Writing Lab

The course provides support for international graduate students whose native language is not English and who will benefit from instruction and individual tutoring in academic writing. Instruction will be geared toward the specific kinds of writing assignments required in CJP and seminary courses, such as proposals, case studies, reports, reflective essays, book reviews and research papers. Students will receive individual and small group tutoring while working on specific writing projects.

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Practice: Skills for Conflict Transformation

This course focuses on essential skills and knowledge for a reflective practitioner facilitating conflict transformation in interpersonal and group settings. No matter what the level of peacebuilding work, effective practice relies on self-awareness and respecting others. The course examines practical skills for facilitating conflict transformation such as listening, getting beyond posturing, issue identification, identifying and working with commonalties, problem-solving, group facilitation, methods for structuring conversation in group settings, awareness of the impact of self on others.

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Women, Trauma, Leadership and Peacebuilding

This course will identify the multiple roles that women play in the process of peacebuilding, examining strategies for empowering women to continue and expand their leadership roles based on a shared analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of women’s peacebuilding capacity. Using case studies of women’s leadership for peacebuilding at the local and global levels, the course will provide up-to-date knowledge of the significant achievements made in the last five years on this issue. The course will also provide opportunity to explore ways to address the challenges to women’s roles in peacebuilding and will analyze the next steps for moving the agenda forward. (Note: Course offered at SPI only)

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Research Design

The conflict transformation and restorative justice fields abound with theories, but few of those theories have been tested with empirical research. This course will walk participants through the process of designing a research project that aims to answer significant questions of interest both to the broader field and to the student. During the semester students will conduct a literature review, develop a research question, select a research approach, gather data and conduct data analysis. At the end of the semester, students will present at least preliminary findings to course participants.

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Research: Qualitative Evaluation

The course will introduce participants to qualitative research and its application in conflict transformation, restorative justice and related areas. Although it will introduce a range of applications, the course will focus especially on evaluation research and will emphasize interview methodology and effective communication of results.

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Contemplative Photography

This course uses photography as a way of seeing the world anew and reflecting on one's life and work. It also provides very basic photo skills needed to do photography and includes some discussion of photography as a tool of research and documentation.

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Analysis: Understanding Conflict  

This course focuses on the analysis of conflict and violence. The first part of the course will give participants a variety of tools to “map” and describe the nature of conflict. The second part of the course focuses on understanding the roots of violent conflict. Participants will use human needs and human rights theories as a central framework for examining the complex causes of conflict, crime, and violence, including the role of identity; the role of shame and humiliation in the cycle of violence; and the impact of structural violence on other forms of conflict. Participants will gain skills in power analysis, cultural analysis, and psychological analysis of conflict. Participants will practice “seeing” conflict from different perspectives. Participants will practice applying theories and models to real life situations at the interpersonal, community, and international levels with case studies and skill laboratories. The course will explore a variety of different case studies. The last section of the class bridges analysis with the skills of planning an intervention.

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Research: Action Research 

This course uses ethnographic research methods in the context of a group project. Projects will vary each time the course is taught, but students will learn to apply a variety of research methods in a real-life setting for a goal-oriented purpose. Each student will select particular research methods to practice, depending on prior experience and future practice goals. Students will be required to reflect on how these research skills – learned in this context – can be transferred to other communities and cultures. We will also learn about and practice project management skills while working on our team project.

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Washington DC Seminar (offered every January)

This one-credit hour 3 day seminar course will give opportunity to interact with people in Washington DC who are involved in activities that affect the work of peacebuilders.

Goals of the Seminar

1. Exposure to people and organizations involved in peacebuilding work who are close to and deeply informed by the dynamics of Washington, DC, a globally influential political location.
2. Improved understanding of the opportunities and risks for peacebuilders that are presented by Washington, DC.
3. Greater understanding of how to effectively influence the actions and policies of Washington, DC.
4. Clearer understanding of the growing interface between political/military sponsored peacebuilding efforts and those sponsored by NGO's.

