Peace and Conflict Studies (PACS)

Terms offered: Fall 2017, Spring 2017, Fall 2016
This course introduces students to a broad range of issues, concepts, and approaches integral to the study of peace and conflict. Subject areas include the war system and war prevention, conflict resolution and nonviolence, human rights and social justice, development and environmental sustainability. Required of all Peace and Conflict Studies majors.
Introduction to Peace and Conflict Studies: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2017, Fall 2016, Spring 2003
The Freshman Seminar Program has been designed to provide new students with the opportunity to explore an intellectual topic with a faculty member in a small seminar setting. Freshman seminars are offered in all campus departments, and topics vary from department to department and semester to semester. Enrollment is limited to 15 freshmen.
Freshman Seminar: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2015, Spring 2015, Fall 2014
A practicum using a modern method for systematically reducing random activity in the mind, with comparative studies of relevant texts from monastic and householder traditions, East and West.
Theory and Practice of Meditation: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2017, Spring 2016, Spring 2015
Group discussion, research and reporting on selected topics.
Directed Group Study: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2018, Fall 2017, Spring 2017
This course will explore the historical development of the field through analysis of the operative assumptions, logic, and differing approaches of the seminal schools and thinkers that have shaped the field. Students will become familiar with the body of literature and major debates in peace studies and research.
Peace Theory: Approaches and Analyses: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2018, Fall 2017, Fall 2016
Course will focus on specific issues of current research and issues in the field of peace and conflict studies. Topics will be different each term and reflect the current research of the instructor. Students will be required to do extensive reading on a weekly basis, participate in assigned projects, and complete one major research project and class presentation. Actual assignments may vary from term to term depending upon the subject.
Special Topics in Peace and Conflict Issues: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2008, Fall 2007, Fall 2006
This course examines the experience and meaning of war in the formation of American culture and society. It considers the profound influence war has had in shaping the identities and life chances of succeeding generations of American men and women. It will take special note of the role of race, ethnicity, and class as prisms that filter this process. This course also explores how different interpretations of democracy and nationalism have served as a catalyst for social conflict and change in racial and ethnic identity and relations, especially as reflected in war.
War, Culture, and Society: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2017, Fall 2016, Fall 2015
This course provides an overview to the historical, theoretical, political, and legal underpinnings that have shaped and continue to shape the development of human rights. Students are introduced to substantive topics within human rights and provided an opportunity to develop critical thinking, oral presentation, and writing skills. We discuss where the concept of human rights originates, how these ideas have been memorialized in international declarations and treaties, how they develop over time, and how they are enforced and monitored. We examine a variety of issues and encourage students to think differently--to analyze world and community events through a human rights framework utilizing some of the necessary tools to investigate, research, and think critically about human rights and the roles that we may assume within this arena. The course requires two six-page papers, participation in a team debate, and an independent reading assignment.
International Human Rights: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2017, Summer 2016 10 Week Session, Summer 2016 Second 6 Week Session
After World War II, we witnessed a "revolution" in human rights theory, practice, and institution building. The implications of viewing individuals as equal and endowed with certain rights is potentially far reaching as in the declaration that individuals hold many of those rights irrespective of the views of their government. Yet, we also live in a world of sovereign states with sovereign state's rights. We see everyday a clash between the rights of the individual and lack of duty to fulfill those rights when an individual's home state is unwilling or unable to do so. After introducing the idea of human rights, its historic development and various international human rights mechanisms, this course will ask what post-World War II conceptions of human rights mean for a number of specific issues including humanitarian intervention, international criminal justice, U.S. foreign policy, immigration, and economic rights. Looking in-depth at these five areas, we will ask how ideas about human rights, laws about human rights, and institutions to protect human rights have on how states and other global actors act, and how individuals have fared.
Human Rights and Global Politics: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2014, Spring 2010, Spring 2007
The course analyzes the theory and practice of human rights for three groupings in the United States and examines questions of race and ethnicity as they are embedded in various international human rights instruments. The course utilizes an interdisciplinary approach to the study of developing systems, laws, and norms for the promotion and protection of human rights while considering each group's underlying political, literary, and cultural traditions.
Human Rights and American Cultures: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2017, Spring 2016, Fall 2014
This course is designed to accommodate cross-listed courses offered through other departments, the content of which is applicable to Peace and Conflict Studies majors.
Cross-Listed Topics: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2018, Spring 2017, Spring 2016
Topics vary from semester to semester. The course will offer a critical interdisciplinary study of geo-political regions and the sources of their conflicts.
