KROC 510 Leadership and Organizations (3 units)(Roche; Spring 2023)

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 513 Program Design, Monitoring & Evaluation (3 units)(Gamaghelyan; Spring 2023)

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 522 Impact Evaluation (3 units)(Saraniero; Spring 2023)

Social innovation must be translated into actionable initiatives to achieve their intended goals. This course is designed to prepare students to design, monitor and evaluate social innovation initiatives. It provides essential knowledge for program design and management, including logical frameworks for monitoring and evaluation. Through this course students learn the skills and tools needed to implement basic methods used in impact evaluation, think critically about the issues involved with evaluating programs and apply various types of tools to systematize the planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of projects throughout the project cycle. This course will include an applied project conducted for a community organization.

KROC 524 Social Innovation Practicum: Grantmaking and Foundations (3 units)(Cordeiro, Spring 2023)

This Social Innovation practicum (3 credits) will be available for up to 4 students who have an interest in foundations and grantmaking. The practicum begins with examining different approaches to grantmaking including social entrepreneurship, effective altruism, venture philanthropy, social justice grantmaking, and strategic philanthropy. Students will learn the differences across these conceptual frameworks and understand how they influence the ways in which foundations establish goals, develop strategies, evaluate grantees, and determine grant awards. Learners will explore readings and videos about the history and types of foundations; legal frameworks; 990s and financial statements; and key progress indicators in grantmaking. Once this module is completed, students will begin the applied work of the practicum.

The practicum will be in partnership with the Kasperik Foundation (KF) a San Diego-based family foundation that primarily works internationally with micro-finance social enterprises. Learners will research NGOs that qualify as candidates for KF grants; prepare letters of interest for approved candidates; coordinate the application process and review completed applications and supporting for selected programs. Finally, students will review and compile KPIs from quarterly and annual reports submitted by funded partners.

A stipend is provided to each student.

For more information and to register, please contact Professor Paula Cordeiro cordeiro@sandiego.edu. This class is by instructor approval and application only.

KROC 531 Intervention Design (3 units)(Federman; Spring 2023)

The Intervention Design course is a required course for the MS-CMR program. It provides a framework for students to synthesize and apply knowledge and practical skills gained during the program to create a specific conflict management/resolution project. The course is also a chance to create a key Kroc School Portfolio item that students can showcase to prospective employers, donors, or partners.

Throughout the course students will learn how to do the following:

1. Conduct conflict analysis
2. Identify and frame a critical need or problem within that conflict context and translate that need or problem into an actionable goal.
3. Develop a robust literature review and theory of change, demonstrating an ability to apply the learning from the program to develop a theoretically-grounded approach to the problem.
4. Recognize various intervention design strategies ranging from program design and action research to applied research and advocacy in order to choose an appropriate one for the particular context.
5. Integrate a number of conflict management and resolution approaches to develop a course of action and recommendations that result in outcomes that culminate in the conceived goal.
6. Create a robust and persuasive written, visual and oral presentation of the intervention.

KROC 590 Intercultural Competency (2 units)(Roche; Spring 2023)

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 590 Peace & Spirituality (2 units)(Sharp; Spring 2023)

This course will support students in cultivating a practice of reflection and resilience. Students and the instructor together will explore faith, spirituality, and contemplative practice in the context of their personal experience and work as peacebuilders and changemakers. Spiritual concepts will be accompanied by insights from scientific research including neuroscience and other disciplines. Readings will also include more secular and philosophical perspectives on what it means to live an “examined life.” The course will begin at the micro level with an examination of the self, the nature of consciousness, and other existential introspective themes, before moving to the more meso and macro levels where we will investigate the relationship between inner peace and outer peace. The latter will include (1) the ways in which spiritual faith and practice can both motivate and sustain peacebuilding work, including by helping to cope with issues of stress and burnout; and (2) the ways in which spiritual practices can be integrated into peacebuilding programs. While students will be encouraged to pursue a wide variety of spiritual practices, as a class we will spend a significant amount of time together learning and practicing mindfulness and lovingkindness meditations.

