Global Partners



We often receive inquiries as to where it is possible to study dignity and humiliation and related topics. We are developing the World Dignity University to address this need in the future. In our work, we focus on building a global fellowship of like-minded individuals and define our work as a movement rather than a fixed organization. We invite all our members to build bridges to the organizations they are part of locally. Further down, you see some of the partnerships with organizations listed that have emerged over the years. Please note that this list is not comprehensive. Thank you for alerting us if you do not see your organization listed and you wish to have it included!
Please note also that opportunities to study dignity and humiliation and related topics are also available elsewhere, see, for example, Craig Zelizer's site.

 

Center for International Conflict Resolution at Columbia University, (CICR)

The Center for International Conflict Resolution (CICR) at Columbia University contributes to the resolution of international deadly conflict through research, teaching, and fieldwork. CICR strives to increase understanding of international conflicts through innovative, collaborative research and is committed to offering courses that disseminate knowledge about conflicts and their causes. CICR responds directly to the expressed needs of parties involved in ongoing conflicts, empowering individuals and organizations to address conflict constructively. CICR’s research, teaching, and fieldwork inform one another, creating a unique synergy that enriches each element of the Center’s work. CICR also has coordinated efforts of academics and practitioners from governmental, nongovernmental, and international organizations in joint research and action. Located within the Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs, CICR routinely participates in partnerships inside and outside the University. Founded by Dr. Andrea Bartoli as the International Conflict Resolution Program in 1997, the Center took its present name on January 24, 2002.

 

International Center for Cooperation and Conflict Resolution (ICCCR)

Established at Teachers College in 1986, the International Center for Cooperation and Conflict Resolution (ICCCR) is an innovative Center dedicated to advancing the study and practice of conflict resolution. Our mission is an educational one: to help individuals, schools, communities, businesses and governments better understand the nature of conflict and develop the skills and settings that enable them to resolve conflict constructively. We particularly emphasize the importance of the social, cultural, organizational, and institutional contexts within which conflicts occur.
Our philosophy links theory and research closely with practice. We are committed to conducting important and useful theoretical and applied research on cooperation, conflict resolution and social justice and to communicate our conceptual and practical models in an accessible and engaging manner. We are also committed to developing, evaluating, and providing instruction in state-of-the-art methods for the constructive resolution of conflict.Consequently, we employ a "reflective scholar-practitioner" model in our many scholarly, educational and practical endeavors. As such, we offer our students, instructors, staff, alumni, and our external clients a variety of opportunities to connect theory and research with practice, and to allow practice to inform theory and research.
Please see here the Morton Deutsch Library, as well as the Interrupting Oppression and Sustaining Justice Site.

 

Advanced Consortium on Cooperation, Conflict, and Complexity (AC4)

In 2009, the Columbia University's Conflict Resolution Network (CU-CRN) was superseded by the Advanced Consortium on Cooperation, Conflict, and Complexity (AC4). The AC4 is a consortium for research, practice, and scholarship at Columbia University. They are part of the Earth Institute, Columbia University, and are committed to advancing knowledge and best practices in the areas of conflict, violence, peace-building, and sustainable development from an interdisciplinary perspective.  The consortium seeks to act as a coordinating and mediating force to facilitate collaboration between existing institutes, centers, scholars, and practitioners at Columbia University.  The primary objective of AC4 is to bring people and institutions from a variety of disciplines together to tackle complex problems with increasingly integrated (and interdisciplinary) understandings, methodologies, and solutions.  
AC4 was created in collaboration with several conflict resolution entities at Columbia University, including: the International Center for Cooperation and Conflict Resolution (ICCCR) at Teachers College, the Center for International Conflict Resolution (CICR) and the United Nations Studies Program at Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA), the Mediation Clinic at Columbia Law School, and the M.S. Program on Negotiation and Conflict Resolution at Columbia’s School of Continuing Education. The consortium is funded through a profit-sharing agreement with the M.S. Program on Negotiation and Conflict Resolution at Columbia’s School of Continuing Education, as well as through external grants and donations.
The vision of the Columbia University's Conflict Resolution Network (CU-CRN) network, which ICCCR was instrumental in establishing, was to establish Columbia University as the internationally recognized arena for cutting-edge, multidisciplinary work in conflict resolution, which emphasizes the theory-practice link. The Network was to provide important opportunities for scholars and practitioners from various disciplines to collaborate on research, theory development, practical models, and conflict intervention.

 

The School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA)

The School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) aims to provide an education that enables its graduates to function wisely and effectively in a variety of professional
settings—in government, business, finance, media, the nonprofit sector, and international organizations. The School offers two degrees, the Master of International Affairs and the Master of Public Administration. Drawn from more than seventy-five countries, SIPA students are diverse, mature—the average age is 27—and intelligent individuals, willing to take risks and committed to improving the common good. SIPA’s focus on a broad range of real-world issues is an outgrowth of the School’s original mission.
Founded in 1946 as the School of International Affairs, its goal was to train professionals to meet the new challenges of the postwar world by providing an interdisciplinary curriculum that drew on Columbia’s renowned faculty in the social sciences and other traditional fields. To foster an understanding of regions of vital interest, regional institutes—covering nearly every part of the world—were added during the 1950s and 1960s. In keeping with the changing priorities of increased
globalization, the MIA program broadened further to include functional concentrations that emphasized the concrete skills essential to new careers in international affairs. In 1977, the School added a second degree, the Master of Public Administration, to meet a growing demand for skilled professionals at home as well as abroad. In 1981, the School was renamed the School of International and Public Affairs. In recent years, SIPA added two mid-career programs—the Program in Economic Policy Management and the Executive MPA program—to accommodate the specific needs of experienced professionals who seek further training to advance their careers. The curriculum of the MIA program equips students with a broad analytical background in the major fields of international affairs, including a strong grounding in economics, statistics, and quantitative analysis. At the core of the MIA degree are its regional and functional concentrations, through which students focus their studies to fit their particular career goals.
The MPA program trains students to be skilled and sophisticated public managers by incorporating broad questions of public affairs and the specific tools of public management and policy analysis into the curriculum. MPA core courses are complemented by a year-long practicum in the first year, a workshop in the second, and policy concentration courses, which allow students to advance their knowledge
of substantive issues in a range of areas. SIPA has continued to evolve, revising its programs to mirror a globalized world in which the boundaries between international and public affairs, like the boundaries among nations, have grown less distinct. As a result, concentrations in Environmental Policy Studies, and Science and Technology
Policy have been added to both the MPA and MIA programs. In the MPA program, student interest led to the development of a concentration in Gender and Public Policy, while in the MIA program, the concentration in International Media and Communications has expanded to cover the advances and implications of new technologies. SIPA’s programs in UN Studies, Humanitarian Affairs, and International Conflict Resolution address concerns affecting the security and stability of people throughout the world; the Center for Urban Research and Policy and the Center for Energy, Marine Transportation, and Public Policy, promote collaboration and research in fields of increasing global significance.

