World peace sounds great in theory/ But how do we actually bring it about? This course will show students how. Outlining a step by step guide for building a better world, it will provide students with practical tools they need to work for peace in their daily lives. Focused on personal and interpersonal peace, students will learn how to cultivate inner peace through spiritual practices like mediation, have difficult conversations with those they disagree with and practice restorative justice through circle process. Most importantly, they will learn how to practically apply these skills in their personal relationships and vocational careers. The basic peacebuilding skills acquired in this class are not just for experts. They are critical for everyone as we all must confront the challenges of navigating a diverse and polarized world.
Meeting Times, Location, & Course Delivery Details
Course Format: This course will meet in person on T/TH from 11:20AM-12:50PM in Kelley 10. The class will be taught and approached as a seminar. This means that there will be no formal lecture. Instead, the instructor will lead and facilitate an interactive conversion through small groups and circle work that all students are expected to actively participate in.
Contact Information
Required Texts:
- Haga, Kazu. Fierce Vulnerability: Healing from Trauma, Emerging Through Collapse. Parallax Press: Berkeley, 2025.
- Haga, Kazu. Healing Resistance: A Radically Different Response to Harm. Parallax Press: Berkeley, 2020.
- Hanh, Thich Nhat. Love In Action: Writings On Nonviolent Social Change. Parallax Press: Berkeley, 1993.
- Guzman, Monica. I Never Thought Of It That Way: How To Have Fearlessly Curious Conversations in Dangerously Divided Times. BenBella Books: Dallas, 2022.
- Lubrano, Sarah Stein. Don’t Talk About Politics: How To Change 21st Century Minds. Bloomsbury: New York, 2025.
Course Goals
This course will:
- Equip students with the practical skills to be nonviolent peacemakers at the personal, interpersonal, and global levels.
- Introduce students to the basics of non-violent spirituality and how to practice personal peace through mindfulness, meditation, self-care, and emotional healing.
- Study and explore the dynamics of interpersonal peace through strategies like nonviolent communication, nonviolent conflict resolution, forgiveness, and transformative justice.
- Explore the relevance of personal and interpersonal peace to systemic social problems.
Learning Outcomes
By the end of this course, you should be able to:
- Develop and implement your own program/practice of personal peace and nonviolent spirituality.
- Understand the basics of nonviolent communication/conflict resolution and apply them to your personal life and interpersonal relationships.
- Critically reflect on your life, relationships, and interior life through the lens of forgiveness, reconciliation, and healing.
- Constructively articulate what it means to be an active peacemaker in your daily life.
August 25th: Welcome, Introductions, Syllabus.
HEALING RESISTANCE: PEACEMAKING FOUNDATIONS
August 27th: King’s Final Orders, Nonviolence as a Discipline/Martial Art, Violence vs. Nonviolence.
September 1st: Conflict, Binary Thinking, and The Colonization of Our Minds.
September 3rd: The Six Principles of Nonviolence 1.
September 8th: The Six Principles of Nonviolence 2.
September 10th: The Six Steps of Nonviolence 1.
September 15th: The Six Steps of Nonviolence 2.
PERSONAL PEACE AND NONVIOLENT SPIRITUALITY
September 17th: Introduction to Contemplative/Mystical Nonviolence: Thurman, Nouwen, and Merton.
September 22nd: Being Peace, Doing Peace 1: Buddhism, Mindfulness, and Nonviolence.
September 24th: Being Peace, Doing Peace 2. Buddhism, Mindfulness, and Nonviolence.
September 29th: New Monasticism and Nonviolent Spiritual Practices.
October 1st: Peace Pilgrim and the Path to Inner Peace.
October 6th: Rest, Self-Care, and Imagination.
October 8th: Sustainable Activism and the “Revolution of the Soul.”
October 13th: NO CLASS: In Service-Professor Development Day
INTERPERSONAL PEACE 1: NONVIOLENT COMMUNICATION
October 15th: Difficult Conversations, Active Listening, and Conflict Resolution 1.
October 20th: Difficult Conversations, Active Listening, and Conflict Resolution 2.
October 22nd: Difficult Conversations, Active Listening, and Conflict Resolution 3.
October 27th: Difficult Conversations, Active Listening, and Conflict Resolution 4.
INTERPERSONAL PEACE 2: NONVIOLENT COMMUNITY ORGANIZING AND SOCIAL CHANGE
October 29th: Beyond Debate: Avoiding The Marketplace of Ideas 1.
November 3rd: Beyond Debate: Avoiding The Marketplace of Ideas 2.
November 5th: Theories of Social Change: Act First, Think Later.
November 10th: Friendship, Community, and Social Isolation.