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Identity and Conflict Transformation

To attempt to understand the power of identity, especially in and through violent situations, this course will provide participants an opportunity to explore the literature and their own experiences related to identity, ethnic identity, ethnocentrism and nationalism as they relate to conflict and acts of terrorism in the 21st Century. Course participants, through case studies and class discussion will explore how identity is formed historically, culturally/religiously, psychologically, sociologically and politically. Moreover, the participants will look at ways conflicts, which are either identity-based or where identity is a strong element of the conflict, might be transformed. Additionally, they will examine prejudice and stereotyping as salient factors in the threat to identity as well as its manipulation. Here, discrimination, whether, racial, ethnic or religious will also be explored and identity threat analyzed.

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Strategic Nonviolence: Advocacy and Activism

Strategic nonviolent action is an essential element in peacebuilding. Both violence and nonviolence are strategies to balance power and raise awareness in conflicts that are not ready for verbal forms of negotiation, mediation, or dialogue. They both intensify conflict and use coercive force. Violence usually spirals into a cycle and creates new victims. Waging conflict nonviolently ideally ripens the conditions for transforming relationships and structures while stopping the cycle of violence. This class places the use of violence and nonviolence within a larger context of social change and peacebuilding, and identifies the ways nonviolent action complements other peacebuilding activities. Unlike many approaches to activism and advocacy, it stresses the need to focus on nonadversarial, relationship-based approaches. The course introduces the philosophy of nonviolence and examines the strategy and methods of activism and advocacy. Students will learn to create nonviolent power, identify tactics and develop plans for nonviolent activist and advocacy campaigns.

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*The Role of Religion in Conflict: Practical Application for Peacebuilding

This course provides practical tools about how to respond to conflict where religion is a major factor. Theories and concepts regarding identity-based violence with religious justifications will inform a critical review of case studies of conflict in South Asia and the Middle East. Students will see how social science has improved upon the notion of inequity resulting in violence to a newer group of theories that account for the role of consensus building and the purposeful development of a moral justification for killing those of another group. Practical tools will include how to counter incitement and how to intervene in situations of high tension using early warning/early response approaches. Participants are encouraged to take the course, Religion: Source of Conflict, Resource for Peace, as a prerequisite for this course. (Note: Course offered at SPI only)

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Philosophy and Praxis of Forgiveness and Reconciliation

Open to practitioners at intermediate and advanced levels, this course will explore the underlying philosophical bases and the practice of reconciliation. Of particular interest will be the different ways in which reconciliation is understood in spiritual, social, and political terms, as well as how it is perceived from different cultural and religious traditions. Participants will engage in extensive personal reflection and group simulation designed to illuminate the possibilities and complexities of working for reconciliation in deeply divided societies. (Note: Course offered at SPI only)

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Developing Healthy Organizations

Organizations committed to peacebuilding, development and other social change goals often devote far more energy to pursuing their external missions than to internal issues. As a result, such organizations often cope with underdeveloped organizational structures and undernourished personnel. This course will focus on the importance of understanding organizational structure, culture, and conflict, as well as the role of leadership in initiating and managing organizational change through strategic planning processes. Additional topics relevant to organizational life will be included depending on the interests of participants.

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Leadership for Healthy Organizations

Organizations are dynamic systems with unique structures and cultures, operating in specific environments. Every organization is also shaped by its leaders. Leaders have more leverage than others in the organization--both to determine strategic direction and to nurture people and systems. This course focuses on the role of leaders in "setting the tone" for healthy organizational functioning, with special attention to a leader's own functioning. The course will include specific attention to developing management skills, including with personnel, project and conflict management.

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Restorative Justice: the Promise, the Challenge

Provides an introduction to the emerging field of restorative justice. It will include a critique of the prevailing model of justice, an introduction to victim and offender needs and perspectives, and an overview of restorative justice theory and practice. In addition to North American models, the course will draw on lessons from indigenous traditions.

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Theory: Frameworks for Conflict Transformation

This is an advanced-level course in the analysis of conflict and the practice of peacebuilding. Students must complete at least 3 other courses in conflict transformation and peacebuilding before taking this course. Participants are asked to develop their skills in cultural analysis by asking key analytical questions of different approaches to conflict. Participants will deepen their understanding of the wide variety of approaches to conflict while also learning to compare and critique these different approaches. This course will test and strengthen participants' ability to analyze conflicts and prescribe interventions into different types of conflicts. Pre-requisite: at least six hours of conflict transformation courses, including Analysis: Understanding Conflict.