 

Peace Education Center at Teachers College, Columbia University

Betty A. Reardon, Ed.D., is the Founding Director ot the Teachers College Peace Education Center's (TCPEC). Its mission is to further the development of the field of peace education, particularly in recognition of the unprecedented need to address issues of security, war and peace, human rights and social justice, sustainable development and ecological balance. The Peace Education Center was established to provide outreach, resourcing, training and in-service education. Betty A. Reardon, Ed.D., is the Founding Director.
It accomplishing its' mission, the Center conducts research, curricular development and outreach activities in many world regions, working in collaboration with other such centers including Miriam College, Philippines; Lebanese American University, Lebanon; Ukthal University, India; Jordan University for Science and Technology, Jordan; Seisen University, Japan; Kibbutzim College of Education, Israel; and Sabanci University in Turkey. Other working collaborations include: the University for Peace in Costa Rica, UNESCO, the United Nations, and the Global Campaign for Peace Education.
In 2009 the National Peace Academy became the institutional home of the International Institute on Peace Education. The International Institute on Peace Education (IIPE) was founded in 1982 and has since been held annually in different parts of the world. The first IIPE was held at Teachers College, Columbia University and organized by Professors Betty A. Reardon, Willard Jacobson and Douglas Sloan in cooperation with the United Ministries in Education. Tony Jenkins is the Global Director of the IIPE/CIPE and Janet Gerson is the Education Director. Each year the IIPE partners with a local host institution to develop the annual program. The IIPE is supported by a global advisory group comprised of former hosts and organizers.
New Initiative: Community Institutes on Peace Education (CIPE) - a locally based approach to the support and exchange of ideas and approaches to teaching peace and dignity and human rights.

 

Center for the Study of Science and Religion at Columbia

Sciences respond to a felt need to understand the world, and religions respond to a felt need for the world to have meaning. From these different starting points, one issue emerges at the junction of any science and any religion: are these felt needs commensurate? That is, is the universe a moral place, so that the natural order is relevant to human lives and human values; do faith and family, love and carity mirror any larger meaning than the meanings we give to them? Today, to a first approximation, the answer from any religion is Yes, and the answer from any science is No.
The Center for the Study of Science and Religion (CSSR) was founded in the summer of 1999 as a forum for the examination of issues that lie at the boundary of these two complementary ways of comprehending the world and our place in it. By examining the intersections that cross over the boundaries between one or another science and one or another religion, the CSSR hopes to stimulate dialogue and encourage understanding. The CSSR is not interested in promoting one or another science or religion, and we hope that the service we provide will be of benefit and offer understanding into all sciences and religions.

 

Fielding Graduate University

Adair Linn Nagata kindly explains and recommends Fielding to us as follows (July 5, 2007):
I had a wonderful experience at Fielding. I'm an educator and love learning and could not have been more stimulated or pleased.
At Fielding, you really can lay down your own path while walking. Furthermore, they are committed to a scholar-practitioner model of transformative education, which Barnett Pearce, one of my professors who is a major communication theorist who formulated the Coordinated Management of Meaning (CMM) theory, describes as "going back and forth across the hyphen" from theory to practice to theory and so on in our work. He is a member of the HumanDHS Global Advisory Board.
Beth Fisher-Yoshida
is another Fielding graduate.
You can find the details about the Fielding program and cost here. You might start here. I'm attaching the Fielding At-a-Glance sheet of factual information.
I highly recommend you watch the mulit-part video which will give you a more qualitative view. You have to click on the successive segments listed below the video screen depending on what you are interested in.
If you would like to see how I have applied my dissertation in my subsequent teaching, please take a look here.
You are welcome to write to me if you have specific questions about my experience.
Best regards,
Adair Nagata, Tokyo

 

Maison des Sciences de l'Homme, Paris, France

The Maison de Sciences de l'Homme is an innovative academic institution of excellence in the heart of Paris that hosts academic activities in the field of sciences de l'homme, or human sciences. The Maison de Sciences de l'Homme very much promotes international activities and scholars from around the world meet within its premises.
Evelin Lindner is affiliated as a guest scholar to the Maison des Sciences de l'Homme since 2002. Her principal linkage is with the social psychology group of Serge Moscovici.
The "Annual Meeting for Human Dignity and Humiliation Studies": The Maison de Sciences is kindly supporting a yearly meeting of scholars on the topic of humiliation. This meeting takes place annually in the fall. Scholars from all over the world doing research related to the notion of humiliation gather in Paris in order to exchange their findings and discuss their views. The first meeting takes place in 2003. The mutual fertilization emanating from these meetings are expected to also feed into the work of the Human Dignity and Humiliation Studies group.

 

The Interaction Institute for Social Change (IISC)

The Interaction Institute for Social Change (IISC), describes their mission as follows: We believe that social justice demands the transformation of individuals, communities, and systems. Effective change agents begin by making a personal commitment to social transformation, right action, responsibility, ongoing learning, and skills development. They bring to their work an asset-based approach, a belief in the power of coordinated effort, respect for diversity, collaborative leadership skills, innovation, and creativity. They inspire, lead, and gather people who have a stake in making change. Together, they focus their attention on unmasking power dynamics in organizations and the broader society, redistributing power and resources, opening access to decision making and decision makers, working on systems rather than simply working in systems.
IISC was established in 1993 by Interaction Associates (IA) as an expression of its commitment to social change. IA continues to support IISC with access to its knowledge base and with a percentage of its profits and employees' time.

 

The Israel Center for Mind-Body Medicine

The Israel Center for Mind-Body Medicine is devoted to the role of emotions, thoughts, beliefs and experiences in ones life and in society, and to the spiritual dimension and its significance, influence and power in illness, wellness and healing. In our work, we integrate East-West Psychology, Contemplative Traditions, Meditation Practices and Mindfulness based approaches. Our projects include: Mind Body and Mindfulness within education, schools and with children; Advanced Training in Mind-Body Psycho-therapies for clinical practice; Mindfulness and Spirituality in Organization projects, Mind-Body-Spirit Education and experiential learning for the general public; Mind-body Therapy for Cancer Patients and their families; and Mind-Body General Clinic.

