Peace and Conflict Studies

Students may complete a concentration in Peace and Conflict Studies.

Coordinator

Marc Howard Ross

Faculty

Tamara Neuman, Visiting Assistant Professor

The goal of the Bi-College concentration is to present a range of social science theories and methods relevant to explaining human conflict and cooperation in settings ranging from local small communities to the international system.

Concentration Requirements

The concentration is composed of a six-course cluster centering around conflict and cooperation within and between nations. Of these six courses, no more than three may be in the student's major. The peace and conflict studies concentration draws upon the long-standing interest in war, conflict and peacemaking, and social justice, as well as questions derived from work in the fields of anthropology, economics, history, political science, social psychology and sociology. It draws on these fields for theoretical understandings of matters such as bargaining, social, economic and political sources of conflict, cooperative and competitive strategies of negotiation, intergroup relations, social justice, post-conflict peacemaking and the role of institutions in conflict management.

Students meet with the coordinator in the spring of their sophomore year to work out a plan for the concentration. All concentrators are required to take three core courses: the introductory course, POLS 111 (offered as ANTH 111 at Haverford); either POLS 206 or ANTH 322; and POLS 347. It is advised that concentrators complete at least two of these three courses by the end of their junior year.

Students are required to take three additional courses chosen in consultation with the coordinator, working out a plan that focuses this second half of their concentration regionally, conceptually or around a particular substantive problem. These courses might include international conflict and resolution; ethnic conflict in general or in a specific region of the world (e.g., South Africa, the Middle East, Northern Ireland); a theoretical approach to the field, such as nonviolence, bargaining or game theory; an applied approach, such as reducing violence among youth, the arts and peacemaking, community mediation or post-conflict peacebuilding and reconciliation.

Peace and conflict studies courses currently available at Bryn Mawr include:

ANTH/POLS B206 Conflict and Conflict Management: A Cross Cultural Approach
ANTH B261 Palestine and Israeli Society
ANTH B275 Culture and Society of the Middle East
ANTH B342 Middle Eastern Diasporas
ECON/POLS B385 Democracy and Development
HIST B303 Cold War Political Culture
POLS B111 Introduction to Peace and Conflict Studies
POLS B241 Politics of International Law and Institutions
POLS B347 Advanced Issues in Peace and Conflict Studies: Genocide
POLS/PSYC B358 The Political Psychology of Ethnic Conflict
SOC 350 Movements for Social Justice

Peace and conflict studies courses currently available at Haverford include:

HIST H209 Modern Latin America
HIST H240 History and Principles of Quakerism
ICPR H111 Introduction to Peace and Conflict Studies
ICPR H281 Violence and Public Health
POLS H245 The State System