All courses can be taken for training or for undergraduate credit. In addition, courses marked with an asterisk (*) can also be taken for graduate credit and can be used towards CMU’s MA in Peace and Collaborative Development (Click here for more information on the MA-PCD). Each CSOP course runs for five days, Monday to Friday, 8:30 AM – 5:00 PM. Participants may apply for only one course each week and may apply for one week or for two weeks.
Session I: June 7-11, 2021
Post-Traumatic Theology: Trauma, Moral Injury, and Christian Faith*
Instructor: Shelly Rambo
BTS/PCTS/PSYC-3895C and BTS/PCD-5700C
This course positions the current literatures on trauma and moral injury in relationship to Christian sacred texts and practices. Through engaging biblical texts and familiar teachings about the meaning of suffering, salvation, and hope, this course aims to equip participants to ask difficult questions about individual and collective responsibility to the past, to deepen embodied practices of care and nurture, and to integrate familiar Christian teachings about suffering with current conditions of human and environmental vulnerability.
A Reporting Disaster?: The Nature of Credible Journalism in a Competitive Compassion Market*
Instructor: Monika Kalcsics
COMM/PCTS-3950C and PCD-5390C
Credible disaster reporting will be more essential than ever in the future, because pictures of despair and unmediated voices are transmitted instantly, which has consequences for responses and recovery. Aid agencies compete for positive media coverage and donations, and journalists who embed with the UN or NGOs to gain access to compelling stories can compromise their credibility. This course seeks to examine the practice of a content-hungry disaster news market, and asks tough questions about transparency, ethics and the impact of news media. It will also explore the questions around NGOs and the competitive compassion market. A series of case studies and broader discussions will be used to see if crisis news can become more constructive and relevant to both the people involved and the audiences who want to know and care about what is happening. Some practical production skills will be taught.
Peace Skills – Just Mercy: Healing in Community on the Land
Instructors: Adrian Jacobs and Jobb Arnold
PCTS/INDS-2190C
This course will explore an Indigenous framework for relationship building and nurturing in the context of community well-being on the land. This is a land-based reconciliation course that will include a 3-day field school where CSOP participants will participate in a learning circle at the Sandy Saulteaux Spiritual Centre (SSSC). Sandy-Saulteaux Spiritual Centre’s beautiful and peaceful retreat grounds by the Brokenhead River just east of Beausejour, MB is the ideal setting for Indigenous ceremony and perspective on peacebuilding in relative and treaty making efforts. The field school component of this course is grounded in the idea that working toward settler-indigenous reconciliation requires learning and building face-to-face relationships that honour indigenous knowledge, including connections to the land. There will be opportunities for dialogue and discussion on topics such as the legacy of colonization and pathways toward enacting forms of land-based reconciliation while collaborating to promote peace and regional resilience. An extra course fee will cover room, board and transportation.
SESSION II: June 14-18, 2021
Creation and Community in Biblical and Indigenous Perspective*
Instructor: Danny Zacharias
BTS/PCTS-3295C and BTS/PCD-5080C
By intentionally working to shed western lenses, a decolonizing Indigenous reading of the biblical text can render fresh and biblically faithful insights into the reading of the scriptures. After a discussion on the hermeneutical lens, this course will work closely through a variety of biblical texts related to creation and community in an attempt to understand afresh the community of creation of which we are a part.
Community-Based Research and Peacebuilding*
Instructor: Rich Janzen
PCTS/IDS-3950C and PCD-5190C
This course will explore how community-based research can expand possibilities towards peacebuilding. Through a combination of theory and practical case examples, it will demonstrate how research that is community-driven, participatory and action-oriented can contribute to social transformation that creates and sustains conditions for peace. Participants will apply these insights as they engage in the creation of a community-based research proposal.
Refugees and Displacement: Learning to Extend Hospitality*
Instructor: Mary Jo Leddy
BTS/PCTS/POLS-3895C and BTS/PCD-5700C
Refugees are a controversial topic of discussion in Canada today. All too often, they are treated as nameless statistics or caricatures in the occasional story that flares across the front pages of newspapers. Millions of people around the world have been forced from their homes by interlinked factors including persecution, armed conflict, natural disasters, development projects and socio-economic deprivation. This course explores the idea that the presence of refugees challenges us to re-discover what it means to be neighbours through attention to cultivating the disciplines of “radical gratitude” and hospitality. Participants will have opportunity to engage in case studies, group discussions, and think through policy ideas for enhancing community resiliency.