DRAFT COPY
Picturing Peace Project I: the Symbolic Language of Conflict and Peace
Small Group Essay and Poster/Abstract Exhibition (worth 20 points=15 essay + 5 poster/abstract)
Peace Studies 1050, Introduction to Peace Studies
Spring, 2009
This project will be completed in relation to your lab section (outside of class meetings). Two of the main
goals of the project are to learn collaborative writing and how to write an abstract. While most of the
work on this project will take place during the second half of the semester, the initial formation of groups,
selection of topic and gathering of data should begin during the third week of class. Students will work in
small groups (2 to 3 members) to create an essay and photo + abstract poster that presents their research
questions and research on their conceptualization of peace. With that goal in mind, each small group will
begin by selecting a specific case (an event, a story, an interaction) involving conflict and attempts at
peaceful resolution. The case should be clearly visible at the micro level of interaction (e.g. roommate
conflict, student/faculty conflict, employee/employer conflict, child/parent conflict, marriage conflict,
racial conflict, citizen/legal system conflict, doctor/patient conflict, nursing home resident/nurse conflict,
humane society employee/customer conflict, social class conflict, gender conflict, military/civilian
conflict, conflict within your own research team). Furthermore, the topic for the case study should be
personally compelling and intellectually engaging (see specific examples below). Once you form teams
and select your topic, follow these steps to complete your project:
1. Topics should be submitted in writing (along with a list of group members) to the faculty member
responsible for your lab section by the 4th week of class, and your group must receive approval of the
topic by that faculty member. Throughout the semester faculty will work with you to suggest topics (if
needed), to suggest readings and provide whatever guidance you may need. Lab section discussions may
focus on your topic to further assist you in your research.
2. Weeks 5-12: You should next thoroughly research your chosen conflict and resolution. You are NOT
writing a report! Instead, you will be using a sociological perspective to question, critically analyze and
theorize conflict and peace. Prepare a paper (approximately eight to ten pages in length) that contains
(but is not limited to) the following seven sections:
a. introduction to your topic—present the specific case; give an overview, explain why it interests
you (and introduce your research team to the reader), and provide any other relevant information
that will engage the reader;
b. your sociological questions—show how you developed your research questions (which should
look very much like the weekly questions you’ve been writing all semester); relate your questions
to at least two of the class texts; find at least one article from a sociological journal in which your
topic has been addressed, explaining how your research is both similar and different (the article
should have a qualitative orientation…in other words, no statistical analysis!!!!);
c. the history of your topic—how did the conflict start? What parties are involved in the conflict
(who are the agents?)? In what ways is your topic connected to larger macro level social issues
(e.g. racism, sexism, ageism, speciesism, ethnocentrism, classism and/or ableism)? Important:
identify the social process(es) that best explain why the conflict arose and why it was/is difficult
to achieve resolution. Here’s an example: heroification (a social process) may in part explain
why professional athletes are paid relatively high salaries compared to teachers (a conflict we
may never see resolved!).
d. explain attempts to resolve the conflict—do the agents understand how their conflict is connected
to larger social issues? Here’s an example—a woman argues with her marriage partner over who
will vacuum the house, but do they understand how their conflict relates to larger gender issues,
e.g. institutional sexism? If yes, explain. If not, explain.
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e. propose your own peaceful resolution to the conflict—address micro level, meso level and macro
level possibilities, weighing the pros and cons of your proposed peaceful resolutions; explain how
social structures enable and/or constrain your hopes for peace; Important: do not rely on clichés
as your suggestions for the future, e.g. do not simply suggest that people “need more education”
to bring about peace; instead, make concrete, specific proposals, e.g. policy changes, plans for a
student protest or boycott, or a program that could be presented to various community groups. Be
sure to give details!
f. conclusion—explain what you have learned from this project and what research in peace studies
you would suggest for the future.
g. Special Note: if there was conflict among the members of your research team then be sure to
address how that conflict affected your research (probably in the introduction or early in your
concluding remarks); were any of your team members slackers, free riders, too domineering or
???? What suggestions do you have for avoiding such conflicts in the future? Above all else,
please do not complain to your lab section teacher about others on your team (although you will
be given an opportunity to evaluate them on the self-evaluation form at the end of the semester).
We want to see how YOU work toward conflict resolution and peace!
3. Complete by Week 13 or 14: Picture Peace—show the world in a series of photos what it looks like
to move from conflict to peace…what does peace look like? Would you know peace if you saw it? How
do we recognize peace? Mount your pictures and a 1 to 2 page abstract (summary—see instructions on
Blackboard) of your essay on a suitable piece of poster board. The actual revised essay will be turned in
separately (along with the first draft). Yes, you have to put some time, creativity and thought into taking
pictures. Cutting photos out of magazines, using clip art or any other last minute attempt to pull together
a poster will not be well received by the graders. Also, we’re not impressed by the liberal use of glue and
glitter; however, artistic touches are encouraged. One of our final class sessions—for the ENTIRE
class—will be a poster session in which all of the posters will be available for the rest of the class to view
(more details to come on the actual poster session).
NOTE: Please use your own camera to take a minimum of three (4) photos for this project. Please be sure
that the photos relate to your paper topic, e.g. conflict over the environment might involve photos of trash
along the roadside, clean-up crews at work and a landfill.
IMPORTANT: In order to avoid issues of confidentiality please do NOT take pictures of children, in
classrooms (unless they are empty), or of anyone in or near health care facilities. Please get permission to
take/use photos of individuals (unless it is a crowd scene).
POSSIBLE TOPICS: general—(find a micro level case that illustrates your topic): corporate funding of
higher education; the no-kill animal shelter movement; selection of texts in public schools; hunger; health
care; use of performance enhancing drugs in sports; violence toward women; institutional racism; or
challenges facing war veterans; specific (micro level)—a puppy mill raid; corporate presence on MU’s
campus; watch the soap opera All My Children for the new plot involving a veteran of Iraq (see me for
the full story) in order to explore how media is portraying soldiers and veterans
ABOUT COLLABORATIVE LEARNING:
“The real world demands collaboration, the collective solving of problems. The clichés are
familiar: Two minds are better than one. Many hands make light work. Learning to get along, to
function effectively in a group, is essential. Evidence and experience also strongly suggest that
an individual’s personal learning is enhanced by collaborative effort. The act of sharing ideas, of
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having to put one’s own views clearly to others, of finding defensible compromises and
conclusions, is in itself educative.” [emphasis in the original] From—
Sizer, Theodore R. 1992. Horace’s School, Redesigning the American High School. Boston:
Houghton Mifflin Company. P. 89.
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