SPI Online 2021

Jayne Docherty and Myriam Aziz 

Live online course dates and times:

• M, W: 9:00am - 11:30am(EDT)

If you are not on the east coast of the US, click here and add your city/country to see the time difference.

Analysis (PAX 533) focuses on understanding the factors that cause conflict and violence and those that support peacebuilding and social justice. Good conflict and injustice analysis skills are a central component of designing effective strategies for promoting social change that transforms conflicts and supports justice. 

 In this course, we will engage with each other and with course materials to develop and refine our skills for analyzing situations of conflict and injustice in order to identify opportunities for transformative action. We will use a variety of analytical models or lenses, including identity (gender, religion, nationality, etc.), human needs, narrative, power, culture, worldview, and others to understand conflict. We will also work with case studies of conflicts at multiple social levels (personal, relational, structural, and cultural) to practice our analysis skills and identify opportunities to take action. 

 Participants will also practice self-analysis skills by paying attention to their own roles and biases in conflicts and how that affects their ability to “see” and describe conflict from different perspectives. The class will also focus on research strategies for gathering and organizing data and developing theories of change as an intermediate step from analysis to designing effective social change. For the final project, participants will select a situation and conduct their own analysis. 

The course will be taught using a combination of asynchronous (self-paced) activities and synchronous activities. This course is for academic credit only. It requires participation in synchronous sessions on Mondays and Wednesdays May 17-June16 and follow-up assignments due in July and August. Course work to be completed by August 20.

 Syllabus

Ram Bhagat

Live online course dates and times:

• M, W: 2:00pm - 4:30pm(EDT)

If you are not on the east coast of the US, click here and add your city/country to see the time difference.

Building Resilience for Challenging Systemic Racism (BRCSR) is a five-week synchronous course rooted in the values of Restorative Justice. The class meets on Mondays and Wednesdays from 2:00-4:30 pm. BRCSR is a  ‘journey towards revelation,’ incorporating culturally responsive circle processes that encourage participants to unpack historical harms and uncoil the DNA of racial injustices. This seminal quote by Audre Lorde, “The master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house,” reveals the necessity for a culturally responsive approach to racial equity, healing, and justice. Consequently, BRCSR is centered around the perennial indigenous African principles of Ubuntu and Sawubona (inter- connectedness and inter-resilience). BRCSR empowers advocates, allies, activists, and abolitionists to fully engage in an open and honest dialogue about racism and oppression in the United States specifically, as well as other countries with distinct color lines, such as Brazil, South Africa, and India. This course explores Urban Trauma® and Restorative Practices from the perspective of the American-African cultural experience. These critical methodologies provide a framework to enlighten participants about the traumagenic effects of language on BIPOC communities throughout the diaspora. Dr. Bhagat and a carefully selected team of diverse co-facilitators will help participants create a safe and brave space to dissect, deconstruct, and decolonize proverbial myths, beliefs, and practices that perpetuate racism and oppression. Elements of Community Trustbuilding and Truthtelling, Ritual Poetic Drama, and Restorative Justice Theater will be employed to promote self-justice. Collectively, we will formulate holistic approaches for self-healing and community healing, through a world cafe of drumming, dance, drama, and dialogue.

Syllabus

 

Kathy Evans and Martha Brown

Live online course dates and times:

• M, Th: 11am - 2pm(EDT)

If you are not on the east coast of the US, click here and add your city/country to see the time difference.

The Peacemaking Circle is a process combining ancient wisdom about living in community with modern understandings about complex multicultural societies. The Circle process can be implemented as a way to build and strengthen relationships, engage with difficult conversations, address conflict, and create more effective learning communities. Circle processes are a central practice for developing and practicing social and emotional skills. In these times of prolonged physical isolation, translating these skills to an online framework is important. 

This course will provide an understanding of the foundational values and key structural elements of the Circle process as well as provide an experience with Peacemaking Circles. Practical understanding will center around the use of Circles in schools, families, social services, faith communities, workplaces, neighborhoods, and the justice system. Participants will learn to design and facilitate in-person and online Circles for community building, conflict resolution, and an increasing commitment to the common good. Special emphasis in this course will focus on discussing the differences and difficulties that accompany in-person and on line circles.

In addition to learning about the guiding principles of the Circle process, participants will have the opportunity to practice facilitating Circles and garnering feedback from the instructor and their colleagues.

Syllabus

Alma Abdelhadi-Jadallah

Live online course dates and times:

• Tu, Th: 4:30pm - 7pm(EDT)

If you are not on the east coast of the US, click here and add your city/country to see the time difference.

When parties to a conflict recognize that they cannot achieve their goals through unilateral action (violent or nonviolent), there is a ripe moment for engaging them in peace processes and long-term peacebuilding. But moving from the recognition that they cannot “win through domination” to effective participation in activities such as negotiation, reconciliation, and the reconstruction of healthy relationships and structures entails many profound transformations.

