About Nonviolence Studies & Programs
Kansas State University students now have the opportunity to learn how to change local and global conditions that can lead to violence -- and get credit for it. K-State's Certificate in Nonviolence Studies teaches nonviolence strategies, tactics and tools to help resolve problems without violence. The15-hour Certificate is open to all undergraduates through the Department of Sociology, Anthropology and Social Work, College of Arts and Sciences. The NVS Certificate also is available through K-State Online.
To earn the NVS Certificate: students will complete the two required courses (Intro and Applied NVS) and personalize their program by selecting nine hours of multidisciplinary electives (from at least two departments).
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What do we mean by Nonviolence? Conflict within a human relationship system is as natural as “bad” weather. How we respond to conflict is a choice. |
In our nonviolence work at K-State, we examine violence-and-nonviolence within a holistic, interlocking web of problems and outcomes, not as "black or white" polarities. Violence is individual and institutional, personal and political. It might be silence, bullying, harassment, physical assault, suicide; oppression, exploitation, war... Violence is injustice that results in dysfunctional, imbalanced relationships -- among people, groups, and nations; between people and our environment; even within one body or mind. Nonviolence in this context are those actions we take to move toward dynamic balance -- seen as justice, health, peace -- by devising creative interventions into dysfunctional systems -- ideally, before a crisis occurs; but with conflict resolution, direct action and other creative, nonviolent methods, afterwards. Nonviolent actions are the intentional strategies, tactics and tools we create to generate win-win outcomes for inevitable conflict and change--not for sentiment but for wholeness and sustainability.” "Activist Media Anthropology-Antidote to Extremist Worldviews,” Media Anthropology (Sage, May 2005), SL Allen