Program on Justice and Peace
The Program on Justice and Peace engages Georgetown University's Jesuit mission to understand and solve global problems. It is an interdisciplinary program drawing on the strength of university faculty in areas such as international relations, ethics and values, social analysis, community service, human rights, and social responsibility. Although the Program's objectives include teaching about avoiding war and resolving conflicts, our fundamental goal is to understand the structural injustices that cause war and violence and to alter them so as to realize positive peace.
The PJP has borrowed from Jesuit pedagogy in structuring its curriculum at four levels: (1) at the introductory level, students develop the analytical skills and concepts to understand the structural sources of war, oppression, and violence; (2) students engage in service and action to help address those problems; (3) students reflect on their actions and undertake social analysis within a moral framework; and (4) as a capstone exercise, students develop a sustained original analysis of a theoretical or practical issue.
The required introductory course (JUPS 123) presents a wide range of theoretical and practical perspectives on social justice including poverty, hunger and homelessness; racism, sexism and homophobia; violence, oppression, slavery and colonization. Students then take four electives, ideally grouped to concentrate on a particular problem or interest. These electives must be taken in at least two of our three categories: Social Structure, Conflict Resolution, and Theory. Students are also required to undertake a community service learning project or course as part of this minor. The required senior seminar (JUPS 303) is a capstone course, taken in the fall, that prepares students to write a major paper in close collaboration with a faculty advisor. The thesis is completed during the spring semester and is presented at a Program colloquium.