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Note: Details subject to change. To accessÌýinstructor namesÌýandÌýclass locations,Ìýview your class schedule on Quest.

Note: Details subject to change. To accessÌýinstructor namesÌýandÌýclass locations,Ìýview your class schedule on Quest.

Students must complete 5 core courses (2.5 units), covering key themes such as civil society, reflective peace practice, engaging communities in social change, conflict analysis, and conflict transformation and peacebuilding.

PACS 601 - Thinking Critically About Civil Society | 0.5 units
This course explores the promise and challenge of civil society in relation to transforming conflict and oppression and building peace. Students will critically examine the history and theories of civil society as well as its functions as a site for struggle against oppression and for advancing collective flourishing.

PACS 601 Course Outline Fall 2024 (PDF) Ìý

PACS 602 - Reflective Peace Practice | 0.5 units
Building capacity for reflective and effective peace practice, students will develop knowledge and skills in reflexivity, applied qualitative research, and assessment methods. Students will also become familiar with professional ethics, including research ethics.

PACS 602 Course Outline Winter 2025 (PDF)

PACS 603 - Engaging Communities in Social Change | 0.5 units
Students will examine creative approaches to involving a wide variety of people in working for peace and justice at the community level. Students will learn participatory methods for fostering critical awareness and reflection on social problems, developing new visions for change, and mobilizing the power and participation of groups targeted for violence and injustice.

PACS 603 Course Outline Fall 2023 (PDF)

PACS 604 - Conflict Analysis | 0.5 units
This course examines theoretical and practical frameworks for understanding conflict, with particular attention to structures and dynamics inhibiting peace. The course provides students with some of the analytical skills needed to understand how conflicts develop and escalate, to identify factors that can lead to or sustain violence, and to map root causes of conflict (e.g., human rights violations, needs deprivation, cultural and religious differences, inequality, resource misuse and environmental degradation) at interpersonal, intergroup, and international levels.

PACS 604 Course Outline Fall 2023 (PDF)

PACS 605 - Conflict Transformation and Peacebuilding | 0.5 units
This course explores the theoretical and practical foundations of various approaches to working with conflict to advance positive goals such as social equity and reconciliation. Attention will be given to a range of conflict resolution methods and practices (facilitation, negotiation, mediation, arbitration, adjudication) as well as to principles of restorative justice and dynamics of collective peacebuilding practice.

PACS 605 Course Outline Winter 2022 (PDF)

In addition to core courses, students must complete at least 1.0 units (two 0.5-unit courses) of PACS electives. These electives cover topics such as leadership in crisis communication, multi-stakeholder collaboration, and more. Students may also engage in individualized peace research or pursueÌýapplied studiesÌýthrough an internship or conflict resolution skills training.

PACS 610 - Contemporary Nonviolent Movements | 0.5 units
Through comparative case studies, this course examines contemporary nonviolent movements that illustrate pacifist and other nonviolent strategies for advancing social justice and other high-value political goals. Local, national and transnational campaigns that seek to shape the agenda for global change are examined alongside movements of more limited scope and ambition (e.g., national liberation movements, civil rights campaigns, struggles for democracy). Throughout, attention will be given to trends in practice and to debates concerning the effectiveness, ethical significance, and current relevance of nonviolent change methods.

PACS 610 Course Outline Winter 2021 (PDF)

PACS 611 - Reconciliation | 0.5 units
This course uses case studies to analyze the complex issues of trauma, abuse, historical injustice and violence - and investigates approaches to healing, forgiveness and reconciliation (including memory, testimony, tribunals and reparation/atonement). The course explores theoretical and practical models for transforming relationships, including indigenous and non-formal mechanisms employed internationally, and teaches skills that are employed by effective agents of reconciliation.

PACS 611 Course Outline Fall 2022 (PDF)

PACS 612 - Culture, Religion, and Peacebuilding | 0.5 units
This course explores cultural, religious and identity-based dimensions of conflict and conflict resolution, examining major patterns of human difference and their implications for contemporary peacebuilding practice. Case studies, simulations and role plays are used to expose students to the practical reality of building a common peace in the midst of diversity.

