27 graduate courses in the Spring 2015 Graduate Calendar, from Waterloo’s archived copy.
This course analyzes the roles and responsibilities of civil society, the market, and the state as agents capable of creating just and humane structures. Case studies reveal how individual scan leverage collaboration among all sectors of society to advance positive systemic positive change.
SEM · Course ID 014154Archived pagePACS 601 today
This course examines the characteristics and skills of effective peace practitioners, with particular attention to ways in which disciplines of peacemaking can be cultivated by individuals and nurtured by communities. While investigating various roles of the third party, students will explore the practical responsibilities (or tasks) and functions of peace practitioners as well as the core values and qualities that may make them more effective interveners locally, nationally or globally. Students will be introduced to peace research methodologies, research ethics, risk management, as well as various forms of communication used in documentation, analysis, and advocacy.
SEM · Course ID 014155Archived pagePACS 602 today
This course explores operational aspects of civil society organizations such as visionary leadership, goal setting, evaluation, report writing, financial management, applied research skills, and human resource management. Students will also examine codes of conduct and practice, including rules, laws and customary understandings that guide the work of civil society organizations. Students will research contending views of civil society organizations and their complex relationships with government and business, thereby developing a philosophical and ethical framework for evaluating civil society action.
SEM · Course ID 014156Archived pagePACS 603 today
This course examines theoretical and practical frameworks for understanding conflict, with particular attention to structures and dynamics inhibiting peace. The course provides students with some of the analytical skills needed to understand how conflicts develop and escalate, to identify factors that can lead to or sustain violence, and to map root causes of conflict (e.g., human rights violations, needs deprivation, cultural and religious differences, inequality, resource misuse and environmental degradation) at interpersonal, intergroup, and international levels.
SEM · Course ID 014157Archived pagePACS 604 today
This course explores the theoretical and practical foundations of various approaches to working with conflict to advance positive goals such as social equity and reconciliation. Attention will be given to a range of conflict resolution methods and practices (facilitation, negotiation, mediation, arbitration, adjudication) as well as to principles of restorative justice and dynamics of collective peacebuilding practice.
SEM · Course ID 014158Archived pagePACS 605 today
Through comparative case studies, this course examines contemporary nonviolent movements that illustrate pacifist and other nonviolent strategies for advancing social justice and other high-value political goals. Local, national and transnational campaigns that seek to shape the agenda for global change are examined alongside movements of more limited scope and ambition (e.g., national liberation movements, civil rights campaigns, struggles for democracy). Throughout, attention will be given to trends in practice and to debates concerning the effectiveness, ethical significance, and current relevance of nonviolent change methods.
SEM · Course ID 014159Archived pagePACS 610 today
This course uses case studies to analyze the complex issues of trauma, abuse, historical injustice and violence - and investigates approaches to healing, forgiveness and reconciliation (including memory, testimony, tribunals and reparation/atonement). The course explores theoretical and practical models for transforming relationships, including indigenous and non-formal mechanisms employed internationally, and teaches skills that are employed by effective agents of reconciliation.
SEM · Course ID 014160Archived pagePACS 611 today
This course explores cultural, religious and identity-based dimensions of conflict and conflict resolution, examining major patterns of human difference and their implications for contemporary peacebuilding practice. Case studies, simulations and role plays are used to expose students to the practical reality of building a common peace in the midst of diversity.
SEM · Course ID 014172Archived pagePACS 612 today
A seminar course investigating special issues related to peace and conflict. Content may vary from year to year. Course may be repeated if course topic differs.
SEM · Course ID 014173Archived pagePACS 620 today
This course requires completion of a research project that develops a student's capacity to do research for an applied objective. The research may be to support a grant proposal, document and contextualize a need or a human rights abuse, analyze what various agencies are doing in the face of common challenges, or write an advocacy brief to a government. Students are expected to demonstrate a high level of competence in research analysis and writing.
Department Consent Required
SEM · Course ID 014174Archived pagePACS 621 today
The internship allows students to engage in experiential learnig with a research institute, non-governmental organizaton or other agency/entity that deals with peace and conflict issues. Students are expected to read relevant texts before, during and after the field study, to engage in stubstantial research on th eissues addressed by the host agency/entity and to submit a report reflecting on what the field study/internship revealed about the integration of peace studies theory and practice. Field study placements may be either in Canada or international contexts. Departmental consent is required.
Department Consent Required
RDG · Course ID 014175Archived pagePACS 625 today
This course provides a framework for students to do academic work related to specific conflict resolution skills training they have received through workshops sponsored by the Center for Extended Learning or the Certified Program in Conflict Management or other credible training organizations. Students will complete this additional academic work as a Directed Study supervised by Peace and Conflict Studies faculty. This course is offered on a credit/no credit basis. The course may be repeated once.
Department Consent Required
SEM · Course ID 014176Archived pagePACS 626 today
A survey of the theoretical and public policy debates relating to regulation of the global economy, examined through case studies ranging from international banking an intellectual property rights, to labour and environmental standards and the control of illicit economic activity.