KROC 590 Social Movements (2 units)(Choi-Fitzpatrick; Spring 2023)

The world we want to live in is often very different from the world we find ourselves in. While the goals of peace and justice are laudable, the process of getting from here to there often involves creative struggle. It’s the job of people, prophets, poets, artists, and academics to describe the world we want to live in. It’s the job of social movements to help get us there. It’s the job of formal politics and established institutions to make these changes part of the permanent status quo. This class will introduce you to the Big Five ingredients for every major movement you’ve ever heard of, those you’ve never heard of, and those that failed altogether. The result will be an ability to think about particular movements in their broader perspective, to understand movements’ underlying principles, and to gain a clearer grasp on where you fit in the changemaking process.

KROC 590 Race, Gender and Place (2 units)(Nguyễn; Spring 2023)

This course will provide an overview of the complex dynamics of race and ethnicity and how these have shaped rural and urban places in America. It will examine historical and modern-day literature and multimedia to probe the ways in which race, ethnicity, and gender have contributed to the culture of rural and urban areas in the United States. The course will draw upon multiple knowledge systems to cover a multitude of topics including colonization, social construction of race and class, gender, immigration, residential segregation, and climate change. In each class meeting, there will be a discussion on how these topics contribute to inequality and conflict in space and the potential for change.

KROC 590 Criminal Justice Practicum (2 units)(Deaton; Spring 2023)

Following the Fall Criminal Justice course, this practicum will provide a practice-based overview of the American criminal justice system from arrest through post-conviction from the perspective of justice system operators. The students will apply their theoretical knowledge as they observe court proceedings, visit crime laboratories, and hear from justice system operators including investigators, probation and pretrial officers, judicial officers and attorneys. 

 This will be a practice-based course with site visits to jails and detention facilities, pre-trial and probation offices and laboratories, and federal and state courts where the students will observe court proceedings and meet one or more judges.

KROC 590 Narratives of War, Peace and Justice (2 units)(Federman; Spring 2023)

Narratives the Self and Other as well as stories about past glories and traumas can entrench us further into conflict or help create pathways out. When we create interventions without also addressing poorly formed stories at best we only create short term solutions. At worst, we may deepen divides. The best interventions also seek to support healthy narrative ecologies. Together we will consider how narratives operate in conflict and how to engage with completing storylines to support these healthier, more conflict resilient communities. We will begin by studying the role of narrative in conflict. With this understanding, students will engage in role plays on diverse topics such as male guardianship in Saudi Arabia, NFL national anthem policy, and a South Carolina monument removal debate to practice expressing and responding to different viewpoints. Students will also create their own simulations on a conflict that interests them. This research project requires students to understand and articulate a conflict from multiple viewpoints and find ways to engage others in understanding that landscape.

KROC 592 WKSH: Stress Resilience: Science and Practice (1 unit) (Hanessian; Spring 2023)

Working with populations exposed to potentially traumatic events, stress is not only unavoidable, but highly transferable. This interactive, experiential workshop, delivered in four modules over four weeks, will explore the science and practice of stress resilience. Developing foundational knowledge about the role of stress and its impact on the brain, body, cognition, and behavior helps practitioners strengthen capacities of critical awareness and flexibility for perspective and agency, and avoid burnout and secondary trauma in the field. A basic understanding of the science of stress processes and protective factors, integrated with individual and group practice of core skill-sets, will provide a framework for developing stress resilience and cultivating personal and professional sustainability.

KROC 592 WKSH: Social Media Marketing (1 unit) (Campbell; Spring 2023)

This course introduces the student to the complexities, challenges, and opportunities that social media creates for marketers. The course covers topics including the role of social media in marketing, conducting a social media audit, creating and managing brand presences on social media, creating unpaid and paid social content, native advertising and influencers, and differences with online video. There is a dual focus on strategic understanding and tactical campaign development.