PACS 612 Course Outline Winter 2020 (PDF)

PACS 620 - Special Topics in Peace and Conflict Studies | 0.5 units
A seminar course investigating special issues related to peace and conflict. Content may vary from year to year. Course may be repeated if course topic differs. Recent topic include:

• PACS 620 Special Topics: Thinking and Working Politically Winter 2023Ìý(PDF)
• PACS 620: Special Topics: Mediation and Negotiation in Complex Conflicts Spring 2022 (PDF)
• PACS 620 Special Topics: Research for Social Action Spring 2021 (PDF)

PACS 621 - Peace Research | 0.5 units
This course requires completion of a research project that develops a student's capacity to do research for an applied objective. The research may be to support a grant proposal, document and contextualize a need or a human rights abuse, analyze what various agencies are doing in the face of common challenges, or write an advocacy brief to a government. Students are expected to demonstrate a high level of competence in research analysis and writing.

PACS 621 Course Outline (PDF)

PACS 623 - Directed Reading in Peace and Conflict Studies | 0.5 units
This reading course gives students space to study literature that explores the full theoretical and contemporary scope of readings pertaining to the Peace and Conflict Studies field. These readings will be in conjunction with coursework. Students must seek out the approval of a faculty member who is willing to supervise them and have the approval of the department chair. Students must write a topic proposal and outline of coursework prior to obtaining permission to enroll in the course.

PACS 623 Course Outline (PDF)

PACS 625 - Internship | 1.0 units
The internship allows students to engage in experiential learnig with a research institute, non-governmental organizaton or other agency/entity that deals with peace and conflict issues. Students are expected to read relevant texts before, during and after the field study, to engage in stubstantial research on th eissues addressed by the host agency/entity and to submit a report reflecting on what the field study/internship revealed about the integration of peace studies theory and practice. Field study placements may be either in Canada or international contexts. Departmental consent is required.

To find out more about MPACS internships, visit ourÌýinternship page.

PACS626 - Conflict Resolution Skills Training | 0.25 units per course section
This course provides a framework for students to do academic work related to specific conflict resolution skills training they have received through workshops sponsored by the Center for Extended Learning or the Certified Program in Conflict Management or other credible training organizations. Students will complete this additional academic work as a Directed Study supervised by Peace and Conflict Studies faculty. This course is offered on a credit/no credit basis. The course may be repeated once.

PACS 626 Course Outline (PDF)

Students may choose an additional 1.5 units from PACS 610-626 or cross-listed electives from collaborating departments, including Global Governance (GGOV), International Development (INDEV), Political Science (PSCI), Sociology (SOC), and Theological Studies (TS).

With approval from the PACS Graduate Advisor and the relevant department, students may also enroll in external electives from other graduate programs at the University of À¶Ý®ÊÓƵ or other Ontario universities.

PACS 630 - Governance of Global Economy | 0.5 units
A survey of the theoretical and public policy debates relating to regulation of the global economy, examined through case studies ranging from international banking an intellectual property rights, to labour and environmental standards and the control of illicit economic activity.ÌýCourse cross-listed with: GGOV 610 and PSCI 688

PACS 633 - Human Rights in the Globalized World | 0.5 units
The course is a study of international and local responses to human rights abuses in the contexts of economic globalization and proliferation of armed violence. It examines major debates on international human rights. It also deals with specific human rights situations in the developing/transitional countries. Topics include: universalism and cultural relativism, global economic justice, rights to food and health, women's and children's rights, the rights of displaced civilians, human rights and R2P, prospects for transitional justice.ÌýCourse cross-listedÌýwith:ÌýGGOV 640 and PSCI 658

PACS 634 - Conflict and Security | 0.5 units
This seminar explores current issues and trends in conflict and security (both traditional and non-traditional) and in the study of global and regional governance to prevent or manage conflict and enhance security. Students will have the opportunity to familiarize themselves with a variety of metatheoretical approaches to the subject. For Global Governance programs, the seminar will serve as the core course for the Conflict & Security stream.ÌýCourse cross-listed with: GGOV 630 and PSCI 678

