Applied Conflict Transformation Studies MA
Applied Conflict Transformation Studies (ACTS) is an innovative Masters course in Conflict Transformation. ACTS is offered as a two year part-time course in Phnom Penh, Cambodia and is accredited by Pannasastra University Cambodia. The programme has been successfully running since 2004, attracting a diverse range of students from all over the Asia-Pacific region.
This course includes practical study, advanced conflict intervention skills, theory building, analysis and strategy development, plus specialised action research into areas of peacebuilding and conflict transformation which relate to the work of participants and their organisations.
New course applications for 2012 course must be submitted to CPCSAsia@who-needs-spam.gmail.com by August 31, 2011. While CPCS has a limited number of partial scholarships for this program, it is the responsibility of the applicant to seek their own funding support.
Dates for the 2012-13 course residential seminars are:
Module One Residential Seminar: March 19 - 31, 2012
Module Two Residential Seminar: July 2 - 13, 2012
Module Three Residential Seminar: November 19 - 30, 2012
Module Four Residential Seminar: March, 2013 (two weeks)
Module Five Residential Seminar: July, 2013 (two weeks)
Module Six Residential Seminar: November, 2013 (two weeks)
Action Research Projects
At the heart of action research is the spirit of inquiry. Indeed, inquiry is the hallmark of action research. Action research of one kind or another has been in use since the 1940s, but the type that has been chosen for ACTS--though it too has been developed over many years--still represents a radical departure from other, more familiar research approaches. It follows rigorous academic principles for gathering, analysing, and interpreting data. It also draws on existing theory, and is designed to contribute to knowledge in its field. What makes it so different is that it is "first person" research which embraces and works with the researchers' own subjective experience and perspective as they carry out their action. It is this action that is subjected to scrutiny and analysis--its theory, planning, implementation, and impact--and the researchers' perceptions and interpretations are supplemented and challenged by others, in an "intersubjective" reflective process.
The researchers are called upon to look not only outward, to their work and to the wider field, but inward, to observe and analyse their own inner motives and responses, both emotion and rational, and the impact of those on their behaviour. Self-awareness is a vital skill for practitioners in this field, and research of this kind is designed to produce not only transferable knowledge but also personal development in skill and understanding.
Showcased below are the action research projects of ACTS students.
- "Witnessing as Space for Engaging Outsiders in Active Nonviolence to Respond to Land-Based Conflict in Cambodia," Christopher Baker Evans
- "Integration of Spirituality with Community Development for Peace," Bijayananda Singh
- "Effective Ways of Influencing to Integrate Peacebuilding Components in a Development Project," Tulasi Ram Nepal