Peace and Justice

Examines root causes of violence, pathways to building a more peaceful and just world. Basic issues include, peace, justice, power dynamics, violence, nonviolence, restorative justice peacemaking, peacekeeping, and peace building.

American education's contribution to class, gender, and "race" inequality; political bias in school curricula: unequal treatment of students by teachers and administrators based on "race", ethnicity, class, and gender; unequal allocation of resources among public schools; the public - private school debate; possible political influences in universities; the mass media as an important component of education.

Classical and contemporary examples and approaches to peacemaking in response to injustice and social conflict. Issues to be considered include the nature and significance of nonviolent struggle, political reconciliation, and the role of religion in shaping moral action for social change.

A critical examination of the social constructions of race, class, gender, and sexuality in U.S. culture and the injustices and inequalities that arise from them. Strategies, policies, and procedures for change are also examined.

Introduction to contemporary complex moral issues. Examines economic, political, and social roots. Brings the Catholic Christian ethical tradition to bear to understanding their moral significance and responsibility to address them. Issues include: poverty, environmental justice, conflict, refugees, migration, genocide, and others.

Intermship

Internship.

Violence in families and society, the traditions of Just War theory, and the critiques of war from the perspective of pacifism and non-violence. The importance and role of the peacemakers of the world, the values of conflict resolution, and strategies that aid the creation of a peaceful world order.

The history of the struggle for justice and human rights in geographical locations, such as the Middle East, Ireland, Africa, and Central America, focusing on such issues as world hunger and apartheid, and culminating in an attempt to articulate systemic questions of justice.

Justice & discrimination in U.S. society from social, economic, political & ethical perspectives. Strategies for the just elimination of discrimination. Topics include civil rights, gender issues of justice, etc.

Development of discrimination and civil rights law in the United States through case materials in areas of racial discrimination, gender-based discrimination, reverse discrimination, sexual preference-based discrimination, and age discrimination, if time permits.

The moral meaning of marriage; justice, gender, and the domestic division of labor; the legal protection of marriage and the parties to it; marriage, reproductive technology, and the commodification of children; the moral meaning of "having children"; the responsibilities of parents to their children; the responsibilities of children to their parents, with special reference to care for the aged; distributive justice and the family; society's responsibilities to serving the needs of its children. Course readings will be taken from a number of disciplines, including Christian ethics, law and legal history, philosophy, and sociology.

Examination of scholarship addressing the structure, function, & manifestations of "whiteness," primarily in U.S. culture, & its relationship to issues of diversity. Topics also include white supremacy, white identity, & the future of critical white studies.

Independent Study