PACS 635 - Security Governance: Actors, Institutions, and IssuesÌý| 0.5 units
In this course we examine a range of "security" issues on the global agenda - both traditional and non-traditional - and examine recent and possible future institutional and policy responses. Issues examined include nuclear proliferation, terrorism, intrastate conflict, resource and territorial disputes, climate change, drugs, disease, and migration. Students will have an opportunity to research in depth a specific security issue of their choice.ÌýCourse cross-listed with: GGOV 631 and PSCI 679.Ìý

PACS 660 - Justice and GenderÌý| 0.5 units
Theories of justice are concerned with the distribution of the basic goods of society - money, power, status, leisure, and so on. One would expect that they would be of particular interest to feminist theory, which is also concerned with the distribution of these goods. This course will consider how the gender system fares from the standpoint of liberal justice, and to what extent the promises of liberal justice can be used to overturn the unequal treatment of women. The issues of equality and difference will also be explored.ÌýCourse cross-listed with: PSCI 624

PACS 661 - Ethnic Conflict and Conflict Resolution IÌý| 0.5 units
This course examines the causes of ethnic conflict but focuses in particular on the strategies which states use to manage or resolve such conflicts. The review of state strategies is comprehensive in nature, and includes approaches which are morally unacceptable as well as approaches which many consider morally desirable.ÌýCourse cross-listed with: PSCI 655

PACS 650 - Sustainable Cities | 0.5 units
This course surveys the dominant trends in human settlement since the industrial revolution. Emphasis is placed on selected problems (e.g., provision of basic services such as water supply and sanitation, waste disposal, expanding ecological footprints) faced by cities of various sizes (from mid-sized to mega), the resources available to deal with them, and the new approached to sustainability.ÌýCourse cross-listed with:Ìý INDEV 604

PACS 651 - Economics for Sustainable Development | 0.5 units
This course introduces students to the history, theories and practices of development economics. Select issues such as trade, (Public and private) capital flows, transnational corporations, technological change and innovation, agricultural and industrial policy and production, poverty and reduction, structural adjustment, etc. are treated, as are recent developments in globalization and global economic governance.ÌýCourse cross-listed with: INDEV 605

PACS 652 - Water and SecurityÌý| 0.5 units
The course will provide students with comprehensive background knowledge relevant to the increasingly important policy challenge of 'water security'. The course will explore how the multiple levels of water security - human, community, state, international, global - require broad but considered policy inputs. Emphasis will be placed on the interdependencies of difference sectors (climate security, food security, energy security) that interact within a 'web' of water security.ÌýCourse cross-listed with: INDEV 608

PACS 638 - Social InequalityÌý| 0.5 units
This course examines the dimensions, causes, and consequences of social inequality. Focus will vary by instructor specialization.ÌýCourse cross-listed with: SOC 720

PACS 640 - Political SociologyÌý| 0.5 units
A critical examination of political and governmental strategies for identifying social problems and managing the conduct of individuals, groups, and populations.ÌýCourse cross-listed with: SOC 765

PACS 642 - Feminism, Law and GovernanceÌý| 0.5 units
The course will explore the theoretical debates within feminist scholarship surrounding the use of Western liberal legal approaches to prosecute gender violence and improve the socio-economic status of women globally. The course readings will draw from various literatures, including liberal and transnational feminist, postcolonial, and socio-legal and governmentality literatures, to analyse and critically evaluate the concept and deployment of women's empowerment in global contexts.ÌýCourse cross-listed with: SOC 782

PACS670 - War and Peace in Christian TheologyÌý| 0.5 units
Examination of Christian teachings on war and peace from the early church to the present, including crusade, just war, and pacifist traditions, as well as twentieth century discussions of realism, just revolution, nuclear pacifism, and non¿violent resistance.ÌýCourse cross-listed with: TS 637

PACS 671 - The Bible, Peace, and ViolenceÌý| 0.5 units
An examination of diverse biblical views of peace and violence with attention to the use of the Bible within both historical and contemporary conflict situations. Topics may include physical violence, economic violence, gender issues, residential schools, ethnic conflict, racism.ÌýCourse cross-listed with: TS 619

PACS 672 - Christianity's Encounter with Other FaithsÌý| 0.5 units
This course will examine several contemporary theological responses to the encounter of Christianity with other faiths. The meaning and dynamics of inter-religious dialogue and the resources within the Christian faith for such an encounter will be explored.ÌýCourse cross-listed with: TS 731