 

Proyecto Universidad Nueva Civilización, and Instituto de Filosofía y Ciencias de la Complejidad (Santiago, Chile)

These institutes were founded by Luis Razeto, and they share with the World Dignity University the objective to contribute to human and social development through research, education, and communication informed by outstanding scholarship. Both sides have agreed to collaborate on initiatives that contribute to the development and dissemination of philosophical, scientific, technological, and social knowledge that advances their shared objective stated above. We plan to share teaching experiences and djoint communication initiatives leading to the development of people who can work responsively and effectively as agents of change in science, economics, politics, culture, and education. All parties are open to joint projects with other groups.

 

Department of Psychology (University of Oslo)

Evelin Lindner has carried out her doctoral research on humiliation at the Department of Psychology of the University of Oslo, starting in 1996, and is regularly teaching in Norway since. She has strong ties both within the academic field in Norway and related research institutions and NGOs. At the universities in Oslo, Trondheim, and Tromsø, currently strong initiatives emerge to set up peace studies. Especially Trondheim is very interested in linking up with the Center of Human Dignity and Humiliation. As in the case of LOGIN, the network idea with Norway envisages that students from the Human Dignity and Humiliation Studies network a nd Norwegian universities cooperate and engage in exchange.

 

Department of Psychology (University of Trondheim)

The Department of Psychology in Trondheim focuses on Social Psychology and Community Psychology. The research field of social psychology involves the human being interacting with the surrounding environment. This rather wide definition gives a hint of the multitude of research interests found in the field. It is concerned with understanding, as well as predicting, human behavior. Values and beliefs are basic concepts, and exemplify one point of departure in the area, i.e. the individual point of view, where internal, or internalized, cognitive, affective and emotional structures are studied regarding developments, functions, change and use in social interactions. Studies related to attitudes, cognitive dissonance, self and identity, social explanations and attribution processes, social categories and schemas, are recognized here. One also finds social cognition areas such as studies of social inference, heuristics and biases.
Another point of departure in social psychology lies in the study of super-ordinate, social processes and movements. Widespread beliefs, opinions, world views and ideologies are investigated in relation to e.g. the concepts' contents, structures and distributions, how they develop and change, and how they affect groups' and individuals' mental and social life. Studies of the human nature, cross- cultural comparisons, and cultural influences are found in this research tradition. In the interaction of these perspectives, social psychology deals with a variety of research areas. Here we find studies on interpersonal perception, intergroup behavior and group structures and processes, e.g. interaction in the family, at the work place, in social and political life, etc. We also find studies of social conflict, social dilemmas, aggression, compliance and conformity. Similar research areas focus on prosocial motivation, social influence, affiliation, attraction, and verbal and non-verbal communication skills. Furthermore, there are areas studying belonging, stigmatization, prejudice and out-group processes. From the 1960s and 1970s social psychology has also seen a great number of studies focusing on the individual's and the group's interaction with the physical environment, e.g. studies that have a close relationship to social values of health, safety and the perception of risk.
Each of the mentioned research areas involve quite specific conceptual and methodological considerations. And they have often developed into rather distinct traditions within social psychology over time. The last century has seen shorter or longer time periods when research interest was more or less focused on specific problems and themes growing from either a research disciple's internal development, or from vital questions put to psychology from the surrounding world. Attitude is a core concept within the history of social psychology. The interest in how to define and measure attitudes, however, reveals peaks in the 1930s, 1950-60s, and again in the end of the 1970s, due to major progress at these times. The second world war greatly influenced the focus of social psychology and raised basic questions about human behavior and conduct, which become especially related to social influence and group processes. The 1970s and 1980s again involved a major change, to a large degree due to the developing general availability of computers and sophisticated statistical software and a dawning awareness of a close relationship between individuals health and wellbeing, and the close, as well as distant and global, physical environment. Modelling work, simultaneously trying to relate a variety of influencing factors to each other for the generation of more comprehensive psychological explanations, started in the late 1970s. This development is growing stronger and increasingly sophisticated.
In the section of Social Psychology and Community Psychology at the department of Psychology in Trondheim we try to communicate the fascinating lessons from social psychology in our courses, and to develop related ideas and methods in our research. You find details of the current courses, research areas, and individual's contributions in our home pages.

 

The Centre for Peace Studies (CPS, University of Tromsø, Norway)

The Centre for Peace Studies (CPS) is a research and co-ordination project in Peace Studies at the University of Tromsø, Norway. Inspired by the conference "Higher Education for Peace" 4-6 May 2000, dreams, ambitions and hopes for such a project saw results when in November 2001 the Norwegian Parliament awarded two million Norwegian crowns to establish a national and international centre for Peace Studies. In the assignment letter it is stated that "the Centre is to establish new competence within the field of peace- and conflict-studies, and within such areas as ethnicity and democracy-building. The centre is to have a co-ordinating role for the field, both nationally and internationally."
The Centre is also in charge of a two-year master programme in Peace and Conflict Transformation at the University of Tromsø, which has been taught since August 2002. August 2003 will see a new class intake, following a very successful experience with our first class.
In the field of Peace Research, CPS's main position is to focus on non-violent forms of conflict resolution, emphasizing the task of building a positive, sustainable peace. In other words, CPS's task is not primarily to analyze wars or keep an account of wars, armament or civil wars, but rather to focus how – and on what basis – a civil and transnational, sustainable peace can be built. In November 2002 this work started with a symposium on non-violence, where leading experts on Peace Research from all continents met in Tromsø to establish the current status of the field and point the way ahead.
CPS's brief history has revolved around widespread national and international activities in order to keep up to date with current research, engage in such research, build and maintain networks, document education and supervision capacity on a national scale, prepare for the assigned, co-ordinating role on a national scale in the field of Peace Education, and create an updated database in this field.
For the time being, the centre is organized as a four-year project (2002-2006) within the Faculty of Social Science, with a relatively autonomous position and the discretion to pursue strategies and activities of its own choosing. We have a staff currently comprised of the Centre Leader Vidar Vambheim and Project Co-ordinator Jørgen Johansen together with ad hoc administrative staff – soon to be organized under the leadership of a project manager.
CPS has the following policy statement: Traditional peace research has focused on violence and its consequences. Such a focus may divert attention from nonviolent conflict handling and similar action which often exist even in the midst of massive violence. It is possible that traditional peace research has thus neglected nonviolent conflict handling as well as the capacity for nonviolence in peoples and cultures. Therefore, the main task for the Centre for Peace Studies at the University of Tromsø is to contribute to examining ways of creating peace by peaceful means and to make nonviolent handling of conflicts more known and recognized. CPS believes that valuable knowledge may be found in areas of low levels of violence and that more useful lessons may be learnt from successful conflict handling than from areas of atrocities and from failures. Peace studies are concerned with inter-state relations, but also with a wide range of other social conflict lines, such as those related to gender, generation, culture, class, race, ethnicity and nation, as well as the conflict between human society and nature. Although our studies are global, our position in the peaceful Far North, a vast and sparsely populated area in a tough natural climate, with a history of complex ethnic and cultural relations including the problems of hierarchy, recognition and cultural oppression, gives us a chance to learn from a wide range of nonviolent conflict handling. The wider region of the North of Europe also gives us a unique context in which to study conflict handling. Another aim is to compare our experience with experiences from other areas. Peace studies consist of theoretical-empirical, critical and constructive work. As an applied science, peace studies should pay attention to the constructive part of the work. From numerous and diverse cases, ranging from everyday quarrels to large-scale massive unarmed revolutions in the last two decades, there are experiences to be learned which may have been underestimated, lost or unjustly treated as insignificant by researchers. Even in the midst of violent conflicts, there are often actors using active nonviolence. CPS studies nonviolent conflict handling empirically and comparatively and applies a multi-disciplinary pluralistic approach. CPS discusses the theoretical implications and communicate the results to a wide audience.

