Two Mershon Center faculty affiliates will headline this year's TEDx Ohio State University.

Hollie Nyseth Brehm, assistant professor of sociology, teaches classes on conflict, global crime, and terrorism. Her research focuses on the causes and processes of genocide and on how countries rebuild in the aftermath of atrocity. She has lived and worked in Rwanda and Bosnia, where she interviewed both perpetrators and victims of genocide.

Nyseth Brehm is a member of a government atrocity prevention task force and regularly consults with the Rwandan National Commission for the Fight Against Genocide. She also volunteers with the Center for Victims of Torture and is a core member of I-Activism, which provides humanitarian action to people affected by mass atrocity in Darfur.

In 2014-15, Nyseth Brehm and Christopher Uggen, from University of Minnesota, won a research grant from the Mershon Center for "Genocide, Justice, and Rwanda's Gacaca Courts." Visit her website at hollienysethbrehm.weebly.com.

John S. Carlarne is peace studies coordinator at the Mershon Center. His work as a British Army officer, police officer, peace and human rights activist has taken him to places of genocide and violence, and to communities of peace and hope. An anthropologist by training, his current research focuses on the evolutionary basis of meaning.

In 2014-15, Carlarne and Christopher Gelpi, Chair of Peace Studies, won a Mershon Center grant for "Training to Talk Peace: An Experimental Analysis of Non-Violent Communication Workshop." He is currently working to make Columbus a hub for peace and nonviolence by organizing an annual Ohio Peace Festival.

TEDx Ohio State University takes place from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, March 5, 2016, at Mershon Auditorium, 1871 N. High St. The event is sold out, but a waiting list is available, and it will be livestreamed. Read more and register at tedx.osu.edu.

TED is a nonprofit organization devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. Started as a conference in California 26 years ago, TED has grown to support world-changing ideas with many initiatives. At a TED conference, the world’s leading thinkers and doers are asked to give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes or less.

TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. The theme of this year's TEDx Ohio State University is Reconstructing Reality. The event will feature students, faculty, staff, and alumni as speakers and performers who will inspire and challenge concepts of science, technology, history, and life.

TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience.