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Justice and Peace Studies ProgramDr. Marshall Rosenberg, peacemaker, author and founder of the Center for Nonviolent Communication, visits the Twin Cities for the second time to offer a workshop. Taught around the globe, Dr. Rosenberg's interactive workshop demonstrated how to communicate across polarized differences gracefully. Click here to visit the website.
The Justice and Peace Studies Program at the University of St. Thomas is an interdisciplinary program designed to prepare students to be responsible critics of contemporary societies and effective agents for positive social transformation. The two core courses for the minor, and the pattern of requirements for the major, make use of four stages (the "Circle of Praxis"): (1) experience (actual and vicarious) of poverty and injustice; (2) descriptive analysis (study of the economic, political, and social realities of a culture, and the historical events that produced those realities); (3) normative analysis (moral judgment on existing society, study of alternative possibilities for that society, and analysis of the moral values at stake); and (4) action possibilities (Strategies and skills for transforming society from its present condition to a better condition -- including a variety of strategies such as those outlined in the "Social Change Wheel"). While the two core courses for the minor integrate all four of these stages, JPST 250 concentrates on descriptive analysis and THEO 305 concentrates on normative analysis. The additional three core courses for the major, JPST 340, 470, and 472 concentrate on action possibilities. The justice and peace studies program is strongly interdisciplinary and interfaith. It promotes understanding and appreciation of widely diverse ideologies, cultures, and worldviews. Special attention is given to the rich tradition of Roman Catholic social teaching in the context of pluralistic world societies. JPST 250 and THEO 305 require extensive student writing and discussion. Majors and MinorsSt. Thomas offers a major and a minor in Justice and Peace Studies. Many students double major with another department. A wide range of departments has been selected for a double major, with the largest number in the social sciences, theology, philosophy, and language. More SpecificsSt. Thomas has recently been graduating between fifteen and twenty justice and peace studies majors a year, somewhat fewer minors in recent years. Graduates have found jobs or pursued graduate studies in a wide variety of areas, including education, politics, law, business, ministry, community development and empowerment, and social activism. Many students have spent a year or more in volunteer programs after graduation, from the Peace Corps to religious groups such as Jesuit Volunteers or Lutheran Volunteers. Foreign or other off-campus study programs are encouraged. Students have pursued programs of foreign and experiential education in Australia, Austria (European Peace University), Bangladesh, Central America, Colombia, Ecuador, France, India, Ireland, Mexico, Minneapolis (Metro Urban Studies Term), Norway, South Africa, Spain, Zimbabwe, and around the world by ship with the Semester at Sea. Four of the five core courses are limited to twenty students. All five involve extensive discussion. Particular ClassesCore CoursesJPST 250: Introduction to Justice
and Peace Studies Other CoursesJPST 350: The Holocaust Topics Courses The Causes of War. For more information, contact: or University of St. Thomas Last modification date 07/02/04 http://www.stthomas.edu/justpeace/ |
