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Around the Pond
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studying war, seeking peace
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Judson Brown
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The University of Massachusetts is positioned to become a leader in research into the causes of organized group violence and into the means of preventing and treating what some see as a global epidemic.
UMass professor of psychology Ervin Staub has been named to direct a new program, the Psychology of Peace and Violence Prevention, funded by an anonymous $2.5 million gift from two psychotherapists and peace activists, supplemented by a $1 million grant from the university president’s office.
Staub, himself a survivor of the Holocaust in Hungary, is noted for his path-breaking scholarship on issues of genocide, group violence and violence prevention. His Roots of Evil: The Origins of Genocide and Other Group Violence is said to be the first psychological analysis of genocide. He was given a lifetime achievement award in 2002 by the Society for the Study of Peace, Conflict and Violence, part of the peace psychology division of the American Psychological Association.
The grants will endow a new university chair and establish a doctoral concentration in peace psychology. The doctoral program will start with three students in the fall of 2004, with three added yearly for three years thereafter.
The new initiative will be both interdisciplinary and hands-on. Faculty and graduate students will be expected to become active in conflict prevention and resolution efforts in the real world, as Staub himself has been, most recently doing "forgiveness training" in Rwanda.
Staub’s departmental colleagues have agreed to include themes of peace and violence prevention in their existing courses. The new program will draw on faculty from other departments, and will maintain close ties with the Five College Program in Peace and World Security Studies |
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