Program Description

Full Description

The Environment, Peace and Justice minor meets a number of different goals, responding to students’ interests and the growing need to prepare them with the conceptual and theoretical foundations and applied skills to address challenges to both peace and the environment in tandem.

Challenges to both peace and the environment are often deeply interrelated, with one impacting the other and feeding back. For example, where environmental degradation unevenly impacts already-marginalized communities and becomes a source of conflict, or when the breakdown of peace due to historical or protracted injustice impacts the environment and our ability to protect it in nonviolent ways. Globally, justice is a well-recognized pillar of both sustainable development and sustainable peace, emphasizing that these challenges need to be met in integrated ways.

The program emphasizes an interdisciplinary approach by drawing on relevant courses offered through different departments to offer a minor that can complement a range of majors.

Admissions

Admission Requirements

Admission to a minor is open to students declared in a bachelor’s degree, the A.A.B. or A.A.S. degree or the A.T.S. degree (not Individualized Program major). Students declared only in the A.A. or A.S. degree or the A.T.S. degree in Individualized Program may not declare a minor. Students may not pursue a minor and a major in the same discipline.

Learning Outcomes

Program Learning Outcomes

Graduates of this program will be able to:

1. Engage with interdisciplinary and critical theory, concepts and case studies to understand a variety of issues and underlying challenges to protecting the environment, peace and justice.
2. Demonstrate knowledge through the ability to connect, analyze and communicate a wide range of social justice issues and challenges with the environment and peace.
3. Identify or propose peaceful or nonviolent approaches that comprehensively address environmental problems and social and ecological injustices.

Program Delivery

• Delivery:
  • In person
• Location:
  • Kent Campus

Admissions

Program Description

Full Description

The Bachelor of Arts degree in Peace and Conflict Studies prepares students for careers or graduate study in the field of conflict management, peace studies and dispute resolution. This major gives students a solid background in managing conflicts in constructive, not destructive, ways. Students learn skills that are not only useful in a variety of workplace settings, but in everyday life and relationships as well.

Program areas of focus include mediation, negotiation, environmental conflict resolution, international conflict resolution, workplace conflict management, nonviolent action and community organizing. As this is an applied program, students learn skills and build professional networks through the internship, which can be completed in a wide variety of contexts.

Students may apply early to the M.A. degree in Peace and Conflict Studies and double count 9 credit hours of graduate courses toward both degree programs. See the Combined Bachelor's/Master's Degree Program Policy in the University Catalog for more information.

Admissions

Admission Requirements

The university affirmatively strives to provide educational opportunities and access to students with varied backgrounds, those with special talents and adult students.

First-Year Students on the Kent Campus: First-year admission policy on the Kent Campus is selective. Admission decisions are based upon cumulative grade point average, strength of high school college preparatory curriculum and grade trends. Students not admissible to the Kent Campus may be administratively referred to one of the seven regional campuses to begin their college coursework. For more information, visit the admissions website for first-year students.

First-Year Students on the Regional Campuses: First-year admission to Kent State’s campuses at Ashtabula, East Liverpool, Geauga, Salem, Stark, Trumbull and Tuscarawas, as well as the Twinsburg Academic Center, is open to anyone with a high school diploma or its equivalent. For more information on admissions, contact the Regional Campuses admissions offices.

International Students: All international students must provide proof of proficiency of the English language (unless they meet specific exceptions) through the submission of an English language proficiency test score or by completing English language classes at Kent State’s English as a Second Language Center before entering their program. For more information, visit the admissions website for international students.

Former Students: Former Kent State students who have not attended another institution since Kent State and were not academically dismissed will complete the re-enrollment process through the Financial, Billing and Enrollment Center. Former students who attended another college or university since leaving Kent State must apply for admissions as a transfer or post-undergraduate student.

Transfer Students: Students who attended an educational institution after graduating from high school or earning their GED must apply as transfer students. For more information, visit the admissions website for transfer students.

Admission policies for undergraduate students may be found in the University Catalog's Academic Policies.

Students may be required to meet certain criteria to progress in their program. Any progression requirements will be listed on the program's Coursework tab

Learning Outcomes

Program Learning Outcomes

Graduates of this program will be able to:

1. Demonstrate the research and analytical skills that will be useful while working in the field of peace studies and conflict management.
2. Analyze the dynamics of social conflicts and apply the principles of nonviolent theory and practice in order to wage conflict constructively to bring about social or political change.
3. Utilize conflict management and peace-building skills and knowledge to effectively develop, teach and/or implement approaches to preventing, managing and resolving conflicts.
4. Demonstrate an ability to identify and analyze the cultural dimensions of conflicts and conflict management.
5. Describe and interpret the roles that gendered power dynamics play in conflicts and conflict management.
6. Demonstrate a broad grounding in the field of peace and conflict studies by being able to explain the historical evolution of the field, by identifying and analyzing a full range of conflict dynamics and by designing constructive and appropriate intervention tactics and strategies.
7. Demonstrate an ability to explain the main theories on causes, expression and consequences of international conflicts, and comparatively evaluate different mechanisms of prevention, management and resolution of international conflicts.

Roadmap

Roadmap

This roadmap is a recommended semester-by-semester plan of study for this program. Students will work with their advisor to develop a sequence based on their academic goals and history. Courses designated as critical (!) must be completed in the semester listed to ensure a timely graduation.

