From Conflict to Peace: Building Shared Narratives

Catalog description

What leads ethnic tension to erupt into violence, what interventions work to stop it, and how can a sustainable peace be built in the aftermath? In this course students will study conflict and peacebuilding, using historical events as a beginning point for discussion about current events, and personal travel experience to make these issues come alive. Key issues such as bridging ethnic and communal divides, gender, and the role of youth, will be examined in the context of peace building approaches. Students will also examine the ways that memorialization and the construction of shared narratives impact the future, whether renewing conflict or achieving a lasting peace. This course concludes with a required 2-week study tour that fosters a deeper understanding of pertinent issues and their contemporary international relevance; the destination may vary from one offering to the next, depending on the case studies that constitute the focus of the semester.