Mikhail Lyubansky
Circle Experience
I’ve facilitated responses to conflict and supported the development of restorative responses in a variety of different contexts including middle schools, high schools, universities, non-profits, school boards, the juvenile justice system, probation and court services, and intentional communities. Although I primarily work with conflict, I have also used the circle processes for community-building, for processing grief, and for teaching/learning.
I continue to spend time learning from a variety of people and groups in the restorative movement, but the core of my practice is a circle process developed in Brazil by Dominic Barter and associates called Restorative Circles. See http://www.restorativecircles.org
Currently I am a board member of Illinois Balanced and Restorative Justice (IBARJ) and have served on various committees of the National Association of Community and Restorative Justice (NACRJ).
Areas of Interest and Service
Restorative justice is intended to be community-owned, so I am most interested in supporting schools, organizations, community groups, and sometimes even the criminal justice system itself to set up a restorative system — a plan for responding to conflict and/or norm violations restoratively. Such support can come in the form of actual facilitation, but I prefer to work with groups to help them develop the resources and infrastructure to facilitate their own restorative processes. As an academic psychologist, I can also support groups interested in evaluation of their restorative system.
Bio
Mikhail Lyubansky, Ph.D., is a teaching associate professor in the department of psychology at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, where among other courses, he teaches an upper-level undergraduate course titled Psychology of Race and Ethnicity and graduate and undergraduate classes on restorative justice. Since 2009, his scholarship and applied work have both focused primarily on conflict and restorative responses to conflict, working with a variety of entities, including schools, organizations, intentional communities, and the criminal justice system, in developing a sustainable infrastructure for restorative conflict engagement. In addition to multiple book chapters and peer-reviewed articles, Mikhail recently co-edited an academic text Toward a Socially Responsible Psychology for a Global Age and regularly explores racial justice and restorative justice themes in his Psychology Today blog: Between the Lines. Born in the former Soviet Union, Mikhail immigrated with his family to the United States as a child in 1977. More information about Mikhail and his work can be found on his university website: http://labs.psychology.illinois.edu/~lyubansk/
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