HDDR 6367 - Trauma and Conflict in Israel and the Palestinian Authority

July 1-8, 2012, Jerusalem

 

Southern Methodist University

Miki Kidron and Daniel Rainey, Instructors

 

 

Course Description:

 

This course is designed to provide students with the opportunity to study the nexus between trauma and ongoing conflict through interaction with local experts and site visits.  Students will interact with conflict resolution/management and counseling professionals from Israel and the Palestinian Authority, investigating the dynamic created by ongoing trauma in conflict and post conflict societies.  The course will focus on second track conflict resolution and management projects affecting Israeli and Palestinian communities and families.  Perhaps the most significant learning opportunity will be created by the exposure of conflict resolution students to trauma issues, and the exposure of counselors to the principles of conflict resolution.  Consequently, all students in the course will attend all of the lectures and demonstrations, and the site visits will be designed to address both trauma and conflict resolution/management.

 

This seven-day program combines a traditional lecture and discussion approach with an intense experiential component, resulting in a 3 credit course that questions the traditional boundaries between conflict resolution/management and counseling.  The course will feature sessions in or near Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Haifa, and Bethlehem.  Because it is impossible to understand the nature of the traumatic environment or the nature of the ongoing conflict in the region without putting the conflict in geographic, social, political, and religious context, lectures and discussions will be combined with site visits to historic and religious sites that have become "icons" for the ongoing conflict.

 

Course Objectives:

 

1.                  To gain an understanding of the impact of long term conflict on individuals and groups involved in or peripheral to conflict.

2.                  To gain an understanding of the impact of long term conflict on the conduct of Second Track conflict resolution and management efforts.

3.                  To gain an understanding of trauma counseling in conflict and post conflict communities.

4.                  To gain an understanding of the nexus between conflict resolution/management and trauma counseling.

5.                  To examine the translation of Western Model conflict resolution/management practices to the local social environments in Israel and the Palestinian Authority.

6.                  To reflect on the application of the student's conflict resolution/management and counseling skills in a protracted conflict environment.

 

 

Course Requirements:

 

1.               Class Attendance - Active participation in class discussions and interactive work with parties and guests.

2.               Self Study and Preparation - Completion of reading assignments before the first class meeting in Jerusalem.

3.               Journal and Self Assessment - Maintaining a journal recording beliefs and assumptions going into the course, experiences in the course, and changes in beliefs and assumptions (if any) at the conclusion of the course.

 

Required Texts:

 

 

Bernard S. Mayer, Staying With Conflict, Jossey-Bass, 2009 ISBN-10: 0787997293

[Miki's material from the trauma center.]

 

 

Recommended Readings:

 

Jimmy Carter, Peace Not Apartheid, Simon and Schuster, 2007.

John W. Burton, Conflict: Human Needs Theory, Palgrave Macmillan, 1993.

 

 

Evaluation:

 

The course requirements will carry the following weight:

 

·         10% - response to a pre-course survey related to required reading.

·         40% - class attendance and participation.

·         50% - journal and self assessment.

 

Before convening the first class session in Jerusalem, students will be asked to respond to a series of questions related to the required readings and their incoming perspectives on the conflict.  The questions will be asked and answered through an online survey instrument.  Responses must be received before the first class meeting in order to earn full credit.

 

Class attendance and participation will be graded using admittedly subjective judgments about each student's ability and willingness to contribute to the class discussions.

 

The journal must be kept contemporaneously and must be submitted for review within two weeks of the last day of class.

 

 

Instructors Contact Information:

 

Daniel Rainey

Mobile:  571-243-9529

e-Mail:  drainey500@gmail.com

Web:  http://danielrainey.us

 

Miki Kidron

Mobile: 214-642-9374

e-mail: mikikidron@gmail.com