Course descriptions
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Required courses will introduce the concepts, approaches and theories of conflict. They will also teach the methods of peace studies and develop practical skills and competences of conflict resolution such as critical thinking, problem solving, constructive conflict management, peacemaking and negotiation skills, effective communication, and community building skills. Students have to take 30 credits of required courses.
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100 鈥� Introduction to Peace and Conflict Studies (new)
The course will introduce students to the key concepts of peace studies by providing the definitions of peace and conflict, examining the sources of peace and conflict, discussing their interplay at personal, local, national and international levels, analyzing economic and political factors as well as cultural practices of various communities that affect interpersonal and intergroup communication. It will introduce the basic concepts of positive and negative peace, key methods and skills of peace building and conflict resolution.
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200 鈥� Conflict Resolution and Conflict Transformation (new)
The course will provide both theoretical and practical insights into diverse efforts of conflict resolution and conflict transformation. The course covers range of topics: contextual relevance and challenges of mediation, transitional justice and peacekeeping; goals and challenges of international law and peace education; explore gender dimensions and alternative approaches to conflict resolution/transformation/management. The course offers practical sessions to familiarize students with certain conflict management/transformation techniques: peace circles and street mediation.
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200 鈥� Psychology of Conflict (PSY)
This course aims to reveal psychological factors within different types of conflicts. The contemporary approaches to conflict analysis make conflicts a normal part of our life. In order to organize your own behavior in conflict situations it is important to understand the structure of conflict including participants, sides, dynamics and strategies. The conflicts between individuals and groups do have a lot of differences even if they are very similar in their structures and this is also an important aspect of conflict analysis and conflict management. Mass violence is another problem that has not been resolved in social sciences for many decades and nevertheless is playing a big role in our life recently. Hence here and now conflict mapping clarifying roles and functions of each conflict participant might be considered as a necessary skill for many professionals.
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300 鈥� Peace and Violence: Causes and Conditions (PSY)
It is an interdisciplinary course that aims to show how structural, cultural and political tensions can trigger conflict over territorial, economic and development issues, and we will go through concrete historical examples of how such conflicts have been solved in nonviolent ways. The purpose of this course is to help students develop a balanced understanding of what it means to acquire and generate knowledge, which can contribute to the understanding of causes of violent conflicts and peace building processes.
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300 鈥� Peace Studies Theories (new)
The course will address various theoretical concepts and notions that have been elaborated and applied in the field of peace and conflict studies. It will discuss various theoretical and methodological models of violent and nonviolent individual and collective behaviors that result in either peace or conflict. It will study the concepts of discrimination, oppression, exploitation, marginalization, segregation, to uncover the roots of conflict and violence, and develop preventive strategies and mechanisms to promote peace and sustainability in multicultural communities.
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Elective courses include a variety of courses on gender, human rights, culture, migration, society, security issues, religion in order to contextualize various conflicts and reveal different cultural, social, political and economic factors that shape them. Students have to take 30 credits of elective courses.
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100 鈥� Introduction to Human Rights (LAW)
Intro to Human Rights offers an introduction to contemporary human rights discourses in their broader historical and theoretical contexts. The course enables students to understand basic philosophy of human rights, principles and place of human rights in modern world. Students acquire essential knowledge of substantive areas of human rights; the emergence of human rights as such, their historical background, sources and legal-institutional development. Furthermore, it examines the philosophical background of the contested categories making up the terms, 鈥渉uman鈥� and 鈥渞ights鈥�. It explores the philosophical, political, legal, and cultural dimensions of the claims made by these terms.
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100 鈥� Introduction to Gender Studies (SOC)
This course aims to introduce students to the basic concepts and theories in Gender Studies. Throughout this course students will be able to learn the main concepts such as Gender, Sex, Sexuality, Patriarchy, and Feminism. Students will be required not only to read the assigned readings, but also to engage with the readings. One of the fundamental parts of the course is for students to react to the readings when we discuss them in the class. Every week is dedicated to a certain issue that is important for Gender Studies, so students will acquire a broad understanding of what Gender Studies is and will be able to elaborate on topics that are central to the discipline.
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200 鈥� Cross-Cultural Communication in the Age of Google-Translate (ANTH)
This course introduced the approaches to cross-cultural communications and cultural intelligence. It is highly interactive course where you will learn experience-based methods to develop your cultural awareness. We will also look at the role of technology in cross-cultural communications. Google Translate now makes it possible for us to travel in the world without learning any other languages. Is this a good thing? What may help improve your intercultural communication skills and competence? Does Google Translate understand culture? What new approaches and even technologies that will help us cross cultures? How might they affect how we see and experience the world?
