Critical Social Inquiry 0253 - Reconciling Conflict

When discussing conflict, it is common for the language of reconciliation to be deployed as if its meaning and requirements are common knowledge. Further, it is assumed that reconciliation is somehow necessarily connected to forgiveness and truth, such that figures like Archbishop Desmond Tutu suggest we can have "No Future Without Forgiveness." Peace workers, however, tend to have very specific and contextually dependent understandings of reconciliation that often seem in tension with other accounts. And, of course, skeptics think that the reconciliatory ideal is wishful thinking and opposed to some sort of violent human nature. In this class we will explore various approaches to reconciliation-theoretical and practical, as well as socio-ethical and legal-institutional-in order to get a better sense of what reconciliation is and thus to also understand what its realization might require.

Power, Community and Social Justice Independent Work Writing and Research Students are expected to spend at least six to eight hours a week of preparation and work outside of class time.