{{Short description|Canadian sociologist, writer and activist (born 1931)}} {{Infobox academic |birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1931|7|29}} |education=[[University of California, Berkeley]] (Ph.D.) |workplaces=[[Erindale College, Toronto]] }} '''Metta Spencer''' (born August 29, 1931) is a Canadian sociologist, writer, peace researcher, and activist.<ref name="Forum">"On the Way to the Forum," in Kathryn P. Meadow Orlans and Ruth A. Wallace, Gender and the Academic Experience (Lincoln, University of Nebraska Press, 1994) pp. 157-172.</ref><ref name="World">World Who’s Who: http://www.worldwhoswho.com/views/browse.html?goto=Spencer%2C+Metta&goto_button.x=0&goto_button.y=0 </ref> She is Professor Emeritus of sociology at the [[University of Toronto]].
==Biography== After completing a Ph.D. in sociology in 1969 at the [[University of California, Berkeley]], Spencer joined the Department of Sociology at the [[University of Toronto]]’s [[Erindale College, Toronto|Erindale College]] in 1971.<ref name="Forum" /><ref>UofT's Department of Sociology: http://www.utm.utoronto.ca/index.php?id=10492</ref> She taught regularly in the university’s Peace and Conflict Studies Program, which she founded in 1989 and coordinated until her retirement in 1997.<ref name="Forum" /> In 1976 Spencer authored the ''Foundations of Modern Sociology'' textbook, which was subsequently published in four American and seven Canadian editions.<ref>Canadian Who’s Who, 2002 Vol. XXXVII, Elizabeth Lumley, Ed. (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2002) p. 1258.</ref>
Spencer has specialized in peace and war studies, and has been active in the Canadian peace movement.<ref>Who’s Who in Toronto: A Celebration of This City (Toronto, CMCH, 1984) p. 379.</ref><ref>Making a World of Difference: A Directory of Women in Canada Specializing in Global Issues, [[Dorothy Goldin Rosenberg]], Ed. (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1990) p. 246.</ref> As the founding president and director of the Canadian Disarmament Information Service (CANDIS), she published the monthly ''Peace Calendar'' from 1983 to 1985, when the publication changed to magazine format and took the name ''[[Peace Magazine]]''.<ref name="Forum" /><ref name="World" /> In 2009, Spencer organized the [http://www.zeronuclearweapons.com/ Zero Nuclear Weapons] public forum in Toronto, jointly sponsored by four major Canadian peace organizations with which she has been involved since the mid-80s: [[Physicians for Global Survival]], [http://vowpeace.org/ Canadian Voice of Women for Peace], the Nobel Peace Prize laureate organization [[Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs]], and [[Science for Peace]].<ref>Canadian Pugwash: http://www.pugwashgroup.ca/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=162&Itemid=94</ref><ref name="Forum" />
She has also extensively researched peace and conflict in the former [[Soviet Union]] and Eastern Europe.<ref>University of California Berkeley, Department of Sociology, Directory of Ph.D. alumni: {{cite web |url=http://sociology.berkeley.edu/alumni2/viewbio_querylist.php?ID=257 |title=Department of Sociology, University of California Berkeley |accessdate=2011-08-12 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110927084924/http://sociology.berkeley.edu/alumni2/viewbio_querylist.php?ID=257 |archivedate=2011-09-27 }} </ref> In 1997, she organized "The Lessons of Yugoslavia," a three-day Science for Peace conference at the University of Toronto.<ref>Science for Peace archive: http://www.scienceforpeace.ca/the-lessons-of-yugoslavia-9701</ref> In 2011, she published [http://russianpeaceanddemocracy.com/ ''The Russian Quest for Peace and Democracy''], the culmination of 28 years of research and hundreds of interviews with Russian politicians and activists.<ref name="Gorby">''Gorbachev at 80: reformer of Soviet Russia: Q&A with peace activist and Russia specialist Metta Spencer'' [https://web.archive.org/web/20110304143331/http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2011/03/01/f-gorbachev-80th-birthday.html interview] with [[Canadian Broadcasting Corporation|CBC]]</ref> She argues that Western peace activists' influence on Russians, including [[Mikhail Gorbachev]], helped end the [[Cold War]] more so than pressure from the US or [[NATO]].<ref name="Gorby" />
