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Peace Studies Students in Action

Peace Studies

Is there anything more inspiring than working with others to build a just, peaceful, and sustainable world?

In Naropa University’s highly experiential, interdisciplinary 12-credit Peace Studies minor, you will have the chance to do just that. Through contemplative practice, dynamic coursework, and opportunities to engage in community-based projects locally—and globally—you will not only study and practice diverse approaches to peacebuilding, you will also acquire practical leadership and community-building skills.

Alumni from Naropa’s Peace Studies program graduate to pursue advanced degrees in law, public health, gender and women’s studies, international studies, and other related fields. They also go on to work in fields as diverse as education, the arts, healthcare and social services, social innovation and entrepreneurship, community organizing and advocacy, counseling psychology, social work, and humanitarian action.

Bayard and John Cobb Peace Lecture

Participate in this lecture series, which brings internationally recognized peacebuilders and changemakers to campus to speak and meet with students.

Peace Studies Program Internships

Complete a semester-long internship and build pre-professional skills at places such as Safehouse Progressive Alliance for Nonviolence, the Peace Jam Foundation, the Boulder County Jail, Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center, KGNU Community Radio, the Earth-based Institute, New Era Colorado, the Emergency Family Assistance Association, and Longmont Community Justice Partnership.

 

Compelling Peace Studies Courses

  • Socially Engaged Spirituality
  • Conflict Transformation: Theory and Practice
  • Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship
  • Law, Human Rights, and Social Change

 

Credits Required

12

The 12-credit Peace Studies minor can be part of your overall 120-credit contemplative undergraduate education at Naropa University.

PEACE STUDIES REFLECTIVE PRACTITIONER E-PORTFOLIOS

Build an electronic portfolio that reflects your unique purpose and journey. Your ePortfolio will contain a current resume, final summative essay, and capstone project. When you graduate you will be able to demonstrate your knowledge, skills, and values to potential collaborators (artistic, community, and social venture partners), employers, and graduate schools.

Faridah Ndiaye

Student Highlight

“In my Introduction to Peace and Conflict Studies class, we had the opportunity to meet Adam Bucko who works with homeless youth in New York City. Bucko asked us, ‘What breaks your heart and what makes you feel alive?’ He challenged us to live these questions with our bodies and hearts, reminding us that we all have gifts to make this world just a little bit better.”

— Faridah Ndiaye
Peace Studies, 2019

Recent Capstone Projects

  • "Reworking the Garment Industry: Slow Fashion and Social Enterprise” by Olivia Nielsen 
  • “On Nights in the Starving Body: Deconstructing Eating Disorders through an Intersectional Lens” by Kailey Murphy 
  • “Powerful Beyond Measure: Exploring the Identity, Spirituality and Politics of Queerness” by Olivia Tullos-Sisca
  • “Fractivation” by Kelly Emmanuella Bartell
  • "Trauma Exposure Response, Mindfulness, and the Path to Resilience: Naropa University Case Study" by Ayries Blanck
  • "Architects of Peace: Reconstructing Narratives from Either/Or to Both/And" by Jenna Corbin
  • "Journeying Towards Empowerment: From Apathetic and Apolitical to Empathic and Engaged" by Eric J. Ross
  • "Cross-Cultural Reconciliation in the Classroom: Place, Identity and Youth Empowerment through an Indigenous Lens" by Cody Spyker, which was nominated for the Peace and Justice Studies Association Best Undergraduate Paper of the Year Award, 2011
  • "The American Caste System: Mass Incarceration of African Americans" by Ebony Williams
  • "Understanding the Moral Imagination Through Waldorf Approaches To Education" by Julie Wood
  • "What Holds Up: A Feminist Coming of Age Story" by Julia Davis
sunflower

95%

Of Naropa seniors say many of their courses include community-based service-learning projects compared to 72% at other institutions.

Candace Walworth

Faculty Highlight

“I love designing and facilitating project-based learning, for example, students in Conflict Transformation: Theory and Practice create three-to-five-minute digital stories. I am at my best as a teacher, mentor, and conversation partner in this kind of collaborative creative work."

— Candace Walworth, PhD
Professor of Peace Studies
Core Faculty

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