KROC 500 Foundations: Peace, Justice & Social Change (3 units)(Meade, Choi-Fitzpatrick, Fryer; Fall 2020)
The course introduces students to a series of big ideas for making the world more peaceful and just, and how to apply them in shaping their own lives and careers of purpose. The first half of the course features lectures and discussion sections that explore foundational theories behind peace, justice, and social innovation, where they overlap, and where they are in tension. The second half of the course explores specific fields of inquiry and practice in a more intimate setting, with an emphasis on comparing diverse approaches to common problems. Throughout the course, students will be challenged not simply to learn a spectrum of ideas and practices, but to understand how they fit together, where and how to learn more, and how to craft their own educational and professional trajectories so that they can part of the change they want to see in the world. This process has four essential elements: 1) building an inclusive, resilient, and productive culture; 2) getting everyone up to speed on the defining aspects of our field; 3) introducing the unique expertise and experience of Kroc School faculty and staff; and 4) helping you to turn your passion for positive social change into a career.
KROC 510 Leadership and Organizations (3 units)(Roche; Fall 2020, Spring 2021)
Students in this course gain understanding about their personal purpose, goals and leadership style and begin to create their own plan to gain agency and grow as adaptive leaders. The course prepares students to become effective leaders in the peace and justice field by bringing core concepts and theories about leadership, organizations and change alive through experiential learning, case analysis, individual assessment, and self-reflection.
KROC 511 Peace and Conflict Analysis (3 units)(Gamagheylan; Fall 2020)(Carpenter; Fall 2020)
This course is designed to familiarize students with the interdisciplinary fields of peace and conflict analysis, providing an overview of core concepts of contemporary theory and practice. The course will examine frameworks for analyzing the origins and processes of social conflict and violence, and leading practical approaches to the conduct and evaluation of conflict resolution interventions. Our study will focus on intergroup and international levels of analysis, highlighting the roles of culture, identity, power, relational dynamics, and social structures. The first half of the course emphasizes conflict analysis; the second half emphasizes approaches to conflict resolution.
The course will employ diverse methods and media, including lectures, discussions, interactive exercises, film, written assignments, and a project proposal development. The course features experiential learning activities that provide opportunities for practical application of course concepts. Active participation in every class is essential; readings are always necessary but never sufficient for learning the material.
KROC 512 International Justice & Human Rights (3 units)(Sharp, Fall 2020)
This course is an introduction to human rights at the level of intellectual theory and discourse and at the level of “real world” action, controversy and struggle. It examines the moral, philosophical, legal and political bases for international human rights, as well as the complex cocktail of actors and organizations involved in human rights advocacy and enforcement. Other specific topics—including transitional justice, R2P, torture, the law of war, and gender-based repression—will vary from semester to semester and instructor to instructor.
KROC 513 Program Design, Monitoring & Evaluation (3 units)(McDougal; Fall 2020 & Spring 2021)
Starting with a solid understanding of the evolution of thinking and practice among key development and peacebuilding actors, this course is designed to prepare students to design, monitor and evaluate peacebuilding programs and project. Students will not only understand best practices in project design and management but also learn the skills and tools necessary to effectively carry out projects.
KROC 521 Social Innovation (3 units)(Choi-Fitzpatrick; Fall 2020)
In this introductory course to social innovation, students are introduced to the strategies and processes for creating social change through innovation. Students learn by interacting with social and political entrepreneurs, activists, organizations, and social movements in San Diego/Tijuana. Students analyze cases of individuals and groups who have catalyzed important positive social change through different organizational platforms – in the market, in government, within the nonprofit sector, and increasingly in the space between these three sectors. Throughout the course, students examine social innovation connecting field experiences with readings and in-class discussions. They are introduced in action to the tools and methodologies of participatory innovation, design thinking and measurement and evaluation.
KROC 523 Social Entrepreneurship (3 units)(Cordeiro; Fall 2020)
How can we translate ideas into sustainable initiatives with social impact? In this course students develop the mindset and capabilities of entrepreneurs or intrapreneurs for social change. Through the design of real world projects, students learn key elements for designing sustainable initiatives that create a new social equilibrium better than what existed before: value proposition, financial modeling, measurement and evaluation, among others.
KROC 530 Conflict Analysis & Resolution (3 units) This course is on hold for AY20-21. MS-CMR students can take KROC 511 Peace & Conflict Analysis to satisfy this requirement.
This course will examine how conflicts are identified and analyzed, from low-level political violence to major armed conflict and what theories and tools exist to resolve these conflicts. Students will read classic works in this interdisciplinary field, gaining an understanding of the different scholarly approaches taken to prevent and resolve armed conflict. Students will work in teams on particular case studies, applying theories learned.
KROC 532 Mediation (3 units) (Gamaghelyan; Fall 2020)
This course will focus on skill-building in mediation. Students will learn and practice a variety of tools and methods of mediating conflicts and disputes. Our experiential class will be divided between learning the traditional mediation skills, practice, and theory, including the benefits and limitations of mediation as a dispute resolution method on the one hand, and alternative approaches to mediation on the other. The alternative models will include the needs analysis-based Problem-Solving Workshop, the narrative analysis-based Mediation of History, and the Evolving Designs model aimed at work in multi-party environments.
