Peace & Conflict Studies

The minor in Peace and Conflict Studies (PACS) is multidisciplinary in its approach and is designed to provide students with the conceptual and practical tools to understand and resolve conflicts and to build peace in a globalized world.  Students use methodologies from the social sciences and humanities to explore the causes and relationships that create conflict and peace.

PACS at Bowling Green was the brainchild of Dr. Fujiya Kawashima, who helped forge a connection between BGSU and Hiroshima Jogakuin University in Japan.  PACS students from BGSU have visited Hiroshima every second year since 2006.  PACS is continuing to develop connections in other countries and communities outside Bowling Green.  The PACS Minor began officially in the Fall Semester of 2008.

• The third annual Hiroko Nakamoto Peace and Conflict Studies Lecture will be held Thursday February 2, 2012 from 7:30-9pm in the BTSU theater.  The speaker is the journalist, author, and international affairs columnist Gwynne Dyer, who will speak on "The End of War? Nonviolence in the 21st Century.
• The first Peace and Conflict Studies Nakamoto Scholarship essay contest took place in Spring 2010.  The award was donated by Hiroko Natamoto.  The judges were impressed by the high standard of the entries and found it difficult to separate the top three, so decided to divide the $1000 prize between three students.  The 2010 winners were:   
  Amanda Hills
  Daniel Gordon
  Maribeth Griese 
  
• Click here to learn more about BGSU Alumna Hiroko Nakamoto and her vision for a new peace memorial in her hometown of Hiroshima: the "Hiroshima Gateway to World Peace"
  
• This July and August, "Asian Studies 3100: Hiroshima and Beyond" will be offered.  This course involves spending a week in Hiroshima, Japan, as guests of Hiroshima Jogakuin University to study the full impact of nuclear war and explore ways to prevent such an event from happening in future.  It can be taken to fulfill the Field Experience requirement for PACS minors.  For more information about this course and the Field Experience portion of the PACS minor, contact PACS Director Marc Simon (see details below).  To make inquiries about the  trip, slated for July and August 2012, contact:
  
  Akiko Kawano Jones
  Asian Studies Program/Department of GREAL
  Room 110,
  Shatzel Hall, BGSU
  Phone: 419-372-7136
  Email: jakiko@bgsu.edu
  
  
• To kick off the Peace and Conflict Studies minor, we joined with the School of Communication Studies in hosting the International Conference on Media, War and Conflict Resolution from September 17 to 19, 2008.   For more information about the conference,  click on this link.
   

For more information about the PACS Minor, please contact:

PACS Director, Dr. Marc Simon
Political Science Department
Office Phone 419-372-7386
Email: msimon@bgsu.edu