Courses

Course List (3 credit course, 12-30 January)

Course List (2 credit course)

12-23 January

19-30 January

Course List (1 credit course)

12-16 January

19-23 January

26-30 January

ENTREPRENEURSHIP IN THE SOCIAL SECTOR: MAKING IT HAPPEN

The worlds of 'working for the betterment of society' and 'making money' are often seen as incompatible. This course will attempt to break-down that perception in order for participants to see the social sector as a place of opportunity, both to 'do good' but also to have a financially viable enterprise. The course suggests that the skills to get a socially beneficial idea off the ground, effectively manage and grow it, and make it financially sustainable, requires social entrepreneurs to bring business-like skills and discipline to the area of 'doing good'. However, important differences in these two worlds are acknowledged.

This hands-on, dynamic course will expose participants to a number of cases of social entrepreneurs who have converted their desire of building a better world into a reality. The course hopes to inspire participants with an entrepreneurial spirit, help gain an understanding of the challenges of the start-up process, offer space and structure for participants to begin developing their own business plan for a socially beneficial venture, and think about the complexities of growing and managing it.

INSTRUCTOR’S BIO

Mohit Mukherjee is the Director of the "UPEACE Centre for Executive and Professional Education" and an Adjunct Faculty member at UPEACE. Prior to this position, he served first as Coordinator and then Education Programme Manager of the Earth Charter Initiative, an international nonprofit organization.
Before his 4-years in the non-profit sector, he worked in the private sector, at A.T. Kearney, a top-tier international management consulting firm in based in USA. He also spent three years teaching in Ecuador. He has a Bachelor's degree in Industrial Engineering from Stanford University, and did his Master's at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, also taking two courses at Harvard Business School on how to start up, manage, and grow social enterprises.

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PEACE OPERATIONS

The focus of this course is on the four main aspects of a Peace Operation. Peace Making, Peace Building, Peacekeeping and Peace Support as defined in the Conceptual Model of Peace Operations (CMPO). The course's main objective is to develop a clear understanding of the multi-disciplinary and multi-agency aspects of modern Peace Operations.

Students completing this course will be able to:

1. Describe a Peace Operation Using the CMPO.
2. Design a notional operation from a multi-national point of view.
3. Understand the role of the many players within a Peace Operation.

INSTRUCTOR’S BIO

Dave Davis. He was the principle investigator on a grant from the Center for Technology and National Security Policy to develop the Conceptual Model of Counter Terrorist Operations. This research lead to a project sponsored by the Provost of George Mason University to do a comprehensive review of all counter terrorist education and research at the University. He continues working on several simulations and modeling activities, researching and composing archetypes of military units involved in a post-combat stabilization environment. He is currently focusing on both metrics in peace operations and determining the relative worth of activities within peace operations.

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PEACE, CONFLICT AND DEVELOPMENT

The course examines the nexus between conflict, peace and development and explores approaches to conflict sensitive development for sustainable peace. Emphasis is placed on economic processes that lead to conflict as well as peace. The course is designed to engage students in an examination of the theoretical and conceptual challenges to peace by conducting a critical inquiry into economic and developmental processes that lead to conflict, violence and peace.

Special attention will be placed on the major economic schools and their impact on peace, conflict and development, as well as the impact of Structural Adjustment Programs (SAPs) and Globalization. In general, the course will attempt to focus and seek a locus of theoretical and conceptual ideas in the development of human security.

A practical component of the course includes an appraisal of conflict sensitive approaches and the utilization of these approaches to a specific case study that will be provided by student groups.

INSTRUCTOR'S BIO

Tony Karbo (Ph.D.), is a Program Officer at the University for Peace Africa Program based in Addis Ababa. He is a graduate from the Institute for Conflict Analysis and Resolution at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. Prior to joining the UPEACE Africa Program, Tony worked as a Senior Lecturer with the Institute of Peace, Leadership and Governance (IPLG) at Africa University in Zimbabwe. He is a Certified Mediator and Conflict Resolution, Conflict Transformation and Peacebuilding trainer. He has worked extensively in Africa with numerous organizations working in conflict zones conducting and facilitating training in conflict resolution and peacebuilding and monitoring and evaluating election processes and programs.