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200 鈥� Migration and Development in Central Asia: Policy, Economic Impact and Society (ANTH)
This course will look at migration from at least three wide angles: legal, economic and socio-cultural. Accordingly, the course is taught by three lecturers: lawyer, economist and anthropologist. The lawyer will discuss the rights of migrants and citizens, legal frameworks of migration, global legal conventions, criminalization of irregular migration and various migrant strategies for navigating the law. The economist will help students analyze the migration-development nexus, connection of migration and labor, role and forms of remittances, development of the skills market, brain-drain, -gain and -circulation, and determinants of international migration. The anthropologist will facilitate students' engagement with main theories of migration and transnationalism and discuss with them the place of migrants in cities, role of gender in migration, formation of transnational families and identities, and questions of migrants' assimilation and integration. These three frameworks, however, will not be taught as separate modules; the main goal of the course is to show how three perspectives overlap and intersect in complex ways. This goal is achieved by creatively mixing topics and discussions throughout the semester to achieve coherence and keep students interested and challenged.
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200 鈥� Social Stratification and Inequality (SOC)
The primary goals of this course are to create a better understanding of what stratification is, how it works, and the explanations behind it. In a society that values individualism, many students tend to focus on the individual-level explanations for inequality, believing that some groups get ahead of others because of only intelligence, ability, and hard work. However, the study of stratification goes beyond individual-level explanations for inequality, because for most people, it takes more than talent to be successful. In general, "stratification" refers to structural inequality that occurs through a systematic process, such that members of some groups get more social goods than members of other groups. The aim of this course is to expand your thinking and focus on how groups' unequal locations in opportunity structures affect their locations in stratification hierarchy.
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200 鈥� Sociology of Conflict (SOC)
This is a core course that aims to lay the foundation for studying inter-group conflicts of different levels from sociological perspective. The aim of the class is to provide students with a view of the theories and the main concepts needed to understand and analyze interpersonal, social, and political conflicts. It will provide a theoretical focus and will reconstruct the roots and trace the main theoretical threads in the sociology of conflict. Marx, Weber and Simmel will be the starting points for the analysis of opposition among social groups, organizations or communities for the control of economic, political or cultural resources. From here onwards, many paradigms emerge. From the School of Frankfurt to Wright Mills and Bourdieu, from Simmel to Coser, and again the analysis provided by wider social science perspective.
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300 鈥� Contemporary Issues in Conflict and Security Studies (ICP)
This course will examine contemporary issues in conflict and security studies, such as broadening the security agenda, communal conflicts, the political use of violence, security communities, the environment and security, and critical approaches to security studies. This course is designed to introduce students to important theoretical approaches to the study of security policies. The empirical part of course is focused on Central Asia.
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300 鈥� Ethnicity and Identity in Multicultural Societies (ANTH)
The course will aim to discuss definitions, methods and main approaches to the study of ethnicity and ethnic identity, ethnic stratification and ethnic relations in multiethnic states. It will explore the relationship between ethnicity and culture, ethnicity and race, ethnicity and nationalism, ethnicity and democracy. The course will study the origins of ethnic conflicts, the ways of its prevention and resolution, and finally the contradiction existing between ethnicity and globalization.
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300 鈥� Anthropology of Religion (ANTH)
This course will explore religions in diverse cultural, social, and historical context. It will focus on anthropological approaches of studying religion. Within this course we will look into religious beliefs, meanings, experiences, expressions and practices around the world. Through an engagement with anthropological works on the interpretation of symbol, ritual, myth, sex & gender, witchcraft, religious activism, name a few, we will study how religion is interpreted, practiced and expressed and Religion in a larger Canvas under socialism and capitalism. Within the course, students will work toward their research projects. Through their research projects, they will gain deeper knowledge and answer their specific questions related to religion. Through this project experience, the students develop training in research, writing and presentation skills.
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300 鈥� Civic Engagement: Global Trends and Development of Civil Society in Central Asia (ICP)
This course will examine historical, philosophical, and practical elements of civic engagement while exploring the underlying question of what it means to be an engaged citizen in the early 21st century. It will examine themes including citizenship, political participation, voting, social justice, and notions of personal responsibility. It will explore modes of community engagement on a number of levels, including governmental (especially local government), various forms of associational life, and social action. The course will look at the following issues: significance of the civic engagement concept for the political development of the country; engaging youth in policy-making processes and community decision-making; freedom of speech and expression; government relations and lobbying; leadership, and corporate social responsibility.
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300 鈥� Mediation: Alternative Dispute Resolution Technology (LAW)
The objective of the course is to inform students on alternative dispute resolution method called mediation. Mediation is an alternative way to resolve disputes in which the third independent party is the mediator, helping the parties to find a mutually acceptable solution. Students will be taught on mediation in negotiations, concluding agreements, resolving disputes and conflicts; preservation of business reputation during pre-trial settlement of disputes; peaceful settlement of judicial and pre-trial disputes; independent and alternative assessment of complex situations.
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300 鈥� United Nations Efforts for Sustaining Peace (LAW)
The course will take the students on a journey starting from an historical prospective on the concept of peace and lead them through the UN international efforts of peacekeeping. Through interactive classes linking political developments with theoretical approaches, the course aims at students who intend to work in international organizations and develop fundamental critical thinking skills.听
Both required and elective courses will be taught on campus in traditional face-to-face manner either in classroom or outside, while course projects and some group activities could be conducted online as well. The courses will include traditional for all 51吃瓜course assignments such as quizzes, tests, written exams, individual or group projects, course papers (reflection papers, research papers, etc).
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