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*Designing Learner-Centered Training for Conflict Transformation

This course will examine principles and practices of learner-centered design for those designing and facilitating training/education for conflict transformation. The course will focus on design of training and education events using principles of dialogue education. Participants will use a "seven steps of planning" framework for designing "learner-centered" tasks. The framework accounts for different learning styles and considers the varied purposes of learning tasks. Participants will examine the power of group-based learning to bring about behavior change. They will also develop a simple evaluation format that considers the concepts of learning, transfer, and impact as outcomes of learning. Participants will work on designs they plan to use in their work and must come to the class with a design idea to work on. The class is built upon concepts and practice developed by Jane Vella and focuses less on learning theory than on design practice. Participants taking the course for academic credit will be given preference. (Note: Course offered at SPI only)

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*Theatre, Ritual and Peacebuilding

This course will equip participants with the skills to use artistic mediums in peacebuilding with a special focus on theatre and ritual. Participants will discover how to construct a space/stage that engages and transforms people and their emotional, cognitive, and physical selves. Using the interactive approaches of the Theatre of the Oppressed, particularly the methods of image theatre and forum theatre, participants will learn skills to facilitate the effective use of ritual and theatre in peacebuilding processes. (Note: Course offered at SPI only)

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Conflict Sensitive Development and Peacebuilding

This course will explore the impact of community, national, and global conflicts on humanitarian assistance and development projects and the corresponding impacts, including negative effects, that humanitarian assistance and development programs can have on the conflict context. The class will develop a framework for durable peace and will explore available frameworks in the field of study. Approaches and appropriate tools will be surveyed that can contribute toward integrating peacebuilding with development through the project cycle, including context assessment, project design, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation. Participants will gain a working knowledge of the various approaches, as well as specific skills and tools they can take back to their own contexts.

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*Human Rights and Peacebuilding

In the last few years, scholars and practitioners in the fields of human rights, conflict resolution/transformation, and peacebuilding have been meeting to discuss cross-fertilization, tensions, and contradictions between their fields. This course enters into this energetic discussion of how to include human rights protections in peace settlements, how to use economic sanctions against human rights violators and ethical issues involved in negotiating with human rights violators.

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Trauma Awareness and Transformation

This course is designed to provide persons with a thorough overview of the complex issues of trauma, trauma healing and transformation. Participants will explore the social-psychological-neurobiological-physical-spiritual processes of responding to deep personal loss, pain and suffering in settings of protracted, violent conflict, as well as examine recently developed approaches to the healing of individuals and communities as they move from violence or war to justpeace. Participants will explore the theoretical bases through narratives and case examples from a variety of international settings and engage in practical exercises to demonstrate approaches to trauma recovery. This course specifically aims to integrate trauma transformation into the larger justice and peacebuilding field.

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International Development

This course will examine the history, intellectual traditions, debates and contemporary issues within the field of international development. The course will develop a framework for making sense of the variety of perspectives and programs found in the development field which can be used to locate one's own personal assumptions concerning the fields of development and social change. There are four threads that run throughout the course. The first thread covers the history and evolution of “Development” as a concept and provides an overview of the “players” on the development scene. The second thread draws on a variety of theorists from different intellectual traditions to develop a set of theoretical frameworks for locating personal and programmatic assumptions concerning 1) the cause of the problem (and implied solutions), 2) the role of the change agent (and implied strategies) and 3) the focus of the program (and implied priorities). The third thread examines the Non-Governmental Organization world in more detail through a series of case studies from actual experiences of practitioners in the field. The fourth thread looks at the role of Religion in shaping our understanding of development and the structure of the development field. The course will be conducted in a seminar format. Class discussions will focus on reflection and analysis of assigned readings. Active participation in discussions will help the student to more fully internalize the materials.

