Cross Cultural Conflict Resolution

Catalog description

Across the globe there are more laws and provisions in place to protect human beings from discrimination than at any other time in history and yet there are more incidents of conflict, intolerance, bias, and violence than ever. How are we to make sense of these two competing realities? How can we become ethical leaders in the face of such contrasts and complications? This course combines perspectives from communications, psychology, sociology, political science, law and legal studies, human rights, identity-based studies, media studies, and cultural studies to engage questions of how cultural difference and discrimination play a role in conflict and resolution. Topics to be covered are 1) how societies create inegalitarian categories of identity, 2) how those divisions create conflict, and 3) how those divisions hinder conflict resolution. The course will look at a variety of ways that societies come to categorize forms of human life according to religion, nationalism, patriarchy, ethnic identity, and other forms of social division and stereotyping. One key area we will address is the development of law and other instruments that both protect and disenfranchise vulnerable populations. We will also look at strategies for cross-cultural community development and peace building. The topics will be studied in a cross-cultural context allowing students to consider these issues from a range of global perspectives.