Columbia University
School of International and Public Affairs
International Conflict Resolution Program
APPLIED CONFLICT RESOLUTION WORKSHOP
Instructor:
Dr. Maria Hadjipavlou-Trigorgis
Telephone: (212) 854-5623
E-Mail: [email protected]
Seminar Meetings:
2-4 Tuesdays
Room xxx IAB
Office Hours xxx IAB:
xxx
Paper/Project due dates:
1. Rationale
In the spring of 2001, Dean Lisa Anderson suggested the creation of new theory-practice oriented courses in the form of workshops. Following that suggestion, the International Conflict Resolution Program (ICRP) established an informal working group that prepared the present proposal for the first Applied Conflict Resolution Workshop to be offered beginning in January 2002.
During the 2000-2001 academic year, ICRP was involved in several innovative interventions in the field. Presently it is active in Iraqi Kurdistan, Burma (Myanmar), East Timor, Cyprus and Colombia. All these interventions are long-term complex endeavors that require sustained commitments to produce the desired results. The Applied Conflict Resolution Workshop will link the theory taught in the ICRP and CU-CRN courses (see attached lists) with ongoing interventions by including students in actual processes of conflict resolution. While contributing to ongoing interventions students will have an opportunity to examine the applications of various theoretical frameworks to the field.
2. Course Description
Three interdependent sections aimed at strengthening students" skills in planning, implementing, and evaluating a conflict resolution intervention will constitute the course. It will be offered as a sequence in the spring, summer and fall, in most cases to students in the middle of their masters degrees. For the first three years, it would be advisable for the workshop to enroll only six-to-eight students. The workshop will seek cooperation with other SIPA workshop and fieldwork activities.
The spring section will be a two-credit workshop course, scheduled to meet for two hours every week for the first five weeks of the semester to introduce students to the practical skills of conflict resolution fieldwork. These will include project design, budgeting, management, fieldwork methodologies, and reporting. During the remaining nine sessions, students will formalize specific project objectives with the support of an advisor from the ICRP staff on an existing, established ICRP or equivalent project.
During the summer, the students will continue their work through internships (enrolling in either three or six credits of Fieldwork in International Affairs) under the guidance of their project advisors. They will return in August to SIPA prepare a report of their activities in the field.
Each fall semester, students will enroll in a one-credit follow-up course, which will help them develop skills in applied methodology by reporting and evaluating their findings. The final step will be to present their findings to the conflict resolution community as well as interested students and faculty at SIPA. First semester students will be encouraged to learn from the presentations in anticipation of their participation in the same program the following year. Credit for the whole workshop will be recognized only upon successful conclusion of this final section.
3. Objectives
It is expected that this workshop will not only help students develop practical skills and experiences in managing a conflict resolution project but also assist them in obtaining positions in the field of conflict resolution upon graduation.
4. Format
The spring segment of the course will be taught through small working seminars, with the assistance of visiting experts, ICRP staff, and the support of second-year SIPA students. The first five sessions will cover general aspects of project design. The remainder of the spring segment will focus on the design of specific projects. The summer segment will fulfill the MIA internship core requirement. The fall segment will include a Friday and Saturday session to debrief and prepare the final evaluation of the fieldwork, which will be rendered in a report and submitted to ICRP and the local project partner. Finally, each student will be responsible for organizing and conducting a brown-bag seminar to publicly debrief the SIPA community. It is preferable that the participating students have already completed "Theoretical Overview of Conflict Resolution" (offered in the Fall semester) before enrolling in the workshop.
5. The Projects
Structure and Scope
The Workshop projects consist of the design and implementation of a component of a larger ongoing intervention, through ICRP. Students will work with ICRP and local partners to identify areas of need within existing projects and then bring the substantive knowledge from the classroom phase to bear on the design and implementation of the fieldwork. Most projects will pair two or more students under the supervision of ICRP Project Directors or staff. Students are required to complete all phases of project component design, follow through with implementation of the project component in the field, and evaluate and report on the project in the fall semester.