KROC 593 San Diego Practicum (3 units)(Deaton; Spring 2023)

In this field-based practicum, the students will use different advocacy approaches to work on grassroots issues in the San Diego/Tijuana region. The location of the Kroc School at the U.S.-Mexico border provides a plethora of issues uniquely related to the international border.  During the course, the students will be engaged with three hands-on projects that will be student-driven with the supervision of the professor.

KROC 593 Field-based Practicum: Northern Ireland (3 units)(Fryer; May 2023)

The ongoing challenge of creating a sustainable peace in Northern Ireland has been well-documented and studied over the past 50 years. While the Good Friday peace agreement of 1998 brought about an end to widespread political violence, the challenges facing those working toward making Northern Ireland a more peaceful place remain significant. The fragile status of the peace agreement has been challenged by the emerging and ongoing dynamics associated with Brexit. This course will engage with the people and organizations who’ve been working toward peace and reconciliation since 1965 and the work they’ve inspired. It will engage with the complex realities of attempts to bring about sustainable peace within contexts of a post-industrial economic climate that was shaped by identity politics. It will highlight the pioneering approaches people in Northern Ireland have taken to social innovation, establishing a just and fair society, responding to the challenges of multi-layered, historied distrust and the ongoing challenges of political instability.

KROC 593 Peacebuilding in the Southern Caucasus (3 units)(Gamaghelyan; May 2023)

Following decades of protracted conflicts in Eurasia, the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine further destabilized also the countries of South Caucasus (Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia) and is poised to leave a long-lasting mark on our understanding of international conflict and peacebuilding. In parallel, hundreds of official, grassroots, NGO, and academic initiatives pro-actively advance a peace agenda. The course looks into an array of peacebuilding efforts, ranging from government-led to grassroots and academic initiatives in the South Caucasus and its neighborhood, including in Ukraine, Turkey, and Russia. The students will have the opportunity to meet and observe the work of practitioners tackling complex questions of conflict and peace on Track 1, Track 2, and the grassroots levels.

KROC 594 Reimagining Capitalism: Business as a Force for Good (3 units) (Roche, Spring 2023)

Is the capitalist system the evil of our time or the savior of our future? Are businesses the cause of society’s most pressing problems or could they be instead part of the solution? How can business and entrepreneurial ingenuity contribute to reduce poverty and wealth inequality, protect the environment and natural resources, create community and social values, provide education and health services, reduce gender inequality and migration issues? Can the capitalist system, which is powered by individualism, ambition and a competitive spirit, evolve to be more humane and conscious of social problems? In a nutshell, what paradigms need to change in the business world and in society to make the market system a pillar for lasting positive peace in the world?

Working with real-life business cases, students in this course will be able to examine and critically analyze the above questions. From big businesses to small entrepreneurial examples, the course will provide tools to tackle social issues using proven and innovative business techniques and models. In short, this course focuses on the recently explored intersection between business and social innovation. Phills et al. define social innovation as “a novel solution to a social problem that is more effective, efficient, sustainable or just than existing solutions and for which the value created accrues primarily to society as a whole rather than private individuals.”  Social innovation is about generating transformative ideas and initiatives that meet unmet needs and attempt to create a “new equilibrium” that is socially superior to the status quo.

By the end of the course, students work in teams to develop a sustainability project for an existing company or a new entrepreneurial venture. The business initiative must create social value for all relevant stakeholders and society at large and show how it contributes to positive peace. All of the projects must be cross-functional in nature, so that students use the full spectrum of knowledge and skills that they have acquired during this course.

KROC 594 Community Advocacy, Organization, and Development (3 units)(Nguyễn; Spring 2023)

Communities are groups of people with shared norms, religion, values, or identity. They may or may not share the same geographical place. In general, community development is the process of discovering and activating individual capacities and assets, organizing them to build power and resources, and connecting them with larger institutions to devise solutions for community identified problems. Community development includes a wide range of issues that include housing, education, employment, business development, health, recreation, transportation, and other related issues. This course will focus on how organizers, advocates, and practitioners can help mobilize people and influence policy decisions to enhance community well-being.