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HUNGER, FAMINE AND FOOD SECURITY

In this course, students will be encouraged to explore from a household and community perspective the causative agents of hunger, starvation, malnutrition, and famine and their subsequent impact on people's ability to survive and thrive. Students will examine the underlying issues that shape rural and urban food systems in terms of food supply and food entitlement (i.e. access to food and distribution of food). This will include not only looking at the dependence of household and community food supply on agricultural production and population growth etc, but also on the policy and institutional environment that constrain people's options for dealing with periodic food shortages, and fluctuations in food prices and food entitlements etc. The course will also explore the importance and synergy of rural-urban links in enabling households to achieve sustainable livelihoods and an acceptable level of food security and well-being. Students will be introduced to methodologies and technologies to assist the prevention of household and community food insecurity crises, including Emergency Systems, Food Information Systems, Famine Early Warning Systems, as well as Food Insecurity and Vulnerability Information and Mapping Systems. Associated with the examination of emergency systems will be a brief exploration of the nature of food aid and the critical importance of how it is delivered on whether it will alleviate or exacerbate food insecurity.

As well as this theoretical content, students will be exposed to some practical methods for assessing poverty and food security at household and community level. The objective will be to raise students' awareness of the problems of identifying the poor, marginalized and food insecure within rural and urban communities. Finally, it is important to note that gender issues in dealing with food security will be covered at various points in the course because of the major role women play in household and community food security.

INSTRUCTOR’S BIO

Prof. Reg Noble. University instructor in food security and community development and natural resource management consultant working on community development and food security issues for international development organizations such FAO, DANIDA, DFID, GTZ, OXFAM, UNESCO, UNDP etc.

In 1997, he became a founding member of a nonprofit association of development professionals, the International Support Group (ISG) and was on the board of the association from 1999 to 2005 working as treasurer and member of ISG's strategic planning team. In addition to membership of ISG, Reg Noble is also a research associate for the Centre for Studies in Food Security at Ryerson University (Toronto) and teaches two postgraduate courses entitled Research Methods and Evaluation in Food Security and Community Development and Food Security. His skills include: Workshop facilitation with community members and their service providers (from government, non-government and private sectors) to assist them forming multi-stakeholder learning groups for community development planning; Design of collaborative processes for policy development with regard to natural resource management (NRM) and food security; Stakeholder analysis; Design of client-led research approaches for community development; among many other fields of experience. Reg Noble has undertaken his work mostly in Africa (where he lived for 17 years in Malawi) dealing with development issues such as decentralization of agricultural planning in Uganda; impact of integrated rural development on rural livelihoods in Ethiopia and ecologically-based smallholder farming development in Malawi. Reg Noble holds a Ph.D. in Ecology, awarded in 1981 from the Chelsea College of Science, University of London, UK.

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ENVIRONMENTAL SECURITY ASSESSMENT: PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICES

