Saybrook students now have the opportunity to learn with some of the world’s leading scholar-practitioners in peace and development.
In an agreement signed February 3, Saybrook will incorporate into its Social Transformation Concentration curriculum two online courses developed for TRANSCEND Peace University (TPU). Based in Austria, TPU draws faculty from among the leading peace scholars and practitioners in their fields internationally. It is the educational arm of the TRANSCEND Network –connecting 350 individuals and institutions from 80 countries working to reduce structural violence through action, education, dissemination, and research. The two courses, which will be available to all Saybrook students, are Peaceful Conflict Transformation – the Transcend Method, taught by Drs. Johan Galtung and Sara Horowitz, and The Human Right to Adequate Food, taught by Dr. George Kent.
“This is an extraordinary opportunity for Saybrook students to explore the cutting edge of conflict transformation and global social justice issues with stellar faculty who have world-wide reputations in their areas of expertise,” said Joel Federman, who directs Saybrook’s Social Transformation Concentration.
The three TRANSCEND Peace University faculty who created the courses, Drs. Johan Galtung, Sara Horowitz, and George Kent, have now been appointed to the Saybrook Social Transformation faculty as well. Dr. Galtung has been appointed Distinguished Consulting Faculty.
Dr. Galtung, founder and Director of TRANSCEND, is widely regarded as the founder of the academic discipline of peace research and one of the leading pioneers of peace and conflict transformation in theory and practice. He has played an active role in helping mediate and prevent violence in 45 major conflicts around the world over the past four decades, and is author of the United Nations’ first-ever manual for trainers and participants on “Conflict Transformation by Peaceful Means: The TRANSCEND Approach” (UNDP 2000).
Dr. Horowitz, Rector of TRANSCEND Peace University, is also professor at the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina. She is the head of the university’s postgraduate Interdisciplinary Program on Peace, Culture and Conflict Resolution, based in its School of Psychology. She also directs a nongovernmental organization in Buenos Aires devoted to peace, culture and mediation.
Dr. Kent is professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Hawai’i. Professor Kent is Co-Convener of the Commission on International Human Rights of the International Peace Research Association, and has worked as a consultant with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the United Nations Children’s Fund, and is a member of the Working Group on Nutrition, Ethics, and Human Rights of the United Nations System Standing Committee on Nutrition.
Ed Cooper, Saybrook’s Vice-President for Academic Affairs, said this represents a significant opportunity for Saybrook students to connect with leaders in their field.
“The agreement with Saybrook Graduate School and Transcend Peace University unites two organizations with common missions in achieving a humanistic world,” Cooper said. “These courses will complement the offerings within the Saybrook Social Transformation Concentration and provide the opportunity for students to work not only with noted scholars at Saybrook but also with some of the well known peace scholars from around the world such as Johan Galtung, the founder of Transcend.”
TRANSCEND Peace University courses will be offered through Saybrook beginning in the spring semester. The online courses will be conducted on TPU learning platform and semester calendar, beginning instruction on March 9.; unlike other Saybrook online courses, the term of these courses is twelve weeks, Saybrook students can register for the courses within the Saybrook registration system (SMS). For more information, contact Joel Federman.