Ethics
While engaging in fieldwork, students are expected to:
If students are not able to uphold these ethics, they will be removed from the project.
Costs and funding
Costs of the fieldwork component will be borne by each student. ICRP and our partners will strive to find support for students, including in-kind donations of housing and other needs. Students should explore alternate funding sources, including travel grants through the SIPA Office of Career Services.
Partnerships and teams
All project components are designed and implemented as integrated parts of a larger intervention. Success requires effective linkage with local partners, ICRP, and Workshop team members.
6. Requirements
I. Learning Objectives paper (10% of grade - individual assignment)
In the Learning Objectives paper students reflect on:
(Approximately 5 pages)
II. Integration paper (20% of grade " team assignment)
Over the first four Units, students will form supervised teams. At Unit 6, teams will present an Integration Paper, which will link learnings from the first five Units with a basic concept proposal for their intervention component. The Integration Paper will be an effort to bridge the substantive knowledge gained with the project each student is working on. The Integration Paper will operate as a first draft of the Project Proposal. The paper should address any or all of the following:
(Approximately 6-10 pages)
III. Project Proposal (30% of grade " team assignment)
Students will be required to design, implement and evaluate a conflict resolution intervention through an internship project in partnership with ICRP and a local (or otherwise appropriate) partner. Students will write and submit a comprehensive project proposal, which will be reviewed by the instructor, as well as by the local project partners. The project proposal will detail the work the students intend to do during the summer placement phase of the Workshop, linked to an ICRP project. Presentation of the Project Proposal will occur in class during an informal discussion and critique session.
(Approximately 10-15 pages)
IV. Final Project Design (40% of grade " team assignment)
Following discussion, critique and revision of the Project Proposal, students will finalize their work in a Final Project Design. The Design will be presented in class in a formal session, which should include the use of audiovisual technology, where appropriate.
7. Required Readings
SPRING SEMESTER
Louis Kriesberg, "Intermediary Contributions," chapter 8 in Constructive Conflicts: From Escalation to Resolution (Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 1998).
Child Labour: A Guide to Project Design. Alec Fyfe. International Labour Organization,
Geneva, Switzerland
Unit 3: Partnerships and Teams
Cathy A. Costantino & Christina Sickles Merchant, Designing Conflict Management Systems, chapters 5-10 (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass 1996)
William Ury, Getting to Peace, chapters 5-7 (New York: Viking 1999)
Unit 4: Introduction to Project Management
Dennis Dijkzeul & Yves Beigbeder, "Rethinking International Organizations: Pathology & Promise" chapter 8 in Programs and the Problems of Participation (Berghahn Books, New York, forthcoming).
Unit 5:Introduction to FundraisingThe Chronicle of Philanthropy. http://www.philanthropy.com/
Unit 6: Project Design: MethodologyJohn Paul Lederach, Preparing for Peace: Conflict Transformation Across Cultures, parts 1-3
Pierre Hassner, "From War and Peace to Violence and Intervention: Permanent Moral Dilemmas under Changing Political and Technological Conditions," chapter 1 in Hard Choices, ed. Jonathan Moore (Lanham, MD: Rowman Littlefield 1998)
Unit 7: Project Design: Management
Peter Senge, The Fifth Discipline, chapters 9-12 (New York: Doubleday 1990)
Unit 8 Project Design: Funding
Unit 9 Project Design: Evaluation Strategies
Mary Anderson, Do No Harm: How Aid can Support Peace - or War (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers Inc. 1999)
Unit 10 Presentation of project proposals (Part 1)
Robert Stains, "Reflective Training: Matching Educational Practice with Transformative Intention," chapter 12 in Designing Mediation, ed. Joseph Folger and Robert Baruch Bush (New York: Institute for the Study of Conflict Transformation 2001)
Unit 11 Presentation of project proposals (Part 2)
Unit 12 Lessons from the Field
Unit 13 Presentations of Finalized Project Design
Unit 14 Conclusions and Next Steps