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The Moral Imagination: Building the Art and Soul of Peacebuilding

The course will journey into seldom traveled terrains of peacebuilding: How do people break out of cycles of violence while still facing everything that produces them? How does social change get sparked and then sustained? What makes unexpected shifts that create constructive movement in relationships? These kinds of questions point toward the idea that peacebuilding may ultimately find its deepest roots in artistic and spiritual processes as much or more than in intellectual, conceptual or technical skill-based approaches most often taught in the field. They point to the need to encourage creativity and find the heart of personal and social transformation. Through a variety of interactive exercises, intellectual inquiries, and space for listening to the deeper inner voice, the course will provide a platform for exploring the art of inciting the moral imagination. (Note: Course offered at SPI only)

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Strategic Peacebuilding

This course will explore the challenges and dilemmas of peacebuilding in contemporary protracted and violent conflict. It will focus on the development of a strategic framework for peacebuilding, primarily from the perspective of nongovernmental practitioners, but with careful attention to coordinating NGO work with Track I official actors, funding agencies, and others working to promote peace. Participants will interact with current approaches and theories. They will work in teams to apply their frameworks to complex cases, and they will practice important professional skills such as: preparing and presenting a briefing; developing monitoring and evaluation protocols for a project; negotiating the creation of a network of organizations in order to prepare a response to a request for proposals.

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*Multi Party Problems : Negotiation, Conflict Resolution and Consensus Building

This course is an intensive look at the concepts and practices of consensus building, negotiation, and dispute resolution in the multi-party context. While many theories and practices of conflict analysis and negotiation applicable to interpersonal disputes are also applicable to situations involving multiple parties, there are additional skills and refinements required for successful implementation of multi-party processes. In the presence of alliances, uneven bargaining power, illegitimate parties, and threats of violence, most public policy disputes are resolved in informal negotiation settings. This course will utilize role plays, lectures, and case studies to identify and develop the necessary skills. (Classroom or practical exposure to negotiation, conflict analysis, or mediation recommended) (Note: Course offered at SPI only)

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*Negotiation Skills

Negotiation is considered by many practitioners to be one of the basic building blocks for all conflict transformation activities. This course will expose students, in an introductory way, to some of the theories and practices of negotiation. Students will experience negotiations through classroom simulations, observations and analysis of informal negotiations in their own lives, and case studies.

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*Mediation Skills

Mediation is considered by many practitioners to be one of the basic building blocks for all conflict transformation activities. This course will expose students, in an introductory way, to some of the theories and practices of Mediation. Students will experience mediation through classroom simulations, observations and analysis of informal mediation in their own lives, and case studies. This is ultimately a course to improve skill sets. The reading will be limited and the practice opportunities are increased in recognition of this fact.

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*Techniques for Group Facilitation

* Disciplines for Transforming the Peacebuilder   

This course explores the personal sustenance and transformation of the peacebuilder as a fundamental dimension of building peace. To work transformatively in conflict requires that peacebuilders pursue the journey of our own transformation. To an unusual degree, those involved in peacebuilding operate in environments that impose high stress, sometimes referred to as compassion fatigue and secondary traumatization. These environments provide little support in meeting these stresses, and require peacebuilders to prepare in advance with strategies for personal growth and coping with stress. A substantial element of the course requires the development of a repertoire of routines for personal disciplines (emotional, physical, spiritual) in maintaining a prolonged peacemaking presence in settings of highly charged and protracted conflict.

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Systems Approach to Organizational Conflicts

This course is designed to demonstrate how conflicts in organizations are often the product of emotional patterns within a group. Participants will first examine their own family of origin through the lens of family systems theory, then adapt that theoretical framework to assess an organization and its conflict dynamics. This will be a highly interactive course, utilizing case study and role-play methodology. (Note: Course offered at SPI only)

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Qualitative Research for Social Change

Through case studies and field exercises, this course will provide training in specific methods of qualitative research as naturalistic inquiry. Beginning with an overview of theoretical paradigms and perspectives on research, participants will gain knowledge of diverse qualitative research strategies and methods. The course will examine the role of the researcher and his or her relationship to the community as it affects collection and analysis and the art of interpretation. Emphasis will be on participatory methods that promote social change. Two case studies will be presented-one involving participatory action research to address gang violence in rural El Salvador and the other using appreciative inquiry to transform the relationship between Eastern Europe and African American residents of an urban neighborhood in the US. Participants will have an opportunity to design their own participatory research projects for application in their home communities. (Note: Course offered at SPI only)

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Conflict Resolution Approaches in Multicultural Settings

