PEAC Courses for Fall 2024
Please click on the course title for more information.
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PEAC 104 01 - Introduction to the Study of Conflict, Justice, and Peace
Course: |
PEAC 104 - 01 |
Title: |
Introduction to the Study of Conflict, Justice, and Peace |
Credit Hours: |
1 |
Description: |
An interdisciplinary introduction to the study of conflict, justice, and peace. The course engages students in developing an analytical and theoretical framework for examining the dynamics of conflict, violence, and injustice and the strategies that have been employed to attain peace and justice, including balance of power, cooperation, diplomacy and conflict resolution, law, human rights, social movements, social justice (economic, environmental, and race/class/gender), interpersonal communication, and religiously inspired social transformation. |
Prerequisite(s): |
None. Open to First-Years, Sophomores, and Juniors. |
Notes: |
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Distribution(s): |
Religion, Ethics, and Moral Philosophy
Social and Behavioral Analysis |
Instructors: |
Nadya Hajj |
Meeting Time(s): |
Pendleton East 130 Classroom - MR 8:30 AM - 9:45 AM |
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PEAC 123 01 - Mathematics and Politics
Course: |
PEAC 123 - 01 |
Title: |
Mathematics and Politics |
Credit Hours: |
1 |
Description: |
How can a candidate in a political race win the majority of votes yet lose the election? How can two competing candidates interpret the same statistic as being in their favor? How can the geometry of the voting district disenfranchise entire groups of voters? Can we quantify the power the President of the United States has? In this course, we will look at the mathematics behind these and related questions that arise in politics. We will study topics such as fairness, voting paradoxes, social choice, game theory, apportionment, gerrymandering, and data interpretation. The goal of the class will be to illustrate the importance of rigorous reasoning in various social and political processes while providing an introduction to some fascinating mathematics. |
Prerequisite(s): |
None. |
Notes: |
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Distribution(s): |
Mathematical Modeling and Problem Solving |
Cross Listed Courses: |
MATH 123 01 - Mathematics and Politics
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Instructors: |
Ismar Volić |
Meeting Time(s): |
Science Center Hub 302 Active Learning Classroom - MR 11:20 AM - 12:35 PM |
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PEAC 207 01 - Schools and Society
Course: |
PEAC 207 - 01 |
Title: |
Schools and Society |
Credit Hours: |
1 |
Description: |
Does education in the United States encourage social mobility or help to reproduce the socioeconomic hierarchy? What is the hidden curriculum—the ideas, values, and skills that students learn at school that are not in the textbook? Who determines what gets taught in school? How do schools in the US compare to school systems in other countries? What makes school reform so hard to do? Questions like these drive this course. It offers students an introduction to the sociology of education by broadly exploring the role of education in American society. The course covers key sociological perspectives on education, including conflict theory, functionalism, and human and cultural capital. Other topics include schools and communities; the role of teachers, students, parents, mentors, and peers in educational inequalities (including tracking and measures of achievement), school violence, school reform, and knowledge production. We also look comparatively at education systems across the world. |
Prerequisite(s): |
None. |
Notes: |
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Distribution(s): |
Social and Behavioral Analysis |
Instructors: |
Peggy Levitt |
Meeting Time(s): |
Pendleton East 129 Classroom - MR 11:20 AM - 12:35 PM |
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PEAC 210 01 - Queer Italy: LGBTQ+ Culture in Italy from Dante to Pasolini and Beyond
Course: |
PEAC 210 - 01 |
Title: |
Queer Italy: LGBTQ+ Culture in Italy from Dante to Pasolini and Beyond |
Credit Hours: |
1 |
Description: |
Considered since the Renaissance as a homoerotic haven, Italy was for a long time the favorite destination of many gay writers in flight from the rigid sexual mores of their home countries. In Italy’s warmer Mediterranean climate, rich and sensuous figurative arts, and ancient costumes, they found a culture that seemed more at ease with a nuanced idea of human sexuality. After all, Italy is the country that gave birth to famous artists who became icons of LGBTQ+ culture, such as the painter Caravaggio and the poet Pasolini, and that, unlike other Western nations, never had laws criminalizing homoeroticism. Today, paradoxically, Italy is the Western European country which is most lagging behind in passing legislation in support of LGBTQ+ rights. From the lack of a full legal recognition of gay marriage and adoption rights to the failure to approve a hate-crime bill for the protection of LGBTQ+ individuals, Italian society still shows great reluctance to grant full equal rights to LGBTQ Italians. With these historical contradictions in the background, this course will retrace the steps of the rich, complex, and often tortuous path of LGBTQ+ culture in Italy from the early representations of sodomy, during the Middle Ages and Renaissance, in works by Dante and Poliziano, to the shaping of a political and social discourse around homosexuality in literary texts by twentieth century writers, such as Saba, Bassani, Ginzburg, and Morante, to the emergence of a political debate on current LGBTQ+ issues, such as AIDS, homophobia, transgender and transexual rights, in works by contemporary artists, such as Tondelli, Bazzi, and Lavagna. |
