Peace and Justice Studies Minor

The School of Arts and Science offers a minor concentration in Peace and Justice Studies. The Peace and Justice Studies minor is interdisciplinary, drawing from different subject areas that lend unique and critical perspectives into some of our most challenging global issues. Students explore a variety of disciplines including religious studies, economics, political science, sociology and philosophy, and discover the possibility of becoming a peacemaker on a mission to move the world.

The Peace and Justice Studies program is centered on ethical decision making and problem solving from a broad range of perspectives. Students explore relevant and timely issues such as: the proliferation of weapons; the rise of terrorism; the deterioration of the environment; the growing disparity between the rich and poor; the emergence of the global South; the trafficking of human persons; global poverty; discrimination based on race, class, sexuality/gender, and religion; philosophies of nonviolence; strategies for community and cultural empowerment; and religious foundations for peace and social justice.

Connection to the Mission of Iona University
Peace and Justice Studies is central to the mission of Iona University: how to advance peace and justice in our time so that those on the margins of society may thrive.  Iona University’s Peace and Justice Studies Program is grounded in the social justice tradition of the Roman Catholic Church and in the legacy of Blessed Edmund Rice’s commitment to justice and service for those on the margins of society. The program is centered on the belief that humanity and the earth can only flourish when our energies are directed intentionally and consistently toward establishing social structures of justice and peace that allow for such flourishing.

Objectives

• To increase knowledge and awareness of basic issues of war, peace, justice and nonviolence.
• To generate openness for the study of social, racial and gender equality.
• To produce dialogue and scholarship on how to create a more just and peaceful world.

Student Learning Outcomes

• Students gain an understanding of recent history, contemporary social/political problems and ethical values.
• Students gain an understanding of how the language, law, philosophies, and practices of peace and  justice apply to contemporary issues facing our world.
• Students are able to identify the critical ethical/moral responses to social justice issues of violence, injustice, poverty, and ecological degradation.

Coordinator: T. Delgado