Students, Faculty Collaborate to Create Peace Studies Concentration
Initial plans to create a Peace and Conflict Studies concentration at NYU Abu Dhabi are underway in response to active student interest in the subject. ...
Oct 19, 2013
Initial plans to create a Peace and Conflict Studies concentration at NYU Abu Dhabi are underway in response to active student interest in the subject. Although the concentration has not yet been confirmed, students have been involved in discussing the proposal and the faculty remains open to student input.
What is Peace and Conflict Studies?
The Peace and Conflict Studies concentration deals with topics ranging from the history of warfare and the politics of activism to negotiation strategies. The curriculum will be multidisciplinary, its main object being to focus on these themes through a variety of academic lenses.
Marzia Balzani, NYUAD research professor of Anthropology and member of the faculty committee reviewing the proposal for the new concentration, has done peace-related research on gendered violence and religious persecution. She outlined the relationship that exists between anthropology and peace studies.
“The idea is to be multidisciplinary because Peace and Conflict Studies isn’t a discipline,” said Balzani. “We’re looking across the disciplines to see how people working in particular fields have actually approached the subject at macro level and micro level.”
Rahma Abdulkadir, research assistant professor of Political Science and director of undergraduate studies of the division of Social Sciences, also described the multidisciplinary reach of Peace and Conflict Studies, highlighting the role Political Science could play in the concentration.
“Political Science is one of a number of disciplines that will be part of the concentration,” said Abdulkadir. “International relations is ... a significant sub-discipline of Political Science that deals with conflict studies, causes and consequences of conflict … and peace, peace building, peace intervention and international missions.”
Abdulkadir has done research on gender and politics and is currently teaching the Gender and Globalization core class. She hopes to teach a course on the subject if the concentration is accepted.
“I do have a syllabus that I would like to keep when the concentration happens and that would be to focus mostly on women’s role in peacebuilding,” said Abdulkadir.
Like the other concentrations offered at NYUAD, the Peace and Conflict Studies concentration will consist of a required course on the theory and methodology of peace studies as well as a variety of electives from across the disciplines.
The student push for Peace and Conflict Studies at NYUAD
Associate Professor of History Martin Klimke, who is the chair of the committee discussing Peace and Conflict Studies, explained what sparked the idea for creating the concentration.
“The idea of peace as a concentration was put forward by Al Bloom at some point and then taken up through the core class that I’m teaching [Peace,] by the students in the class and by [Peace360º] Student Interest Group,” said Klimke.
The push for the Peace concentration has been largely spurred on by members of the student body, particularly those who are involved in Peace360º. Students have been involved in both the initial request for the concentration as well as its development, often meeting with faculty to gauge topics of interest and discuss proposals.
“I heard about [the possibility of a concentration] in my freshman year … and I was very interested,” said Clara Correia, leader of Peace360º. “I contacted everybody that I could, and from then I learned that there was nothing yet started; it was just an idea. I think that because it was an idea and because it was up in the air, we started pushing for it.”
Correia, who was also involved with peace projects in her high school, is actively working with the faculty in the creation of the concentration. She has met with Klimke several times and, over the summer, came up with a list of suggested courses that students have shown interest in taking. Correia was pleased with how receptive faculty were to student input.
“Klimke is very open to student input in the concentration,” Correia said. “He had an open house—an open meeting with the committee and the students. In general, he is very encouraging.”
Sophomore Louis Plottel, also involved in Peace360º, is enthusiastic about the concentration and was actively involved in discussing it with faculty.
“I was kind of skeptical about [studying peace] from an academic perspective for a while so that’s why I became involved,” said Plottel. He met with faculty earlier in the year and explained that the discussions were often constructive and bilateral.
“It came from both ways; [Klimke] convinced me that it was the right path to follow, and I think I also affirmed that to him that there were a lot of students who would be interested, even if they don’t know exactly what a peace concentration would be,” said Plottel.
Other faculty members on the review committee are similarly supportive of developing the concentration in collaboration with students.
“There had been a lot of student interest, a lot of student support,” said Balzani. “It seems perfectly reasonable that an institution like NYUAD should, where it’s feasible and where it’s academically sound, actually attempt to provide the kinds of study that are relevant to the students.”
Many students hope that the peace concentration will allow them to study the topic in a more structured form, as classes will be offered on a more regular basis.
“I would like to see more diplomacy-based classes,” said junior Amel Yagoub, who is interested in the concentration. “The problem is that … they’re offered on such an infrequent basis that I haven’t had the chance to take any of them.
Current status of the concentration
At the moment, the proposed concentration is undergoing review by a faculty committee with discussion on possible course lists and requirements before it will be turned over for a vote. Klimke explained the process of creating the new concentration and said that several more steps need to be taken before it is finalized.
“This is not official yet. What is happening right now is the classic process of a new major or minor being proposed,” said Klimke.
“It’s really a faculty review … in terms of how can we create a concentration that is feasible, that we can staff, and that is intellectually and academically solid,” Klimke added.
The proposal is still in its initial stages, but the process is being actively pushed through the necessary steps.
“We are hoping to bring the proposal for this concentration to the faculty council next month,” said Klimke. “Depending on how this goes—there will be a vote—it is up to the leadership to set the time to implement it or reject it."
Clare Hennig is features editor. Email her at editorial@thegazelle.org.
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