Graduate Program Course Descriptions
Current or frequent courses | Occasional courses | Courses in SPI
Current or frequently-offered courses at CJP
PAX 503 – Practice: Skills for Peacebuilding
Credit hours: 3
This course covers the essential skills, tools, processes and frameworks required for conflict transformation practice. The scope of the course will range from interpersonal conflict to large groups, examining personal conflict styles, communication skills, team work, group processes and structural dimensions that influence conflict. Students are exposed to the range of available intervention options, the strengths and limitations of each and the process of making choices that are contextually appropriate. The specific processes it addresses are negotiation, mediation and group facilitation (including such processes as appreciative inquiry, world café, and sustained dialogue among others).
This course is designed to assist students in the application of ideas and theories presented in other CJP courses, especially conflict analysis. Although the course will reference peacebuilding frameworks and processes, it will focus on the role and skills of the bridgebuilder in conflict. A critical component of conflict transformation practice is the role of the practitioner. The course examines what it means to be a reflective practitioner and how to work with colleagues and groups on conflict interventions. The learning methods are interactive and participatory. Discussion of readings, case studies, training exercises, role-plays, group work, and presentations will all be used to support the learning process.
PAX 516 – Program Evaluation Through Qualitative Methods
Credit hours: 3
This course is designed to help students explore the theory and practice of program evaluation, especially if interested in working in social service, business development, mission-related programs or projects, and local or international NGOs. The course will review the current range of thinking on the philosophies, purpose, and structure of program evaluation, with an emphasis on how to use qualitative methods in evaluations. Students will gain hands-on experience in how to design an evaluation, how to determine the appropriate methods and collect data, and an analysis of on-going program evaluation and evaluation reports.
Sociological and anthropological approaches will provide the theoretical and philosophical background for our work, but the focus will be on practical applications of qualitative methodology in evaluation. Our focus will be interdisciplinary in that we will draw on experiences from a number of areas as examples of qualitative research. Students will form teams to work on an actual evaluation exercises (case studies), which will help different organizations i.e. World Vision, with their field work.
PAX 520 – Research Design
Credit hours: 3
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.
PAX 524 – Research as Art & Transformation
Credit hours: 3
This course is an introduction to the field of qualitative research and its applications in such areas as conflict transformation, restorative justice, community organizing and organizational problem-solving. This course will draw primarily upon two qualitative research traditions: interviews or other forms of “oral testimony,” and Arts-Based Research (ABR).
While more traditional academic research outcomes will be noted, the focus will be on practical, socially-engaged projects. The approach will be interdisciplinary, emphasizing the arts and humanities as well as social sciences. A wide spectrum of qualitative materials – visual arts, journalism, history, theater, community organizing, poetry, documentary photography as well as ethnographic monographs – will be sampled. The course will be run in a participatory, experiential format. Effective communication will be emphasized including alternate forms of presentation.
PAX 526 – Social Media and Arts Lab
Credit hours: 1
The goal of this 1 credit hour lab class will be to create connections and actions between CJP faculty and students around social technology, visual communication and the arts. The objectives of the class will be to:
1. Seek opportunities and create spaces where faculty and students explore expression of key projects through social technology, visual communication and the arts. This includes fine arts, sculpture, theater, digital media and music.
2. Provide a theoretical and historical understanding of the use of arts and social technology in research and in peacebuilding/justice/community settings.
3. Develop basic blogging, photography, and video skills through the use of accessible technology including: Flip Cameras, blogging templates, Twitter, Facebook, iMovie, Window Media Maker, and iPhoto.
4. Create and disseminate a Wiki-repository of resources around peacebuilding and the arts.
The instructor will meet with faculty individually and speak with classes early in the semester.
