Purpose: The Peace and Justice program has served the University mission for nearly three decades by focusing students from all backgrounds on ideals of social justice and training students in methods of conflict prevention and peacemaking (see the main themes in the column to the left). The program was first inspired by liberation theology, the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s, and philosophies of nonviolence and citizen activism; its goals today are grounded in the global human rights movement and shaped by the UN's Millennium Development Goals for poverty relief. Peace and Justice courses and faculty interests cover a wide range of domestic and international issues, from criminal justice reform, urban renewal, and economic inequality within the United States to global environmental sustainability, causes of war, the responsibility to prevent atrocities, and the role of religions in building a global human community united by common respect for the divine potential in each individual.

Background: The Peace and Justice Studies Program was founded in 1986 with the help of political science professor Martin Fergus, under Fordham College Dean, Father Jerry Reedy.  For 28 years, P&J was a certificate program requiring five courses including Introduction to Peace and Justice Studies. It grew under the leadership of Robin Andersen (Communication and Media Studies) and Astrid O'Brien (Philosophy); and as director of the program from 2011, Orlando Rodriquez (Sociology) developed the proposal for a new minor. The minor was approved in spring 2014 and will be phased in during the coming academic year. 

New Minor: students joining the program from fall 2014 will register the new minor in Peace and Justice, which involves a thematically connected sequence of seven courses (see details below). In addition to course to taking at least two Peace-related courses and two courses focusing on Social or Environmental Justice, students will gain credits towards the minor from service learning, approved Global Outreach trips, social innovation activities through Fordham's new Ashoka programs in social entrepreneurship, approved internships, and related extracurricular work. The program will also offer several events during the academic year for students to meet, discuss, and collaborate.

Career Directions and Related Majors: The new minor is thus an intensive hands-on venture in experiential learning combined with course work relevant to key global, national, and local problems of our time. It will help train students for future work in community development, criminal justice, non-profit and charity work, city services, religious organizations, humanitarian relief and development efforts, green business and civic leadership, global governance and international advocacy, teaching and diplomacy.

The Peace and Justice minor makes an excellent complement to majors in Humanitarian Affairs, Political Science, International Political Economy, English, Philosophy, Theology, Sociology, Economics, Environmental Studies and other fields. It also adds a distinctive feature to a student's academic profile, which few other universities and colleges offer. These benefits, along with the field experience integrated into the minor, can strengthen a student's application to graduate programs as well -- for example, Masters of Public Affairs and Masters of Public Health programs.

Student Profiles

Kelsey Vizzard is a senior at Fordham College Rose a Hill. She is an Environmental Policy major and a Peace and Justice Studies minor. She has always been passionate about the environment and the issues surrounding it. However, it was her time spent as a Social Justice Leader through the Dorothy Day Center that led her to her true interest, Environmental Justice. Through her volunteer work at organizations like the Northwest Bronx Community and Clergy Coalition and her time spent studying abroad in Australia, Kelsey was able to dig deeper into environmental and social justice issues and develop her passion outside of the classroom. This special interest in justice work is what led her to the Peace and Justice Studies minor. She dreams to work for a social justice oriented company or non-profit organization when she graduates, specifically one that focuses on environmental justice issues such as equal access to clean water











Cross-Listed Electives Counting Towards Peace & Justice Studies
Click this link to download the most updated version of this list.
(Note that most core courses, and introductory courses for other programs, do not count towards the P&J minor).

**This is a bulletin or catalog-style list: it includes all active courses from fall 2015 on, which is far more than are offered in a single semester. Most of these courses are typically offered over a 4-year period.

