Peace Education

Peace and Conflict Studies, ERINDALE COLLEGE, University of Toronto

FOR THE PAST TWO YEARS, University College, at the University of Toronto has offered a four-year B.A. in Peace and Conflict Studies (PACS). Beginning next September, it will also be possible to earn a degree in Peace and Conflict in one of U. of T.'s suburban campuses, Erindale College, in Mississauga. Unlike the one on the downtown campus, the new program will be major, leading to a three-year degree. Professor Metta Spencer, a sociologist and Editor of PEACE, will coordinate the program and teach some of its courses.

A University of Toronto B.A. requires students to take the equivalent of at least fifteen full-year courses, usually over a period of three years. (Part time study is also possible, but takes correspondingly longer.) During the first year, PACS majors will be expected to take at least one introductory course in sociology, history, psychology, philosophy, or religious studies, plus other optional choices. Then in the second and third years, the following required courses are taken, some of which are half-courses: (1) Introduction to Peace and War Studies (Sociology); (2) War and Morality (Philosophy); (3) one course on international relations and/or war (History); (4) Technology, Ethics, and the Future of Humanity (Religious Studies); and (5) Nonviolence and Negotiation (Sociology). PACS students will also take at least two and one-half full-course equivalents, chosen from a list of 20 other courses in that focus on war or conflict. A committee appointed by the Departments of Sociology, History, Philosophy, and Religious Studies will oversee the program.

A room has been allocated in a central location at the college for a small PACS resource center. Several faculty members have already begun meeting for lunch every few weeks, and some of them plan to publish books and research papers under the auspices of the PACS Centre. Faculty members are also contributing some of their documents and books to the resource centre, which will be open to the general public. A part-time assistant, Nancy Knechtel, is already organizing the material. If PEACE Magazine readers have extra copies of peace-related books and journals, the PACS faculty and students would love to receive them as donations.

Address inquiries and donations of publications, tapes, videos, and the like to Professor Metta Spencer, Room 2095, Erindale College, University of Toronto, Mississauga L5L 1C6. Phone 416/ 828-5316. And come to study with us!