 

National Centre in Peace and Conflict Studies, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand

Kevin Paul Clements holds the Chair in Peace and Conflict Studies, and is the Director of the new National Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand, since January 2009.
He has chosen "enlarging boundaries of compassion" as the title of his Inaugural Professorial Lecture on 23rd September 2009. In this lecture, he explained: "Compassion is a word that means empathetic and altruistic concern for the sufferings or misfortunes of others. When one starts unpacking its deeper meanings though it becomes an extremely generative concept that can only be fully grasped from a variety of disciplinary perspectives. I want to argue that enlarging boundaries of compassion is a pre-requisite for developing a more just and peaceful world and that it is a research and practice objective that is perfectly appropriate for a new Centre of Peace and Conflict Studies."

 

Center for Global Community & World Law

Virginia Swain is a member of our advisory board and the co-founder of the Center for Global Community & World Law (together with her husband, historian Joseph P. Baratta, Ph.D.; see www.global-leader.org). Virginia Swain would be delighted to have students from the Human Dignity and Humiliation Studies group work with her on the future of the United Nations. Please see here an editorial on the work of Joseph Baratta and Virginia Swain.

 

The System Improvement Process

SIP was developed to solve any difficult large-scale social problem. This includes the "excessive humiliation problem." Systems Engineer Jack Harich, in a personal message, 15th January 2013, invites researchers to study SIP.

 

AfricAvenir - Foundation for Development, International Cooperation and Peace

AfricAvenir is a non-governmental and non-profit organization created in 1990 by a team of African and European academics and activists in Douala, Cameroon. The initial idea goes back to Prof. Kum' a Ndumbe III, simultaneously traditional leader and university professor with extensive teaching experience in both Europe and Africa. Prof. Kum' a Ndumbe III also serves on our advisory board. Since 2000, AfricAvenir also has an official German section.
AfricAvenir's overall aim is to underpin what can be called 'post-structural African renaissance', that is, to root African development on the reality and culture of African peoples and to bridge the deep cleft separating African 'traditional' and popular wisdom, knowledge and practices and the 'modern', mostly imported socio-political structures. The intention is to devise new ways of thinking, behaving and organising society.
Besides its information dissemination and transmission task, AfricAvenir Douala also has a very active and innovative research unit, which is international and inter-cultural in scope. More than 30 European students and scolars have had the chance to live and work in Douala with AfricAvenir. AfricAvenir would be delighted to welcome students from the Human Dignity and Humiliation Studies group for internship.

 

UN, UNPAN Capacity Building in Conflict Resolution

Gay Rosenblum-Kumar has developed impressive educational activities that aim at filling with life the very raison d'être of the United Nations, namely global prevention of violent conflict.
The objective of this project is to assist Governments and their civil society partners in sub-Saharan Africa to strengthen their nations' internal capacities to anticipate and respond to crisis, to work within conflictual environments and increase their capacity to defuse such situations, and to enrich their development practice with conflict resolution tools, techniques and planning mechanisms. These objectives will be achieved by organizing consultations, round tables and seminars that develop diagnostic, analytical and planning tools for policy formulation and implementation related to four thematic areas: (1) conflict analysis tools and early response development; (2) national capacity-building in conflict management; (3) dispute resolution skills development; and (4) integration of conflict management principles and tools into development programmes and agendas.
Evelin Lindner has long been impressed with UNPAN activities. It is envisaged that students from the Human Dignity and Humiliation Studies network may link up with UNPAN. They may participate and support UNPAN activities, for example, help teach in sub-Saharan Africa or other parts of the world, and then use this experience to devise their own research for their doctoral or Master's degrees.

 

Global Forum

Global Forum is a non-profit organization that plans to provide conflict parties with facilities for the three-dimensional simulation of alternative futures. In 1997, Evelin Lindner, together with Håkon Gunderson and Ambassador Hefny Madgy, has developed and created Global Forum.
The reasoning behind the concept of Global Forum is that conflict parties would benefit from playing out alternative futures, for example, how the situation would develop if certain decisions were carried out as to how distribute water in Jerusalem. The aim is to develop large sets of data that describe and define scenarios, then to change certain parameters and play out the different alternative future outfalls.
The vision is to build a house that contains large screens where these scenarios can be played out in 3 D. Together with Evelin Lindner , in 2002, Maurice Benayoun, international avant-garde in the field of 3 D, has developed a vision for this house. The Human Dignity and Humiliation Studies group promotes and nurtures this vision.

 

Dignitarian Foundation

The Dignitarian Foundation is a new foundation devoted to pushing the boundaries of social justice to include protecting 'the right of equal dignity for everyone, regardless of status, station, or stage of life' has launched a website to highlight what organizers are calling the new Dignity Movement. Sparked by Robert Fuller's book Somebodies and Nobodies: Overcoming the Abuse of Rank (New Society), the Dignitarian Foundation and its website provide tips on how to promote the dignity of others no matter their occupation, background, or perceived social status.

 

Jean Baker Miller Training Institute

 

The Jean Baker Miller Training Institute is the home of Relational-Cultural Theory, a model of psychological development that proposes that growth-fostering relationships are a central necessity through people's lives and disconnections as the source of psychological and social problems.
The scholars of the JBMTI explore how humiliating power-over practices such as racism, sexism, heterosexism, classism, and other forms of degradation impede peoples’ ability to engage and participate in growth-fostering relationships. The professional trainings, publications, and ongoing projects at the Institute explore applications of the relational-cultural approach, integrating empirical research, psychological theory, and social action. At the heart of this work is the belief that Relational-Cultural Theory (RCT) opens the way to a new, beneficial paradigm for understanding all human experience.

