Researching Peace

Catalog description

What is peace and how can we study it? This course investigates (1) what peace means to people around the world and key approaches to measuring it; and (2) the varied methods, opportunities, and challenges of researching peacebuilding. With an approach rooted in experiential learning, students critically engage with the concept of peace. Students get hands-on practice with research techniques by participating in an ongoing study that explores if, how, and to what effect community leaders and ordinary people use cultural spaces like food, arts, and sports to bring people and groups together across divides. Throughout the course, students will participate in field-based research exploring these ideas around Paris, learn how to collect and analyze quantitative and/or qualitative data, hone their abilities to ask and answer important global questions, and practice communicating scholarly work to effect positive social change. This course will be offered in January-Term 2026. This course will be taught at NYU Paris and will count as an Away J-Term course.