Course Offerings
AY 2012-2013
Program Courses
Suggested Electives
Consortium Courses
Program Courses
JUPS 123: Introduction to Justice and Peace
Fall 2012 – Eli McCarthy (2 sections, both with CBL option)
What are better ways of understanding the concepts and core practices of peace and justice? What are the movements and structures that contribute to justice and peace? What are the obstacles? And what can societies and persons do to make this a more just and peaceful world? These are some of the questions we will examine through readings, discussions, a group conflict transformation project that focuses on "hot spots" around the world, and guest speakers. Students may opt to do a semester-long community-based learning placement with a justice and peace organization. The course will include regular student-facilitated discussions and require active participation, approximately 25 pages of written work, and a final examination.
Students are encouraged to support local bookstores by purchasing these through Bridge Street Books.
Cortright, David. Peace: A History of Movements and Ideas, 2008
Lederach, John Paul. The Little Book of Conflict Transformation, 2003
Zehr, Howard. The Little Book of Restorative Justice, 2002
Nagler, Michael. Hope or Terror? The Other 9/11, 2006
JUPS 202: Non-violence in Theory and Practice
Fall 2012 – Barbara Wien
The word "nonviolence" is widely misunderstood and abused. It is often confused with surrender or weakness. Yet nonviolence has an extensive history, dating back over 4,000 years, which is largely ignored or rarely taught. Not as well documented as war, it is still in its infancy as an “experiment with truth” (Gandhi). It is a philosophy, strategy, principle, academic discipline, lifestyle, and “an energy field more intense than war.” Nonviolence has been used in very diverse contexts globally, in narrow or broad constructs, and is based on a wide variety of philosophies and practices. Some people, communities and organizations are called to be nonviolent because of their spiritual beliefs and religious traditions (“principled nonviolence”), while others are motivated to use nonviolence because of strategic considerations and calculations. In other words, to use violence would be suicidal if the enemy/opponent is much better armed. When used deliberately, methodically and persistently over a sustained period, nonviolence can erode the legitimacy of a ruling power and produce significant personal, community and structural changes in a society.
This course will explore where nonviolent struggles have been effective, where they have failed, and why. What strategies were tried? How did they plan their campaigns? What can we learn from their failures and successes? What are the risks involved in using nonviolence? What are the long-term outcomes and benefits? Why haven’t we been taught more about this major development in human evolution? What is the difference between conflict resolution and nonviolent struggle?
Spring 2013 – Eli McCarthy (This section has a CBL option.)
What is meant by “nonviolence?” What are the ethical theories at play and social implications for how we practice nonviolence? What lessons might we draw for today from Gandhi, Dr. King, and Gene Sharp? How shall we conceive of “success” in nonviolent interactions and movements? What ingredients/strategies contribute to or diminish effective nonviolent movements? These are some of the questions we will examine through exciting readings, student-facilitated discussions, guest speakers, and a research paper or group nonviolent movement project (your choice!).
The word "nonviolence" is too often misunderstood and even abused. Yet nonviolence has an extensive history, dating back over 4,000 years, which is largely ignored or rarely taught. Not as well documented as war, it is still in its infancy as an “experiment with truth” (Gandhi). Some people, communities and organizations are called to be nonviolent because of their spiritual beliefs and religious traditions (“way of life”), while others are motivated to use nonviolence because of primarily strategic considerations and calculations. In other words, to use violence would be suicidal if the enemy/opponent is much better armed. When used deliberately, methodically and persistently over a sustained period, nonviolence can erode the legitimacy of a ruling power and produce significant personal, community and structural changes in a society. Nonviolence has toppled dictatorships and helped to end Apartheid, advanced civil, political, cultural and economic rights, and captured the imaginations of millions of people around the world. It is currently used in conflict zones with great effect, such as with the work of Nonviolent Peaceforce. Nonviolent tactics do not always work in every way or produce some desired immediate results. However, there is strong evidence that in the long-term a broad nonviolent strategy produces much more sustainable, democratic outcomes than armed struggle.
JUPS 224: Labor/Sexuality/Globalization
Spring 2013 – You-Me Park
This course explores the junctures of globalized labor, national “development,” and the “postcolonial” world system by exploring the concepts of labor, sexuality, nature, values, and human-ness. When and how do we become “workers”? How do we imagine and represent sexualities and bodies in the contexts of national developments and policy-making procedures? How do third world workers negotiate their agency from the positionality of the “subaltern”? We will read and discuss literary and cultural texts, fact-finding documents, and theoretical investigations so that the more rigorously historicized concepts of gendered labor, sexuality, agency, and globalization enhance our understanding of social justice, equality, and violence prevention.