Prerequisite(s): |
None |
Notes: |
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Distribution(s): |
Language and Literature |
Cross Listed Courses: |
ITAS 210 01 - Queer Italy: LGBTQ+ Culture in Italy from Dante to Pasolini and Beyond
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Instructors: |
Sergio Parussa |
Meeting Time(s): |
Founders 307 Classroom - MR 9:55 AM - 11:10 AM |
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PEAC 215 01 - Educational Inequality and Social Transformation in Schools
Course: |
PEAC 215 - 01 |
Title: |
Educational Inequality and Social Transformation in Schools |
Credit Hours: |
1 |
Description: |
In this course students will engage with a spectrum of historic and contemporary school reform efforts across different contexts in the United States. Making use of a diverse array of texts from articles to podcasts and videos, students will struggle with both the promise of education as a tool for remedying race- and class-based inequalities and the stubborn reality that too often schools reflect and reproduce injustice. The structure of the course session and activities prompts students to learn about and experience alternative educational possibilities. Working in groups, pairs, and as individuals, students will explore scholarship and cases in educational anthropology, sociology, history, and critical theory, while questioning the purposes, processes, and products of schooling. Central to the course is the community students create with the instructor for mutual learning support and debate. All members of the course are engaged in a learning stance that centers a discipline of hope and engages with the proposition that communities can organize their own struggle to define and demand a humanizing and liberatory education. Students also have multiple opportunities to explore their own educational experiences and design their own research or educational initiatives to act on their learning. |
Prerequisite(s): |
Open to First-Years, Sophomores and Juniors. Seniors by permission of the instructor. |
Notes: |
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Distribution(s): |
Social and Behavioral Analysis |
Cross Listed Courses: |
EDUC 215 01 - Educational Inequality and Social Transformation in Schools
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Instructors: |
Pamela D'Andrea Martínez |
Meeting Time(s): |
Founders 423 Classroom - MR 2:20 PM - 3:35 PM |
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PEAC 222 01 - Games of Strategy
Course: |
PEAC 222 - 01 |
Title: |
Games of Strategy |
Credit Hours: |
1 |
Description: |
Should you sell your house at an auction where the highest bidder gets the house, but only pays the second-highest bid? Should the U.S. government institute a policy of never negotiating with terrorists? The effects of decisions in such situations often depend on how others react to them. This course introduces some basic concepts and insights from the theory of games that can be used to understand any situation in which strategic decisions are made. The course will emphasize applications rather than formal theory. Extensive use is made of in-class experiments, examples, and cases drawn from business, economics, politics, movies, and current events. |
Prerequisite(s): |
ECON 101 or ECON 101P. Open to Sophomores, Juniors, and Seniors. |
Notes: |
Ann E. Maurer '51 Speaking Intensive Course. |
Distribution(s): |
Social and Behavioral Analysis |
Cross Listed Courses: |
ECON 222 01 - Games of Strategy
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Instructors: |
Susan Skeath |
Meeting Time(s): |
Pendleton East 130 Classroom - MR 11:20 AM - 12:35 PM
Pendleton East 130 Classroom - W 11:30 AM - 12:20 PM |
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PEAC 227 01 - Life in the Big City: Urban Studies and Policy
Course: |
PEAC 227 - 01 |
Title: |
Life in the Big City: Urban Studies and Policy |
Credit Hours: |
1 |
Description: |
This course will introduce students to core readings in the field of urban studies. While the course will focus on cities in the United States, we will also look comparatively at the urban experience in Asia, Africa, and Latin America and cover debates on “global cities.” Topics will include the changing nature of community, social inequality, political power, socio-spatial change, technological change, and the relationship between the built environment and human behavior. We will examine the key theoretical paradigms driving this field since its inception, assess how and why they have changed over time, and discuss the implications of these shifts for urban scholarship and social policy. The course will include fieldwork in Boston and presentations by city government practitioners. |
Prerequisite(s): |
None. |
Notes: |
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Distribution(s): |
Social and Behavioral Analysis |
Instructors: |
Peggy Levitt |
Meeting Time(s): |
Pendleton East 129 Classroom - MR 2:20 PM - 3:35 PM |
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PEAC 240 01 - U.S. Public Health