The course focuses on the principles and practices that underlie environmental security assessments. Environmental security assessments combine field research and analysis of secondary data in order to identify environmental risks and vulnerabilities that have the potential for adversely affecting human security and/or promoting instability and conflict. They provide tools that enable policymakers to develop more effective strategies for prevention and mitigation.
The class begins with a brief review of the emergence, evolution, and current status of the field of environmental security. There follows a discussion of the theoretical and methodological underpinnings of environmental security assessments. In this section, the complexity of environmental security problems and the need to draw from a variety of methodological approaches are stressed. Alternative approaches to conducting environmental security assessment are described in the next section. The Environmental Security Assessment Framework (ESAF), the approach used by the Foundation for Environmental Security and Sustainability (FESS), is explained and described in detail. The successive phases of the ESAF are discussed, including the generation of alternative scenarios. The course culminates with the presentation of a series of environmental security assessments, including field studies carried out by FESS and other organizations and test assessments conducted by students using the ESAF and other approaches.
Consistent with the nature of environmental security, which crosscuts traditional fields of study, this course will be taught by a three-person multidisciplinary team of experienced researchers who work for the Foundation for Environmental Security and Sustainability and have expertise in fields such as policy studies, international relations, sociology and economics. FESS has completed environmental security assessments in countries of Africa, Asia, and Latin America, including Nepal, Dominican Republic, Uganda, and the Philippines. An environmental security assessment of Sierra Leone will be carried out in 2007.

INSTRUCTOR’S BIO

Dr. Max J. Castro is associate director of research and studies at the Foundation for Environmental Security and Sustainability. He is co-author of This Land Is our Land: Immigrants and Power in Miami (University of California Press, 2003) and editor of Free Markets, Open Societies, Closed Borders? (North-South Center Press, 1999). He has taught and lectured widely and written numerous articles, book chapters, and reviews on international migration, Latin America, and Latinos in the United States. Most recently, he has conducted research on environmental security in Latin America with a focus on the Dominican Republic. Dr. Castro has published columns in major U.S. and Latin American newspapers and has appeared frequently as an expert commentator in the media. From 1994 to 2003, he was senior research associate at the North-South Center of the University of Miami. He received the MA and PhD (sociology) degrees from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Jeffrey Stark is director of research and studies at FESS. From 1996 to 2003, he was the director of research and studies at the North-South Center of the University of Miami, where he also was editor of the North-South Agenda Papers. At FESS, he has led environmental security assessments in the Dominican Republic, Uganda, and the Philippines. He is co-editor of Fault Lines of Democracy in Post-Transition Latin America (North-South Center Press, 1998), winner of the Choice outstanding academic book award, and editor of The Challenge of Change in Latin America and the Caribbean (North-South Center Press, 2001). Recently, he has written on redefining concepts of security, the relationship between effects of globalization and democratic governance, and problems of environmental security in Latin America, East Africa, and Southeast Asia. Mr. Stark previously taught political science at St. Thomas University in Miami and served as a program officer in the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the United States Information Agency in New York City.

Mersie Ejigu is a senior fellow at FESS and president, founder, and chief executive officer of Partnership for African Environmental Sustainability (PAES). Mr. Ejigu has served as Assistant Director General for Programmes and Policy of IUCN - The World Conservation Union based in Gland, Switzerland. In his home country, Ethiopia, Mr. Ejigu served as Minister of Development Planning as well as Minister of Agriculture and Natural Resources. He has served as consultant to the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs, the UN Development Programme, (UNDP), UNICEF, the World Bank, IMF, the African Development Bank, USAID and DFID on sustainable development strategies, natural resource assessment, program formulation and evaluation. Trained in macroeconomics and agricultural economics, Mr. Ejigu has researched and written widely on sustainable development and environmental security issues.

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HUMAN RIGHTS, WOMEN, AND ISLAM: THE CASE OF IRAN & AFGHANISTAN

This course will focus on the rights of women in both international and islamic law. It first examines the principles of equality and non-discrimination in both system and analyzes the women's rights in different legal fields including family law, private law and public law. Since the islamic law is fully applied in Iran, the course will also study the rights of women in Iran's legal system and their role in the society.

INSTRUCTOR'S BIO

Reza Eslami is an Assistant Pofessor of human rights at Faculty of Law, Shahid Beheshti University in Thran, Iran. His area of teaching and research includes international human rights law, public liberties, rights of women and minorities, democratic citizenship education, Islamic law, and peace education.
He is the head of peace department at the UNESCO Chair for Human Rights, Peace and Democracy in Shahid Beheshti University in Iran. He organizes workshops and seminars on human rights and peace issues for NGOs and civil society organizations, and also travels often to attend conferences as well as to deliver lectures in the Middle East region and the US.
Dr. Eslami received his first Ph.D. in Criminal Law and Criminalogy in Iran and his second Ph.D. in International Human Rights Law from McGill University in Montreal, Canada.

