Canadian Mennonite University, Winnipeg, will host its third annual Canadian School of Peacebuilding (CSOP) summer program at the Shaftesbury campus June 6–24, offering international and local students the unique opportunity to study under renowned members of the world peacebuilding community.
“CSOP welcomes highly qualified instructors with diverse approaches to peace, development, and justice issues,” says CSOP co-director Jarem Sawatsky.
CSOP attracts peacebuilders from all faiths, countries, and identity groups to its three-week program of intensive five-day courses for professional development and academic credit.
“[Participants] have a chance to interact with each other and with some of the most significant emerging ideas and teachers in the field,” says Valerie Smith, CSOP co-director.
The 2011 course offerings include models of grassroots peacebuilding in international contexts; a Cree Christian perspective on living in covenant; voluntary simplicity; peace and justice in Islam; using the arts to transform conflicts; interpersonal mediation; understanding the issues of violence; reflections on faith-based reconciliation; strategies for social change; and peacemaking and restorative justice.
“We aim to create a space where people from different backgrounds and perspectives can connect in positive and respectful ways,” says Sawatsky. “The CSOP community last year included pastors, teachers, peace practitioners, farmers, students, retirees, and a variety of faith and cultural groups. We hope this diversity will keep growing.”
