KROC 500 Foundations: Peace, Justice & Social Change (3 units)(Sharp, Tschirgi, Gamaghelyan; Fall 2021)

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 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)(Fryer; Fall 2021)

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 2021)

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 515 Environmental Peace & Justice (3 units)(McDougal; Fall 2021)

Evidence is mounting that unprecedented economic growth experienced by human societies has induced a state of crisis for the Earth’s ecological systems. Many of the public goods provided by them – fresh water, clean air, abundant fisheries, nutritious soils, low sea levels, and moderate weather, to name a few – are increasingly at risk. Their failure poses existential threats to the societies humans have collectively built over millennia, and heightens the risk of violent conflict. This course will critically examine connections between the three legs of the proverbial sustainable development stool: environment, economy, and peace. We will explore specific issues in an applied, place-based framework, focusing on ways of understanding larger challenges as they manifest themselves in the San Diego region. We will also ask fundamental questions about environmental sustainability: How do current development paradigms create environmental conflicts? What role can we expect technology to play in offsetting our ecological impact or solving our conflicts over scarce resources? What does environmental justice look like? And ultimately, what are our prospects for peace and progress in the face of environmental peril? Class time will be spent on a combination of exploratory field trips, discussions, debates, and participatory community engagement. Deliverables will include reflective journal-keeping, an issue brief, a policy memo, and a final project.

KROC 521 Social Innovation (3 units)(Roche; Fall 2021)

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 2021)

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)(Fryer; Fall 2021)

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) (Fryer, Gamaghelyan; Fall 2021) 

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 570 War, Gender and Peacebuilding (2 units)(Tschirgi; Fall 2021) 

This course explores the peacebuilding roles that women play in conflict zones around the world. Like traditional courses, it will include an introduction to gender and peacebuilding and an analysis of women’s leadership in human rights activism and conflict resolution. However, this unique course is built around the involvement of four women peacemakers from conflict zones around the world who will play an active role in the classroom and help us explore how power, oppression, and gendered identities contribute to war and peace from the personal to the societal levels. Through a series of expert lectures, case studies, interactive exercises, and mixed media presentations, students will gain increased understanding about gender and peacebuilding, including the gendered drivers of conflict, and the different roles women and men play supporting, preventing, mitigating, and resolving conflict.

KROC 571 Immigration and Asylum in Practice (3 units)(Deaton; Fall 2021)

The course begins with an overview of U.S. immigration and asylum policy and how it interfaces with global migration, war, revolution, and climate change. We examine the critical role that race, class, ethnicity and country of origin, and gender played in the development of U.S. immigration law and policy, and how they impact policies today. We look at U.S. asylum policy and examine the role of international law in its implementation. Does the United States comply with the 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol?

Turning to immigration issues confronting us today, we examine immigration policies of current and prior administrations, including DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals), family separation, the criminalization of immigration, asylum and other topics. We look at issues specific to our Mexican-American border at San Ysidro, CA.

This course satisfies the MAPJ field-based course requirement with the final project (50% of the grade), where the students will have a broad range of opportunities to engage in fieldwork with a local organization or complete a practically oriented research and writing project.

KROC 590 Facilitation & Dialogue Skills (2 units)(Fryer; Fall 2021)

The aim of this 2-unit course is to introduce, reinforce and encourage the core skills required by practitioners facilitating dialogue. They incorporate both the design and facilitation of conversational space. They complement the skills used by mediators and focus of the class will be on a broad range of methodologies that can be used by someone shaping and holding such spaces. Whereas the process of mediation aims to bring about some form of agreement or settlement, the focus of a facilitated dialogue is to encourage deeper understanding of another perspective.  We will therefore examine how to establish the structure of facilitated dialogue, how to build trust in the process and develop rapport with conflict parties and the important role culture plays throughout it all. A strong focus will be placed on the ethical considerations for third party interveners and lessons identified by practitioners from around the world will be used each week along with examples from conflicts such as Northern Ireland, and Nepal.

Students will develop and practice the transferable skills that are the foundation of all effective facilitation and dialogue. A variety of methodologies, simulations, exercises and case studies will offer opportunities for training and coaching as we explore the nature and dynamics of the contexts within which facilitation and dialogue occurs in the field of peacebuilding and reconciliation work.

KROC 590 Data Visualization & Analytics (2 units)(McDougal; Fall 2021)

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:

1. Identify relevant and appropriate strategies for designing visualizations based on data structure and availability, intended story, and target audience;
2. Use and compare two (or more) different software packages to make similar visualizations;
3. Find, clean, and use relevant data from multiple different sources online;
4. Apply design principles in the creation of data visualizations;
5. Critique and analyze data visualizations;
6. Recognize and apply some basic concepts in statistics.

KROC 590 Effective Grant Writing (2 units)(Blum; Fall 2021)

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 592 WKSH: Design Thinking (1 unit)(Rivas; Fall 2021)

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 2021)

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 592 MAPJ Honors Prospectus Workshop (1 unit)(McDougal; Fall 2021)

An MAPJ Honors Project is akin to a Master’s Thesis; the option to craft one is made available to dedicated MAPJ students who wish to produce a piece of in-depth research and have consistently demonstrated high academic aptitude. Accordingly, no student with a cumulative graduate GPA of below 3.6 will be admitted. The MAPJ Honors Project Prospectus Workshop is the first part of a 4-credit, yearlong course to help students in the MAPJ program to design (in the 1-credit Honors Project ProspectusWorkshop) and finally execute (in the 3-credit Honors Project Development Seminar) their Honors Projects.

The purpose of the Prospectus Workshop is to guide and support you in developing your Honors Project proposal (also called a prospectus). By the end of this seminar, you will have decided what problem or question to tackle, what it’s a case of, what the unsolved puzzle is, and how you will go about investigating it. This will entail crafting a viable research question and hypotheses, detailing methods to be employed, and assembling those pieces in a brief research prospectus.

KROC 596 Internship Preparation (0 units) (Valiente-Neighbours; Fall 2021)
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.

KROC 597 Professional Portfolio (1 unit) (Cordeiro; Fall 2021)

The Kroc School equips changemakers. This course will help you to link the concepts, skills, and work-products developed in your time here with the professional requirements of the sector you wish to enter or return to upon graduation. In particular, this course will provide the time and support required to compile a professional portfolio composed of the items specified by your degree program.

Central to the Portfolio is a Curriculum Vitae highlighting your accomplishments to date. The Portfolio will also include a Reflective Essay, which serves as a coherent framework for drawing together lessons learned from your graduate studies at the Kroc School, and articulate your professional goals and trajectory. It should build upon your CV and draw upon a body of coursework and critical reflection. The essay should explain why the projects and documents completed in core courses and electives and/or practicum were selected for inclusion in the portfolio and how they are illustrative of the student’s learning.

The rest of the Portfolio consists of work products specified as eligible to include in guidelines for the MA in Peace and Justice, MA in Social Innovation, and MS in Conflict Management and Resolution. These can include policy memos, strategy memos, blogs, newspaper or magazine articles, grant applications, or book reviews.

Over the course of seven class meetings we will work to identify and refine these work products, such that they showcase your best work for a professional audience. Upon completion, students will be able to:

1. Articulate a clear narrative about their time at USD, and its connection to their professional objectives.
2. Highlight their accomplishments through a polished resume.
3. Showcase professionally valuable skills and abilities