November 12th: Restorative Justice and Circle Work.
November 17th: Mutual Aid 1: Theory and Practice.
November 19th: Mutual Aid 2: History, Examples, and Consensus Decision Making.
TRAUMA, HEALING, AND NONVIOLENT DIRECT ACTION
November 24th: The Power of Vulnerability.
November 26th: NO CLASS: THANKSGIVING BREAK
December 1st: The Compassion of Fierceness.
December 3rd: The Fractal Nature of Trauma and Healing.
December 8th: Opening Up Vs. Shutting Down, Belonging, and Direct Action as Ceremony.
December 11th: Final Papers Due.
Subject to change during the semester. Adequate notice of changes will be given.
Course Assignment Overview:
- Participation (20% of final grade)
- Student Co-instruction: (5% of final grade)
- 6 Response/Reflection Papers (25% of final grade)
- Peacemaking Volunteering and Reflection (10% of final grade)
- Midterm Exam (15% of final grade)
- Final Research Paper (25% of final grade)
This course requires a substantial amount of reading. It is built around a critical engagement with texts. Learning how to read complex texts and analyze difficult ideas/arguments is one of the most important skills you will learn in this class.
The required reading assignment for each day will be around 25-35 pages. A minimum of two hours of out-of-class student work is expected for each hour of in-class time. However, this is not mere reading for reading's sake. All of the graded work you will be turning in is directly related to these readings. As a result, if you do the readings, and do them well, you will inevitably be setting yourself up to succeed in each of the following course assignments (participation, response papers, and final paper). This class is intentionally set up so that every assignment you do is in some way a reflection on, or direct response to, the required readings. I do not assign meaningless busy work. This means that if you stay up with the readings, all of the following assignments will come quite easily and naturally to you. It’s simple: Do the readings and you will do well.
I am available to meet with you personally at any time throughout the semester to provide specific assistance and feedback on any of these assignments. Whether you want to discuss your grades, get feedback on a paper you are writing, or merely discuss any of the course content, please feel free to come to office hours or reach out to set up an appointment.
All assignments are to be turned in and submitted electronically via Blackboard.
Assignment Breakdown:
Participation (20%): This class will be taught and approached as a seminar. This means that there will be no formal lecture. Instead, the instructor will lead and facilitate an interactive conversion through small groups and circle work that all students are expected to actively participate in. This means that in-class participation is an essential part of this course. Participation will make up 20% of your final grade. You are expected to show up to class having carefully read the material and fully prepared to engage in substantial and quality conversation about it (see participation grading rubric). To assist in this process, you must show up to class every day having identified two specific topics or questions from that day’s reading that you would like to further discuss.
Student Co-Instruction (5%): Each class will have an assigned student co-instructor to assist in facilitating that day’s interactive discussion. The co-instructor is NOT expected to teach the class or lead the discussion. They are simply expected to be the primary point-person that the instructor looks to for input, questions, and conversation topics. A successful co-instructor will show up extra familiar with that day’s content and ready to help guide our discussion with thoughtful questions and insights.
Response/Reflection Papers (25%): Throughout the course of the semester you will be asked to complete six 750-1000 word (2-3 page) response/reflection papers. These are not formal research papers but a chance for you to critically reflect on central topics addressed in the required readings and lectures. These papers will be a direct response to a specific prompt/question provided by the professor. There will be one response paper for each book covered in class. More information and details will be provided on Blackboard at the time of the assignment. Late submissions will be accepted but the final grade will be lowered by half a letter grade (5 points) for each day the assignment is late.
Peacemaking Volunteering and Reflection (10%): Each student will be asked to volunteer at a local non-profit/organization engaged in peacemaking/justice work (Sugartree Ministries, Hope House, Clinton County Homeless Shelter, Third Way Fellowship, etc.) three times throughout the semester. You will then critically reflect on this experience through a 750-1000 word reflection paper in active conversation with course content. More information and details will be provided on Blackboard at the time of the assignment.
Midterm Exam (15%): An in-class exam made up of multiple choice, true/false, fill-in-the-blank, and short essay questions covering the big ideas discussed in the course readings and lectures throughout the first half of the semester. A study guide will be provided but attention in class and careful readings of the required assignments are critical in preparation for this exam.
Final Paper (25%): Students will write a final 8-10 page formal/academic research paper on a topic of their choosing. While the topic must be approved by the instructor, it is intentionally left open so that you can find an issue that is particularly meaningful to you. The purpose of this assignment is to further develop and dive into a specific question, figure, or idea covered during the semester that you found interesting. You are required to critically engage with a minimum of three additional scholarly sources beyond those covered in class. More information and details will be provided at the time of the assignment.