JUPS 260: Violence/Gender/Human Rights
Fall 2012 – You-Me Park
Anyone entering the thickets of argument relating to violence, gender, and human rights today has to contend with the range and variety of meanings that these concepts have accrued in current usage. While there is broad consensus that there does exist a contemporary crisis around global violence, how the relationships between globalization and human rights violations, and between violence against women and redefinition of human rights, are to be interpreted, and what is to be done about it, are matters of vigorous intellectual and political debate. This class aims to explore the gendered manifestations of violence in public and private spheres within the context of the more general relationship among globalization, development, and human/civil/citizen rights. We will pay attention to banal violence (that is, daily and “mundane" violence in everyday life), spectacular violence at moments of crisis, and the type of violence that blurs the boundary between the two. Special emphases will be given to the issues of racism, sexual exploitation, poverty, labor, health care, heterosexism, homophobia, militarism, and globalization.
JUPS 271: Introduction to Engaging and Transforming Conflict
Fall 2012 – Jiva Manske and Wendy Jason
This course offers a thorough grounding of Conflict Transformation (CT)as a philosophical orientation, practical approach, and theoretical framework for social justice. With a specific focus on the U.S. criminal justice system and restorative justice, we will attempt to “transform” three major aspects of conflict: 1) what we think about conflict; 2) how we think about conflict; and 3) how we engage in conflict. A primary focus for our learning will be the principles and practices of restorative justice as a means for analysis and social change.
We will focus on the work and philosophies of John Paul Lederach, Johan Galtung, Paulo Freire, and Kay Pranis and ground ourselves in a foundation of nonviolence as ‘peace by peaceful means’. Drawing on Lederach’s idea of the moral imagination, as well as Freire’s and Horton’s approaches to education for social justice, we will explore the "personal, structural, relational and cultural changes” (Lederach) that could evolve from and be produced by conflict. Further, we will investigate the deep culture and structure (Galtung) of conflicts related to criminal justice systems, as well as alternative approaches to transforming conflict in our communities (Pranis). This foundation will help us develop a critical lens for viewing the relationship between criminal justice and social justice. Throughout the semester, students will be “doing conflict transformation” as a way of “knowing conflict transformation,” and will be invited to take a critical look at how conflict manifests in their own communities. At the conclusion of the course, students will be acquainted with restorative justice as a distinct theoretical and applied field of nonviolent social action. Intercultural communication skills and dialogue will be modeled by the instructors and practiced by all course participants.
JUPS 272: Social Justice/Conflict Studies
Spring 2013 – TBA
JUPS 303: Senior Thesis Seminar
Fall 2012 – Andria Wisler
All JUPS Seniors will enroll in a three-credit, graded course: JUPS 303, Senior Seminar. There are several fundamental and mutually supportive goals for this course:
• Work collaboratively as a Justice and Peace cohort for the goal of each student to successfully complete a thesis for completion of the justice and peace minor/concentration, through a healthy process!
• Hone our analytical, writing, presentation, and research skills as justice and peace junior scholars.
• Do our best to ensure that each thesis is researched and written in ways that further the pursuit of more just and peaceful living, starting with our own.
• Create and follow a structured, do-able thesis plan agreed upon by the advisor, student, and Professor Wisler.
• Work individually and in small peer groups to create artifacts and revise drafts to achieve clear and direct text.
• Dialogue about ethical issues regarding thesis writing, research, and presentation including plagiarism, intellectual property, human subjects protocols, and public responsibility.
• Communicate/present the thesis or parts thereof in an oral (or other) presentaction.
• Explore how to keep the thesis alive beyond graduation and support one another through senior year.
There are two major deliverables for this course:
• Thesis: the equivalent of at least 50 text pages, depending on topic, style, and methodology.
• “Presentaction”: At some point during the year, each student needs to make a presentaction about his/her thesis to a group outside of our cohort.
JUPS 335: Anarchist Theory
Fall 2012 – Mark Lance
Our goal is to understand some of the major theoretical and practical elements of anarchism, and to figure out ways to think together about the issues this tradition raises. We will read classic work by major figures in the anarchist tradition, historical discussions of anarchist practice, modern theoretical discussions of anarchism – including a manuscript in progress by the professor – and related discussions of current movements. Everyone will write a paper for the class. You’ll write it once, get comments, and then write it again. Everyone is responsible for each class, for coming prepared, contributing to discussion, seeing to it that everyone is involved, and that we have a productive discussion. Grades will be based on a combination of the paper and class discussion.
