Syllabi

• Alternatives to Violence (American University Syllabus, 2013)
  The fall 2013 syllabus for McCarthy’s flagship course at American University — if every government claims it wants peace, why is there so little of it?
  1,109 words · 4 min read
• Journalism and Peace syllabus
  The fall 2013 iteration of McCarthy’s journalism course at Maryland, examining why independent and corporate media alike neglect the stories of peacemakers.
  1,073 words · 4 min read
• Peace Studies (Fall 2013 syllabus)
  The twenty-fifth year of Peace Studies at Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School — still offering students a chance to break from conventional thinking.
  264 words · 1 min read
• Social Issues (Wilson High School Syllabus, 2013)
  McCarthy’s syllabus for Wilson High School — which he persistently calls Barbara Lee High School — asking students to make choices that reduce violence.
  348 words · 1 min read
• Journalism and Peace (University of Maryland Syllabus, 2012)
  A fall 2012 course asking where the peace correspondents are — and why journalism has plenty of war reporters but almost none covering nonviolence.
  951 words · 3 min read
• Law, Conscience and Nonviolence (Georgetown Law Syllabus)
  A Georgetown Law course pairing Gandhi with Einstein on the question of what to do when conscience and the state collide.
  637 words · 2 min read
• Violence, War, Peace and the Media (American University Syllabus, 2012)
  A fall 2012 Washington Semester course examining the intersection of media, violence, and peace — with detailed reading lists and field assignments.
  2,042 words · 8 min read
• War, Peace and the Media (American University Syllabus)
  An American University syllabus asking whether filmmakers, reporters, and columnists have done more to normalize war than to question it.
  1,209 words · 4 min read
• Generic Peace Studies Syllabus Template
  McCarthy’s adaptable template syllabus, used as the foundation for courses at multiple universities.
  930 words · 3 min read
• Peaceful Solutions - Alternatives to Violence (Washington Center Syllabus, 2011)
  A summer 2011 course for Washington Center interns, returning to the central question of why violence persists when no one claims to want it.
  832 words · 3 min read
• Alternatives to Violence (UMD Honors Program Syllabus)
  The University of Maryland Honors version of Alternatives to Violence, adapted for a campus that had never had a peace studies course.
  905 words · 3 min read
• Peace and Social Justice (American University Syllabus, 2010)
  The fall 2010 American University syllabus, structured around McCarthy’s recurring question: if everyone wants peace, why is violence the default?
  1,261 words · 5 min read
• Peace, Power and Nonviolence (Washington Center Syllabus, 2007)
  A spring 2007 Washington Center syllabus asking why fists, guns, armies, and bombs are routinely relied on to settle conflicts.
  607 words · 2 min read
• The Sociology of Nonviolence (Georgetown University Syllabus, 2007)
  A Georgetown sociology course built on one premise: every conflict will be settled either violently or nonviolently, and the problem with violence was described long ago.
  1,338 words · 5 min read
• The Politics of Peace (American University Syllabus, 2006)
  A spring 2006 American University course framing peace not as an abstraction but as a political practice with its own discipline and literature.
  1,053 words · 4 min read
• War and Peace in Films (Course Proposal)
  A brief 2006 proposal to teach a winter-term course on war and peace through film, written by a professor who’d been teaching in the Honors program since 1986.
  145 words · 1 min read
• The Literature of Peace (Georgetown University Syllabus, 2005)
  A Georgetown summer course asking why fists, guns, armies, and bombs settle so few conflicts permanently — and what the literature of peace offers instead.
  537 words · 2 min read
• Studies in Conflict Resolution (University of Washington Syllabus)
  A University of Washington English course on conflict resolution, opening with Gandhi: if there is no clearly defined nonviolent way, we have got to experiment.
  3,795 words · 15 min read
• Alternatives to Violence (Washington Center Syllabus, 2002)
  A spring 2002 syllabus for Washington Center interns, meeting Monday evenings at a church on Vermont Avenue.
  535 words · 2 min read
• Peace Studies : Alternatives to Violence (B-CC Syllabus, 2002)
  A high school syllabus naming the forms of violence — military, domestic, economic, media, environmental, animal-abuse — and asking students to confront each one.
  1,317 words · 5 min read
• Building Peaceable Schools (American University Syllabus)
  A graduate-level course asking how to bring nonviolence into the nation’s 78,000 elementary schools, 28,000 high schools, and 3,100 colleges.
  966 words · 3 min read
• Changing the World - Nonviolent Movements (Oberlin Syllabus)
  An Oberlin course open to the public at no cost, studying nonviolent movements from Serbia to the American South.
  728 words · 2 min read
• Exam No. 2 - War, Peace and Justice
  A short exam testing students on Virginia’s 21-day rule, Joseph Giarratano, and the facts of the death penalty.
  260 words · 1 min read
• Justice and Peace Program Course Listings (Georgetown Summer)
  A listing of summer courses in Georgetown’s Justice and Peace Studies program, from introductory seminars to focused topics.
  309 words · 1 min read
• Peace Studies (Washington Center Syllabus)
  A Washington Center syllabus opening with Woodrow Wilson: the purpose of education is to make the young as unlike their elders as possible.
  407 words · 1 min read
• The Class of Nonviolence (Course Overview)
  An overview of the twenty-second annual session of Solutions to Violence, combining discussions, dissent, and debate on the theory and practice of nonviolence.
  338 words · 1 min read