Message from the Director: 

An exciting new phase

Justice and Peace Studies (JPST) at the University of St. Thomas is entering an exciting new period of development.  

Founded in the mid-1980s at the urging of Archbishop John Roach, the program has influenced the field of peace and justice studies with its approach to engaged learning, which we call the “Circle of Praxis.”  Since the 1990s JPST has offered first a minor and then a major.  More recently, we have completed a comprehensive process of strategic planning, aimed to take our program to the next level while keeping it grounded in Catholic social teaching and the mission of the university. 

Now we are ready to share the ideas and goals that will be shaping our work in coming years as we revise our curriculum to launch new skill-set-based concentrations that prepare students for emerging careers in justice and peacebuilding.

Strategic planning? you say.  No wait, don’t yawn.   Here’s what one of our colleagues at the University of Notre Dame has to say about our report: 

"Unlike so many strategic plans, which just present a set of conclusions, yours is a reflective document which highlights many of the pressing issues in peace studies that too often go unaddressed…"  

Gerard Powers
Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies

Central to our inquiry have been three questions: 

1. How might developments in the field of peace, justice and conflict studies over the last decade or more call for revisions in the program’s curriculum? 
2. What is the proper place of peace and justice studies at a Catholic university?
3. What are the opportunities and constraints of which we must take account in the context of larger trends within the university?

Perhaps our most important new initiative is to design new “concentrations” that offer students the skillsets, internship opportunities and credentials that will better prepare them for specific careers in peacebuilding and social justice work.  Pending university approval, these career-oriented tracks will begin preparing our graduates in areas such as the following:

• legislative and policy work both inside and outside of government
• mediation and alternative dispute services
• community organizing
• social entrepreneurship
• nonprofit management

We hope that students, alumni, community partners, and colleagues both here at St. Thomas and in other peace, justice and conflict studies programs will find our reflections helpful and our plans encouraging.  You may click here, or on the sidebar to the right, to read the full report. 

Dr. Gerald W. Schlabach
Director of Justice and Peace Studies
University of St. Thomas