Peace and Justice Studies (PJS) provides an interdisciplinary structure for examining the obstacles, conditions, and paths to achieving a just global peace. The program brings intellectual and experiential inquiry to the fundamental interrelationship of peace and justice.

Four overlapping areas are emphasized: 

• study of the causes of war, the techniques of war prevention, and the conditions and structures of a just peace;
• the origins, strategies, and visions of social movements seeking justice and ecological sustainability;
• the theory and practice of conflict resolution along a continuum from individual disputes to international diplomacy; 
• the study of peace culture, particularly the contributions from education and literature in developing the traditions of nonviolence and ethical social behavior.

PJS meets the needs of students who seek to develop their critical and analytical skills, to participate actively in their own education, and to apply their talents and imagination to the realization of peace and justice through formal study and experiential education. In this sense, PJS complements the university's mission and the liberal arts tradition by encouraging the student's awareness, responsibility, and active engagement in the affairs of the world.

PJS offers both a major and a Certificate. To fulfill the requirements for the major students must complete eleven courses. Completion of the PJS Certificate requires eight courses, and is noted on the student's transcript. Courses meeting both major and Certificate requirements may also be used, where applicable, to meet other concentration or distribution requirements. 

PJS focuses on analyses of the many problems facing the world community and on attempts – both globally and locally – to organize for social change. Our world faces a set of interrelated problems, including militarism and war, political violence and repression, ecological destruction, poverty, hunger, racism, and institutionalized sexism. Throughout the world, international, inter-governmental, and local nongovernmental organizations have formed to confront such problems and to work for nonviolent social change. PJS was founded to provide students an academic means to integrate an understanding of the many crises facing the world and to encourage involvement in nonviolent attempts to build a world of peace and justice. Education, particularly higher education, offers a valuable setting for creating peace and justice through study and active involvement in social change processes. PJS is dedicated to working to provide a university-wide forum for the discussion of these issues. PJS sponsors or co-sponsors numerous educational events and community activities to enrich and expand classroom work. 

Student involvement is crucial to PJS. Students not only take courses in PJS, but help shape the curricula and activities of the program by serving on the Executive Board which administers PJS. They also form, together with a faculty advisor, self-study groups on topics of their own interest, for credit or not, and to teach Explorations courses in the Experimental College. Interaction among faculty, students and staff, both formal and informal, helps create and sustain a community engaged in conversation about learning and action for a just global peace.

For Program enrollment information, click here. 

For more information contact:

Prof. Paul Joseph (Sociology), Director
113 Eaton Hall
(617) 627-2470
paul.joseph@tufts.edu

Dale Bryan, Assistant Director
Peace and Justice Studies
109 Eaton Hall
(617) 627-2261
Fax: (617)-627-3032
dale.bryan@tufts.edu