After taking this course, students will be able to: differentiate among various mediation processes; distinguish between interest-based and needs-based approaches; differentiate between the traditional and alternative mediation practices; demonstrate awareness in regard to ethical dilemmas of mediation practices; possess the skills to serve as a mediator; design and lead context-appropriate mediation processes.
KROC 571 Immigration and Asylum in Practice (3 units)(Meade; Fall 2020) This course satisfies the field-based course / practicum requirement for MAPJ students in AY20-21.
The course begins with a comprehensive review of the origins and substance of U.S. immigration and asylum law, with a special emphasis on how they interface with the broader history of international humanitarian and human rights norms. Students will then work with staff of the Trans-Border Initiative (TBI) to provide expert testimony for asylum claims filed by individuals fleeing persecution in contemporary Mexico and Central America. Working with the most important national and local networks of pro bono immigration attorneys in the country, the students will assist TBI staff in verifying and reinforcing the most important facts and claims in each case, and preparing effective, thorough, and well-documented expert testimony. Students will mobilize the underlying research and their experience working on the individual cases to develop policy briefs of specific aspects of immigration and asylum policy. Each student will produce a significant written contribution to at least one actual asylum case, one fact sheet, and one policy brief to be published by TBI. In addition to a broad introduction to immigration and asylum law grounded in the practice of real-world cases, the students will learn to work collaboratively, designing and dividing up particular research tasks on hard deadlines, and they will learn to ask effective questions of the lawyers, the asylum seekers, and a variety of experts. The course will meet once per week for 3 hours, and students will be expected to complete approximately 10 hours per week of reading and research.
KROC 572 Transitional Justice (3 units)(Sharp; Fall 2020)
This course examines the range of possible legal, institutional and policy frameworks that have been marshaled in an attempt to respond to large-scale human rights atrocities in the wake of conflict, from tribunals to truth commissions and beyond. It also examines debates about stopping ongoing mass atrocities through “humanitarian intervention” and the “responsibility to protect” doctrine.
KROC 590 Data Visualization & Analytics (2 units)(McDougal; Fall 2020)
Long considered a “soft” area of practice, more art than science, peacebuilding and its adjacent professional fields increasingly rely on using data to design, garner support for, and evaluate their initiatives. Data visualization comprises a powerful set of tools and techniques used to explore and present information. Combined with program research skills and fluency in statistics, it can help us understand problems we confront, interventions we craft to solve them, and the effects of those interventions. It can help us to communicate, telling visual stories that can convince our target audience, be they colleagues, policymakers, funders, or the general public. This course is designed to cultivate basic data visualization and statistical skills that can provide a solid professional advantage on the job market.
Students will be able to:
- Identify relevant and appropriate strategies for designing visualizations based on data structure and availability, intended story, and target audience;
- Use and compare two (or more) different software packages to make similar visualizations;
- Find, clean, and use relevant data from multiple different sources online;
- Apply design principles in the creation of data visualizations;
- Critique and analyze data visualizations;
- Recognize and apply some basic concepts in statistics.
KROC 590 Effective Grant Writing (2 units)(Blum; Fall 2020)
This course will help students develop the skills necessary to develop high-quality grant proposals for foundations and government funders. During the course, students will work through the entire proposal process, from researching funding opportunities, to analyzing requests for proposals, to designing their project, to developing their proposal and budget to submit. Every aspect of this course will be hands-on. Throughout the course students will play the role of grant writer and develop and submit a full-fledged grant proposal. At the end of the class students will be put in the role of funder and decide which of the proposals submitted by their colleagues deserve to be funded.
KROC 590 Intercultural Competency (2 units)(Roche; Fall 2020)
Based on the extensive research in anthropology, cross-cultural psychology, leadership, and organizational behavior, the course reviews the impact of culture on leaders and their followers at the national, group, and organizational levels. It provides a thorough review of relevant theories and applies them to helping students develop the cultural mindset that is essential to effective peace leadership in today’s global and interconnected world. This course will focus on building an awareness of cultural differences, cultural biases, and cultural adaptation. Students will develop cultural sensitivity that encompasses verbal, physical, and emotional differences in cultural expression.
KROC 592 WKSH: Design Thinking (1 unit)(Cordeiro; Fall 2020)
This workshop provides an opportunity for students to experience the process of Design Thinking. Students in this course gain insight and understanding on the mindsets needed to engage in the design process. It prepares students to use Design Thinking strategies to engage in social change and social innovation projects.