Students are encouraged to support local bookstores by purchasing these through Bridge Street Books.
Anarchist Portraits – Paul Avrich (0691006091)
Contemporary Political Movements and the Thought of Jacques Ranciere: Equality in Action – Todd May (0748639837)
Post-Scarcity Anarchism – Murray Bookchin (1904859062)
Anarchism: A very short introduction – Colin Ward (0192804774)
Wobblies and Zapatistas – Staughton Lynd and Andrej Grubacic (1604860413)
FMST 399: CBL: Social Justice Documentary
Spring 2013 – Bernie Cook
In Social Justice Documentary Video, students will learn about the relations between documentary media and social change by making documentaries about the work of Community Based Organizations in Washington, D.C. Students will combine Film and Media Studies scholarship, video production skills, and Community Based Research and Learning as they view and discuss significant documentary films and videos, read about documentary theory and history, consider documentary as a tool for engaging the “real world,” and begin to practice writing, shooting, and editing video. The class will collaborate with members of D.C.-based Community Organizations to create documentary projects. Drawing upon existing relationships between Georgetown’s Center for Social Justice and Community Organizations, the course will connect to the Programs at the Perry School and the Council for Latino Agencies. Pre-production will involve collaborative research and writing; production will involve shooting in the D.C. community; and post-production will involve the creative input of representatives of the organizations. Students will complete the course having produced a short, collaborative documentary video. As partners, the Community Based Organizations will also receive copies of the documentaries and will be encouraged to use these videos to advance their community work. The course will be offered in partnership with Georgetown University’s Program in Justice and Peace and the Center for Social Justice. The course will enroll 16 students and will be offered for 4 credits. Students need not have had previous video production or Film and Media Studies coursework. Course texts will include Bill Nichols’ Introduction to Documentary (Indiana UP 2001) and Barry Hampe’s Making Documentary Films and Reality Videos (Henry Holt 1997). D.C.-based documentary filmmakers will visit the course to discuss non-fiction production and social action.
Learn more about this course, see an interview with Professor Bernie Cook, and watch previous student-created social justice documentaries here.
JUPS 401: Social Justice: Strengthening Protection for Vulnerable Populations
Fall 2012 – Janet Shriberg
Complex disasters increase psychosocial suffering by weakening health and well-being, limiting development, and perpetuating cycles of violence. In this course we will use a multidisciplinary approach and examine the “social” of psychosocial theories and practice as they relate to international humanitarian disasters and and post-conflict reconstruction. Guided by insights from anthropology, education, psychology, public health, sociology and international development studies, we will explore the ways that these disciplines have informed psychosocial theory and practice in times of disaster. Particular emphasis will be placed on how health, education and psychology reciprocally influence one other, and the potential to integrate these areas in crisis and development programs aimed at interrupting oppression and promoting psychosocial well-being. Topics include child protection in war-affected communities; social justice and refugee mental health care and programmatic models that support care for caregivers. This course will be taught in seminar format and students will have be required to co-lead seminar discussions, collaborate on a large group case study projectand submit three individual reaction papers. This course is designed for undergraduate students who are interested in pursuing graduate work and/or psychology, social work, and related behavioral health careers as clinicians, researchers, program managers and policy analysts. It is also relevant for students who wish to become engaged in humanitarian aid and development work in international, national and/or community organizationsal wellness.
JUPS 402: The Politics of Political Violence and Terrorism
Spring 2013 – Michael Loadenthal
Throughout the past half century, the world stage has been home to a litany of insurgencies, uprisings, protest movements, civil wars, and asymmetric armed conflicts. Those who find themselves taking up arms against governments, corporations and dominant narratives have been labeled “terrorists,” “militants,” “separatists,” “guerillas,” “revolutionaries” and so on. While libraries are filled with volumes examining inter-State wars from World War II to Afghanistan, far less attention has been paid to conflicts involving non-State actors. This course will examine the roles played by non-State actors within modern revolutionary conflicts.
