The Silvia Stoekle Droppers Scholarship
in World Peace
Scholarship Application Form (pdf - 9k)
The Droppers Scholarship funds will go to support students who pursue courses of study, choose careers, and engage in other activities that further the cause of world peace. The Course of Study in World Peace at UWM is based on an interdisciplinary approach to building peace globally. This approach encompasses three essential kinds of activities that we believe are required for building sustainable peace:
Social. Assistance in the social sphere is designed to transform basic relationships and attitudes among groups in conflict. Examples of interventions at the social level might include a project to break down negative ethnic or national stereotypes, dialogues aimed at producing forgiveness and reconciliation, international/inter-group exchanges, or a truth commission.
Political. Assistance in the political sphere is designed to help achieve political agreements or settlements among the leadership of the parties to the conflict, whether they be at a local, regional, national, or international level. Examples of political assistance include formal mediation of an interethnic conflict, informal brainstorming or problem solving sessions, establishing confidence building measures, or designing a process for more effective formal talks.
Structural. Assistance in the structural sphere is designed to build new institutions or capacities to improve how a society, community or organization manages its conflicts. For example, structural assistance might include creation of mediation centers, economic development assistance to remedy structural inequities, or a justice reform project designed to increase the legitimacy of and access to the justice system and respect for human rights.
Our belief is that sustainable peace requires progress in each of these spheres. Further, change at any one level can be helped by and can help create change at the other levels. For example, political agreements can facilitate the creation of new structures and can help ease social tensions; social change can make it possible for leaders to enter into political agreements; and structural measures can help to sustain and promote positive transformations in social attitudes.
The Course of Study in World Peace at UWM reflects this three-part conception peacebuilding. Our intent is to equip students with commitment to, understanding of, and ability to promote peacebuilding in the world. The program has four parts designed to accomplish this task:
- Course work
- Study Abroad
- Internship/Practicum
- Independent Study in World Peace
Students who receive a Droppers Scholarship must demonstrate to the Peace Studies Program Review Committee (headed by the Director of Peace Studies) that they have taken and are planning to take course work relevant to world peace and be pursuing at least two of the three remaining components of the Course of Study in World Peace. Students will be selected based on their demonstrated commitment to the field of world peace and the degree to which they have done and/or planning to do relevant course work, study abroad, internship/practicum, and independent study as defined below.
Course Work
UWM offers a range of courses relevant to the approach to peacebuilding outlined above. An illustrative list of these courses includes: (This is not an exhaustive list, many other courses can qualify)
Social Approaches to Peacebuilding:
- 722-175 Introduction to Peace Studies
- 900-325 Social Change
- 310-411 Conflict and Change
- 310-520 Peace Education
- 310-521 Nonviolence in Education
- 310-625 Race Relations in Education
- 106-265 Psychological Effects of Racism
- 245-350 Intercultural Communication
- 245-860 Seminar: Cultural Identity
Political Approaches to Peacebuilding:
- 245-363 Communication in Human Conflict
- 245-641 International Mediation and Peacebuilding
- 245-621 Negotiation Workshop
- 245-665 Introduction to Mediation
- 245-865 Theory and Practice of Mediation
- 778-175 International Relations
- 778-960 International Conflict
- 448-283 Arab-Israeli Relations: The Search for Peace
Structural Approaches to Peacebuilding:
- 296-353 Economic Development
- 296-775 Economic Development Policy
- 298-872 Money in the International Economy
- 778-316 International Law
- 778-337 International Organization and the United Nations
- 204-471 Principles of Natural Resource Management
- 106-322 Order and Disorder in the Quest for Social Justice
- 448-915 Seminar in American Foreign Relations
Study Abroad
UWM has 54 student exchange programs and 35 study abroad programs open to students each year. To qualify as study abroad for the purposes of the Course of Study in World Peace, students must demonstrate in their proposed Course of Study how their study abroad experience relates to the study of some aspect (social, political or structural) of peacebuilding.
Internship/Practicum
In order to acquaint them with the practical aspects of peacebuilding, students are encouraged to seek internships that will further their study of world peace. Internships might include working with community organizations in Milwaukee such as Peace Action Milwaukee or the many national and ethnic based organizations. At UWM there are also several organizations, such as the Peace Studies Program, Center for International Education, Institute for World Affairs, Institute for Global Studies, and many more. The Peace Studies program is also part the Applied Conflict Resolution Organization Network which is a consortium of leading peacebuilding organizations (such as Search for Common Ground, Carter Center, etc.) that engage in the full spectrum of social, political, and structural activities. This network provides an unsurpassed opportunity to do field internships. Students wishing to do an internship must develop a written plan for how the internship will further their Course of Study in World Peace. An internship or a practicum may also be taken for graduate credit.
Independent Study in World Peace
Independent studies are included in the course of study in order to encourage students to further refine their own education about world peace and to foster cutting edge thinking in the peacebuilding field. Students are asked to define a topic relevant to the one or more of the different approaches to peacebuilding (social, political, and structural) that would fill a gap in their course work and/or add to the literature and knowledge in the field. For example, a student might do an evaluation of efforts to promote forgiveness and reconciliation in post-conflict situations, document the work of a peacebuilding NGO in the field, examine theories of peace education, or do research on the effectiveness of international financial institutions.
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