KROC 592 WKSH: The Peacebuilder (1 unit)(Fryer; Fall 2020)
The slow process of building peace is multi-layered, deeply challenging and absent of quick fixes. The work of making the world a more peaceful place hinges in no small part on the person of the peacebuilder. In addition to learning theory, methods of analysis, and the complex and rigorous work of managing, resolving and transforming conflict, the work of peace requires deep personal and communal resources rooted in an ability to reflect and engage with our surroundings and ourselves. The art of noticing is at the heart of effective peace work. This workshop will reflect on what Joseph Campbell describes as the labyrinth that we will use as an analogy for peace work. As we stand looking at two potential paths, someone somewhere, has been in this position before. Practical advice exists about which way to turn, what to expect along that path and the reasons why it might be wise to turn left and not right. Much can be gained from acknowledged mistakes but a map giving some tips and advice would at times be very helpful. This guidance and accompaniment can be found in the stories of peace practitioners around the world as well as through reflecting on our own experiences.
Across the world, grassroots peace leaders have developed the disciplines that enable them to overcome constant setbacks while still holding on to their vision. While the world faces increasingly complex problems and significant costs of violence, those working to address these problems need clarity of purpose, creativity, and capacity to sustain their well-being for the long haul. The workshop will lead students to (re)connect with the core values and motivations needed to sustain people who try to make the world a more peaceful place. We will explore concepts and associations around the term peacebuilder, encourage students to understand their own motivations and how they describe their work. Time will be spent in the classroom and also outside. The outside learning will involve walking. Please let the instructor know if you have mobility issues and please wear comfortable footwear.
KROC 594 Race, Ethnicity, Religion: Social Identities (3 units)(Carpenter; Fall 2020)
Most contemporary conflicts center in one way or another on ethnic, national and religious identities. But why? What causes us to become mobilized to conflict over particular identities, like nationality, race, ethnicity or religion? This interdisciplinary course touches on sociology, psychology, ethnic studies, critical race theory, history, science, feminism, media, and art to explain how beliefs about identity influences personal and group level motivations people bring to intergroup conflict. Focusing on contemporary issues (with reference to historical trends), we will examine our own “lived experiences” of social identities in conflict and conflict transformation. We will examine discourses and practices of racism, xenophobia, misogyny and other forms of intolerance along with their structural sources, and the institutional ways that discrimination and inequality operate. We will study how people have resisted inequality, worked to create new systems of change, and engaged in transformational and liberatory politics. Ultimately, we will gain a deeper understanding of how identity is embedded in context, how identity is manipulated for political ends, and how identity conflict may be managed and/or transformed.
KROC 595 Black Markets Reading Group (1 unit)(McDougal; Fall 2020)
Whenever a good or service is made illegal, profit margins rise along with risks of being caught. As a result, participation in illicit (or “black”) markets can be as dangerous as it is lucrative. In recent years, a combination of technological advances and trade liberalization policies have facilitated the rapid growth of globalized trafficking routes. These networks facilitate the transportation of vast quantities and dizzying varieties of contraband: illegal narcotics and other drugs, human chattel for sex and labor, endangered animal species, human organs, small arms and ammunition, nuclear bomb-making technologies, potentially dangerous counterfeit products, and personal data, to name a few. This reading group will focus on some of the illicit markets that bear most heavily on peace and justice outcomes. It will explore the relationships between different black markets, their interdependencies with licit economies, the threats they pose to institutions of governance, and the question of why and when to make something illegal in the first place.
KROC 595 Protest, Revolution, and Social Change Reading Group (1 unit) (Choi-Fitzpatrick; Fall 2020)
Disruptive politics are a critical mechanism for holding the powerful to account, and for cultivating and accelerating social change. This reading group will explore the moment we are in, from novel forms of dissent during COVID to the antiracist protests that have forced the public to check its conscience and institutions to initiate change. This group will also explore the longer legacies and deeper lessons that these current events draw from. This includes the movements for civil rights, gender equality, gay liberation, the environment, and against war, in ‘60s and ‘70s in America. This group will also explore the broader context contemporary struggles operate within, including transnational activist networks to address climate change, economic inequality, gender discrimination, and human rights more broadly.
KROC 596 Internship Preparation (0 units) (Newman; Fall 2020)
The Internship preparation pathway for MAPJ students was amended by faculty for AY20-21. Students will only have to enroll in a fall 0-unit seminar, led by the Coordinator of Student Success, to support you with identifying and preparing for a successful internship placement.
PJS 594 Capstone Preparation Seminar (0 units) (Fryer; Fall 2020)
The Capstone Seminar is the first part of a yearlong course to help students design and develop (in the Capstone Prep Seminar) and finally execute (in the Capstone Development Seminar) their Capstone projects.
The purpose of the Prep Seminar is to guide and support you in developing your Capstone proposal (also called a prospectus). By the end of this seminar, you will have decided whether you will be doing an applied-peace Capstone or a research Capstone, and more specifically what you will work on. For applied-peace Capstone students, this may mean identifying a social issue with a proposed theory of change to address it, and a project prospectus that details how this will be implemented in the intersession and spring semester. For research Capstone students, this may entail crafting a viable research question and hypotheses, detailing methods to be employed, and assembling those pieces in a brief research prospectus.