Course: |
PEAC 240 - 01 |
Title: |
U.S. Public Health |
Credit Hours: |
1 |
Description: |
A quarter century ago the Institute of Medicine defined the work of public health as "what we as a society do collectively to assure the conditions in which people can be healthy." Historically rooted in a commitment to social justice, U.S. public health is now renewing this commitment through 1) an epidemiological shift to examine the social, economic, and political inequities that create disparate health and disease patterns by gender, class, race, sexual identity, citizenship, etc., and 2) a corresponding health equity movement in public health practice. This broad-ranging course examines the debates shaping the above as well as the moral and legal groundings of public health, basic epidemiology, and the roles of public and private actors. Highlighted health topics vary year to year. |
Prerequisite(s): |
Open to Sophomores, Juniors and Seniors, or by permission of the instructor. |
Notes: |
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Distribution(s): |
Social and Behavioral Analysis |
Cross Listed Courses: |
WGST 240 01 - U.S. Public Health
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Instructors: |
Emily Harrison |
Meeting Time(s): |
Gray Lot Modular M410 Seminar Room - M 9:55 AM - 12:35 PM |
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PEAC 305 01 - Intersections of Technology, Social Justice, and Conflict
Course: |
PEAC 305 - 01 |
Title: |
Intersections of Technology, Social Justice, and Conflict |
Credit Hours: |
1 |
Description: |
This course explores the intersections between social justice, conflict, and engineering using an interdisciplinary, hands-on, case study approach. We will explore four technologies (drones, cell phones, cookstoves and water pumps), exploring in each case both the embodied engineering concepts and the ethical and political implications of using the technology. The case studies will inform our discussions of the following big ideas: technology is directly linked to social justice and can have both highly beneficial and highly problematic results for the development and transformation of conflicts; understanding technology at a deeper level is critical to understanding the justice impact on communities and people; media communication about technology and technological innovations' benefits can be hyperbolic and requires a critical lens. Peace and Justice Studies majors must register for PEAC 305. Students in other majors may register for either PEAC 305 or ENGR 305 depending on their preparation. |
Prerequisite(s): |
For PEAC 305 - PEAC 104 and PEAC 204, or permission of the instructor (Confortini). For ENGR 305 - one ENGR course, or a comparable course at another institution, or permission of the instructor (Banzaert). |
Notes: |
Wendy Judge Paulson '69 Ecology of Place Living Laboratory course. This course does not satisfy the Natural and Physical Sciences Laboratory requirement. |
Distribution(s): |
Social and Behavioral Analysis |
Cross Listed Courses: |
ENGR 305 01 - Intersections of Technology, Social Justice, and Conflict
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Instructors: |
Amy Banzaert
Catia Cecilia Confortini |
Meeting Time(s): |
Gray Lot Modular M410 Seminar Room - R 9:55 AM - 12:35 PM |
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PEAC 332 01 - Capstone Seminar: Civic Engagement in Theory and Practice
Course: |
PEAC 332 - 01 |
Title: |
Capstone Seminar: Civic Engagement in Theory and Practice |
Credit Hours: |
1 |
Description: |
A vital peaceful society depends on the active participation of its people. What does it take for people to engage productively as informed, skilled, and effective members in communities across the world? Whether we are scientists, doctors, engineers, advocates, public servants, or anything else, we are all members of pluralistic communities. Who is able and motivated to engage (much less lead), however, is often limited- leading to significant challenges for the practice of a just and peaceful society. Moreover, translating the people’s engagement into power is a strategic dilemma. This class seeks to overcome some of the limits to participation by combining theory and practice in a reflection of students’ experiential learning. First, the class examines theories of civic engagement, community organizing, monitoring and evaluation, service, and humanitarianism using real world cases and data. Next, the class examines practical hurdles and opportunities for the effective translation of participation into power and action. Then the class provides a framework, using Patti Clayton’s DEAL matrix, for a critical reflection and assessment of student’s real-world engagement. Finally, the class concludes with an exportable blueprint for making a more just and peaceful society. This class is the Senior Capstone course for all P&J majors. |
Prerequisite(s): |
PEAC 104 and PEAC 204. |
Notes: |
The experiential learning position may be completed prior to or in tandem with enrollment in the course. The experiential position should be discussed with the student’s P&J major or minor advisor and may include Wintersession programs, summer or yearlong internships, course-related experiential education programs, or community service projects. This class is the senior capstone class for all Peace and Justice Studies majors and minors. |
Distribution(s): |
Social and Behavioral Analysis |