Conflict Coaching explores the role of a "coach" for key leaders who are faced with difficult issues leading to protracted conflict situations that require them to promote or support systems change in a collaborative and constructive way and in support of their interests, needs and goals.  Examples of leaders in this type of situation includes: 

• Leaders in communities that need to mobilize to confront injustice
• Leaders in organizations that are undergoing disruption/innovation challenges
• Leaders in societal-scale peace processes. 

This course will teach you how to use coaching practices to support, challenge, and encourage individuals in ways that benefit the process of systems change and promote peacebuilding practices. Case studies will be used  to help students understand the role of conflict coaches in peace processes and conflict transformation within their organizations. It will also include training modules on some core competencies for conflict coaches.

Syllabus

Jonathan Jenner and Francisco Perez

Live online course dates and times:

• Tu, Th: 9am - 11:30am(EDT)

If you are not on the east coast of the US, click here and add your city/country to see the time difference.

This course is intended to demystify the economy and give students the ability to critically assess how economies can either perpetuate injustice or serve justice. In particular, we will examine capitalism from the lens of political economy and think about how social power functions in our economic lives. This course pulls from the heterodox tradition in economics and is structured as a series of workshops that explore Marxian political economy, economic history, and philosophy. We aim to develop analytical tools which serve the planet and people, with a perspective rooted in ecology and the struggles for liberation from patriarchy, imperialism, racism, and class domination.
 
This class is meant to have broad appeal to anyone who would like to sharpen their understanding of economics. As such, we do not assume any prior knowledge and will try to build up our analysis in class. We recognize, though, that some students may feel like we are moving too fast, while others will already be familiar with some of the topics we discuss. As such, we will make ourselves available in weekly office hours to go over some of the topics in class with students. Also, we will provide more in-depth readings on each topic, for students to pursue their interests further.
 
By the end of this course, students should:
·       Understand and describe the features of capitalism;
·       Not be intimidated by the dense and often inaccessible language of economics;
·       Comprehend (and critically appraise) a range of economic policies and policy proposals from the perspective of political economy;
·       Establish a base of knowledge of concepts and resources by which to conduct further reading and research on topics which interest them;
·       Present problems with current economic structures and appraise alternatives;

Syllabus

Jayne Docherty and Sidney Morgan 

Live online course dates and times:

• Tu, Th: 10:00am - 12:30pm(EDT)

If you are not on the east coast of the US, click here and add your city/country to see the time difference.

As individuals working for peace, social justice, reduction of violence, and the possibility ofreconciliation, we are the instruments of the work. How can we best prepare ourselves to takeconstructive action whether in a professional role or in a personal relationship? This course will explore four areas of awareness and accountability essential for effectiveness in our action efforts. These areas of content and engagement, described more fully in the syllabus, are self-awareness, self-assessment, self-management, and self- and community care.

In focusing on these four areas, we’ll consider the roles we play, the skills we have and need, and the processes available to us for doing the work. The intensive on-line experience will make use of in-person instruction and conversation, video inputs, personal action and reflection, paired and plenary discussion, demonstration/presentation and a sampling of non-traditional forms of learning and integration (e.g arts-based methods, play, music/rhythm, etc).

We will also plan and practice (as appropriate) selected strategies for structuring conversations and decision-making. Course participants will strengthen their abilities to understand and manage self, attend to self/communal care, and assess appropriateness of action. And in this unusual time globally, we will practice and reflect on physical, intellectual, emotional, social and spiritual elements of well-being and growth. This course is being offered for 3 graduate academic credits. It cannot be taken for reduced credit or as training.

Syllabus

 Catherine Barnes 

Live online course dates and times:

• Tu, Th: 2pm - 4:30pm(EDT)

If you are not on the east coast of the US, click here and add your city/country to see the time difference.

Many of the systems in which we live and work are dysfunctional and mired in conflict. One strategy for transforming them is through deliberative dialogue processes that engage the whole system: whether community, organization or society. Such processes can enable us to respond creatively to our most complex challenges and move us toward more equitable, just and positive relationships and structures. Through this class, we will explore how complexity and identity theories, conflict analysis, and power assessment inform collaborative process design. We ask tough questions about what kind of processes are relevant for cultivating different phases of change and explore ethics underpinning the praxis of process design rooted in awareness of our ‘positionality’ in the system. We will learn about many process methodologies such as Appreciative Inquiry, Courageous Conversations, Emergent Strategies, Narrative Practice, Open Space, Polarity Management, Transformative Scenario Planning, World Café, and others. We will critically explore their underlying theories of change and theories of practice in ways that enable participants to become more creative and astute process designers. This class will be most appropriate for participants who already have some familiarity working with groups and is ideal
for those with some facilitation practice experience.

Syllabus

Jon Swartz and Mikayla W C McCray

Live online course dates and times:

• M, Th: 9am - 12pm(EDT)

If you are not on the east coast of the US, click here and add your city/country to see the time difference.

