SPI Online 2021

Kajungu Maturi and Dana Coles

Live online course dates and times:

• M,W 3pm - 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.

Restorative justice is a system of justice that believes crimes and violence cause harm to people, relationships, and community.  To move forward in life, we have to repair the harms that have been caused. This course provides an introductory examination of the values, principles, and practices of restorative justice and how restorative justice differs from our current punishment-based system of justice. 

Restorative Justice is not just 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. Participants will explore how restorative justice

• Presents a philosophy of justice that addresses the needs of multiple stakeholders, including the victim, the community, and the offender
• Draws from faith-based and indigenous approaches
• Challenges interpersonal and structural forms of harm. 

We will examine restorative justice through a diverse set of practical and theoretical lenses, inquiries including racial justice, trauma healing, education, community development, and transitional justice. This course will equip participants to:  

• Compare and contrast multiple practices of justice, and their personal and social impacts. 
• Explain concepts, principles, and values of restorative justice (RJ) to various audiences. 
• Describe primary models of RJ practice generally, and in relation to specific settings.
• Identify and analyze critical issues in the RJ field, and articulate potential solutions. 
• Apply RJ to a variety of cases and contexts, integrating analysis of the needs of stakeholders and multiple dimensions of differences such as class, race and gender.

Other small group sessions to be arranged by students as required.

Course Outline

Martha Brown

Live online course dates and times:

• M, Th, 3pm - 6pm(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 will provide an in-depth exploration of the philosophy, structure, and applications of
Circle processes, exploring the potential of Circles to help us transcend the isolation,
demonization and polarization that is a source of pain and violence in the world. During these
five weeks, we will explore the values and philosophy that provide the foundation of the
peacemaking circle process, acknowledging its indigenous origins. We will also analyze the
structure of the peacemaking circle process and describe a variety of types of circles. The
course will provide examples of the use of the process in schools, social services, faith
communities, neighborhoods, the justice system, workplaces, and families. Participants will
learn to design and conduct peacemaking circles for community building and conflict resolution.
Both philosophy and practice will be addressed.
The course will be conducted 100% in virtual Circle, using the experience of participants as a
major source of knowledge. The course will also engage learners in small group work, group
discussion, and limited lecture. Special attention will be given to the role of the facilitator and the
key skills of circle facilitation. In light of intense polarization among citizens around numerous
topics or concerns, both in the US and around the globe, this course will work on designing
processes to create spaces where dramatically different perspectives may be shared with
respect and thoughtfulness.

Iris de Leon Hartshorn and Tobin Miller Shearer

Live online course dates and times:

• Tu, Th 1pm - 4pm(EDT)

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

Faith Communities and Racial Justice will equip participants with the analytical, theological, and practical resources needed to instill anti-racist values, commitments, and practices in faith communities. The instructors bring decades of experience working to dismantle institutional racism in a host of religious groups in North America.  Highly interactive and skills-based, the course will introduce participants to a field-tested framework for talking about and undoing racism in faith communities, engage them in case studies, and offer insight gained from working with hundreds of communities in the work of anti-racism.

 

Bridget Mullins

Live online course dates and times:

• Tu, Th 1pm - 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.

In a complex, interconnected, and emergent world we have to change how we do things, not just what we do, in order to truly co-create meaningful innovation and catalyze positive social change. Unwittingly, the conventional structures we use to organize, plan, and collaborate stifle inclusion and flatten complexity. Whether you work in an NGO, a public institution, a community group, a school, or a social movement, you may regularly experience some of the following realities that block most people’s ability to work together creatively and productively:

• Rigid organizations expressing a desire for change but little movement

• Power and hierarchy getting in the way of freedom and responsibility

• Exclusion, mistrust, and disengaged people

• Unproductive, boring meetings

• Difficult conversations routinely avoided

In this course, we will practice the mindsets needed to re-design the world. We will discover alternate structures for unleashing and including peoples’ wisdom and creative imaginations, exploring ways to invite in more complexity, more voices, and more experiences to design resilient solutions. 

Course objectives:

• Resist, subvert, and transgress habitual ways of working and organizing.

• Explore the fundamental principles of a design methodology called Liberating Structures, to create truly participatory and collaborative processes. 

• Draw from artistic processes and applied theatre techniques to invite discovery, play, and yes, and…! mindsets.

• Adapt the use of each method for specific settings--whether you’re working virtually or face-to-face, within your community, family, or place of work.

• Create ample space to connect with and support each other in developing new practices in ways that are coherent with our local or personal contexts.

Sarah Augustine

Live online course dates and times:

• Tu, Th, 10am - 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.

The Doctrine of Discovery is  a paradigm that acts as the bedrock for colonialism.  Concepts justified in Christian doctrine have been translated into legal structures that continue to manifest inequity today for Indigenous and Vulnerable Peoples, including economic arrangements that cause environmental degradation and climate change.  This course will explore the legal and policy structures that form the Doctrine of Discovery in the United States and globally, from the 15th Century Papal Bulls to contemporary international law.  The course will then focus on identifying interventions for collective action.  These will include developing ethical guidelines for grounding work in relationship with Indigenous and vulnerable communities; organizing and developing networks and tactics for effective engagement; and engaging with global structures, including the Bretton Woods Institutions, in seeking redress.