Peace and Violence in the Americas

This introductory course presents a survey of theoretical, conceptual and practical approaches to the study of peace and justice. This includes examining theories of violence, peace, war and rights, as well as more focused discussions of social movements, transformative justice, education and engagement. In pursuing these areas, students will have the opportunity to focus on issues both historical and contemporary and through both ‘traditional’ and ‘alternative’ lens. The course seeks to critically address a range of topics—from non-violence to theories of inter-state war—providing students with a variety of perspectives and understandings of an inter-disciplinary field. Students will be challenged to interpret issues of social inequality, oppression and structural violence at numerous levels; from the interpersonal, to the local, and outward to international conflict. We will begin this learned endeavor by co-creating our own equitable and peaceable educative environment. This will involve a collaboration between instructor and student to foster an environment that is horizontal, non-coercive and utilizing a critical pedagogy, modeled by the professor and used by students. An array of readings will make up the course including scholarly articles, philosophical texts, political texts, primary source documents from perpetrators and survivors of violence, and film. Early in the semester, enrolled students will have the option of adding a community-based learning (CBL) component involving their work with marginalized and underserved individuals or groups (or organizations working with and for such individuals or groups), structured to meet community-defined needs.

This course is an upper-level seminar designed to acquaint students with issues raised by the dual themes of religion and violence. Throughout the course, students will become acquainted with theories related to violence in general, positive and negative approaches to the conjunction of religion and violence, and constructive approaches to peace-building. Because the course is a seminar, students will also conduct independent research to further expand resources in religion and violence, and will write a paper which responds to issues of their own choosing. The course will be centered around primary texts, discussion, and synthetic writing projects, helping to cultivate a critical understanding of religion and violence both as a field of student and as a historic phenomenon.