Global: UPEACE short courses in gender and peacebuilding

The United Nations affiliated University for Peace (UPEACE), based in Costa Rica, announces with great pleasure its forthcoming short courses related to Gender and Peacebuildin. The courses offer a combination of theoretical knowledge and practical skills, incorporating historic and current events from around the world. Each short course will be taught in an intensive three weeks periods requiring 45 hours of class work under the guidance of a highly qualified group of professor and recognized international guest lecturers. If you like more information please visit our website at www.upeace.org Come and live for three weeks a unique multicultural experience in a privileged Campus surrounded by last remnant of primary forest in the Central Valley of Costa Rica. This is the first country in the modern world to abolish its army.

Cost of Each Course US$ 2,500.00 Scholarships are not available.

Requirements to enroll in the UPEACE Short Courses • A college degree.
• All students whose native language is not English are required to demonstrate their English proficiency (TOELF or IELTS).
• Two letters of recommendation.
For more details and the application procedure, please contact [email][email protected], Alumni and Student Affairs Office at Department of Academic Administration (DAA).
Short Courses for academic year 2007-2008 are:

• GPB-6011: Gender Studies and Peacebuilding.
19 September to 9 October 2007.
Prof. Sara Sharratt (Costa Rica)
The course analyzes the complex relationships between gender, violence and peace. The perspective proposed is that of political theory which will allow for a detailed analysis of the specific relations of gender and power including but not limited to economic power. It will also focus on the intersections of gender, sexuality, class, race, ethnicity and religion.

• GPB-6030: Cultures and Learning: From Violence towards Peace.
7 to 20 November 2007.
The major assumption of this course is that “Humans can learn and change their acquired behaviors and beliefs.” Human behavior is mostly transmitted from one generation to another via cultural means of socializations (for example, militarization and education are essential institution in this context). Categorization and identity labeling is one of these powerful means to establish boundaries and justify both violence and cooperative relationship. This course such aims to develop further understanding of the role of cultural, ethnic, religious, gender, linguistic, and other forms sub-identities in creating peaceful environment.

• GPB-6060: Gender and Human Rights.
26 November to 14 December 2007.
Prof. Juan Amaya Castro (Colombia)
The course will therefore develop from the idea that human rights are the basis for peace, justice and democracy and that there can be no peace without justice and no justice without human rights from a gender perspective. Human Rights will be defined as a code of conduct, an agenda for development, a guide for good governance, based on the principles of equality, accountability, participation and legally binding instruments.

• GPB-6090: A Gender Analysis of the Environment and Sustainable Development.
4 to 22 February 2008.
Prof. Lorena Aguilar (Costa Rica)
The Course will develop in a theoretical but active manner. The main conceptual and methodological concepts will always be present in order to incorporate the gender approach into natural resources management and sustainable development. By establishing direct contact with the Costa Rican urban and rural reality and through discussions with the students, a rich discussion will be developed in order to analyze how gender issues relate with the economical, political, environmental, social and cultural aspects of sustainable development.

• GPB-6010: Gender, Non-violent Transformation of Conflict.
27 February to 11 March 2008.
This course focuses on the theory and practice of violence and nonviolence from a gender and feminist perspective, and deals with social conflicts at interpersonal, intergroup, and intersocietal levels.

• GPB-6022: Gender mainstreaming in peacekeeping operations and in humanitarian assistance.
24 March to 11 April 2008.
Prof. Nadine Puechguirbal (France)
This course is designed to provide theoretical as well as field-based knowledge on the gender dimension of peacekeeping and humanitarian assistance. Throughout the two weeks, the students will be exposed to the major trends that have been used for the incorporation of a gender perspective in peacekeeping and humanitarian fields. Policies, programmes and practical case studies will be shared with the students with the aim of getting a thorough understanding of the positive and negative aspects of peacekeeping operations and humanitarian activities in different environments worldwide. At the end of the two-week course, the students shall be able to understand the cost of ignoring gender in peacekeeping mission and the delivery of humanitarian assistance and to analyze current situations with a gender perspective.

• GPB-6041: Health and Gender Studies: Issues of Peace and Conflict.
16 to 29 April 2008.

• GPB-6050: Practices of conflict management and peacebuilding.
5 May to 16 May 2008.
Prof. Matthew Norton (USA)
In the first part of the course we will first look at the Conflict Resolution approach to theorizing conflict, understanding its origins, the vocabularies for speaking of conflict in ways that “get to the heart of the issue” and focusing on the root causes. Then we will move on to a critique of what talking in these ways fails to say - and with what repercussions - about gender, power, privilege, and difference. The second part of the course addresses various responses to conflict. The third part looks at peace processes and the challenges presented by the concept of peace building