# Metta Spencer

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Canadian sociologist, writer and activist (born 1931)

Metta Spencer Born (1931-07-29) July 29, 1931 (age 94) Academic background Education University of California, Berkeley (Ph.D.) Academic work Institutions Erindale College, Toronto

**Metta Spencer** (born August 29, 1931) is a Canadian sociologist, writer, peace researcher, and activist.[1][2] She is Professor Emeritus of sociology at the [University of Toronto](/source/University_of_Toronto).

## Biography

After completing a Ph.D. in sociology in 1969 at the [University of California, Berkeley](/source/University_of_California%2C_Berkeley), Spencer joined the Department of Sociology at the [University of Toronto](/source/University_of_Toronto)’s [Erindale College](/source/Erindale_College%2C_Toronto) in 1971.[1][3] She taught regularly in the university’s Peace and Conflict Studies Program, which she founded in 1989 and coordinated until her retirement in 1997.[1] In 1976 Spencer authored the *Foundations of Modern Sociology* textbook, which was subsequently published in four American and seven Canadian editions.[4]

Spencer has specialized in peace and war studies, and has been active in the Canadian peace movement.[5][6] 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](/source/Peace_Magazine)*.[1][2] In 2009, Spencer organized the [Zero Nuclear Weapons](http://www.zeronuclearweapons.com/) 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](/source/Physicians_for_Global_Survival), [Canadian Voice of Women for Peace](http://vowpeace.org/), the Nobel Peace Prize laureate organization [Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs](/source/Pugwash_Conferences_on_Science_and_World_Affairs), and [Science for Peace](/source/Science_for_Peace).[7][1]

She has also extensively researched peace and conflict in the former [Soviet Union](/source/Soviet_Union) and Eastern Europe.[8] In 1997, she organized "The Lessons of Yugoslavia," a three-day Science for Peace conference at the University of Toronto.[9] In 2011, she published [*The Russian Quest for Peace and Democracy*](http://russianpeaceanddemocracy.com/), the culmination of 28 years of research and hundreds of interviews with Russian politicians and activists.[10] She argues that Western peace activists' influence on Russians, including [Mikhail Gorbachev](/source/Mikhail_Gorbachev), helped end the [Cold War](/source/Cold_War) more so than pressure from the US or [NATO](/source/NATO).[10]

More recently, Spencer has become involved in [climate change](/source/Climate_change) activism (by chairing since 2007 a Science for Peace committee to study and campaign for [carbon taxation](/source/Carbon_tax) policy) and has researched [edutainment](/source/Edutainment), or social change through storytelling.[11][12][13] 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.[13][14]

## Awards

- Confederation Medal awarded by Governor-General for Service to Canada, 1992[1]

- 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

1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-Forum_1-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-Forum_1-1) [***c***](#cite_ref-Forum_1-2) [***d***](#cite_ref-Forum_1-3) [***e***](#cite_ref-Forum_1-4) [***f***](#cite_ref-Forum_1-5) "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.

1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-World_2-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-World_2-1) World Who’s Who: [http://www.worldwhoswho.com/views/browse.html?goto=Spencer%2C+Metta&goto_button.x=0&goto_button.y=0](http://www.worldwhoswho.com/views/browse.html?goto=Spencer%2C+Metta&goto_button.x=0&goto_button.y=0)

1. **[^](#cite_ref-3)** UofT's Department of Sociology: [http://www.utm.utoronto.ca/index.php?id=10492](http://www.utm.utoronto.ca/index.php?id=10492)

1. **[^](#cite_ref-4)** Canadian Who’s Who, 2002 Vol. XXXVII, Elizabeth Lumley, Ed. (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2002) p. 1258.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-5)** Who’s Who in Toronto: A Celebration of This City (Toronto, CMCH, 1984) p. 379.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-6)** Making a World of Difference: A Directory of Women in Canada Specializing in Global Issues, [Dorothy Goldin Rosenberg](/source/Dorothy_Goldin_Rosenberg), Ed. (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1990) p. 246.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-7)** Canadian Pugwash: [http://www.pugwashgroup.ca/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=162&Itemid=94](http://www.pugwashgroup.ca/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=162&Itemid=94)

1. **[^](#cite_ref-8)** University of California Berkeley, Department of Sociology, Directory of Ph.D. alumni: ["Department of Sociology, University of California Berkeley"](https://web.archive.org/web/20110927084924/http://sociology.berkeley.edu/alumni2/viewbio_querylist.php?ID=257). Archived from [the original](http://sociology.berkeley.edu/alumni2/viewbio_querylist.php?ID=257) on 2011-09-27. Retrieved 2011-08-12.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-9)** Science for Peace archive: [http://www.scienceforpeace.ca/the-lessons-of-yugoslavia-9701](http://www.scienceforpeace.ca/the-lessons-of-yugoslavia-9701)

1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-Gorby_10-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-Gorby_10-1) *Gorbachev at 80: reformer of Soviet Russia: Q&A with peace activist and Russia specialist Metta Spencer* [interview](https://web.archive.org/web/20110304143331/http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2011/03/01/f-gorbachev-80th-birthday.html) with [CBC](/source/Canadian_Broadcasting_Corporation)

1. **[^](#cite_ref-11)** Science for Peace archive, Spencer-organized conference: [http://www.scienceforpeace.ca/climate-change-and-the-coming-energy-crisis](http://www.scienceforpeace.ca/climate-change-and-the-coming-energy-crisis)

1. **[^](#cite_ref-12)** Science for Peace archive: [http://www.scienceforpeace.ca/the-science-for-peace-carbon-tax-committee](http://www.scienceforpeace.ca/the-science-for-peace-carbon-tax-committee)

1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-Paradigm_13-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-Paradigm_13-1) Paradigm Publishers: [http://www.paradigmpublishers.com/Books/BookDetail.aspx?productID=128211](http://www.paradigmpublishers.com/Books/BookDetail.aspx?productID=128211)

1. **[^](#cite_ref-14)** ["Two Aspirins and a Comedy: How Television Can Enhance Health and Society"](http://twoaspirinsandacomedy.com/). Metta Spencer. Retrieved February 7, 2021.

## External links

- [Website](http://www.mettaspencer.com/)

- [Author-owned promotional site for *The Russian Quest for Peace and Democracy*](http://russianpeaceanddemocracy.com/)

- [Author-owned promotional site for *Two Aspirins and a Comedy*](http://twoaspirinsandacomedy.com/)

- [*Peace Magazine*](http://www.peacemagazine.org/)

- [Archive of audio and video files and position papers from the Zero Nuclear Weapons forum](http://zeronuclearweapons.com/)

- [Website of the International Peace Bureau](https://web.archive.org/web/20110726184918/http://ipb.org/i/index.html)

- [Metta Spencer archival papers](https://discoverarchives.library.utoronto.ca/index.php/metta-spencer-fonds) held at the [University of Toronto Archives and Records Management Services](https://utarms.library.utoronto.ca/)

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Metta Spencer](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metta_Spencer) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metta_Spencer?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.