The program offers a general major or minor, along with three optional tracks for major concentrations:

  • The Conflict Transformation concentration prepares students to analyze the dynamics and identify transformative opportunities in conflicts at multiple levels, from interpersonal to international, while developing practical skills in mediation and conflict resolution through partnerships with local practitioners and organizations that exemplify best practices in the field.
  • The Public Policy Analysis and Advocacy concentration develops social analysis skills for public policy formation, evidence-based research and argumentation, as well as communication and networking skills for effective advocacy around issues such as environmental sustainability and climate change, foreign policy and peacebuilding, and economic justice and social welfare.
  • The Leadership for Social Justice concentration helps students anticipate and begin preparing for the full arc of a career in which successful community organizing requires them to institutionalize the changes they seek, through social entrepreneurship and nonprofit management.

Core courses for the major and minor, and the pattern of the program in general, make use of the four stages of the Circle of Praxis:

  • Experience (actual and vicarious) of poverty, injustice, social conflict, or marginalization.
  • Descriptive analysis: Empirical study of the economic, political, social, and cultural realities of society, and the historical events that produce them.
  • Normative analysis: Moral judgment on existing societies; study of alternative possibilities; and analysis of the moral values at stake.
  • Action possibilities: Strategies and skills for transforming society from its present condition to a better condition.

    • The justice and peace studies program is strongly interdisciplinary and interfaith. It promotes understanding and appreciation of widely diverse ideologies, cultures, and world views. Special attention is given to the rich tradition of Roman Catholic social thought in the context of pluralistic world societies.

    Students graduating with a major in justice and peace studies will understand how the circle of praxis works, as well as the role of each of its components. They will also know how to use skills associated with each component. They will know the principles of active nonviolence, how it operates to promote social change, and historical examples of its use. Students will also learn the techniques and appropriate uses of other methods of social change, with special focus on community organizing, social entrepreneurship, nonprofit management and public policy advocacy. They will be able to engage in respectful dialogue with people whose values and positions differ widely from their own. They will understand and be able to use conflict resolution skills in personal life and small groups, and they will understand how these techniques are used in inter-group and international conflicts. They will have developed the personal skills and confidence to work effectively in organizations committed to justice and peace.