Peace Studies

The mission of the Peace Studies curriculum fosters an academic environment in which students acquire the knowledge, skills, and experiences necessary for analyzing and resolving social conflict and for promoting peace in a variety of social contexts.  Social conflict, from the interpersonal to international, and its destructive outcomes are pervasive in modern life.  The primary purpose of the Peace Studies curriculum is to educate students in ways of thinking, feeling, and acting that enable them to minimize destructive human behavior and to promote the principles of freedom, justice, respect, cooperation, love, and personal and global harmony.

Students acquire basic information and theory in disciplines that provide a foundation for general competence in Peace Studies. After completing core courses, they have an opportunity to pursue either generalized competence or more specialized competence, depending upon their areas of interest.  students pursuing general competence in Peace Studies usually take a variety of courses listed under four areas of study, including Conflict Resolution, Leadership Skills, and Social and Environmental Justice.  Students wishing to specialize may concentrate their studies in one or more of these areas of competence by completing a substantial number of the most relevant courses.