Cultural differences can be a source of conflicts as well as a key to resolving conflicts. Understanding those differences can help in establishing sustainable relationships in the workplace and in communities. This introductory level course will explore the role of culture in causing and resolving conflicts. Effective ways will be shared to handle cultural differences in community settings and in peacebuilding training. Skills and approaches to dealing with issues of prejudice, stereotyping, and ethnocentrism in conflict settings, as well as interactive exercises, role plays, and real life case studies will be used to learn constructive ways of addressing intercultural encounters.(Note: Course offered at SPI only)

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Peacebuilding in Traumatized Societies

This course will examine the important relationship between trauma recovery and peacebuilding in violent and war-torn societies. This relationship will be placed in the larger context of Human Security, which is concerned with protecting human life, meeting basic human needs and securing freedom from want and fear, as well as taking action to change oppressive situations and structures. The course will also address the importance of identity, how it is threatened and how identity health results from trauma recovery processes and is an essential factor in constructing peace with justice after traumatizing events such as war or acts of terror. Through various research methodologies, case studies and personal narratives, participants in the course will determine how to apply their learning to real world contexts-for the purpose of society building and preventing destructive conflict.

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*Circle Processes

Peacemaking circles provide a way to bring people together to have difficult conversations, to work through conflict or differences and to build relationships. The circle process is a way of getting the most complete picture people can of themselves, each other and the issue at hand to enable them to move together in a good way. The peacemaking circle process is being used for decision making, problem solving, conflict resolution and community building in schools, neighborhoods, workplace, family and the criminal justice system. This introductory 2 day training will explore: foundational values and philosophy of circle practice, ceremony and ritual or circles, conflict as opportunity to build relationships, structure of circle process, practical applications of circle process, initiating the circle process, and challenges in circles.

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Independent Study   

Course work undertaken through independent study must be approved by the student's academic advisor and completed in collaboration with a supervising instructor.

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Critical Issues in Restorative Justice    

This seminar will provide a forum to explore critical issues, but also some “frontier issues,” in the field of restorative justice. Since it will have a seminar format, each member is expected to participate in discussion and leadership. A basic restorative justice course or significant background in the field is a prerequisite.

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Topics (these change from year to year or may be offered on an occasional basis). For example :

• Religion, Conflict & Peacebuilding: Balancing Justice and Reconciliation -
  This course will explore the relationship between justice and reconciliation, two concepts that are frequently posed in juxtaposition. The course will draw upon theological constructs from the Abrahamic faith traditions, with special emphasis on Christianity, in order to convey the rich theological basis underlying the religious meaning of shalom/salaam. Students from non-Abrahamic faith traditions will be asked to share their experiences and understandings of justice and reconciliation. This balance between justice and reconciliation will also be viewed through examination of a contemporary case study and exercises that require students to analyze situations with which they have had first- or second-hand experience. The goal is to assist students to be creative in balancing these concepts so as to more fully achieve shalom-building.
  
• Integrated Peacebuilding Seminar -
  This course involves integrating conflict transformation, peacebuilding, restorative justice, organizational change management and trauma healing models and frameworks of practice. Participants will include all core faculty members at the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding as well as students enrolled in the course and invited guests. We will use real life situations to explore the process of developing an integrated response to conflict and violence.
  
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Practicum

The practicum is normally the culmination of the student's program and provides an opportunity to work as a reflective practitioner in actual situations of justice and peacebuilding. Practicum placements may build on the student's prior experiences or contacts or may involve a new direction. The practicum culminates in a capstone presentation to the student's colleagues at CJP.

Click here to view/download Practicum packet (pdf).

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Thesis

This course is available on a limited basis to students in their third or fourth semester who petition the Academic Committee through the Practicum Director for an exception to the Practicum requirement. Following the lead of other practice-based master's degree programs, we consider a thesis to be a publishable (and preferably published) article prepared for a high quality academic or practitioner journal. Ideally, students interested in taking this course will begin preparing to write a thesis early in their studies. Each student begins the course with a draft of a paper and a clear idea about where to publish it.

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Weaving Visions

Weaving Visions is a 3 day workshop held during the first week of classes, fall semester only. The workshop is a chance for faculty, staff, and students to explore the fundamental values and frameworks that shape CJP. This time is especially geared for new students, to provide them with an introduction to CJP's conceptual foundations before they begin classes. In addition, the workshop is an opportunity for students, faculty, and staff to begin shaping the CJP community for the upcoming year.