Through an interdisciplinary analysis, we will discuss social movement theory, the strategy of asymmetric warfare, the politics of identity-based and ethnic conflicts, debates regarding the appropriate use of violence, and the construction of civilian and combatant in a protracted conflict. Through lecture, in-class discussion, and experimental group activities, students will scrutinize terrorism as a discourse. Course readings draw heavily from primary source materials written by armed actors, as well as firsthand accounts from movement participants. Students will also familiarize themselves with academic and government intelligence reports, examining these critically in light of primary source materials. Students will explore the histories, ideologies, and interworkings of non-State actors including the Palestinian armed factions, the Zapatistas (Mexico), the Red Army Faction (Germany), Conspiracy Cells of Fire (Greece), as well as the more well known, transnational, jihadi networks. Domestically, the course will focus on the Animal/Earth Liberation Front, the contemporary anarchist milieu, armed leftist groups of the 1960s-1970s, and contemporary neo-Nazi, militia and anti-abortion movements.
JUPS 404: Education, Peace and Conflict
Spring 2013 – Andria Wisler
UNESCO’s recent Education for All Global Monitoring Report, “The Hidden Crisis: Armed Conflict and Education,” reported that of the 67 million primary school age children not enrolled in 2008, 28 million of those lived in conflict-affected countries. Education is protected by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, yet these youth are denied access to and enrollment in school as a result of civil war and violent conflict. Beyond schooling, conflict also interrupts indigenous, informal, and intangible ways of knowing and traditions of transmitting local peace and other knowledge among all members of a society. Educators, ministry officials, and funders working to support educational endeavors as a life-sustaining component of the humanitarian response in crisis-affected countries and reconstruction contexts encounter interrelated challenges that are deeply entrenched in the local political and socio-economic realities. This course examines the role of education along the following spectrums: promoting to diffusing violence; exacerbating to resolving conflict; and thwarting to sustaining peace. Together we will investigate the most pressing challenges facing students, teachers, donors, international and local NGOs, governments, civil society, and competing power factions. We will strive to understand stakeholders’ effects on education systems and structures in conflict and peace, as well as on domestic and foreign education policy and the promising practices for conflict resolution. Conflict contexts marked by genocide and crimes against humanity will be attended to, particularly in their post-crisis rehabilitation. Vulnerable populations, including women, girls, displaced peoples, refugees, people with disability, ex-combatants, will also receive attention through our exploration.
A significant portion of this course will also be devoted to laying the theoretical foundations of peace education given its central problematic of violence. For this course, peace education is understood as simultaneously education about and for peace. We will analyze real examples of formal and informal peace education initiatives in the context of their particular conflicts, assess the factors contributing to or hindering their efficacy, and propose interventions for project or program improvement, sustainability, monitoring, and evaluation in light of conflict resolution. Students will receive training on practical tools that will help them to develop peace education curriculum and projects with relevance to their area of interest. Thus, through this course, we will question assumptions about security and violence, in order to consider the consequences of educating people for a more secure or peaceful world. This course, characterized by peace pedagogy and participatory learning approaches, includes a wide variety of readings/videos, lectures, dialogue, student presentations, case studies, and guest speakers to elucidate the challenges related to the availability and implementation of education in countries before, during, and after conflict. The course will draw on academic writing (book chapters, journal articles), select media coverage, field worker accounts, international organization reports, UNICEF podcasts, and school-based curricula, among other mediums.
JUPS 405: Economic Justice: Literature, Popular Culture, Social Change
Spring 2013 – Lori Merish
This course will focus on the Occupy Movement as a response to economic inequality and as a window onto discourses and practices of the multi-faceted economic justice movement in the contemporary United States. We will pay special attention to the role of cultural productions, at key moments in history and in the present, in publicizing forms of economic inequality, class exploitation, and “economic violence,” and in mobilizing social change.
Suggested Electives
Fall 2013
This is an incomplete list! If you are a JUPS minor/certificate student and have found a course not on this list that you would like to take as a JUPS elective, please contact the Director, Andria Wisler, for approval. Other recommended courses include: Women and Gender Studies (WGST) courses, courses taught by professors on the PJP Advisory Board, and Community-based Learning (CBL) courses taught in any discipline.
Consortium Courses
The Consortium of Universities of the Washington Metropolitan Area, includes: American University, Catholic University of America, Gallaudet University, George Mason University, George Washington University, Georgetown University, Howard University, Joint Military Intelligence College, Marymount University, National Defense University, Southeastern University, Trinity University, University of the District of Columbia, and the University of Maryland-College Park.
Consortium enrollment is available on a space-available basis to degree-program students currently enrolled in a Consortium member school visiting another member school. For Links to Consortium standard Cross-Registration rules and procedures, Consortium schools' class schedules and academic calendars, plus standing list of courses excluded from Consortium registration, see the Consortium website.
See our listing of DC-area Peace, Justice, and Conflict Studies higher education programs under the Resources tab.
