The Peace and Conflict Studies concentration allows students to focus on issues of peace and social justice. The courses offered in the concentration help students address crucial challenges of the contemporary world and develop the knowledge and skills necessary for effective citizenship in the post-cold war world. Beginning this year, students will also have an opportunity to pursue a Social Justice track within the Peace and Conflict Studies concentration.
Students interested in peace and conflict studies should consider enrolling in one of the courses listed under Peace and Conflict Studies on the First-Year Student website.
Courses
HIST 196
African Colonial Lives
Common Area: Cross-Cultural or Historical Studies
This course analyzes the colonial experience of African people in sub-Saharan Africa, from the late 19th century and throughout the twentieth century. European colonialism in Africa transformed customs, traditions, and social organizations, introduced new boundaries between peoples and erased others through the institutionalization of racism and the creation of new ethnicities. The history, theory, and practice of colonialism (and neocolonialism) are presented in this course through historical documents, scholarly writing, literature, and film. The course also explores the long-term economic, psychological, and cultural effects and legacies of colonialism on the colonized.
HIST 198
Modern Africa Since 1800
Common Area: Cross Cultural or Historical Studies
A survey of Africa's complex colonial past, examining dominant ideas about colonial Africa and Africans' experiences during colonialism, including important historical debates on Africa's colonial past and the legacy of colonialism; pre-colonial Africa's place in the global world; resistance and response to the imposition and entrenchment of colonialism; and the nature of colonial rule as revealed in economic (under) development, ethnicity and conflict, and the environment.
POLS 103
Intro To Internat'l Relations
Common Area: Social Sciences
Introduces students to major theories and concepts in international politics and examines the evolution of the international system during the modern era. Principal topics include: the causes of war and peace, the dynamics of imperialism and post-colonialism, the emergence of global environmental issues, the nature and functioning of international institutions, the legal and ethical obligations of states, and the international sources of wealth and poverty.
POLS 110
Race and Ethnicity Politics
Common Area: Social Science
This course will cover a broad range of topics that examines the ways in which race intersects with the American political system including but not limited to: the social and legal construction of race, the effects of political redistricting, voting right among minority groups, immigration, the factors that influence voter mobilization among minority groups, the intersection of race and gender, race in the context of public policy, as well as race in the context of media and news coverage.