West Chester University

Peace and conflict studies, an interdisciplinary 18 credit minor program at West CHester University, is a curriculum that emerged in the 1950s and 1960s (the oldest program in the country dates to 1948) but which has seen its most rapid growth during the past 20 years. Drawing from a diversity of specialized academic domains, especially the social studies and humanities, peace and conflict studies imparts an understanding of human conflict and how to manage it constructively. War is the most destructive form of conflict, and this ongoing problem has received a great deal of attention. But the field also is concerned with conflicts of various other sorts- for example, those rooted in race or gender. The intent throughout is to show that conflict can be managed- not necessarily eliminated- without violence.