MA Peace, Resilience and Social Justice

Our MA in Peace, Resilience, and Social Justice is designed for those seeking an advanced understanding of the intersecting crises of climate change/ecological degradation, inequality and injustice, conflict, and violence.

The program critically examines how different actors are responding to these challenges, including efforts to rethink the assumptions and practices that shape our ways of life, public engagement, contentious collective action, and practical efforts to design and create more resilient, sustainable, and equitable communities.

You will critically explore themes such as:

• The contested meanings of peace, resilience, and social justice in a complex and changing world;
• How scholars, practitioners, and activists are analyzing and engaging with complex social-ecological systems and crises;
• Creative approaches to conflict engagement, peacebuilding, and the pursuit of social justice;
• Your positioning, responsibilities, and vocation as a scholar, practitioner, and/or activist within complex systems and relationships.

The program is delivered by the Division of Peace Studies and International Development, which maintains an international reputation as a center for excellence in research, teaching, training, and policy engagement. This means that teaching and learning will be research-informed and led by staff who are well-positioned to facilitate policy and practitioner community engagement.

The programme critically examines how different actors are responding to these challenges, including efforts to rethink the assumptions and practices that shape our ways of life, public engagement, contentious collective action and practical efforts to design and create more resilient, sustainable and equitable communities.

You will critically explore themes such as:

• the contested meanings of peace, resilience and social justice in a complex and changing world;
• the ways in which scholars, practitioners and activists are analysing and engaging with complex social-ecological systems and crises;
• creative approaches to conflict engagement, peacebuilding and the pursuit of social justice;
• your own positioning, responsibilities and vocation as a scholar, practitioner and/or activist within complex systems and relationships.

The programme is delivered by the Division of Peace Studies and International Development, which maintains an international reputation as a centre for excellence in research, teaching, training and policy engagement. This means that teaching and learning will be research-informed and led by staff who are well-positioned to facilitate policy and practitioner community engagement.

What you will study

Please note that for the 2023 entry, the module information is subject to change.

Modules

Core

• Social-Ecological Systems and Crises: Concepts, Cases, Contestations (PES7065-B)
• Studying Peace in a Changing World (PES7051-B)
• Creative Practice in Conflict Engagement and Peacebuilding (PES7063-B)
• Dissertation (PES7040-E)

Option

• Applied Conflict Research (PES7036-B)
• African Politics and Security Dynamics (PES7035-B)
• Theories and Practices of Conflict Resolution (PES7064-B)
• Critical Perspectives on Sustainable Development (DEV7026-B)
• Security and Development in Fragile and Conflict-Affected Areas (PES7048-B)
• Theories and Practices of Conflict Resolution (PES7064-B)
• Natural Resource Governance (PES7045-B)
• Sustainable Cities (PES7052-B)
• Gender, Conflict and Development - Distance Learning (PES7068-B)
• Assessing Development Needs and Outcomes (DEV7039-B)
• Middle East Politics and Security Dynamics (PES7043-B)
• Environment, Trafficking and Crime: Transnational Issues and International Governance (PES7062-B)
• Peacekeeping and Peacebuilding (PES7046-B)
• Africa Study Visit (PES7034-B)

Elective

Placement

You can choose to include an internship as part of your course, in which case you will study for over 15 months rather than a year. To do this, you should initially register for the one-year programme and then transfer to the 15-month programme when you have secured a placement, any time up until the middle of Semester 2.

The internship/placement further enhances the development of professional experience and practical skills during your Master's programme, integrating practitioner community engagement with your academic studies.

This element is student-centred and student-led, and therefore the initiative for identifying and applying for internships is driven by you. Academic staff can facilitate and support the identification of suitable opportunities with leads and suggestions, help with the writing of applications, and provide supporting letters of reference. They provide customised preparatory training before and mentoring support during, the placement or internship.

The internship/placement can be taken with an organisation anywhere in the world. You'll need to detail your proposed activities and receive approval before the opportunity is finalised.

Once the internship/placement is complete you'll return to the programme, submit a completion report summarising key learning points, and then undertake your Master's dissertation. Students often use their placement period and experience to inform and shape their dissertation.

Learning and assessment

Throughout your time on the MA Peace, Resilience and Social Justice, you will be actively engaged in a diverse range of online and offline learning activities designed to develop your capacities for thoughtful analysis and reflective practice.

These will include individual and group tasks that require you to apply theoretical concepts to real-world dynamics and scenarios. As such, the emphasis in timetabled online and campus-based teaching sessions will often be on active, problem-based learning activities, with students undertaking reading and other preparatory work beforehand. This ‘flipped classroom’ approach maximises opportunities for discussion and feedback, whilst using selected inputs – such as short lectures, readings, or videos – to both frame and deepen the learning experience.

There will be an emphasis on practice, feedback and reflection throughout the programme. You will have opportunities to develop your own interests, e.g. via case studies chosen for study and assessment and the design and execution of your final dissertation project. Building many and varied opportunities to engage with and learn from each other into the programme is integral to fostering an inclusive learning environment.

Our approach to learning and teaching makes a conscious effort to encourage collaboration and honest dialogue and puts significant emphasis on the development of interpersonal and intercultural skills. Throughout, the curriculum is designed to encourage reflection on the relative (un)peacefulness of relationships, and this includes the interpersonal level and the wider structures in which interpersonal dynamics are situated. Reflections on power, inequality and privilege will open up difficult conversations about dynamics that can stand in the way of inclusion, while other parts of the curriculum explore the question of how constructive changes can be fostered and encouraged.

Our overall aim is to develop reflective practitioners who take a thoughtful approach to engaging with others, and our own practices as a teaching team seek to model and foster this ethos.

Politics at Bradford is ranked 45th in the UK in The Complete University Guide University Subject Tables 2019 for its undergraduate courses. These rankings also place Bradford in the top 20 in the UK for graduate prospects.

Our postgraduate politics courses were ranked 2nd in the UK for employability in the 2018 Postgraduate Taught Experience Survey (PTES).

Career support

The University is committed to helping students develop and enhance employability and this is an integral part of many programmes. Specialist support is available throughout the course from Career and Employability Services including help to find part-time work while studying, placements, vacation work and graduate vacancies.

Discussing options with specialist advisers helps to clarify plans by exploring options and refining skills of job-hunting. In most of our programmes, there is direct input by Career Development Advisers into the curriculum or through specially arranged workshops.

Career prospects

One of the University of Bradford's goals is to equip all our students with the attributes and capabilities to be confident and capable in their life beyond university.

Our postgraduate politics courses were ranked 2nd in the UK for employability in the 2018 Postgraduate Taught Experience Survey (PTES).