Conflict Resolution (CRES)

CRES 3951 Mediation Fundamentals (4 Credits)

This course provides 40-hour mediation training following the model standards for Mediator Certification programs established by the Association for Conflict Resolution. It covers the mediation process and mediator skills including preparation, opening statement, information gathering, movement and solution seeking, negotiation, confidentiality, ethics, power balancing and diversity issues. Students engage in video-recorded role-play scenarios to develop mediation skills.

CRES 4111 Reflective Practice and Evaluation (4 Credits)

Course is designed for practitioners who would like to become more reflective and theory oriented in their practice, and for researchers who wish to work with actual data and questions from practice. The goals are to learn techniques for making theories of practice explicit, to examine ways practice and research may modify theory, and to explore how to introduce and expand reflective practice into conflict resolution.

CRES 4221 Negotiation Theory and Practice (4 Credits)

An overview of negotiation theories, strategy and tatics to understand the role of power perceptions, communications, and ethics affect bargaining processes and outcomes.

CRES 4222 Theories of Conflict Practice and Third Party Roles (4 Credits)

An analysis and critique of the nature and role of third parties in conflict intervention including conciliator, arbitrator, facilitator, monitor, trainer. Theoretical perspectives and case studies are used to understand the situations in which third parties operate, what values and resources they bring to their roles, and how power issues affect mediator functioning. Ethical guidelines are also considered.

CRES 4225 Conciliation and Reconciliation (4 Credits)

Societies are often divided along ethnic, racial, or religious lines. Without work at the grassroots level, international peace agreements regularly fail within five years of ratification. How do we create sustainable post-conflict relationships? How does justice factor into peace, or into the sustainability of peace agreements? This course explores these questions by building on concepts and themes introduced in Mediation Theory (CRES 4222), and analyzing topics such as multilevel interventions and their challenges, second track diplomacy, and citizen dialogue. Reconciliation is a key factor in peace building -- Voice, Acknowledgement, and Repair are specifically considered within this realm. Focus is also on the challenges presented by deep-rooted, protracted conflicts, allowing for more complete understanding of the situations in which third parties must operate.

CRES 4400 Restorative Justice (2 Credits)

This course explores four leading Restorative Justice practices - Victim-Offender Mediation, Conferencing, Talking Circles, and Truth Commissions - to understand how needs of victims are addressed, and embracing notions of forgiveness, reconciliation and social healing within a set of principles based on social justice.

CRES 4410 Intractable Conflict (2 Credits)

This course is focused on factors that lead to intractability, along with strategies for violence prevention and conflict transformation. Conflict mapping and analysis, sources of intractability, and social, psychological, economic and political dimensions of intractable conflicts are examined.

CRES 4820 Topics in Conflict Resolution (2,4 Credits)

Fields of interest to Conflict Resolution Students such as negotiation, international conflict resolution case studies, restorative justice, conflict transfos, methods for conflict resolution research.

CRES 4830 Topics in Conflict Resolution (2-4 Credits)

Fields of interest to Conflict Resolution Students such as negotiation, international conflict resolution case studies, restorative justice, conflict transformation, methods for conflict resolution research.

CRES 4840 Managing Organizational Conflict in the Workplace (2,4 Credits)

A broad study of conflict in organizations that may involve gender, race, age, disability and other issues, using lecture, case studies, group dialogue, and team projects to develop systems of management and evaluation.

CRES 4850 Creating Agreement (2 Credits)

Multilateral agreements are as complex as they are difficult to create. What are the key elements in this process? The history of such negotiations is one of both successes and failures. This course examines the development of criteria necessary for creating satisfactory and acceptable agreements involving multiple parties through a series of case studies that link negotiation theory and praxis.

CRES 4870 Conflict Vulnerability Assessment (2 Credits)

This course guides students seeking to specialize in early warning and conflict prevention approaches at the community, societal, or country level through the contemporary scholarly literature, policy-related instruments and models that seek to define and measure "conflict vulnerability.

CRES 4961 Professional Development (0 Credits)

To develop the specialized knowledge, skills, attitudes, values, norms, and interest needed to perform professional roles in the Conflict Resolution practitioner community. It involves informal socialization including lessons learned incidentally through association with mentors, networking with practitioners, and observations of conflict resolution processes in all areas of life. Students gain an awareness of how self-image and activities play an active part in professional socialization.

CRES 4971 Practicum (4 Credits)

Students design, execute, and evaluate conflict resolution interventions. Student involvement in planning, implementation, reflection, and evaluation may look different in different contexts, but all elements are present in some form. Students are supervised by faculty with relevant theoretical expertise and practice experience.

CRES 4981 Internship (0-4 Credits)

CRES 4985 Internship (4-8 Credits)

CRES 4991 Independent Study (1-4 Credits)

CRES 4995 Independent Research (1-4 Credits)