Grading Scale
A 94-100
A- 90-93
B+ 87-89
B 83-86
B- 80-82
C+ 77-79
C 73-76
C- 70-72
D+ 65-69
D 60-64
F 59 and below
PC332 Grading Rubrics
Participation Grading Rubric
A: The student pays attention and is actively engaged in class lectures, discussions, and activities. They constructively contribute to class conversations with specific ideas from the text and ask thoughtful and specific questions.
B: The student is present in class and moderately engaged in lectures, discussions, and activities. They contribute to the conversation but tend to focus on more general ideas rather than specific concepts from the reading.
C-F: The student is present in class but appears distracted, disinterested, and disengaged. They do not participate in discussions or class activities.
Reflection Paper Grading Rubric
A: The paper explicitly addresses the prompt and meets the required word count. It demonstrates a careful reading of the text, comprehensive mastery of the relevant concepts/figures, and ability to summarize them in the student’s own words. The paper has a constructive component where the student critically evaluates and thoughtfully reflects on these ideas. The paper is organized, professional, and well-written with no grammatical/stylistic mistakes.
B: The paper successfully addresses the prompt and meets the required word count. It demonstrates a broad familiarity with the text, its general ideas, and provides a critical evaluation of them. While theoretically correct, the descriptive and constructive portions of the paper could be developed in a more specific, technical, and thorough manner. The paper is organized, professional, and well-written with minimal grammatical/stylistic mistakes.
C-D: The paper does not fully address the prompt and/or does not meet the required word count. Its analysis is incomplete/incorrect, problematically generic, and does not demonstrate a careful reading of the text and comprehension of main ideas. There is little to no critical analysis of key ideas or an analysis that lacks thoughtfulness. The paper is disorganized, unprofessional, and has multiple grammatical/stylistic mistakes.
F: The paper does not address the prompt. The paper addresses ideas not covered in the assigned readings. The paper uses AI or is plagiarized. The paper’s engagement with key ideas is fundamentally incorrect, demonstrating that the student did not read the text or understand basic ideas. The paper is disorganized, unprofessional, and full of grammatical/stylistic mistakes.
Instructor Course Policies
Given its heavy emphasis on active participation as a seminar, attendance is absolutely essential to success in this course. Attendance will be taken every day. Students will be allowed two excused absences. Every absence outside of that will result in the final grade being dropped one point for every session missed.
The pursuit of truth demands high standards of personal honesty. Academic and professional life requires a trust based upon integrity of the written and spoken word. Accordingly, violations of certain standards of ethical behavior will not be tolerated at Wilmington College. These include theft, cheating, plagiarism, unauthorized assistance in assignments and tests, unauthorized copying of computer software, the falsification of results and material submitted in reports or admission and registration documents, the falsification of any academic record including letters of recommendation, or use of artificial intelligence (such as ChatGPT). Artificial Intelligence is not to be used or referenced for any assignment. For purposes of this class, any use of this technology is considered plagiarism/cheating and will be penalized accordingly.
All work submitted for academic evaluation must be the student's own. Students cannot work together on assignments unless explicitly given permission from the instructor. Certainly, the activities of other scholars will influence all students. However, the direct and unattributed use of another's efforts is prohibited, as is the use of any work untruthfully submitted as one's own.
Penalties for violations of this policy may include a zero for that assignment/test or an “F” in the course. Your instructor may use plagiarism detecting software, such as Turn-It-In, to review your written assignments. See the current Student Handbook for the college's Academic Integrity policies as they pertain to examinations, plagiarism, classroom behavior, and the process for handling academic misconduct charges.
Institutional and Program-Level Policies
All exams will follow the Final Exam Schedule. Students scheduled to take three or more final examinations on one day may request to arrange their examination schedule, so no more than two exams occur on one day.
Requests for early or late exams are considered only under extreme circumstances. Prior to the exam period, the student must file a written request on the Early/Late Exam Form available in the Student One Stop Center, Academic Records, and on the WC portal. The form must be signed by the Instructor and the Academic Dean, approving the alternate exam time. This process must be completed prior to the scheduled exam period.
Undergraduate: FA26 Final Exam Schedule
Out-of-class Work Expectation A minimum of 2 hours of out-of-class student work is expected for each hour of in-class time for traditional face-to-face courses. For online and hybrid courses, the combination of face-to-face time and out-of-class work should be equal to 3 hours per credit hour per week. |
Instructional Course Delivery Definition of Courses |
Academic Integrity Policy The use of generative AI is prohibited except where expressly allowed in assignment instructions. Academic Integrity Policy |
Class Attendance Policy Institutional Class Attendance Policy |