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Fall 2025 Courses

Any interested student may enroll in IIPS 20101 Introduction to Peace Studies for the fall, and students considering a supplementary major or minor in peace studies are encouraged to take this course as soon as feasible to help with their discernment. Students are also welcome to enroll in other IIPS courses but seats may be limited until all initial web registration periods have passed.

Peace studies students can explore the full list of spring courses eligible for the major and minor, including electives cross-listed from other departments, in the Fall 2025 Undergraduate IIPS Course Booklet. Full details for each course can also be viewed in NOVO or PATH Class Search under the subject "Institute for International Peace Studies" (IIPS).

If you need assistance registering for peace studies courses, please email Anna K. Van Overberghe, Assistant Director for Undergraduate Studies, at avanove1@nd.edu.

Introduction to Peace Studies

IIPS 20101 01 (CRN 13866)
Alyssa Paylor
MW 12:30-1:45

IIPS 20101 02 (CRN 12886)
Asher Kaufman
TR 11:00-12:15

IIPS 20101 03 (CRN 17682)
Ashley Bohrer
TR 2:00-3:15

This course is open to undergraduate students from all majors. It carries the WKIN-Integration attribute and counts toward the Liberal Arts 6 requirement in the core curriculum. 

Armed conflict and state repression continue to occur across the globe, millions of people face overwhelming poverty, and systemic challenges like climate change imperil collective survival. Nevertheless, we have also witnessed the emergence of sophisticated civil society networks and social movements to address these challenges, as well as governmental and transnational institutions committed to promoting justice and peace at the local, national, regional and global levels. This course introduces students to the various ways scholars and activists define peace and the challenges faced in securing peace. It surveys: (1) the major causes of direct and structural violence; (2) various definitions of "peace" and the conditions under which it occurs and is sustained; and (3) the comparative success of various strategies such as building peace movements and promoting nonviolent social change.

Psychology of Peace

IIPS 30807 01 (CRN 20981)
Laura Miller-Graff
MW 11:00-12:15

This course will provide an overview of the growing field of peace psychology, which seeks to apply psychological theory in order to better understand violence, its causes, its effects on human development, and the ways in which psychology intersects with peacebuilding processes. Within each of these domains, we will discuss multiple levels of understanding (e.g., interpersonal, community, structural) and will draw direct connections to conflict-affected settings through the use of case studies, film, and group activities.

Perspectives on Peacebuilding

IIPS 33101 01 (CRN 20298)
Lisa Schirch
TR 2:00-3:15

This course is reserved for peace studies majors and minors.

This junior-level seminar is a required course for the supplementary major and interdisciplinary minor in peace studies. The course focuses on strategic peacebuilding, an analytical framework for investigating the causes and dynamics of conflict, conflict resolution and transformation, and post-conflict reconstruction and justice. The seminar (1) deepens student knowledge of foundational concepts and questions in peace studies; (2) introduces students to a variety of methodological approaches common in peace studies research; and (3) explores the relation between ethical, empirical and practical approaches in the field. The course provides students with the tools necessary to carry out later research in their capstone seminar and encourages a deeper understanding of how their own research interests connect to peace studies.

Peace, Ecology, and Integtral Human Development

IIPS 40409 01 (CRN 20299)
Fr. Emmanuel Katongole
TR 9:30-10:45

A major source of conflict—increasingly so—is environmental issues; both climate change-related conflicts about (more and more scarce) resources as well as secondary conflicts (conflicts that arise because of the resource conflict, i.e. climate migrants) pose a major challenge to the planet. Pope Francis’ encyclical Laudato Si has offered ways to think about an “integral ecology” that takes the environment, life on the planet, the human condition and culture seriously. The cry of the earth and the cry of the poor cannot be separated. Laudato Si has to be read against the background of the concept of “Integral Human Development.” This concept, inspired by the works of Joseph Lebret, OP, was introduced by Pope Paul VI in his encyclical Populorum Progressio (1967). It refers to “the development of the whole person and the development of all persons. The course explores the connection (intersectionality) between peace, (integral) ecology, and (integral human) development. It will do so with in-class room teaching sessions and working with select case studies on integral ecology.

Religion, Nationalism, and Settler Colonialism

IIPS 40520 01 (CRN 20300)
Atalia Omer
MW 12:30-1:45

This interdisciplinary course will examine the conceptual logic of using a settler-colonial lens to interpret the history and politics of Palestine/Israel. We will explore the religious dimensions of settler colonial narratives and practices and their intersections with secular, religious, and apocalyptic nationalisms. We will ask what the deployment of a settler-colonial lens illuminates, what it obscures, and why. We will scrutinize the recent proliferation of scholarship that has taken a comparative settler colonial approach. We will triangulate it with the literature on Israel’s Jewish identity, its meaning, and how and why it shifted over the decades. We will likewise engage in another set of conversations on nationalism and political theologies and identify the relevance of global anti-racism social movements and their uses and abuses of Palestinian struggles and Israeli narratives.

Peace Studies Senior Seminar

IIPS 43101 01 (CRN 13295)
Laurie Nathan
MW 2:00-3:15

This course is reserved for senior peace studies majors and minors. It carries the WRIT-Writing Intensive attribute and counts toward the Writing 2 requirement in the university core curriculum.

This writing-intensive seminar is the required capstone course for the supplementary major and interdisciplinary minor in peace studies. This advanced course consists of readings and discussions that explore a familiar peace studies theme in greater depth. The centerpiece of the course is a seminar paper that students research and write on a subject of their choice, selected in light of the course theme and drawing on research methods from both peace studies and students' primary majors.

Section Theme: Activism in Theory and Practice. This course will cover theoretical perspectives on activism (e.g., social movement theory; non-violent direct action; theories of change), as well as case studies of activist movements. The case studies will focus primarily on South Africa and the US, which provide a basis for comparison in relation to campaigns against structural racism and also anti-war movements. The course will explore different organizational forms of activism in these countries (e.g. the civil rights movement in the US, BLM, and anti-apartheid coalitions in South Africa). There will be two skills components, covering a) strategic planning for activist movements and b) developing policy proposals for advocacy campaigns. The course will deepen students' understanding of activist strategies, organizational options, and political and ethical dilemmas.