PAX 533 – Analysis: Understanding Conflict
Credit hours: 3
This course focuses on the analysis of conflict and violence as the foundation for designing strategies for peacebuilding and conflict prevention. Participants will learn a variety of tools to “map” and describe the nature and dynamics of conflict. Drawing from broad interdisciplinary theoretical bases, the course focuses on human needs theory as a central framework for examining the complex causes of conflict, crime, and violence. Participants will explore the role of group and individual identity; respect and the role of shame and humiliation in the cycle of violence; security and the role of attachment; and the impact of structural violence on other forms of conflict. Participants will practice power analysis, cultural analysis, and psychological analysis of conflict. Participants will develop their ability to “see” and describe conflict from different perspectives.
PAX 540 – STAR Level I
Credit hours: 2
This course presents an integrated training approach to the violence, trauma, and conflict caused by nature, human beings or structures. Unhealed trauma often leads to more violence as victims act out against others or become self-destructive. STAR combines theory with experiential learning to increase awareness of the impact of trauma on the body, brain, emotions, spirit and relationships. The course offers tools for addressing trauma and breaking the cycles of violence. The STAR multidisciplinary framework draws on the fields of neurobiology, restorative justice, trauma healing, conflict transformation, and spirituality for building healthy, resilient individuals and communities. The theoretical and practical focus of the course provides a model to understand and interrupt cycles of violence at the individual, communal and societal levels.
(Learn more about the STAR program, a program of CJP’s Practice & Training Institute.)
PAX 549 – Nonviolent Movements and Community Organizing
Credit hours: 3
Community organizing is a process of building community relationships and helping communities analyze their context, identify priorities and develop a plan of action for addressing key issues. Throughout history, community organizing has led to broader social movements such as the anti-apartheid movement, civil rights movement, independence and democracy movements, women’s empowerment, and environmental movements. Community organizing and social movements play a key role in raising awareness about important issues of justice and conflict as well balancing power between groups so that negotiations can be more successful. Social movements work best when they are planned strategically with an eye to planning long-term, including all relevant stakeholders, and building important alliances and coalitions with others. Unlike many approaches to nonviolent action and advocacy, this class stresses the need to focus on non-adversarial, relationship-based approaches to fit into a larger integrated peacebuilding framework. Students will develop a strategic design plan for community organizing and building a social movement related to their interests.
PAX 551 – Identity and Conflict Transformation
Credit hours: 3
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.
PAX 564 – Developing Healthy Organizations
Credit hours: 3
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.
PAX 565 – Leadership for Healthy Organizations
Credit hours: 3
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.
PAX 571 – Restorative Justice: the Promise, the Challenge
Credit hours: 3
This course will provide a critical introduction to the fundamental principles and practices of restorative justice. The course explores the needs and roles of key stakeholders (victims, offenders, communities, justice systems), outlines the basic principles and values of restorative justice and introduces some of the primary models of practice. It also identifies challenges to restorative justice – the dangers, the pitfalls – as well as possible strategies to help prevent restorative justice from failing to live up to its promise.
As a case study, the course is organized around the issue of crime within a western legal context. However, attention is given to applications and lessons from other contexts. Of particular interest is the contribution of traditional
PAX 573 – Theory: Frameworks for Peacebuilding
Credit hours: 3
This is an advanced-level course designed to deepen students’ understanding of the theoretical foundations of peacebuilding practices as they are expressed in the concentrations offered at CJP. Participants will grapple with key theoretical dilemmas in peacebuilding practice, including questions such as: Do social structures determine actions or do human actions create structures? Are human beings primarily self-centered or relationship-focused? They will also compare the foundational assumptions of peacebuilding practice with the assumptions behind other approaches to conflict such as conflict management and conflict resolution. Participants will learn to “interrogate” frameworks of practice to identify (usually hidden) assumptions about culture, power, social change, justice, and violence. And, they will learn to recognize “theories in practice and theories of practice” and work on refining and articulating their own theoretical frameworks. Pre-requisite: at least six hours of conflict transformation courses, including Analysis: Understanding Conflict.