 

The Asia Pacific Network for International Education and Values Education (APNIEVE)

The Asia Pacific Network for International Education and Values Education (APNIEVE) was established in 1995 in Seoul Republic of Korea, during a meeting to form the Network of Regional Experts in Education for Peace, Human Rights and Democracy. The principal objectives of APNIEVE are to promote and develop international education for peace, human rights, democracy and sustainable development through inter-country cooperation among individuals and institutions working in those fields among member states of the Asia-Pacific region. APNIEVE is managed by a Steering Committee elected at a General meeting held every two years. Steering Committee meetings are held twice a year in any of the 22 member countries and APNIEVE members are welcome to attend. APNIEVE is supported by a secretariat located at the UNESCO PROAP office in Bangkok.

 

The Conflict Transformation Program (CTP)

The Conflict Transformation Program (CTP) was established in 1994 and is designed to support the personal and professional development of individuals as peacebuilders and to strengthen the peacebuilding capacities of the institutions they serve.
The program builds upon Eastern Mennonite University's (EMU) particular commitments and strengths in combing the rigors of academic specialization with practical preparation for a life of nonviolence, witness, service, and peacebuilding in the larger society and world. The program also builds on extensive Mennonite experience in domestic and international service in disaster response, humanitarian relief, restorative justice, and socio-economic development.
The program encourages the building of a just peace at all levels of society, in situations of violent or potentially violent in the United States and abroad. It is the premise of CTP that conflict transformation approaches must address root causes of conflict, must be developed strategically, and must promote healing of relationships and restoration of the torn fabric of human community.
CTP is committed to creating and sustaining a mutual learning community that values the diversity and rich experience of students, faculty, associates, and staff. The program places a high value on the relationships developed in this community and hopes they will become the basis for long-term partnerships and continued mutual support and learning.

 

The Intractable Conflict Project

www.BeyondIntractability.org is an extensive site focusing on better ways of approaching difficult and intractable conflicts from the interpersonal to international levels. Written by over 100 conflict and peace practitioners and scholars from around the world, the site contains 250+ essays, 100+ hours of audio interviews, and 1000s of links to other references (online and in print). It provides valuable reading for students, researchers, educators, practitioners, and for the people who are personally involved in these difficult conflicts.

 

Geschichte und Erinnerung (History and Memory)

Geschichte und Erinnerung (History and Memory) is a research-project, founded and directed by Dr. Stephan Marks, affiliated with the University of Education in Freiburg, Germany. In the first phase of the project (1998 to 2004) we explored the psychological and social origins of national socialism: How could the Holocaust happen? How could Hitler and the Nazi-movement win the 'hearts' of millions of people, many of them intelligent and, as it seemed, well-educated? In order to answer these questions we conducted interviews with men and women who had not opposed, but rather agreed to and actively committed themselves to Hitler and national socialism (who, at that time, had been 'perpetrators' and 'bystanders') - for example as members of NSDAP, SA, SS or other Nazi-organisations. Using depth-psychological-hermeneutical methods, we pursued the following questions: What made the Nazi-movement attractive to the interviewees? In what ways is the experience of those years still present to them, cognitively and emotionally? And what happens when former Nazis communicate about the 'Third Reich' with members of the 'generations' born after WW2?
In the second phase of the project (since 2004) the findings are applied in the relevant fields of practice, especially education. We intend to develop curricula and media and offer support for teachers who are teaching the topic of national socialism and Holocaust. Currently, we are in the process of designing research projects to implement these goals and seeking funding.
As a platform for our further activities and in order to integrate the resources in our area, the organisation 'Erinnern und Lernen e.V.' (Remembering and Learning) was founded in 2004. Founding members are the research project Geschichte und Erinnerung (History and Memory) and the University of Education Freiburg, the Albert-Ludwigs-University Freiburg, the Catholic University of Applied Sciences Freiburg, the Lutheran University of Applied Sciences Freiburg, the city of Freiburg and several more organisations and citizens.

 

Falstad Centre

Falstad is a Memorial and Human Rights Centre. The foundation was established in 2000. Education, documentation and communication concerning the history of imprisonment during World War II and Human Rights constitute the core activities of the centre. In October 1941, Falstad Special school for handicapped boys was taken over by the German occupying power and transferred into SS Strafgefangenenlager Falstad, a detention camp for political prisoners. Later, Russian POW's were imprisoned here together with Yugoslav partisans and Polish forced labourer's. The camp contained prisoners from 13 countries during the War years. A total of 5000 prisoners were registered at Falstad. Today, the Museum gives the younger generation an insight in conditions during WW II that eventually lead to the Declaration of Human Rights as a resolution in UN in 1948.

 

A New Culture of Peace from Harmony

"Yes to social harmony and harmonious peace," and "no to wars, terrorism and poverty," this is the motto of A New Culture of Peace from Harmony, an international, cosmopolitan, multicultural and interdisciplinary website, a daughter website of the International Forum for the Literature and Culture of Peace: IFLAC PAVE PEACE. Its founder and president, Professor Ada Aharoni, have inspired A New Culture of Peace from Harmony to start this website "Peace from Harmony." A new culture of peace, preventing wars, terrorism and poverty, is generated when a natural order of social harmony gives priority to the well-being of children, parents, and caregivers, who make up 50 to 80% of the population in any given country. These groups are basically peace-loving, and provide the social foundation for a harmonious, new culture of peace. A New Culture of Peace from Harmony has a mission to build a harmonious, new culture of peace, and to strengthen its social foundation. Please see here a longer version of the mission of A New Culture of Peace from Harmony.

 

Public Institute of Strategic Sphere Studies

Please read here Leo Semashko's reflections on the common ground between his organization Public Institute of Strategic Sphere Studies and HumanDHS. His reflections are being translated into Russian, posted on his website and entitled:

Tetrasociology: Sphere Society beyond Wars, Poverty and Humiliation. A Way toward Harmonious Peace and Equal Dignity for all
by Leo Semashko, April 2005, St. Petersburg