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FILM AND CONFLICT

This course will focus on providing students with an introduction to the narrative of peace and conflict in popular culture in general, and, more specifically, through the medium of film. The course will analyse different narratives attached to conflict, from glamorisation to condemnation through illustrative polarization. Finally the course will explore approaches to use film as a peace-building tool.

INSTRUCTOR

The course will be taught by Eliana Carvalho, UPEACE professor with extensive experience in the fields of media, communication and peace-building.

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HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVISM: THEORY AND PRACTICE

This course first briefly reviews the international as well as regional mechanisms for the protection and promotion of human rights, and then focuses mainly on the role and impact of international and national NGOs and civil society organizations as to the promotion of human rights norms and standards, the protection of citizens' rights and freedoms, and monitoring the implementation of human rights treaties. Emphasizing the importance of citizens' participation in public life in order to guarantee protection of human rights, the course also provides for human rights education for public at large.

INSTRUCTOR'S BIO

Reza Eslami is an Assistant Pofessor of human rights at Faculty of Law, Shahid Beheshti University in Thran, Iran. His area of teaching and research includes international human rights law, public liberties, rights of women and minorities, democratic citizenship education, Islamic law, and peace education.
He is the head of peace department at the UNESCO Chair for Human Rights, Peace and Democracy in Shahid Beheshti University in Iran. He organizes workshops and seminars on human rights and peace issues for NGOs and civil society organizations, and also travels often to attend conferences as well as to deliver lectures in the Middle East region and the US.
Dr. Eslami received his first Ph.D. in Criminal Law and Criminalogy in Iran and his second Ph.D. in International Human Rights Law from McGill University in Montreal, Canada.

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TERRORISM IN THE ISLAMIC CONTEXT

This course will focus on providing students with comprehensive views of the causes and discourses of terrorism within the Muslim context, and their implications to world peace.

The course will provide balanced perspectives on political, cultural, social and religious issues. Finally the course will explore approaches to address those issues, with an emphasis on multilateral approaches, and ones that may lead to the peaceful transformation of the terrorism trend in the Muslim world.

INSTRUCTOR

The course will be taught by Dr. Amr Abdalla, a UPEACE professor who is a former prosecuting attorney from Egypt with extensive experience about Islamic Jihad and other terrorist groups.

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DEMOCRACY AND DEVELOPMENT IN LATIN AMERICA

DEMOCRACIA Y DESARROLLO EN AMERICA LATINA

This course will be taught in Spanish

The general purpose of the course is to describe and critically analyze issues on Latin America in relation to human development building within the framework of the consolidation of democracy.

Departing from general view of the recent political history of the region, the course allows to examine intra- and inter-state stages of development; evolution of the human rights, approaches on security, the international relevance of the region and the threats that can jeopardize the democracy and the development in the region. The different kinds of violence, the role of political parties, the electoral processes, the politics and the political leaderships shall be discussed.

El propósito general del curso es describir y analizar críticamente temas sobre América Latina en relación a la construcción del desarrollo humano en  marco de la consolidación de la democracia.

A partir de una visión general sobre la historia política reciente, el curso permitirá examinar etapas de desarrollo al interior de los estados y en los estados; la evolución de los derechos humanos, los enfoques de seguridad, las amenazas contra la democracia y la dimensión internacional de América Latina, como región, en el mundo actual.

Las violencias, el rol de los partidos políticos, las elecciones, la política y los liderazgos políticos serán los temas a discutir.