PAX 583 – Understanding Psychosocial Trauma
Credit hours: 3
The course will examine trauma, its causes and means of healing or transforming its symptoms at
individual, community and societal levels. A thorough overview will be given of the
complexities of trauma and psychosocial factors as a result of war, natural disaster and other acts
of violence—both current and historical. Identity/identity threat and dignity will be examined as
ways of understanding how trauma happens and is constructively transformed. Individual and
community assets and resilience will be studied as important means of transforming trauma and
enhancing psychosocial well-being. Psychosocial trauma healing and indigenous healing
methods will be analyzed through case studies and presentations by guest speakers and class
presentations. The importance of narrative and the arts as ways of addressing loss and pain and
other aspects of a traumatic experience will be investigated, as will the importance of self-care in
trauma awareness and transformation work. Peacebuilding theories of change will be used as the
framework for this course.
PAX 585 – International Development
Credit hours: 3
The goal of this course is to expose participants to some of the issues, dilemmas, and strategies in International development. The course is roughly structured into two sections: Intellectual History & Contemporary Issues. In the first section, participants will briefly be exposed to an overview of the history, players and competing philosophies in community development. A set of theoretical frameworks for analyzing and designing international development projects will be presented including an exploration of embedded assumptions and best practices for each framework. In the second section, participants will study contemporary issues within the development field and the implications for future directions of International Development. During the last section, participants will analyze a specific case from their own work or life context and develop an analysis based on the principles and topics covered in this course.
PAX 590 – Peacebuilding & Public Policy
Credit hours: 3
This course is designed to develop participants’ understanding and skills for effectively influencing policy making processes on peacebuilding issues. We will explore policymaking within local, national, and international contexts. Moving from an exploration of ‘what is policy’ and its relevance to peacebuilding, we will learn basic approaches for policy analysis and policy formation. We will map the diverse actors involved in policy making and assess factors that influence their decisions. We will explore strategies to influence policy development – including public campaigning and policy dialogue – and practice key skills for effective engagement including crafting policy briefs and advocacy communication. We will experience the policymaking milieu through fieldtrips to Washington DC and in the Harrisonburg area. Course work will be geared to applying what is being learned. Participants will choose a key issue of interest to them and will critique existing policy, identify and advocate alternatives, and develop materials to support their case.
PAX 594 – Victim Offender Conferencing
Credit hours: 1
This 2-day course provides an introduction to a restorative justice process that brings together victims and offenders of crime to talk about the impact of the crime on their lives and what the future could look like. We will look specifically at victim and offender issues, benefits and risks of conferencing, and the role of the facilitator. It will include opportunities for participants to gain hands-on experience of the process.
PAX 600 – Narrative Negotiation
Credit hours: 3
This course uses a multi-dimensional framework for understanding negotiation. Daily social practices are a form of social negotiation; they shape patterns of interaction and institutions. Dispute domain negotiations are processes for deciding the appropriate venue and legitimate processes for addressing conflicts when they arise. Transactional negotiation is the actual given-and-take about a specific issue; this is what happens at the negotiation table. Most courses say nothing about social negotiation and little or nothing about dispute domain negotiation. In a world filled with cross-cultural encounters and complex, intractable problems effective negotiators need to understand all of these negotiation processes and they need to be able to manage all of the processes. Through emergent scenarios and reflective practice combined with analysis of negotiation processes, students will learn to recognize and manage multi-dimensional negotiations. This is an advanced skills class. PAX 533 (Analysis) and PAX 503 (Practice) are recommended (but not required) prerequisites; students with extensive field experience should contact the instructor to discuss enrollment in the course.
PAX 601 – Negotiation and Mediation Skills
Credit hours: 3
Negotiation is considered by practitioners to be one of the “basic building blocks” for all conflict transformation and peacebuilding activities. Some have said that: “[n]egotiation is about learning how to get your way.” In this course we will advance the notion that the aim of negotiation is to construct implementable agreements that help parties advance a range of interests through joint decision making. In a world where more and more important actions are jointly decided rather than given or imposed in traditional ways, we all need to be better negotiators—on our own behalf and, in ways we will explore, on behalf of complex and often divided constituencies as well. This course will expose students to some of the theories and practices of negotiation.
