Course Overview

Course Title: Peacebuilding and Reconciliation
Credit Points: 12
Nominal Hours:
Course Coordinator: Associate Professor Damian Grenfell
Course Coordinator Phone:
Course Coordinator Email: damian.grenfell@rmit.edu.au
Course Summary

Over the last three decades there has been a fundamental change in how peace is approached by the international community as it has been both integrated into humanitarian and development practice in wide-ranging ways. The new imperative for peace has been driven by new political and economic agendas, human rights objectives, and an understanding of how peace intersects with development, security, governance and gender equity. Even with this renewed importance, peace remains a basic hope for millions of people around the globe as they seek to escape protracted violence, social upheaval and war.?
This course is designed to equip you with knowledge relating to the complexities of peace-building and conflict resolution in the context of protracted and deeply violent conflicts. Critically engaging with a range of key terms and concepts, you will learn via a combination of having access to theoretical debates, engagement with relevant literature, via examining case-studies from around the world as well as from your own experiences. Through this you will learn to deploy different techniques used to rebuild communities in conflict and post-conflict settings.
Some of the key arguments explored through the course include that:
  • peace-building is not politically neutral and needs to be understood in relation to power
  • peace is multi-dimensional and multi-faceted
  • the dominant framing of contemporary peace-building tends to be ideologically grounded and can, at times, undermine opportunities for peace or even give rise to the possibility of new forms of violence.

Full Course Information
View detailed overview on Course Guide