Special Topics in Regional Conflict: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2016, Spring 2015, Spring 2014
Course examines the history of progressive social movements in the San Francisco Bay Area. Combining history, sociology, urban geography, and ethnic studies, we ask: why and how these movements emerged? What cultural, racial, ethnic and political identities were drawn from, reconfigured, and created within these movements? What kinds of knowledge and institutions were created by these movements, and how have these legacies shaped (and been shaped by) the geography, culture, and politics of the area. As part of the ACES program, this course also engages students in creating social movement documentation through collaborations with community partners. Small student groups, supervised by an ACES Fellow, will carry out documentation projects.
Social Movements, Urban Histories, and the Politics of Memory: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2016, Spring 2015, Spring 2011
This course will analyze emerging trends, patterns, and problems associated with the phenomenon of globalization. Particular attention will be given to world economic and social integration, ethno-religious nationalism and identity politics, domestic politics, and foreign policy. Special emphasis is placed on the prospects of peace and world order in the post-cold war era.
Global Change and World Order: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2017, Fall 2016, Fall 2015
This course will investigate theories of individual and group conflict as a conceptual framework for practical application. Students will engage in practice as parties to conflicts and as third-party intervenors. The course will look at the sources of conflict, including multicultural aspects, and will emphasize the opportunities for growth and development in conflictive incidents.
Conflict Resolution: Theory and Practice: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2011
This course explores the nature of interpersonal and group conflict, resolution, and their relationship to culture. The course examines the intersection between conflict and race and ethnicity in particular, with an emphasis on the major racial/ethnic groups in the United States. Other dimensions of diversity such as gender, class, and sexual orientation in conflict situations are also explored. The goal is to apply this understanding to resolving intercultural conflicts through mediation.
Conflict Resolution: Theory and Practice: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2018, Spring 2017, Spring 2016
Inspired by the changed meaning of international conflict and the expanding mission of conflict resolution in the post-cold war era, this course will study the contemporary context and issues of conflict by examining the evolution in thinking about conflict, the resolution, and their application in practice.
International Conflict: Analysis and Resolution: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2014, Spring 2013, Spring 2006
This course will investigate the special issues involved with facilitating resolution of cross/multicultural conflicts. Topics will include cultural contrasts (e.g., values, communication, and problem solving styles), mediator (facilitator/negotiator), credibility, cultural (including gender) contributions to conflict resolution and unique ethical dilemmas. Course includes field immersion, conflict resolution process evaluation and design, and the opportunity to participate in mediation of a cultural mediation.
Multicultural Conflict Resolution: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Summer 2017 3 Week Session, Summer 2016 10 Week Session, Summer 2016 3 Week Session
This course provides intensive experiential training in conflict resolution and mediation techniques. Participants are provided with the opportunity to apply, analyze, and evaluate in a supervised setting the results of applying conflict resolution mediation theory and models presented in other conflict resolution course work. Participants will develop and refine mediation techniques and skills through participation and observation of exercises and case studies specifically designed to focus on types and structures of interventions, roles and relationships, negotiation, and cultural diversity.
Conflict Resolution Intensive Training: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2016, Fall 2015, Fall 2014
A comprehensive exploration of the concepts and processes of conflict resolution, using this term in the broadest sense. In particular, the course elaborates upon the relationships among conflict resolution, social change, and cultures of peace with examples drawn from the domestic and global levels.
Conflict Resolution, Social Change, and the Cultures of Peace: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2019, Fall 2018, Spring 2018
Students prepare a major analytical paper synthesizing what they have learned in the major and give an oral presentation on their area of concentration. Students review literature and issues of peace and conflict studies appropriate to focus of senior paper and participate in regular consultations with instructor scheduled outside of class hours in preparing paper for presentation. All students will be expected to read and critique a common core of literature as well as readings specific to their concentration.
Senior Seminar: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2020, Spring 2019, Fall 2018
Research paper or suitable research project done under the direct supervision of a faculty sponsor. Subject must be approved by faculty sponsor no later than the preceding semester in which the course is to be taken.
Senior Thesis: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2020, Spring 2019, Spring 2018
Students are required to research and write a thesis based on the prospectus developed in International and Area Studies 102 or a prospectus approved by the instructor before the first class meeting. The thesis work is conducted in regular consultation with the Honors Seminar instructor and a second topic expert reader to be selected based upon the thesis topic. Weekly progress reports and written work are required.
Senior Honors Thesis Seminar: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2021, Fall 2020, Spring 2020
Supervised experience relevant to specific aspects of Peace and Conflict Studies in off-campus organizations. Regular individual meetings with faculty sponsor and written reports required.
Field Studies: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Spring 2015, Spring 2014, Fall 2012
Group discussion, research, and reporting on selected topics. Student initiation in choice of subjects is solicited and welcome.
Directed Group Study for Upper Division Students: Read More [+]

Terms offered: Fall 2015, Fall 2012, Fall 2011
Supervised independent study or research on topics relevant to Peace and Conflict Studies that are not covered in depth by other courses. Topics to be covered are initiated by students.
Supervised Independent Study: Read More [+]