The mission and basic directions of the work that has been laid out above are at the core of the remarkable and unique international organization "Human Dignity and Humiliation Studies" (HumanDHS). It unites hundreds researchers and practitioners from all over the world. The basic purpose of this organization consists in the call for respect for equal dignity for all people, together with a call for the discontinuation of humiliating practices and the protection of all human rights. This organization began to grow in 2001 under the initiative of "the global citizen" and social scientist, with two Ph.D.s (in medicine and psychology), Evelin Lindner, who has devoted her life to developping this organization. Humanism, aspiration to equal dignity for all human beings, discontinuation of humiliation and a new theoretical and practical approach make this organization unique among social movements of the new century. HumanDHS focuses on the struggle for positive goals, for equal dignity for all, instead of on struggle against people or concepts. HumanDHS is very close in spirit to our Website "A New Culture of Peace from Harmony" (NCPH).
Between our organizations we have much in common. The analysis and the comparison of our missions reveal the following basic general purposes.
1. Our organizations both want to work not against but for , for harmonious peace and for equal dignity for all, which represents both sides of the same medal: there cannot be a harmonious peace without equal dignity for all and vice versa.
2. Our organizations both aspire to interrupt cycles, on the one hand the cycles of wars, terror and poverty, by the establishment of a social harmony order, and on the other hand the cycles of humiliation of human dignity by promoting respect for equal dignity for all. Either cycles, or processes, mutually reproduce and strengthen each other. Wars, terror and poverty represent the lowest of humiliation, with humiliation being the "nuclear bomb of the emotions" (Evelin Lindner) for the continuation of wars, terror and poverty. Humiliation is their internal, psychological source and emotional driving force. The social and emotional characteristics of humiliation are investigated in the innovative "psychological theory of humiliation," which Evelin Lindner develops. (Please look at the HumanDHS' Website for the list of her numerous works devoted to this theory.)
There are many more common humanistic and ideological qualities of our organizations and websites, which the attentive reader can find out by comparing their missions. What we have in common is ONE GENERAL PURPOSE of human dignity and harmony. What is different is that we approach this purpose from different angles and by different ways and methodologies. These different ways do not exclude each other; on the contrary, they supplement and strengthen each other. They are consonant with each other and it is therefore that our organizations are interested in cooperation and mutual support. We feel that we can only gain from our cooperation and friendship. Our diverging approaches will be mutually fruitful and effective for harmonious peace, for equal dignity and for overcoming of humiliation. These purposes are the two sides of one medal.
Between us we have different visions as to how to approach our general purpose. HumanDHS suggests that the basic way of movement to equal dignity and overcoming of humiliation is "research, education, and intervention on public policy" so as to increase awareness that subsequently can fertilize changes, including political change. NCPH sees the basic way in self-identification and self-organizing of such social forces as sphere classes of population. What we call "sphere classes" are established by new democratic political-legal institutions, creating a new order of social harmony, representing a return to initial human harmony. This order can be established only in the advanced information society which we label as "sphere society." Only this order can ensure a new, harmonious peace preventing wars, terror and poverty. Therefore only such a "sphere society" can diminish the weight of social humiliation. One could argue that the second way is more fundamental and includes first, or vice versa.
I think a humiliation can only be excluded from society by also excluding war, terror, poverty, injustice, corruption and other social illnesses, which mutually reproduce and strengthen each other. War entails and leads to humiliation, and humiliation may lead war, and so forth. For the discontinuation of humiliating practices and other social evils "research, education and direct interventions" is the seed to mobilize actors (classes) and set in motion deep processes. To prevent social illness / evil, including social humiliation, and create public immunity from them, to my point of view, we need "sphere society" to be created by the "sphere classes" (harmonious by nature) by means of the "sphere democracy state." This society and its democratic state will be constructed on a priority not of money and property, but of children and social groups. Mothers, fathers, grandmothers, grandfathers, teachers, doctors and other caregivers represent 50 to 80 percent of the population in different countries. The idea of a "sphere society" and "sphere classes" of the population has been developed by the author in his "new sociological theory," which has received the name "Tetrasociology." For more details, please look at the mission text of our website, at the books in its section "Tetrasociology," at the reviews of these books by Martha Ross DeWitt on page 2-5, and also at tetrasociological abstracts on the site pages 7-4, 7-8, 7-15 and 7-18.
Tetrasociology concludes that the desirable future form of society is "sphere society." "Sphere society" is equivalent to a mature global information society, which has overcome the basic defects of industrial society, and which will be a genuine "decent" society, in which all human rights are embodied. "Sphere society" differs from a capitalist one in that it is build not on the priority of one sphere of society only - the economic sphere - and not on the priority of private property and its monetary expression only. "Sphere society" is built on harmony, meaning equal priority, balance and proportionality of all "social spheres" and "sphere classes," as well as harmony between different patterns of ownership. The political tool for maintaining such social harmony is the "sphere state" created on the basis of an equal division of power between "sphere classes" (their equal representation in all branches of power). "Sphere state" and appropriate "sphere democracy" provide social harmony through equality of priorities for all spheres, their classes and patterns of ownership in "sphere society." Information technology is the major catalyst for "sphere society," which, according to our view, will emerge in sufficient strength in 30-50 years. Currently, in our century, we see two supporting forces for the forming of "sphere society," namely advanced information technology and new ways of "sphere" organization of production and its management (governance).
The idea of a "sphere society" is a model, which, in my opinion, supplements the HumanDHS' ideas. This model finds in an information society the social actors and effective ways capable to prevent humiliation and other social illnesses, including war, terrorism and poverty.
Therefore ways and means of each of our organizations not only supplement each other but also qualitatively strengthen the positions of each other. All this creates a platform for strategic, long-term cooperation and mutual support of our international organizations and our innovative theories for the common purpose of an information society in the 21st century.

 

The International Institute of Peace Studies and Global Philosophy (IIPSGP)

The International Institute of Peace Studies and Global Philosophy (IIPSGP) provides the Secretariat for Philosophers and Historians for Peace, an organisation founded in 1984 in London, and is the co-ordinating group for European Philosophers for Peace as part of the worldwide umbrella of International Philosophers for Peace. IIPSGP is furthermore connected to Scientists for Global Responsibility and stands for the reconciliation of scientific, religious, humanistic and academic approaches to peace making worldwide. IIPSGP is represented to the United Nations Disarmament and Peace Education Commission in New York at the UN Headquarters and attends regular meetings there to discuss peace education worldwide. The main centre of the Institute is situated in a farmhouse close to the River Banwy 15 minutes drive from Welshpool, from where railway connections are available throughout the UK. Please see here the International Institute for Peace Studies and Global Philosophy (IIPSGP) Newsletter, Summer 2005.

 

Art for Refugees in Transition

There are 17 million refugees and displaced persons in the world today. Eight million are children. United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, 2004.
Art for Refugees in Transition (A.R.T.) provides curriculum and training programs to engage both children and adults in refugee camps in visual, performing and creative arts drawn from their own cultures. These activities provide international relief institutions with tools to help refugee communities recover from the trauma, terror and dislocation of war.
Please see here the January 2005 report of ART, Art for Refugees in Transition.

