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Current state of the questions in justice and peace research and activism with special attention to key theoreticians. Students will relate the course material to their own internship or service project as well as choosing a topic for individual research related to their internship or personal interests. Through investigating their project through a series of steps shared with other students, they will develop familiarity with the major resources available for justice and peace research and action: bibliographies, periodicals, indexes and abstracts, newsletters, electronic media. The class will study basic statistics and other methods necessary to understand, judge, and use the resources. Through reflection on individual service projects students will analyze the types of work involved in the justice and peace community and identify the broad range of organizations working for relief of suffering and for structural and social change. Usually offered spring semester.
This course is designed to bring together what you have learned in your other justice and peace courses and in relevant courses in other departments, relate them to your past and current activity in the field of justice and peace, and give you some idea of possible future directions in your areas of interest.
While JPST 250 asked you to learn about a foreign country and THEO 305 asked you to learn about an unfamiliar religion or worldview, in this course we will "come back home": seeking to learn together about the Twin Cities area, paying attention to connections with the larger world, applying insights from current research in justice and peace studies, and making an honest effort to understand the thinking of Minnesotans who have radically different views of the situation and its needs.
We will be relating our studies to our community activities in a sort of miniature internship format. Many of you are already engaged in justice and peace work of one form or another. We will try to explore these areas more carefully and relate them to each other, to theoretical studies, and to relevant statistics. In other words, I will be helping each of you carry on some research of value to areas you are working in, you have recently worked in, and you hope to work in in the future.
If any of you are not currently engaged in work for justice and peace, we will try to find an area where you can commit yourself in a modest way within the limits of time and energy that this class can demand.
As we think through the areas of our activity, the course will deal with a number of issues:
1. Current state of the questions in justice and peace research.
2. Major resources available for justice and peace research and action:
3. Basic statistics and other methods necessary to understand and use the resources.
4. Survey of the justice and peace community, analyzing the types of work involved in the profession and identifying the broad range of organizations working for relief of suffering and for social change.
5. Enough history of justice and peace movements to put our current situation and problems into a larger context.
It's a nice way to wrap up the major--enough freedom and respect was granted to allow us to explore, explore, explore.
What most helped my learning was:
 | being given the time to study a single issue in depth. |
| great readings |
| Peer discussions |
| field trips |
| Service learning opportunities. |
| speakers |
| being able to read others' papers on the web. |
For more information, contact:
Rev. David W. Smith
University of St. Thomas
Mail 4137
2115 Summit Avenue
St. Paul, MN 55105-1096
(651) 962-5325 http:www.stthomas.edu/
Last modification date 07/05/2001
http://www.stthomas.edu/justpeace/472.htm