INSTRUCTOR’S BIO

Dr. Víctor Valle ha estado con la Universidad para la Paz desde 2000. Es el Decano para América Latina y Director del Departamento de Estudios de Paz y Conflicto de la Universidad para la Paz. Obtuvo un Doctorado en Educación, de la Universidad de George Washington, Estados Unidos de América, en 1982; una Maestría de Educación de la Universidad Pittsburgh, Estados Unidos de América,  en 1971, y estudios de pre-grado, en Ingeniería Civil, Universidad de El Salvador, desde 1959 a 1965.  Larga trayectoria universitaria y en cooperación internacional para el desarrollo educativo, fue Educador Principal de la Organización de los Estados Americanos, en Washington D.C., profesor en varias universidades de América Latina. Su carrera política incluye el liderazgo del partido político salvadoreño miembro de la Internacional Socialista y miembro de la Comisión Nacional que tuvo a cargo la supervisión del cumplimiento de los Acuerdos de Paz en El Salvador que, mediados por Naciones Unidos, dieron fin a la guerra civil en ese país. 

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FACILITATION AND DRAMA METHODS FOR CONFLICT TRANSFORMATION

This course explores basic and advanced facilitation techniques for conflict analysis and transformation. Various facilitation models, traditional and non-traditional, are explored. Students will complete an in-depth research project on one style of group facilitation. The course consists of sessions exploring through experiential means some of the various approaches to group facilitation applied in the field of Conflict Transformation.   These include, Appreciative Inquiry, the Skilled Facilitator Problem Solving Approach, Narrative and Storytelling Based Facilitation, and Visual and Dramatic Arts Based Facilitation.

INSTRUCTOR'S BIO

Steven Hawkins has PhD in Conflict Analysis and Resolution,  MSEd in Special Education  and  BA in Anthropology. He is the founder and director of Dramatic Problem Solving. Steven works with communities and groups to help them transform their conflict. Recent projects include a women´s group in La Carpio, an urban squatters community in San Jose, workshops with the BriBri indigenous people, schools, and university faculty at Long Island University where he also teaches research and sociology courses.

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SPORTS AND PEACE

Governmental and non-governmental organizations around the world as well as the United Nations increasingly see sport as a tool for conflict prevention, peace building and development.  The Global Millennium Development Goals affirm sport as a “beacon of hope” for peace building and development efforts throughout the world Whether sport can, in fact, fulfill these lofty functions and successfully play this challenging role depends to a large extent on the specific way in which sport is organized and presented.  This course critically examines the potential role and use of sport as a local and global tool for conflict prevention, social transformation, community development and peace building. With a strong developmental and cross-cultural emphasis, the course aims at promoting an educational process which will generate greater awareness and understanding of the complexities of using sport as a vehicle for such developmental efforts.

INSTRUCTOR’S BIO

Marion Keim Lees is an associate professor in the Institute for Social Development/ School of Government and the coordinator of the Social Transformation and Peace Programme at the University of the Western Cape, South Africa.  She is lecturing in Conflict, Diversity & Peace and Leadership & Social Transformation as well Sport and Community Development.

Marion Keim Lees holds a B.Ed. (Hons), BA (Hons), a  HDE, Higher Diploma of Education, a MA (with distinction) and a D Phil (cum laude) in Social and Behavioural Sciences with a focus on Sport Science from the University of Heidelberg, Germany. She also holds a LLB degree from the Law Faculty of the University of the Western Cape focusing on Human Rights Law and is certified in Sports Law. She is an Advocate of the High Court of South Africa.

Marion Keim Lees has been teaching/lecturing and conducting research in South Africa, Malawi, Germany and the USA since 1985. She has been coordinating numerous provincial and national community development projects, targeting children, youth, women, street children and teachers.

Marion Keim Lees has published in the areas of sport, social transformation and peace building including her book Nation Building at Play, Sport as a Tool for Social Integration in Post-apartheid   South Africa (2003 Meyer & Meyer Sport, UK).

