12/3: Info Session for a New SIPA Course: Applied Peacebuilding: Core Competencies for Fieldwork (U6564)
Applied Peacebuilding: Core Competencies for Fieldwork (U6564)
INFORMATION SESSION FOR POTENTIAL STUDENTS
Monday, December 3 11:00-12 noon
International Affairs Bldg, Room 1302
This innovative course focuses on skills for conceptualizing, designing and implementing international conflict resolution and peacebuilding projects.
The course explores three intersecting themes:
• Understanding the professional field of peacebuilding;
• Peacebuilding project design skills; and
• Competencies for field-based implementation.
The class is an instructor permission course limited to fifteen first-year students who have some academic grounding in relevant theoretical / conceptual material, or who have substantial and applicable professional experience.
The course is structured as a sequence through spring, summer and fall. The spring course introduces students to the practical skills of peacebuilding design and fieldwork. Students design projects in collaboration with a project supervisor in a field-based partner institution (INGOs, UN agencies, etc). Students then implement projects during the summer in the field, and return to SIPA to report on their experiences in the fall.
Taught by Prof. Zachary Metz, with Devanand Ramiah, UNDP.
Questions?
Farah Thalji, fmt2104@columbia.edu
Thanks for posting this Stephen, and for the apt way you driecsbe the real value of the conference in Stellenbosch, fully agree that it was in the connections made between people and ideas, usually emerging out of the side discussions that I personally took something powerful out of the event. I think that as with all models this should be seen as a work in progress, a model that seeks to be as dynamic as the contexts in which it will be useful. The Working With Conflict Skills and Strategies for Change book by Fisher et. al. published by Zed gives more details of the kinds of analytical tools that can be used in combination to involve people in a participatory analysis that opens up new entry points and opportunities for peacebuilders and CT practitioners. The ACTION Support Centre website also has some additional resources that will give a deeper sense of some of the practical ways we have been working with people and communities affected by conflict. Please take a moment to have a look.