Ireland. In 1996, he helped arrange a second such meeting, in Belfast, attended by South Africans Cyril Ramaphosa of the African National Congress and Roelf Meyer of the white National Party.
Between 1989-1999, O'Malley conducted his historical collection, which includes 2,000 hours of interviews tracking South Africa's transition to democracy, is archived in written transcription and on audio tape at the Robben Island Museum/Mayibuye Archives [University of the Western Cape]. Electronic access to the historical collection, The Heart of Hope: South Africa's Transition from Apartheid to Democracy, 1989-1996, www.omalley.co.za, Learning Online, Cape Town, South Africa, 2004. His assiduous work of recording the different perspectives and developing attitudes within South Africa during the ten-year period had earned [Nelson Mandela's] highest regard. What particularly impressed Mr. Mandela was O'Malley's determination to face the greatest challenge posed once upon a time by W.B. Yeats, namely 'to hold in a single thought reality and justice'.
In 2007, based on these experiences, O'Malley became involved in working toward reconciliation within Iraq. He helped arrange a conference at a resort in Finland, where 16 Iraqis met with experienced negotiators from South Africa and Ireland who described the processes toward peace in their countries. The Iraqis concluded the meeting by agreeing among themselves on a statement based partly on the Mitchell Principles developed during the Northern Ireland peace process.
O'Malley has monitored elections in South Africa, Mozambique, and the Philippines on behalf of the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs. He is also a frequent contributor to The Boston Globe. O'Malley was born in Dublin. He was educated at University College, Dublin, and at Yale, Tufts and Harvard universities in the United States.
Professor O'Malley has also received the following awards:
Eire Society of Boston's Gold Medal, 2008
International Association of University Presidents Peace Award, 1985
Chancellor's Award for Distinguished Scholars, 1985
International Association of University Presidents Peace Award, 1983
