In Memory of Peter Balint

Tomorrow marks the one year anniversary of Peter Balint's departure. Peter was an Associate Professor at UNSW Canberra, an amazing scholar of toleration, and one of the founding members of the Global Justice Network and of "Global Justice: Theory Practice Rhetoric." The workshop he organised at UNSW Sydney in March 2006, and whose proceedings constitute the very first issue of the journal, initiated this whole adventure, which is now entering its 20th year. 

Peter was not a global justice scholar, and he fairly soon distanced himself from the hands-on aspects of running the journal and the network, but he was the reason why we are all here now. He was no longer actively involved in this project, but his life was still very much intertwined with those of many of us - both through personal friendships and via more specific professional collaborations, such as a brilliant article on breastfeeding and liberal neutrality he wrote with Tiziana (and Lina Eriksson) and two fantastic book projects (on toleration and cultural appropriation) with Patti.

In the immediate aftermath of his departure, we struggled to find a suitable way to remember him in this forum (although many of us commemorated him individually in other forms and on other occasions), as he had not been actively involved in the network and in the journal for many years. With hindsight, we should have just said what we have just written above, period - namely that he was an amazing person and scholar, and that he's the reason why this project is here. We are thus doing so now, celebrating this very sad anniversary.

This is for you, Peter: we are still very much thinking about you.