Using the City of San Diego, California as a case study, this course will provide an overview of historical and contemporary urban policies and systems that shape the urban spaces and the people that live, work, and play in them.

KROC 594 Values, Principles, and Practices of Restorative Justice (3 units)(Horrigan; Spring 2023)

Restorative justice is not a list of specific programs or a clear blueprint for systemic change. It is a theory, social movement, and set of practices that requires a radically different way of understanding and responding to individual and community needs. In this course, we will explore restorative justice and the ideas that form its foundation, question its strengths and shortcomings, examine restorative practices, and investigate opportunities to put theory into practice. We will learn together about the Indigenous origins of restorative justice and how it has been shaped by modern systems. We will think about a framework for conflict resolution that asks first who was harmed and thinks broadly about whose responsibility it is to right the wrong. We will then consider this framework as it applies to some of the most pressing social problems in contemporary society, namely racial inequality and gender-based violence. Students will conclude the course by facilitating a learning experience for peers on an area of interest in the restorative justice field.

KROC 594 Organizational Conflict (3 units)(Fryer; Spring 2023)

Healthy organizations have cultures that are conflict resilient. Similar to understanding and predicting weather patterns, it’s possible to recognize the dynamics present within organizations that carry the potential for conflict. Effective leadership at various levels within an organization are aware of this and have the tools and insights that help them resolve these challenges. Conflicts within teams often emerge when the external environment changes, the purpose or mission shifts, new ways of working are introduced or a dysfunctional structure or culture creates a toxic working environment. This course will engage with theoretical frameworks and introduce students to the lenses and tools and mindsets that will enable them to foster and support resilient workplaces.
The course will use teaching methodologies including case studies, lectures, and experiential learning approaches.

KROC 594 Project Design and Grant Writing (3 units)(Blum; Spring 2023)

This course will contain two key components: project design and grantwriting. It’s core purpose is to teach students how to design effective projects that create impact and then how to turn that project design into a successful grant proposal. At the core of virtually all nonprofit and social change work is the project. Projects are how nonprofits plan their work and executive their mission. Projects cannot create change, however, if they do not get funded. Therefore, grantwriting is an essential professional skill that all those working in nonprofits need to master. During the course, students will work through the entire funding process, from designing their project, to researching funding opportunities, to developing their proposal and budget to submit.

KROC 595 Wrestling with Wokeness Reading Group (1 unit)(Sharp; Spring 2023)

In recent years, acute awareness of ongoing social, racial, gender, and other injustices—wokeness—has aroused much-needed energy and attention, but has also raised difficult questions: how do we reconcile the at times understandable righteousness of cancel-culture with freedom of speech? Might the push for trigger warnings and safe spaces makes us more fragile and less resilient? At what point does the push to be more sensitive in our thinking and speech actually stymie the very honest and open conversations we need to have in a pluralistic society committed to diversity? How do we assess the tensions and tradeoffs when claims by one group of social justice activists appear to clash with those of another group? In what ways is social justice advocacy fed by political polarization, and it what ways does it contribute to political polarization? Why do so many activists seem to think the world is getting worse and worse when there is evidence to the contrary? In this reading group, we will engage the work of a number of contemporary writers who have wrestled with these and other questions relating to wokeness in various ways. Some writers celebrate the new spirit of activism for social change, while others eye it with a degree of ambivalence and worry that it may lead to backlash. This will include readings from both the left and right of the political spectrum. You are also almost guaranteed to agree with some, while vehemently disagreeing with others. You may find some writers challenging, engaging, thought provoking, and even offensive all at the same time. In such cases, a thoughtful critique of the critique will always be welcome and encouraged. We will try to keep the discussions open and informal with enough chocolate and coffee to fuel dialogue.