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MEDIA, INSURGENCY AND TERRORISM

As early as in 1996, Usama bin Laden declared that his aim was to directly affect the lives of ordinary Americans in terms of human and economic costs, as well as to initiate a global insurgency against infidel regimes. More than 10 years later, and in light of an impending global economic recession, this goal seems to be in reach. While the number of terrorist attacks has slightly diminished since September 11th 2001, their intensity and scope throughout the world have become unprecedented. Whether through taking a flight or filling their gas tanks, Americans are being affected daily by the specter of international terrorism. In the last 10 years, international terrorism has mutated from a being a cluster of exclusive organizations to a grass-root dogma that possesses a global reach. How did it come to this and what role did mass communication play in all this? How did al-Qaeda become ‘al-Qaedism’, an ideological franchise that Usama bin Laden himself might be unable to stop from spreading if he ever chose to?

This course will assess the globalization of terrorism and insurgency in terms of the mass communication used by groups to grow, self-sustain, recruit militants, spread their identity and elicit support from their target audience. This will be facilitated by the analyses of five terrorist and insurgency networks: the Lebanese Hezbollah, al-Qaeda, the Iraqi insurgency and several Zionist groups that contributed to the creation of the State if Israel. The course will prepare students to think analytically about terrorism and insurgency, and use various models of mass communication to understand their dynamics and processes. At the end of the course, the students are expected to have a sound knowledge of the field of mass communication applied to terrorism and insurgency.

INSTRUCTOR’S BIO

Victoria Fontan, UPEACE.

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FUNDRISING FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS

Public funds for development programmes from traditional donor agencies are more difficult to get, but a variety of alternative funding sources have emerged. However, successful access to these new sources requires careful planning and design of programmes and projects. Proposals are often week and accompanied by insufficient knowledge about donor requirements.
The one week course aims at strengthening the capacity of scientists, administrators and students to achieve funds for projects (project funding) and institutions (core funding).
Based on the logical framework approach participants learn systematically to identify and plan a project, establish contacts with donors, write and launch the proposal.
 
INSTRUCTOR’S BIO

Jurgen Carls is associated with the Department of Environment and Peace (UPEACE) since 2001 and has given classes in sustainable development, project management and fundraising.

He studied International Rural Development and completed his doctoral dissertation at the Technical University of Berlin.

He has long term experience in teaching of sustainable development, fundraising and international cooperation projects  in Europe, Asia, Africa and Latin America.

These international experiences have been documented in 65 publications.

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HUMAN RIGHTS OF CHILDREN

This course approaches the rights of children from both theoretical and practical points of view. It first reviews international norms and standards as to rights of children and studies children's rights and freedoms in different civil, social, economic and cultural fields. It also examines the protections and safeguards as well as legislative and administrative measures required in national level for the implementation of their rights. The course then focuses on the problematics of children's rights in the world, and, reviewing several cases, addresses issues such as physical, mental and sexual abuse and violence, early and forced marriage, exploitation and child labor, smuggling and trafficking of children, child soldiers and refugees.

INSTRUCTOR’S BIO

Reza Eslami is an Assistant Pofessor of human rights at Faculty of Law, Shahid Beheshti University in Thran, Iran. His area of teaching and research includes international human rights law, public liberties, rights of women and minorities, democratic citizenship education, Islamic law, and peace education.
He is the head of peace department at the UNESCO Chair for Human Rights, Peace and Democracy in Shahid Beheshti University in Iran. He organizes workshops and seminars on human rights and peace issues for NGOs and civil society organizations, and also travels often to attend conferences as well as to deliver lectures in the Middle East region and the US.
Dr. Eslami received his first Ph.D. in Criminal Law and Criminalogy in Iran and his second Ph.D. in International Human Rights Law from McGill University in Montreal, Canada.

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For more information please contact the Department of Academic Administration at (institute@upeace.org).