More recently, Spencer has become involved in [[climate change]] activism (by chairing since 2007 a Science for Peace committee to study and campaign for [[carbon tax]]ation policy) and has researched [[edutainment]], or social change through storytelling.<ref>Science for Peace archive, Spencer-organized conference: http://www.scienceforpeace.ca/climate-change-and-the-coming-energy-crisis</ref><ref>Science for Peace archive: http://www.scienceforpeace.ca/the-science-for-peace-carbon-tax-committee</ref><ref name="Paradigm">Paradigm Publishers: http://www.paradigmpublishers.com/Books/BookDetail.aspx?productID=128211</ref> In her book ''Two Aspirins and a Comedy: How Television Can Enhance Health and Society'' (2006), she argues that television could be a force for health and social change.<ref name="Paradigm" /><ref>{{cite web |url=http://twoaspirinsandacomedy.com/ |title=Two Aspirins and a Comedy: How Television Can Enhance Health and Society |publisher=Metta Spencer |access-date=February 7, 2021}}</ref>
== Awards == * Confederation Medal awarded by Governor-General for Service to Canada, 1992<ref name="Forum" /> * Global Citizen Award, United Nations, 1995 * United Nations Association in Canada Award, 1999
== Books == * ''Adolescent Prejudice'' (Co-author with Charles Y. Glock, Robert Wuthnow, and Jane Piliavin). New York: Harper and Row, 1975. * ''Foundations of Modern Sociology''. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1976. (published in four American and seven Canadian editions) * ''Two Aspirins and a Comedy: How Television Can Enhance Health and Society''. Boulder, Colorado: Paradigm Publishers, 2006. * ''The Russian Quest for Peace and Democracy''. Lanham, Maryland: Lexington Press, 2010.
=== Books edited === * ''Research in Social Movements, Conflict, and Change'', Vol. 13. Greenwich, Connecticut: JAI Press, 1991. * ''World Security: The New Challenge'' (Co-editor with Carl G. Jacobsen, Morris Miller, and Eric Tollefson). Pugwash Canada. Toronto: Dundurn, 1994. * ''Women in Post-Communism: Research on Russia and Eastern Europe'', Vol. 2 (Co-editor with Barbara Wejnert, with the assistance of Slobodan Drakulic). Greenwich, Connecticut: JAI Press, 1997. * ''Separatism: Democracy and Disintegration''. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman and Littlefield, 1998. * ''The Lessons of Yugoslavia: Research on Russia and Eastern Europe'', Vol. 3. Amsterdam, London: JAI Press, Elsevier, 2000.
== References == {{Reflist}}
== External links == * [http://www.mettaspencer.com/ Website] * [http://russianpeaceanddemocracy.com/ Author-owned promotional site for ''The Russian Quest for Peace and Democracy''] * [http://twoaspirinsandacomedy.com/ Author-owned promotional site for ''Two Aspirins and a Comedy''] * [http://www.peacemagazine.org/ ''Peace Magazine''] * [http://zeronuclearweapons.com/ Archive of audio and video files and position papers from the Zero Nuclear Weapons forum] * [https://web.archive.org/web/20110726184918/http://ipb.org/i/index.html Website of the International Peace Bureau] * [https://discoverarchives.library.utoronto.ca/index.php/metta-spencer-fonds Metta Spencer archival papers] held at the [https://utarms.library.utoronto.ca/ University of Toronto Archives and Records Management Services]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Spencer, Metta}} [[Category:1931 births]] [[Category:Living people]] [[Category:Canadian sociologists]] [[Category:Canadian women sociologists]] [[Category:Canadian anti–nuclear weapons activists]] [[Category:Nonviolence advocates]] [[Category:University of California, Berkeley alumni]] [[Category:Academic staff of the University of Toronto Mississauga]] [[Category:Place of birth missing (living people)]]