AFAM-3072	CIVIL WARS IN AFRICA
AFAM-3112	THE SIXTIES: ERA OF PROTEST, ERA OF CHANGE
AFAM-3115	ML KING & MALCOLM X
AFAM-3120	BLACK RELIGION & POLITICS
AFAM-3132	BLACK PRISON EXPERIENCE
AFAM-3148	HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA
AFAM-3141	Women in Africa
AFAM-3720	AFRICAN AMERICAN PHILOSOPHY
AFAM-4000	AFFIRMATIVE ACTION: AN AMERICAN DREAM
AFAM-4650	SOCIAL WELFARE AND SOCIETY
COMM-3103	FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION & Versions of Censorship
COMM-3110	PEACE, JUSTICE AND THE MEDIA
COMM-3681	MEDIA/NATIONAL IDENTITY
COMM-4004	SOCIAL ETHICS IN TELECOMMUNICATIONS
COMM-4601	TELEVISION AND SOCIETY
CPBU-4001	FAIR TRADE AND MICROFINANCE
CPBU-4003	Spirituality, Fair Trade, and Social Justice
CPBU-4004	Entrepreneurship, Fair Trade, and Social Justice
ECON-3210	ECONOMICS OF EMERGING NATIONS
ECON-3215	BRONX URBAN ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
ECON-3235	ECONOMICS OF LATIN AMERICA
ECON-3240	WORLD POVERTY
ECON-3244	INT'L ECONOMIC POLICY
ECON-3430	ST: SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS
ECON-3850	ENVIRONMENTAL ECONOMICS
ENGL-3802	LITERATURE AND IMPERIALISM
ENGL-4097	MODERN THEATRE OF REVOLT
ENGL-4140	THE JESUIT RELATIONS
ENGL-4407	ROMANTICISM & REVOLUTION
HIST-3015	A NATURAL HISTORY
HIST-3658	GENDER ROLES IN AMERICA
HIST-3807	JAZZ AGE TO HARD TIMES
HIST-3850	INTERNATIONAL HISTORY OF THE VIETNAM WAR
HIST-3969	LATIN AMERICA AND THE U.S.
HIST-4901	Marx's Capital and Capitalism
HIST-4851	SEMINAR: MORALITY AND VIOLENCE
HIST-4767	Sem: Torture and the Western Experience
HUST-4001	HUMANITARIAN ACTION
LALS-3600	LATIN AMERICA: CURRENT TRENDS
MGBU-3446	ST: SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP
MLAL-3601	LITERATURE/SOCIETY IN LATIN AMERICA
PHIL-3109	ENVIRONMENTAL ETHICS
Phil -3195	Political Libertarianism & its Critics
PHIL-3653	LATIN AMERICAN PHILOSOPHY
PHIL-3720	AFRICAN AMERICAN PHILOSOPHY
PHIL-3722	NATIVE AMERICAN PHILOSOPHY
PHIL-3901	PHIL ISSUES FEMINISM I
PHIL-3904	Feminist Philosophy
PJST-3110	INTRO TO PEACE AND JUSTICE
PJST-3999	TUTORIAL
PJST-1800	Internship for 1 credit
PJST-4999	TUTORIAL
POSC-2502	ANALYSIS OF INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
POSC-2811	POLITICS/COMMUNICATION
POSC-3131	POLITICS URBAN HEALTH & ENVIR
POSC-3140	POLITICS AND ECONOMIC GLOBALIZATION
POSC-3418	ISLAMIC POLITICAL THOUGHT
POSC-3516	CONFLICT ANALYSIS & RESOLUTION
POSC-3522	UNITED NATIONS
POSC-3610	POLITICAL ECONOMY OF DEVELOPMENT
POSC-3909	VIETNAM, CUBA, AND THE JFK ASSASSINATION
POSC-3915	INTERNATIONAL POL ECON
POSC-4210	SEM: STATE, FAMILY, AND SOCIETY
POSC-4230	SEMINAR: INFLUENCING PUBLIC POLICY
POSC-4xxx	Democracy, Development & Global Economy
P0SC-4xxxx	Latino Politics
POSC-4400	Seminar: Global Justice
POSC-4515	SEM: INTL POL OF PEACE
POSC-4875	COVERT POLITICS
PSYC-3600	MULTICULTURAL ISSUES
ANTH-2650	WHY JOHNNY CAN'T READ
ANTH-3110	ANC CULT OF THE BIBLE
ANTH	COMPARATIVE CULTURES
ANTH-3470	PEOPLE AND CULTURE OF LATIN AMERICA
ANTH-4490	ANTHRO POLITIC VIOLENCE
SOCI-2420	SOCIAL PROBS RACE ETHNIC
SOCI-2610	URBAN COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT
SOCI-2925	MEDIA CRIME SEX VIOLENCE
SOCI-3020	IDENTITIES AND INEQUALITIES
SOCI 3043	Global Inequalities
SOCI-3102	CONTEMP SOC ISSUES & POLICIES
SOCI 3120	Controversies in Religion and International Relations
SOCI-3135	AMERICAN SOCIAL STRUCTURE: POWER, STATUS, AND COMMUNITY
SOCI-3136	CAUSES AND CONSEQUENCES OF INEQUALITY
SOCI-3148	POPULATION & ECON DEVELOPMENT ISSUES
SOCI-3300	RACE AND "MIXED RACE"
SOCI-3405	GENDER, RACE, CLASS
SOCI-3418	CONTEMPORARY IMMIGRATION in GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE
SOCI-3456	MODERN AMER SOC MOVEMENTS
SOCI-3470	GLOBAL REFUGEE MIGRATION
SOCI-3601	URBAN POVERTY
SOCI-3603	URBAN AMERICA
SOCI-3675	LATINA WOMEN: IMMIGRATION/INEQUALITY
SOCI-3714	TERRORISM AND SOCIETY
SOCI-3720	US PRISON COMMUNITY
SOCI-xxxx	Refugees and Internally Displaced Persons
SOCI-4961	URBAN ISSUES AND POLICIES
SOCI-4970	COMMUNITY SERVICE AND SOCIAL ACTION
SPAN-3730	Writing Violence: Peru 1980 - 2000
SPAN-4520	Cuba: Revolution, History, Literature, Film
THEO-3412	THEOLOGY OF LIBERATION
THEO-3861	WORKS OF MERCY,WORK FOR JSTICE
THEO-4005	FEMINIST THEOLOGY
WMST-3010	FEMINIST THEO IN INTER-CULT
WMST-3970	PHIL ISSUES IN FEMINISM I