Likewise, Mediation is a fundamental practice for community builders, peacemakers and managers of NGOs, municipal and civil society organizations. Mediation is a voluntary, informal yet structured process in which an impartial or neutral party assists parties communicate, negotiate, evaluate options and participate in joint decision making. Students will experience negotiation and mediation through classroom simulations, observation and analysis of informal negotiations in their own lives and case studies.
PAX 603 – Peacebuilding Practices: Skills Assessment
Credit hours: 3
This required course is designed to ensure that the MA program attains its primary purpose of “preparing reflective practitioners.” The course should be taken the last semester of a student’s tenure on campus or at the end of their SPI course cycle, and includes an opportunity to review and practice core skill competencies (such as negotiation, mediation, facilitation, and circle processes). In addition, students will work with the instructor(s) to develop a proposal to demonstrate competency in specialized skills relevant to their concentration, which may include workshop planning and presentation, conferencing preparation and facilitation, process design for community-building, or specific organizational management and leadership skills. Students must achieve a passing grade in this course in order to be eligible for graduation.
PAX 607 – Techniques for Group Facilitation
Credit hours: 1
This intensive 2-day course is designed to develop participants’ understanding of facilitation practice
and their basic facilitation skills. We will begin by exploring conditions that enable people to work well in
groups and the roles facilitators can play in enabling effective engagement. We will consider a variety of
facilitator roles and functions and critically assess the ethics and appropriateness of these for different
types of situations. We will focus on how to design effective processes for dialogue, deliberation and
decision-making. Participants will be exposed to a variety of methods and tools to structure these
processes. Working in pairs and in small groups, participants will have the opportunity to apply the
principles we are exploring and to practice a range of core facilitation skills. While rooted in a North
American peacebuilding paradigm, we will aim to also explore facilitation in other cultural traditions and
raise awareness of the challenges of facilitating cross-culturally.
PAX 609 – Nonviolent Communication
Credit hours: 1
In the heat of conflict, how can you deal with seemingly contradictory claims of truth? What about expressions of rage and the destructive impulses that might accompany it? How can you move past the blocks to deep listening and open communication? What to do with the enemy images parties so tenaciously hold of each other? Collaborative communication is model for clear communication, authentic human connection, and empathic understanding that has supported effective conflict resolution in a wide variety of international and domestic contexts. This course will offer these skills and perspectives to empower students to understand and engage constructively with these bewildering dynamics. The course will use a wide variety of interactive activities and self-reflective exercises to bring the model to life and support deep experiential learning.
PAX 614 – Systems Approach to Organizational Conflicts
Credit hours: 3
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.
PAX 617 – Multi-track Peacebuilding Processes: Strategies for war-to-peace transitions
Credit hours: 3
This course will address many of the dilemmas in developing and sustaining processes to end armed conflict and make the transition to durable peace. Our aim will be to deepen understanding of key challenges and opportunities, risks and resources so as to increase our capacity to engage more effectively in transforming these conflict systems onto a trajectory for greater justice, development and reconciliation. The course will be organized along a ‘phases of conflict’ continuum. We will identify and analyze key turning points in the descent into war (asking what might have been done to prevent it) and early societal and political efforts to respond to it. We will consider the range of intervention strategies typically deployed (humanitarian, development, political / diplomatic, military, and peacebuilding) how they can both help to support constructive movement or to deepen intractability. We will explore the ‘design’ of political negotiation processes aimed at ending fighting and creating the frameworks for peaceful settlement. We will examine issues around getting a talks process started; challenges at different phases in the negotiations; negotiation theory and practice; mediation roles and functions; and common tasks in the post-settlement phase for implementing the agreements and consolidating peace. We will devote special attention to processes that enable public participation in peacemaking, to the interface between community-based peacebuilding efforts and international peace operations, and how these interact with the processes surrounding ‘official’ decision-making. We will use case studies, group exercises, simulations and – as relevant – discussion of specific dilemmas participants have encountered in their own work/context.
