Advanced Master Program in Peace and Conflict Studies

· We offer an interdisciplinary, intercultural and research based four semester study program in Peace and Conflict Studies

· The program is focused on international political, economic, ecological and cultural conflicts and conflict resolution by peaceful means

· The study program offers lectures, workshops & seminars in English presented by highly qualified lecturers from more than 20 different countries on all continents

· Meet students from all over the world

· Requirements: bachelor or international equivalent degree, good command of English, peace related background

· Information & Admission: www.epu.ac.at European University Center for
Peace Studies (EPU)

Stadtschlaining/Austria
phone:+43-3355-2498-515, fax: +43-3355-2381
mail: epu@epu.ac.at, web: www.epu.ac.at

The EPU Curriculum in Peace and Conflict Studies:
Master of Arts and Advanced Certificate Programs

The European University Center for Peace Studies (EPU) is located in Stadtschlaining, Austria, a beautiful, small and quiet medieval town in the foothills of the Alps between Vienna and Graz. It has a 700 year old castle hosting the EPU Offices and a peace museum, and a famous peace library with 25,000 books, periodicals and films, mostly in English. It was founded in 1988 by its current President, Dr. Gerald Mader. It has so far educated about 700 students from more than 90 different countries in peace studies and conflict transformation. In 1995 it received the UNESCO Prize for Peace Education.

The EPU program is designed to provide students with the intellectual skills to analyze conflicts and their underlying causes, and with practical skills in conflict transformation and peace-building. It seeks to enable and motivate students to help build a more peaceful, equitable and just global society, in harmony with nature.

Those who successfully complete one trimester obtain an Advanced Certificate in Peace and Conflict Studies. Those who complete three trimesters and write a thesis obtain a Master of Arts in Peace and Conflict Studies, approved by the Austrian Ministry of Education. MA students can begin with any trimester (fall, spring or summer).

All the courses are taught in English, by leading specialists in their field from around the world, including Johan Galtung, one of the founders of the academic discipline of peace research and frequent mediator in international conflicts. Studying with the founder of an academic discipline is a rare opportunity, like studying psychiatry with Sigmund Freud or relativity theory with Albert Einstein. EPU offers students a well rounded program covering Peace with Security, Development, Freedom, Nature and Culture.

Different from most other universities, which have their fixed faculty, EPU has the flexibility to invite the best teachers from around the world from a wide variety of disciplines. As a practical demonstration of cultural peace, EPU seeks to achieve a geographical and gender balance in its teaching faculty. The courses equally emphasize theory, concrete case studies and practical exercises. EPU seeks to train peace practitioners, not only theoreticians.

In addition to courses, workshops and academic excursions, a valuable aspect of studying at EPU is the immersion in the culture of a society at peace, and the opportunity to learn also from dialogues with fellow students from around the world. Many alumni have said that the time they spent at EPU was one of the best experiences in their lives. This has an effect beyond mere book learning. It is remarkable, for example, that Alexander Yakovlev, Gorbachev's closest adviser and the key architect of perestroika, was a member of the first delegation of thirty Soviet students who studied a year in the United States with a Fulbright fellowship in 1956-57.

Peace Studies are a highly interdisciplinary and growing academic field. Students who have successfully completed our program are well grounded in both theory and practice to face the challenges of global conflict transformation. We are happy and proud that many of our former students now have thriving careers with international organizations, NGOs or work with their respective governments.

Peace includes the absence of war, but it is much more. Galtung distinguishes between three forms of violence: direct violence (hurting and killing people with weapons), structural violence (the slow death from hunger, preventable diseases and other suffering caused by unjust structures of society and lack of freedom and democracy), and cultural violence (the justification of direct and structural violence through nationalism, racism, sexism and other forms of discrimination and prejudice). Negative peace consists of the absence of those three forms of violence, and positive peace is the presence of activities to bring relief for past or present violence and to prevent future violence. The EPU curriculum focuses on direct peace in the fall trimester, structural peace in the spring trimester, and cultural peace in the summer trimester.

EPU's curriculum is intended for students from any discipline interested in peace and conflict resolution, young diplomats, government officials, NGO members, teachers, journalists, lawyers, social workers, psychologists, officers, and anyone interested in solving conflicts by peaceful means. A first university degree is required, and preferably some professional experience. EPU does not discriminate on the basis of (among others) gender, race, class, religion or national origin.

Costs are Euro 2500 for tuition + Euro 1400 room rent per trimester, plus a one-time Euro 700 examination fee for the Master of Arts program. A small number of full and partial scholarships are available for participants from focal countries of Austria's development cooperation, but they are highly competitive and are for one trimester only.

Administration
Gerald Mader, President
Dietrich Fischer, Academic Director & Student Advisor
Ronald H.Tuschl, Secretary General & Research Director
Anita Flasch, Administrative Assistant
Ursula Medlitsch, Administrative Assistant

Contact
EPU SECRETARIAT
A-7461 Stadtschlaining/Burg, Austria
Tel+43-3355-2498-515
Fax+43-3355-2381
e-mail: epu@epu.ac.at
website: http://www.epu.ac.at