A recent International Herald Tribune article titled “Peace Studies Take Off” drew attention to growing interest in peace studies worldwide. The news was no surprise to faculty at the Kroc Institute, who each year field a growing number of requests from professors around the country seeking help in developing their own high-quality peace studies programs.
In response to these requests, the Kroc Institute is offering its first Faculty Summer Institute in Peace Studies Program Development. "Teaching Peace in the 21st Century," which will run from June 14 to 19, 2009, is designed to help small groups of faculty in any discipline or institution launch a new program, strengthen a fledgling program, or take an established peace studies program to a new level of design and rigor.
“Part of the Kroc Institute’s mission is to ‘seed the field,’ not only by educating students in peace studies but by providing leadership so that new programs in peace studies can flourish,” says Professor George A. Lopez, who is coordinating the Summer Institute and will be among about a dozen Kroc Institute faculty and staff who will teach and consult with participants. “This summer program gives us the chance to consolidate our faculty forces and engage more institutions with the latest issues in peace research and teaching.”
Approximately 400 colleges and universities around the world offer peace studies programs at the undergraduate level. The Kroc Institute is unique in higher education for its combination of a substantive research agenda and degree programs at all levels — doctoral, master’s, and undergraduate. The Kroc Institute’s nearly 25 year history and faculty who are pioneers in the field position Kroc to help academic institutions with peace studies programs at every stage of development.
George A. Lopez, the Rev. Theodore M. Hesburgh, C.S.C., professor of international peace studies, is an internationally recognized authority on peace studies program development. For more than 30 years, he has consulted on dozens of campuses and written extensively for peace journals and peace education curriculum guides.
The Summer Institute will begin in the late afternoon on Sunday, June 14, and end with lunch on Friday, June 19. Mornings will feature plenary sessions and workshops on critical themes in the field and program development. The cost of the program is minimal for those who are accepted.
Application to the summer institute is now closed. Notifications of acceptance for those who applied will be sent the week of April 13. For more information contact Kathy Smarrella, events coordinator, at ksmarrel@nd.edu, or (574) 631-9370.
Contact: Joan Fallon, (574) 631-8819, jfallon2@nd.edu