ADVANCED MEDIATION

Catalog description

(Slashed with PACS 70002 ) This course provides students with a conceptual understanding of mediation as well as practical mediation skills. It enables them to work as intermediaries who can assist conflict parties to reflect on the sources and dynamics of their conflict; develop mutually acceptable solutions; and foster constructive, sustainable relationships. The course starts with essential concepts and skills for mediating small-scale interpersonal conflicts. It then addresses more complex intergroup, multiparty conflicts as well as deep-rooted structural conflicts. Through class discussions of readings and simulation exercises, students tackle questions such as how to work with conflicts in which there are many competing issues, goals and priorities involved; how to mediate enduring, intractable conflicts about identity, value and social structure; and how to respond to serious ethical dilemmas and power asymmetry. To meet these challenges, students not only critique the popularized framework of interest-based principled negotiation/mediation, but also develop holistic, creative third-party contributions to systemic social change.