Elise M. Boulding papers

Elise Boulding, sociologist, educator, peace scholar and activist was born Elise Biorn-Hansen in Oslo, Norway on July 6th, 1920 to Joseph Biorn- Hansen and Brigit Johnson. In 1923, Mr. and Mrs. Biorn-Hansen and their three year old child moved to the United States, and by 1929 were naturalized Americans.

Encouraged by her mother, who believed that Elise was destined to “do something important,” she enrolled in the New Jersey College for Women (now known as Douglass College at Rutgers University). In 1940, Elise Biorn-Hansen completed her BA in English. In the spring of 1941, she became a member of the Religious Society of Friends (the Quakers) where she subsequently met her philosophical partner and future husband, Kenneth Ewart Boulding. The following summer, on August 31st, 1941, Elise, age 21, and Kenneth, age 31, were wed, and immediately began their lives as a couple dedicated to peacemaking at home and abroad. Soon thereafter, the couple moved to Iowa where Elise Biorn-Hansen-Boulding began her work towards a Masters degree. From 1945-1946, she worked as a research assistant for the Family Adjustments in Wartime Project at the Department of Sociology at Iowa State College. In 1947 she and husband Kenneth welcomed, John Russell, their first of five children, into the world. Despite her duties as wife and new mother, Mrs. Boulding kept-up her academic work in Sociology. In 1949, she submitted her Masters thesis entitled “Factors in Family Separation Which Influence the Course of Adjustment to War Separation and Reunion,” and subsequently received her Master of Arts in Sociology from Iowa State College.

From 1949 through to 1955, Elise Boulding devoted much of her time to motherhood. In 1949, she gave birth to Mark David, and then in 1951 came Christine Anne. Philip Daniel was born in 1953, and finally, William Frederic, the youngest of Elise and Kenneth’s children, was born in 1955. Soon thereafter, Elise once again directed her energy toward her studies and teaching career. From 1957 to 1960, she held a variety of research associate positions and immediately found herself involved in international peace work. Form 1960 to 1963 Boulding worked as the editor of the International Peace Research Letter which led her to a lifetime of work developing the International Peace Research Association (IPRA) a highly active and effective international peace organization. Her work in the area of peace studies became most effective and influential when she began to merge it with her interest in futures studies. In 1961 Dr. Boulding translated, from the Dutch, Fred Polak’s classic work, Image of the Future, and used it as a tool for peace studies and social change workshops.

In 1963, Elise Boulding was invited to work first as an Assistant Professor and then as an Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Colorado at Boulder. In between academic appointments, Boulding went back to school for her Ph.D., receiving it from Michigan University in 1969. Furthermore, from 1967 to 1970, Boulding worked diligently in the area of women’s peace efforts as the International Chair of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF). In the early seventies, Dr. Boulding was given a position as Professor of Sociology at CU Boulder and simultaneously worked as Associate Editor of The American Sociologist.

The 1970s, 1980s and 1990s were extremely successful and busy years for Dr. Boulding. She remained fully committed to her roles as mother and as wife, as well to her membership in the Quaker community. Furthermore, her dedication to peace work and teaching never faltered. Dr. Boulding’s list of professional accomplishments are both academic as well as organizational and activist. She held professorships at CU Boulder and Dartmouth College while she worked extensively with a range of peace organizations. From 1967 to 1970, Dr. Boulding was the International Chair of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF). Moreover, she and her husband, the late Kenneth Boulding, internationally known economist and peace researcher, were the founders of the International Peace Research Association (IPRA) in 1964, and its American counterpart, The Consortium on Peace, Research, Education and Development (COPRED) in 1970. These efforts were made as an attempt to link peace research, education and activism2. She was the Chair of COPRED from 1970 to 1972. Dr. Boulding also worked as the Secretary General of the International Peace Research Association from 1989 to 1991, and then as President from 1992 to 1996. In addition to this, Elise Boulding worked extensively with UNESCO, and for the establishment of the Japan-based United Nations University; with the American and International Sociological Associations; with the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) and with the Interfaith Peace Council. Elise Boulding strongly believed in the importance of including values of peace and justice in school curricula and dedicated her life to making it a reality .

From 1973 right through to today, Boulding has been honored for her work in a variety of ways. She has won alumnae achievement awards from both Douglass College as well as from the University of Michigan. She has been granted awards for her work as a feminist scholar and leader from the National Council of Women, the National Women’s Forum, and from the Sisters of Loretta. In addition, Boulding has been honored and awarded for her work as an educator and as an international peacemaker. In 1990 Dr. Boulding was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for her work on non-violence and conflict resolution. In 1995, the American Sociological Association presented Elise Boulding with a Distinguished Career Award. That very same year, COPRED honored her with an Outstanding Lifetime Service to COPRED Award, and the Boston Research Center for the 21st Century awarded her with a Global Citizens’ Award. Finally, 1996, Boulder’s Rocky Mountain Peace Center awarded Dr. Boulding its first Peace Maker of the Year award after which she announced her retirement and plan to move away from Colorado to live closer to her children and grandchildren in Massachusetts. Elise passed away in June of 2010.

Upon her departure from Boulder in November 1996, Dr. Boulding vowed never to stop her active work in peace advocacy, research and education, and has been adding to her already extensive body of published books and essays ever since. In large part, Dr. Boulding’s peace work has emerged via her volumes of publications, essays and lecture tours and has contributed to the world of peace studies in a variety of extremely valuable ways. Her books include:

Image of the Future (translated from the Dutch De Toekomst is Verleden Tyd, by Fred Polak; Oceana Press, 1961); Handbook of International Data on Women (with Carson, Greenstein, and Nuss; New York: Halsted Press, 1976);

Women in the Twentieth Century World (Beverly Hills, California: Sage Publications, 1977);

From a Monastery Kitchen (New York: Harper & Row, 1976);

Children’s Rights and the Wheel of Life (New Brunswick, New Jersey: Transaction Press, 1979), [written especially for the International Year of the Child];

Bibliography on World Conflict and Peace (with Passmore and Gassler; Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 1979);

The Social System of the Planet Earth (with K. Boulding and G. Burgess; Reading, Massachusetts: Addison-Wesley, 1980);

Women and the Social Costs of Economic Development: Two Colorado Case Studies (with Moen, Lillydahl, and Palm, Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 1981);

Building a Global Civic Culture: Education for and Interdependent World (New York: Teachers College Press, Columbia University, 1988; Syracuse University Press, 1990);

One Small Plot of Heaven: Reflections of a Quaker Sociologist on Family Life (Wallingford, Pennsylvania: Pendle Hill Publications, 1989); Peace Culture and Society: Transnational Dialogue (with Brigagao and Clements, Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 1991);

New Agendas for Peace Research: Conflict and Security Reexamined (Boulder, Colorado: Lynne Rienner Press, 1992);

The Underside of History: A View of Women Through Time (Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 1976; Revised Edition, Newbury Park, California: Sage Publications, 1992);

Studies in the Interconnectedness of Peace in the Middle East and the World: Perspectives from Europe, and Latin America (Budapest, Hungary: IPRA/ Research Institute for Social Studies of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, 1993);

Building Peace in the Middle East: Challenges from States and Civil Society (Boulder, Colorado: Lynne Rienner, 1994);

The Future: Images and Processes (with K. Boulding, Thousand Oaks, California: Sage Publications, 1995).