PAX 624 – Monitoring & Evaluation
Credit hours: 3
This is an introductory monitoring and evaluation course for peacebuilding practitioners and professionals. It assumes that participants are already familiar with the theory and practice of peacebuilding but not M&E. The course approaches monitoring and evaluation from a learning perspective and introduces theories of change, indicators, monitoring, evaluation design, and tools for reflective practice. Its objectives are to enable participants to design better projects, to monitor and learn from those projects more regularly and effectively, and to engage more thoroughly with program evaluators. The course design includes mini-lectures, experiential learning exercises and practical case applications. Practitioners are invited to bring program designs of actual programs currently underway to be used as case studies throughout the course. The course is offered for three hours of graduate credit.
PAX 654 – Conflict Coaching for Peacebuilding
Credit hours: 3
When parties to a conflict recognize that they cannot achieve their goals through unilateral action (violent or nonviolent), there is a ripe moment for engaging them in peace processes and long-term peacebuilding. But moving from the recognition that they cannot “win through domination” to effective participation in activities such as negotiation, reconciliation, and the reconstruction of healthy relationships and structures entails many profound transformations. Conflict coaching involves working with individuals and groups as they explore (and we hope eventually embark upon) alternative approaches to meeting their goals, interests and needs. This course uses case studies to help students understand the role of conflict coaches in peace processes. It also includes training modules on some core competencies for conflict coaches. This is an advanced class for students who have taken PAX 533 and who have taken or are concurrently enrolled in PAX 573.
PAX 670 – Peacebuilding in Traumatized Societies
Credit hours: 3
The course will examine the important relationship between trauma recovery, justice, religion, human security and development as well as other elements of the psychosocial and peacebuilding processes. The focus will be on communities and societies after large-scale violence and war. It will explore what trauma and trauma recovery are and what it takes to bring healing in situations of collective trauma (and the individuals within this collective), and who is responsible to do this work. In the context of trauma and recovery, identity threat will be addressed as an essential factor in understanding the use of force against others and how identity needs can be met to bring about constructive coexistence in post-violent or war situations. Justice will be examined through the lenses of transitional, restorative, and distributive justice and how these approaches help break the cycle of violence and are important factors in preventing future conflicts. The cultural, political, economic, social and socio-religious elements of peacebuilding will be examined in order to understand the complexities and possibilities of the strategies and practices for building peace with justice. Through various research methods, case studies, personal narratives and group work, participants will begin to integrate the analytical and practical course information and see how it might be applied to their own complex post-conflict situations.
PAX 672 – Circle Processes
Credit hours: 1
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 2 day class 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. The class will draw on the experience of the class participants to integrate the circle skills into the knowledge and frameworks of their prior experience.
PAX 673 – Independent Study
Credit hours: 1-3
Course work undertaken through independent study must be approved by the student’s academic advisor and completed in collaboration with a supervising instructor.
Please note: Directed/independent study courses will only be approved for students who have demonstrated the ability to do independent work (and therefore not approved in the first semester of a student’s program).
PAX 675 – Critical Issues in Restorative Justice
Credit hours: 3
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.
PAX 681 – Practicum and Career Preparation
Credit hours: 1
This one credit course is designed to prepare second year CJP students for their upcoming practicum and to help them explore career options. The course will provide participants with the philosophy and purpose of the practicum experience, as well as review theories of practice and change that they will take with them into their practicum. The course will also examine how to access practicum sites and discuss how to best match students to a practicum. Career interests will be explored and job search websites accessed. Networking processes for the various fields included in Peacebuilding (Conflict Transformation, Restorative Justice, Trauma Healing, Development and Organizational Leadership) will also be discussed and students will develop or update their resumes.
PAX 682 – Practicum
Credit hours: 6-9
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.
Read more about the practicum requirement.
PAX 683 – Thesis
Credit hours: 6-9
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.
Courses occasionally offered at CJP
- PAX 521 – Research: Qualitative Evaluation
- PAX 542 – Research: Action Research
- PAX 558 – Conflict and Religious Peacebuilding
- PAX 611 – Disciplines of Transforming the Peacebuilder
- PAX 631 – Qualitative Research for Social Change