Instructors: |
Nadya Hajj |
Meeting Time(s): |
Pendleton East 251 Seminar Room - M 9:55 AM - 12:35 PM |
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PEAC 334 01 - Seminar: Imagining Justice in Law and Literature: Rights, Reparations, Reconciliation
Course: |
PEAC 334 - 01 |
Title: |
Seminar: Imagining Justice in Law and Literature: Rights, Reparations, Reconciliation |
Credit Hours: |
1 |
Description: |
This course explores the complex relationship between literature and law, focusing on how each represents and responds to violence and its aftermath, especially in terms of memory and repair. Our goal will not be to judge the efficacy of literary and legal projects, but rather to study how they imagine and enact issues of testimony, commemoration, apology, forgiveness, and reconciliation. We will seek to understand how different forms of life correspond to the various legal theories and codes we’ll encounter, and how literature challenges or corroborates these specifically legal subjects, life worlds, and behaviors. We will also ask whether there are cases in which literature intervenes in jurisprudence, imagining or demanding its own model of law. The class will explore these issues in relation to existing twentieth-century juridical paradigms such as postwar military trials, human rights, reparations, and reconciliation. |
Prerequisite(s): |
At least one literature course in any department or by permission of the instructor to other qualified students. |
Notes: |
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Distribution(s): |
Language and Literature |
Cross Listed Courses: |
ENG 334 01 - Seminar: Imagining Justice in Law and Literature: Rights, Reparations, Reconciliation
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Instructors: |
Kelly Mee Rich |
Meeting Time(s): |
Green Hall 136A Seminar Classroom - W 12:30 PM - 3:10 PM |
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PEAC 392 01 - Truth Commissions: Conceptual Foundations and Case Studies
Course: |
PEAC 392 - 01 |
Title: |
Truth Commissions: Conceptual Foundations and Case Studies |
Credit Hours: |
1 |
Description: |
Truth Commissions (TCs) have been a mechanism to uncover, document, and recognize human rights violations and to honor victims at moments of transition from dictatorships to democracies, and from wars to post-war contexts. TCs vary in their mandates, composition, and tasks, and have mixed records of success, despite the frequently high expectations. They often stand as acts of reparation, catalysts of larger processes of peacebuilding and dignification of victims. In this course, you will join a group of Notre Dame graduate students to study together the conceptual foundations of TCs and learn from different case studies. We will investigate the background and rationale provided for their creation, their mandate and scope, composition and structure, and analyze their work and post-report reception. We will pay attention to issues such as intersectional approaches of gender and ethnicity, the participation of victims and responsible ones, the complementarity of commissions with other forms of transitional justice, and the management and access to their archives. |
Prerequisite(s): |
PEAC 104, PEAC 204, or permission of the instructor. Open only to juniors and seniors. |
Notes: |
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Distribution(s): |
Social and Behavioral Analysis |
Cross Listed Courses: |
POL3 392 01 - Truth Commissions: Conceptual Foundations and Case Studies
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Instructors: |
Catia Cecilia Confortini |
Meeting Time(s): |
Pendleton East 430 Seminar Room - R 2:20 PM - 5:00 PM |
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PEAC 393 01 - Seminar: Women and Conflict
Course: |
PEAC 393 - 01 |
Title: |
Seminar: Women and Conflict |
Credit Hours: |
1 |
Description: |
The seminar will examine a variety of topics concerning the dynamic between women and conflict including whether a lack of women’s rights leads to conflict, the contributions of women to security, women’s mobilization for conflict, the sex gap in conflict-related public opinion, and women’s rights after war. A variety of methodological approaches, including positivist as well as critical theoretical perspectives, will be covered to better understand the strengths, limitations, and complementarities of different approaches to studying women and conflict. In other words, we will use these different approaches to gain clarity on how we “know what we know” about women and conflict. Students will spend a significant portion of the class contending with issues of measurement, conceptual validity and ruling out alternative explanations. Key historical developments with relevance to women and conflict such as the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), women’s involvement in the military, and the passing of the Murad Code will also be discussed. |
Prerequisite(s): |
POL3 221. Another POL3 course, or a course in a related field such as history or economics is recommended. |
Notes: |
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Distribution(s): |
Social and Behavioral Analysis |
Cross Listed Courses: |
POL3 393 01 - Seminar: Women and Conflict
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Instructors: |
Priscilla Torres |
Meeting Time(s): |
Pendleton East 430 Seminar Room - M 2:20 PM - 5:00 PM |
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