This course provides an introductory examination of the values, principles, and practices of restorative justice. Restorative justice is not a list of specific programs or a clear blueprint for systemic change. Instead, it is a theory, social movement, and set of practices that requires a radically different way of viewing, understanding, and responding to individual and collective harms and needs. We explore how restorative justice presents a philosophy of justice that recognizes, explores, and addresses the needs of multiple stakeholders, draws from faith-based,indigenous approaches (from Africa, the US, and Aotearoa), and challenges interpersonal and structural forms of harm. Given its complex, multidimensional nature, this course will examine restorative justice through a diverse set of scholarly and practice inquiries including racial justice, gender justice, ability/disability justice, trauma healing, education, community development, and transitional justice.

Syllabus

Carolyn Stauffer 

Live online course dates and times:

• Tu, Th: 11am - 2pm(EDT)

If you are not on the east coast of the US, click here and add your city/country to see the time difference.

Another world is possible where sexual harm truth-telling, proactive justice, and resilience are the norm. This course is a laboratory for you to generate the skills and practices necessary for creating environments free from sexual harms. This involves learning how to respond effectively, working to repair harms done, and advocating for proactive and systemic change. This work is grounded in an intersectional approach that emphasizes how systems of oppression heighten the risk of sexual violence and critically shape its outcomes. Together we will generate key strategies for fostering safety and dismantling hierarchies of harmful sexualized power. In this sacred space we will share wisdom and gain practical tools for building more preventative and restorative environments.

Syllabus

Katie Mansfield and David Nyiringabo: Section A
Crixell Shell: Section B

Live online course dates and times:

• M, W, F: 9am - 11:30am(EDT)

If you are not on the east coast of the US, click here and add your city/country to see the time difference.

Whether working in advocacy, healthcare, education, government, care-giving, activism, or in any kind of leadership or community building capacity, stressors add up - particularly in this pandemic. Research and experience demonstrate that unaddressed trauma often leads to conflict and violence against self or with others, as trauma-affected people act out against others or become self-destructive. STAR combines theory with experiential learning to increase awareness of the impacts of trauma on the body, brain, beliefs and behaviors. The course offers tools for addressing trauma and breaking cycles of violence.

STAR’s multi-disciplinary framework draws on several fields of theory and practice to support healthy, resilient individuals and communities: trauma and resilience studies (including neurobiology), restorative justice, conflict transformation, human security, and spirituality. STAR centers participants’ experience and insights, while offering activities, resources, and a theoretical model to support a journey toward understanding and interrupting cycles of violence at the individual, communal and societal levels.

Syllabus

Katie Mansfield 

Live online course dates and times:

• Tu, W: 2:30pm - 5:30pm(EDT)

If you are not on the east coast of the US, click here and add your city/country to see the time difference.

Strategies for Trauma Awareness and Resilience (STAR) Level 2 invites people who have started to bring trauma awareness into their life and work for greater resilience to deepen their knowledge and skills. In Level 2, participants have a chance to:

• review and deepen learning around trauma awareness and resilience
• grapple with the complex realities and implications of structural and historical harms
• practice and deepen capacity for trauma-informed facilitation, and
• share plans and questions, while connecting with others who are applying STAR learning in their lives and work.

STAR Level 1 provides foundational content for this course. In Level 2, we continue to focus on trauma’s impacts on body, brain, beliefs and behavior; how those impacts often lead to cycles of violence; and possibilities for breaking free from cycles of violence and building resilience. Participants in STAR Level 2 will also have the opportunity to join the STAR Practitioner learning community for ongoing connection and exchange as well as conceptual and practical resources.

Syllabus

Dave Brubaker and Myriam Aziz 

Live online course dates and times:

• M, W: 12:30pm - 3pm(EDT)

If you are not on the east coast of the US, click here and add your city/country to see the time difference.

Organizations and their leaders have a critical role in mitigating societal, economic, and
ecological stressors at all levels of society. Participants will review a broad range of
organizational leadership and management theories, styles, and practices. We will identify
various approaches to leading people, projects, and organizations in ways that bring restoration,
offer hope, and work toward promoting the common good. We will give particular attention to
leading transformational change processes in organizations.

Syllabus

Frank Dukes and Leanne Nurse

Live online course dates and times:

• W: 1pm - 4:30pm(EDT)

If you are not on the east coast of the US, click here and add your city/country to see the time difference.

Throughout the world, we see growing recognition of the ongoing harm of many monuments, memorials, contaminated areas, sites of violence, and other spaces identified with histories of oppression. “Transforming Community Spaces” (TCS) is a course to help institutions and communities take on these challenging sites through inclusive, transparent community engagement that uncovers hidden histories, advances social justice, and promotes collective healing. 

Discover the challenges and opportunities of problematic community spaces. Discuss the principles and practices of “equitable collaboration”, including being trauma-informed, inclusive, responsive, truth-seeking, deliberative and adaptive. Participants will have access to an online Toolkit (click here) to help them navigate these challenging conflicts.

This online course will include weekly lectures, case studies, group discussions, films, and class exercises.

Syllabus