Gail Presbey was elected president of the Peace History Society in 2023 for two-year term. Peace History Society was founded in 1964. This year their semi-annual conference took place at Gwynedd Mercy University. Presbey welcomed attendees and gave out the awards for the best book and best article. She also presented a paper that focused on the research and unpublished manuscript of Sr. Betty Campbell, a Sister of Mercy who engaged in research on Cuban-Catholic relations in the 1980s. See the PHS website for photos of the conference.
The Peace History Society also has a virtual event every semester hosted by one of four Mercy universities, including Georgian Court, Gwynedd Mercy and St. Joseph’s. This semester it was University of Detroit Mercy’s turn to host the event. Presbey hosted the online event in November, interviewing Claire Schaefer-Duffy, a journalist for the National Catholic Reporter and co-founder of the Saints Francis and Therese Catholic Worker in Worcester, Massachusetts. She spoke about her lifelong interest in peace and justice issues and how recently she traveled to Ukraine in 2023 to learn more about efforts to nonviolently defend the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.