 

Transnational Foundation for Peace and Future Research

The Transnational Foundation for Peace and Future Research (TFF)'s mission is peace - learning to handle conflicts with ever less violence. TFF's tools are new ideas, listening, research, mitigation, education and advocacy. TFF's goals
are conflict-mitigation, peace research and education to improve conflict understanding at all levels and promote alternative security and global development based on nonviolent politics, economics, sustainability and ethics of care. The results which aim at decision-makers and citizens alike combine innovative thinking and theories with workable, practical solutions. TFF's programs are as follows:
I. World images and peace thinking; Conflict-mitigation in theory and practise; Gandhi's contemporary relevance; World order, images and conflict-resolution.
II. Conflict Analysis and Conflict-Mitigation; Former Yugoslavia; Georgia; Burundi.
III. The UN and Global Conflict-Management.
IV. The Learning Conflict Program - courses in conflict-understanding, negotiation and reconciliation.
After five years of academic research and the publication of comprehensive academic studies, TFF since 1991 emphasizes exploratory, in-the-field, solution-oriented studies in conflict-mitigation and let this experience inform new theory formation and educational programs in the future.
TFF's philosophy is to be independent of all special interest groups, to be committed to nonviolence in all aspects of its operations, to be small and flexible, to meets grant-makers' criteria for professional management with minimum administration, to do networking and teamworking but without permanent research staff, to not accept funds derived from activities related to warfare, to work actively with advisers, to widen purely academic readerships, to work according to a code of conduct and a series of published principles.

 

The Institute for Cooperative Communication Skills

The Editor, Dennis Rivers, writes about The Institute for Cooperative Communication Skills: This is a site that explores new ways of listening and talking, at home, at work and in the world at large. New Conversations draws on the creative life work of such teachers as Mahatma Gandhi, Carl Rogers, Abraham Maslow, Robert Kegan, Marshall Rosenberg, among many.
The world we live in faces a rising tide of complex problems, from families in crisis, to nations at war, to both individuals and societies deeply in conflict with themselves. As I see it, we are trying to resolve these problems with the very same not-so-great communication skills that have helped to create the problems in the first place. This site offers visitors a wide range of free, new, teaching and training materials that explore the journey toward genuinely new conversations, a journey from coercion to cooperation, and a journey into new skill and awareness.
You will find material here about such topics as compassionate listening, conciliatory self-expression, creative questioning, radical gratitude, and deep forgiveness. I strive to present this material from a "be the change you want to see" perspective, so that you can start today, not needing to wait for anyone else to change first. As you apply the knowledge you find at this and similar sites, may you bring the light of new awareness and reconciliation wherever you walk.

 

Peace Education Programme at UPEACE

The Peace Education Programme at UPEACE builds the capacity of educators from around the world to contribute to educational, social, and cultural change through peace education. It is designed to enable participants to effectively engage in peace education at all levels, from the design of educational policy to the development of effective and culturally relevant peace education programmes, to the actual skills of teaching for peace both in and out of the classroom. By providing students with the practical skills and knowledge needed to make positive impacts on formal and non-formal educational systems, the MA programme will enable students to contribute to educational development and reform within broader social and cultural contexts.

 

Facing History and Ourselves

For 30 years, Facing History has been engaging students of diverse backgrounds in an examination of racism, prejudice, and antisemitism in order to promote the development of a more humane and informed citizenry. By studying the historical development and lessons of the Holocaust and other examples of genocide, students make the essential connection between history and the choices they confront in their own lives.

 

The New Workplace Institute

The New Workplace Institute is a new non-profit research and education center promoting healthy, productive, socially responsible workplaces. The Institute's founder is David Yamada, a tenured law professor at Suffolk University Law-School and nationally recognized authority on workplace bullying and abusive work environments. Imagining the Good Workplace is the first event of the New Workplace Forum, a series of educational programs underwritten by SuffolkUniversity Law School, whose support is gratefully acknowledged.
Please see Imagining the Good Workplace: It Starts With Individual Dignity, in New Workplace Forum Series, April 24, 2007.

 

Master's Program for Peace and Conflict Studies, University in Oslo, Norway

The Master's Degree in Peace and Conflict Studies is a multi-disciplinary Master. The program aims at providing the academic foundation for a career in voluntary organizations, civil and military administrations, the educational system and research. It encompasses a wide array of course work from many different disciplines such as social science, law, arts, theology and pedagogy.

 

Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, Master's Program for Peace and Conflict Studies

The Graduate School of Area and Culture Studies at Tokyo University of Foreign Studies (TUFS) launched a Master's Program for Peace and Conflict Studies in April 2004. This was the first instance for a university in Japan to set up a Master's Program of this kind.
The program is designed for students who combine academic potential with first-hand regional experience. Taking advantage of the University's experience in researching and teaching more than twenty-six regional languages and cultures around the world, the curriculum provides the students with basic knowledge about regional conflicts and equips them with fundamental skills of analysis through the methods employed in the fields of regional politics and area studies.
Courses in the Program cover major areas of conflicts in today's world, and examine the factors that cause regional disputes, such as ethnicity, religion and culture, through theoretical and practical research. The aim of this program is to foster international experts who can contribute to conflict resolution and peacebuilding through research and activities in regional and international organizations.
All classes are offered in English. The teaching staff consists of experts in international cooperation, peace studies, religious studies, comparative politics, and various regions of Middle East, Central Asia, Southeast Asia and East Asia. In its first year, the program accepted ten students from around the world.

 

International Christian University (ICU), Tokyo

International Christian University (ICU) was founded in 1953 in the spirit of postwar reconciliation. It was the very first liberal arts institution in Japan and has a mission to pursue truth, defend academic freedom and enrich individual liberty. There is hope that people who study at ICU will contribute to the realization of world peace, respect of human rights, and the promotion of social justice.
In order to fulfill this mission, an undergraduate course in peace studies has been offered since 1984. This course led to the establishment of ICU's Peace Research Institute (PRI) in 1991, which strengthens and promotes peace research on campus. In 2002, ICU was designated as the only institution in Asia to house one of seven worldwide Rotary Centers for International Studies in Peace and Conflict Resolution. The center accepts ten graduate scholars from abroad every year and offers courses towards a two-year masters degree.
ICU is also known in Japan for its interdisciplinary program in Gender and Sexuality studies. This program is supported by The Center for Gender Studies, and students are encouraged to create their own curriculum by choosing from a wide array of courses offered at ICU.