SEM · Course ID 002468Archived pagePACS 630 today
This course begins with examining discussions of the historical continuities and discontinuities in globalization, including the relationships between globalization, empires and imperialism. It then turns to focus on an interdisciplinary selection of theoretical writings on contemporary globalization. The course concludes with preliminary investigations of some particular topics in globalization studies: identity, gender and culture, structural adjustment and world economic institutions, global health, communal violence and gender, and resistance to globalization.
SEM · Course ID 002419Archived pagePACS 631 today
Rebuilding states in the aftermath of conflict and state failure represents one of the foremost challenges facing the international community. The post-Cold War era has shown that weak states represent as great a threat to international security and stability as strong ones. The transition from war to peace and state failure to stability in these states can be conceptualized as encompassing three separate but interrelated transitions, in the economic, political and security spheres. The course will deconstruct and analyze this triple transition, examine both its theoretical roots and practical application with reference to a number of recent case studies.
SEM · Course ID 002444Archived pagePACS 632 today
The course is a study of international and local responses to human rights abuses in the contexts of economic globalization and proliferation of armed violence. It examines major debates on international human rights. It also deals with specific human rights situations in the developing/transitional countries. Topics include: universalism and cultural relativism, global economic justice, rights to food and health, women's and children's rights, the rights of displaced civilians, human rights and R2P, prospects for transitional justice.
SEM · Course ID 002448Archived pagePACS 633 today
This is a seminar in the ontology of security. Security is a contested concept, and in this course we ask what it is and how best to pursue it. What do we mean by security? What are we trying to protect? From what? Why? How do we do it? We begin by considering the concept of security in the abstract, and we then proceed to explore various specific conceptions. Along the way we encounter both traditional and non-traditional approaches to security.
RDG · Course ID 002461Archived pagePACS 634 today
In this course we examine a range of "security" issues on the global agenda - both traditional and non-traditional - and examine recent and possible future institutional and policy responses. Issues examined include nuclear proliferation, terrorism, intrastate conflict, resource and territorial disputes, climate change, drugs, disease, and migration. Students will have an opportunity to research in depth a specific security issue of their choice.
SEM · Course ID 013686Archived pagePACS 635 today
This course surveys the dominant trends in human settlement since the industrial revolution. Emphasis is placed on selected problems (e.g., provision of basic services such as water supply and sanitation, waste disposal, expanding ecological footprints) faced by cities of various sizes (from mid-sized to mega), the resources available to deal with them, and the new approached to sustainability.
(Cross-listed with INDEV 604)
LEC, RDG, SEM · Course ID 014121Archived pagePACS 650 today
This course introduces students to the history, theories and practices of development economics. Select issues such as trade, (Public and private) capital flows, transnational corporations, technological change and innovation, agricultural and industrial policy and production, poverty and reduction, structural adjustment, etc. are treated, as are recent developments in globalization and global economic governance.
(Cross-listed with INDEV 605)
LEC, RDG, SEM · Course ID 014013Archived pagePACS 651 today
The course will provide students with comprehensive background knowledge relevant to the increasingly important policy challenge of 'water security'. The course will explore how the multiple levels of water security - human, community, state, international, global - require broad but considered policy inputs. Emphasis will be placed on the interdependencies of difference sectors (climate security, food security, energy security) that interact within a 'web' of water security.
(Cross-listed with INDEV 608)
LEC, RDG, SEM · Course ID 014015Archived pagePACS 652 today
Theories of justice are concerned with the distribution of the basic goods of society - money, power, status, leisure, and so on. One would expect that they would be of particular interest to feminist theory, which is also concerned with the distribution of these goods. This course will consider how the gender system fares from the standpoint of liberal justice, and to what extent the promises of liberal justice can be used to overturn the unequal treatment of women. The issues of equality and difference will also be explored.
(Cross-listed with PSCI 624)
LEC · Course ID 002423Archived pagePACS 660 today
This course examines the causes of ethnic conflict but focuses in particular on the strategies which states use to manage or resolve such conflicts. The review of state strategies is comprehensive in nature, and includes approaches which are morally unacceptable as well as approaches which many consider morally desirable.
(Cross-listed with PSCI 655)
SEM · Course ID 002445Archived pagePACS 661 today
A graduate level survey of theories of conflict resolution drawn from the international relations, comparative politics, and peace studies. Why do we have violent political conflict, and how can it be resolved? How and why do wars begin and end? This course focuses on political violence and conflict resolution between groups, including but not limited to states.
(Cross-listed with PSCI 659)
SEM · Course ID 002449Archived pagePACS 662 today
An examination of Christian teaching on war and peace from the early Church to the present, including the "just war" theories of Augustine, Aquinas, the Reformers and recent Catholic statements, as well as the pacifist views of Quakers, Mennonites and Brethren.
(Cross-listed with TS 670)
LEC · Course ID 012819Archived pagePACS 670 today
An examination of diverse biblical views of peace in relation to war, justice, and salvation with attention to their relevance for the contemporary quest for peace. Formerly MTS 576.
(Cross-listed with TS 619)
LEC · Course ID 012802Archived pagePACS 671 today
This course will examine several contemporary theological responses to the encounter of Christianity with other faiths. The meaning and dynamics of inter-religious dialogue and the resources within the Christian faith for such an encounter will be explored. Formerly MTS 657.
(Cross-listed with TS 731)
SEM · Course ID 012833Archived pagePACS 672 today