Peace and Conflict Studies Courses
103 Voices of Liberation. 4. Analyzes different forms that oppression and liberation take around the world, from the perspective of activists and scholars from these regions and diverse religions. Each of them articulates the complexity of each type oppression caused by a complex set of socio-cultural factors ranging from local to global, with religion sometimes serving as a tool for liberation and oppression at the same time. Fulfills humanities and social justice/environmental responsibility requirements.
110 Introduction to Peace & Conflict Studies. 4. Explores the relationship of peace and social justice to conflict resolution through the use of key concepts in the fields, such as positive and negative peace. Explores the relationship of theory and practice and introduces students to academic journals and Internet sites for peace conflict studies, to professional organizations and practitioner/activist organizations in peace and justice and conflict intervention work. Provides students with a framework to help them plan their curricular choices for future study within the major/minor. Fulfills social justice/environmental responsibility requirement.
150 Special Topics. 4. May also be offered at 250, 350 and 450 levels.
246 Mediation & Conflict Intervention. 4. Prepares students to be effective mediators in conflict by providing a blend of theory and practice in the models and skills of third-party intervention. Explores key concepts, analytical frameworks and different models within the ADR (Alternative Dispute Resolution) movement; includes required lab period and a weekend mediation training workshop.
260 Independent Study. 1-4. May also be offered at 360 and 460 levels.
290 Internship, 1-4. May also be offered at the 390 level. A peace and conflict studies internship involves practical experience that focuses on social change, nonviolent
intervention, conflict resolution or transformation and/or building a culture of peace. The internship includes critical reflection on the student's experience and analysis of activities, experiences and structures that contribute to the reduction and transformation of violence and/or the maintenance of systems of violence and domination. Students should register for PECS 390 with the director of peace and conflict studies.
315 Human Rights. 4. Provides an overview of the formulation and spread of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. One of the course's main goals is to develop a critical understanding of the concept of human rights by paying attention to how power operates, and avoiding conflating the need to ensure the well-being of all human and other (in the case of certain other world-views) beings with the human rights movement in its dominant form. Fulfills social justice/environmental responsibility requirement.
316 Globalization: Economics & Social Justice. 4. Examines sociological explanations for how these global and concomitant local events and structures came about, along with ethical evaluations of values that influence some of the dominant global ideologies, as well as their consequences. These analyses serve to relativize and question the assumptions and theories that claim the current global economic structures as the inevitable evolutionary stage of human society.
330 Nonviolence: Theories and Practice. 4. Non-violence is not only an alternative to taking up arms but a strategy of resistance to oppression or specific policies in the form of acts of civil disobedience. While non-violence includes these, the course aims to analyze it in all its fullness, as a way of life and spirituality that addresses certain forms of thinking and living as violent and includes nature and the rest of animal life among the subjects to be treated non-violently. Fulfills social justice/environmental responsibility requirement.
345 Social Change: Promoting Peace (SOAN 345). 4. Utilizes various models to examine the processes of culture change. Explores role of individuals in social change. Looks at practitioners of change and explores value implications of different models as well as strategies for intervention.
401 Mediation Trainers Practicum. 2.
405 Quakers, Community, Commitment (IDS 405). 4. Explores a variety of historical and contemporary attempts to live meaningful, sustainable lives, with special attention to Quaker and Amish understandings of community to illustrate the difference between separation from the world and engagement with it. Examines such issues vital to community life as forms of decision making, styles of leadership, cultural non-conformity, spirituality, economics and child-raising.
445 Culture, Conflict, Negotiation (SOAN 445). 4. Focuses on the role of culture in conflict and negotiation. Addresses different cultural approaches to conflict and the various methods of dispute resolution, particularly the different styles of negotiation applied by different cultures; explores issues of communication styles, mores, values and norms from a cross-cultural perspective; draws on theoretical models and concepts from different disciplinary perspectives to analyze conflict, communication and negotiation; and explores the implications of this analysis for conflict and negotiation in an intercultural context.
468 Religion, Spirituality and Social Change. 4. Analyzes the role of religion and spirituality in motivating and sustaining struggles for social change. Addresses the significance of this ultimate depth and height of humanity’s existence as a source or vehicle for transforming the mundane and the material, thereby creating an understanding of the inextricable interconnection between body and mind, the mundane and the transcendent, the seen and the unseen or the sacred and the profane.