 

Australian Centre for Peace & Conflict Studies at the University of Queensland

Please see Ralph Summy.
The Australian Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies (ACPACS) is a centre of research and practice excellence in the areas of conflict analysis, prevention and management, alternative dispute resolution, peace-building and development and post-conflict reconstruction.  ACPACS is located within the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences at The University of Queensland.
ACPACS is cross-disciplinary and the only Centre in Australia to bring together:
• Peace and conflict studies
• International politics and development
• Alternative dispute resolution, mediation and law
The functions of the Centre are to:
• conduct research into the causes of international and national conflict; international security, nonviolent modes of conflict resolution and sustainable peace-building with special reference to the Asia-Pacific region;
• deliver high quality postgraduate programs and provide knowledge and practical skills in nonviolence, mediation, conflict resolution, peace-keeping and peace-building in the contemporary global context;
• provide advanced level short courses and training for government and non-government organisations engaged in peace-keeping, peace-building, development activities, humanitarian intervention, and work in conflict contexts; and
• offer expert advice to public and private sector organisations on issues concerned with conflict and its resolution, and specifically the role of the judicial and governance sectors in the achievement of structural stability and  peace.
advance the understanding and knowledge of alternative dispute resolution (ADR) processes by conducting comparative research and state-of-the-art training in negotiation, mediation, cross-cultural conflict resolution and facilitation.

 

University of New England (UNE) in Armidale, Australia

The University of New England (UNE) in Armidale, Australia, combines the highest academic standards and industry-valued qualifications with flexible modes of learning… Each year, the University offers students more than $2.5 million in scholarships, prizes, and bursaries and more than $18 million for staff and students involved in research… Since 1955, teaching off-campus students by distance education has been an important part of the University's activities. UNE is now Australia 's longest continuous provider of distance education and with more than 15,000 external students, is still one of Australia 's major providers of awards to off-campus students. Increasingly, the flexibility offered by external study is proving a significant attraction to those pursuing a tertiary education… With more than 12,500 of its 17,000 students studying via the Internet, UNE is at the forefront of online learning. UNE students, who have access to 600 subjects online, are finding that Internet learning is a whole new experience that offers greater flexibility for study and a new way of working and communicating with supervisors and fellow students. All students at UNE are provided with internet access and email accounts… UNE is internationally recognised as one of the great teaching and research universities. The university undertakes fundamental and applied research in many disciplines. Its scholars and scientists have established international reputations through their contributions in areas such as rural science, agricultural economics, educational administration, linguistics and archaeology. Collaborative research with other institutions includes projects with the CSIRO and the high profile Cooperative Research Centres.

 

University of Aarhus, Denmark

The Graduate School of Social Sciences at the University of Aarhus invites international students to apply for admission to their Ph.D. Programmes in Political science, Psychology, Law, or Economics and Management.
As a Ph.D. student at the University of Aarhus, you will receive strong research support in many ways; highly qualified advising by internationally recognized faculty, excellent facilities and a good professional as well as social environment.
The Graduate School of Social Sciences offers well-paid scholarships and free admission, as well as funding for participation in conferences worldwide and a long-term stay abroad at a well-reputed international research institution.
Applications are requested from candidates holding a Master’s degree in one of the research fields of the Faculty of Social Sciences (i.e. Political science, Psychology, Law, or Economics and management), or a degree of a similar kind. Application deadlines: 15 November and 15 May.
For further information, please refer to www.socialsciences.au.dk/phd.

 

The International Institute for Restorative Practices

The International Institute for Restorative Practices is dedicated to the advanced education of professionals at the graduate level and to the conduct of research that can develop the growing field of restorative practices, with the goal of positively influencing human behavior and strengthening civil society throughout the world.

 

UN mandated University for Peace

The Peace Education M.A. programme at UPEACE opens some of its courses to outside participants as short courses.

 

The Kurt Lewin Center, in Bethel, Maine, USA

The Lewin Center – committed to social change, action and research – was created in 2006 to:
•  further the legacy of Kurt Lewin, pre-eminent social psychologist and founder of the field of group dynamics;
•  build on the almost 60 years of pioneering work of the NTL Institute;
•  pursue activities in social change and social justice through action research and other research methodologies;
•  partner with universities and other research institutes throughout the United States and eventually world-wide;
•  collaborate with and develop scholar-practitioners in the social sciences to increase the application of the research to the social issues of today's world.

 

Master of Arts in Coexistence and Conflict

The Brandeis Master's Program in Coexistence and Conflict:
• Provides a solid grounding in contemporary and developing theories on the causes of intercommunal conflicts, from the local to the global.
• Emphasizes the skills needed to design strategic interventions that prevent, mitigate, or resolve intercommunal conflicts and violence.
• Focuses on mainstreaming coexistence and conflict knowledge and skills within governments, international, and inter-governmental organizations.
• Includes a master’s field project in an area of conflict, or with an organization involved in coexistence and conflict interventions.
• Teaches dialogue and mediation skills designed for work in intercommunal conflict situations.
• Introduces students to evaluation skills to help them to assess the success of conflict interventions.
• Helps students develop partnership skills in delivering coexistence work through democracy, security, legislative, mediative, human rights, political, equity, and development work.
• Offers a wide choice of electives, including language courses that are relevant to participants’ career interests.

 

MPhil in Childhood Studies at NTNU in Trondheim, Norway

The Norwegian Centre for Child Research has a strong international orientation. The centre hosts national and international guest researchers and adjunct professors (5 non-Norwegian professors from 2005). NOSEB is a key institution within the international research network Childwatch International. The students on this programme will benefit from being a part of a strong international research milieu.

 

The Respect Research Group

The RespectResearchGroup was founded at the University of Hamburg based upon the belief that the increasing individualization of societies and the accompanying diversity bears a great potential for society – the potential, to be equipped to face the challenges of modern times. After all, systems are only adaptable to an ever changing and complex environment, if they are able to represent their environment’s complexity internally and have learned to handle it. The question the RespectResearchGroup focuses upon thus is: When and why will individuals work with diverse others and willingly subordinate to a bigger cause without being coerced or tricked into doing so – ultimately, so that the involved parties work more efficiently with each other but are also more satisfied in doing so. It is therefore that the group’s focus is on interpersonal respect because to respect someone means to acknowledge and appreciate his/her difference and to be open for influence from him/her. Hence, so their argument, it is ultimately interpersonal respect that makes complex systems governable without reducing or suppressing the system-inherent diversity.

 

Interuniversity Center in Dubrovnik

The Inter-University Centre Dubrovnik is an independent international institution for advanced studies structured as a consortium of universities with a mission to organise and promote contact and exchange through projects, study programmes, courses and conferences across a wide range of scientific concerns. Programme directors and resource persons coming from about 170 member universities worldwide cooperate in organising the activities. IUC is open to new member institutions as well as to new programmes.

 

National Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies

Kevin Clements is the Foundation Chair of Peace and Conflict Studies and Director of the New Zealand Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Otago, Dunedin New Zealand, and former Secretary General of the International Peace Research Association. Prior to taking up these positions he was the Professor of Peace and Conflict Studies and Foundation Director of the Australian Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Queensland, Brisbane Australia.