Program Delivery

• Delivery:
  • In person
• Location:
  • Kent Campus

Program Description

Full Description

The Master of Arts degree in Peace and Conflict Studies is designed for students interested in gaining the knowledge and practical skills necessary to become a professional peace practitioner, one who is equipped to promote peaceful change and social justice whether in the local community, across the country or at the international level.

Students have the opportunity to learn at the School of Peace and Conflict Studies, Kent State’s ‘living memorial’ to the four students killed on May 4, 1970, and one of the oldest and most well-known institutions for the study of peace and conflict. Students work with faculty who are leading experts in their field and with students from all over the world — all of whom are dedicated to building peaceful local communities, societies and states in a time of increasing incivility, rancor and conflict.

In the program, students examine the causes and consequences of violence; develop methods for preventing, resolving and transforming conflicts; and critically analyze the values and institutions of peace. Students study relevant academic and policy literature and develop an advanced understanding of the field. Above all, however, they embark on a multidisciplinary program with a strong focus on experiential learning, the development of advanced skills relevant to the field (e.g., mediation, conflict analysis, project management), training in leadership and career planning for future employment, whether as a peace practitioner or researcher.

Through the school's partnership with the Center for Conflict Management at the University of Rwanda, students have the opportunity to undertake a study abroad course in Africa to examine both how the country has responded to the challenges of post-genocide reconstruction, and how it is addressing contemporary environmental challenges.

The Peace and Conflict Studies comprises two concentrations:

• The Applied Conflict Transformation concentration focuses on the domestic dynamics of peace, including human relations, organizational conflict and conflict resolution, group and community conflict transformation. Students specialize in a wide range of electives (e.g., peace psychology, public sector conflict transformation, peace education). This concentration provides students with knowledge and applied skills necessary to pursue a career in fields such as mediation, arbitration and dispute resolution; in the service and social and community service sector; or in roles in businesses, non-profits and government entities that requires skills of mediation and conflict resolution (e.g., human resources).
• The Peace, Conflict and Development concentration explores the intersection between peace, conflict and development in fragile or insecure states and societies around the world. Students examine policy and practice in the fields of international conflict prevention, international peacekeeping, post-conflict peace-building, sustainable development and good governance. Students specialize in a wide range of electives, including on issues such as environmental change and conflict, reconciliation after conflict and the global governance of military technologies. This concentration is designed to appeal to those students wishing to obtain work in fields and organizations dealing with the local and international dimensions of peace, conflict and development in the global south, including governments, international organizations, international development and humanitarian-relief non-governmental organizations (NGO).

Admissions

For more information about graduate admissions, visit the graduate admission website. For more information on international admissions, visit the international admission website.

Admission Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in peace studies or related discipline from an accredited college or university
• Minimum 2.750 undergraduate GPA on a 4.000-point scale¹
• Official transcript(s)
• Résumé or curriculum vitae
• Goal statement highlighting relevant professional experience and academic background
• Writing sample
• Two letters of recommendation from professional or academic evaluators
• English language proficiency - all international students must provide proof of English language proficiency (unless they meet specific exceptions to waive) by earning one of the following:²
  • Minimum 79 TOEFL iBT score
  • Minimum 6.5 IELTS score
  • Minimum 58 PTE score
  • Minimum 110 DET score

Admission to the program is competitive and selective. Applicants will be reviewed holistically, by the school’s graduate coordinator, who may conduct interviews with select candidates to ensure qualifications and fit with the program. The coordinator will render admission decisions after consultations with the faculty and school director.

¹

Applicants who do not meet the GPA criteria but have extensive experience in the peace-building field are encouraged to apply. They may be conditionally admitted if all other admission requirements are met. After earning a 3.000 GPA in their first semester, they will be considered fully admitted.

²

International applicants who do not meet the above test scores will not be considered for admission.

Application Deadlines

• Fall Semester
  • Application deadline: April 1 (international student) and May 1 (domestic student)

All application materials (including applicable fee, transcripts, recommendation letters, etc.) submitted after this deadline will be considered on a space-available basis.

Learning Outcomes

Program Learning Outcomes

Graduates of this program will be able to:

1. Analyze and apply key theories, concepts and policies relevant to the field of peace and conflict studies, in general and in their specific concentrations.
2. Synthesize the interplay of conflict sources at different levels of analyses (from interpersonal to structural) with the dynamics relevant to all conflict situations.
3. Analyze and apply appropriate intervention practices for successful conflict resolution or transformation at relevant levels of conflict.
4. Describe and evaluate the key role that leadership plays in conflict intervention and crisis management.
5. Integrate and apply learning from across the program to real-world situations.
6. Apply knowledge about the field to develop personally tailored career plans.

Dual Degree

Dual Degree with Master of Business Administration

Students have the opportunity to complete a dual degree program with the M.A. degree in Peace and Conflict Studies and the Master of Business Administration degree. A separate application must be submitted for each program. Students can view admission requirements for each program on their respective catalog page.

The M.B.A./M.A. dual degree converges the field of conflict management and the field of business. Students learn how business works alongside understanding the dynamics of conflict and how to successfully transform it to succeed in business and to transform organizational cultures.

Dual Degree Requirements

¹

MGMT 68051 may be waived for students with at least two years of full-time work experience.

Program Delivery

• Delivery:
  • In person
• Location:
  • Kent Campus