In 2014, ICNC launched the Curriculum Fellowship Program to support development of courses on nonviolent conflict and promote teaching in the growing field of civil resistance studies by selecting seven curriculum fellows. In 2016, ICNC added a new component to the curriculum support program: online courses that interested fellows taught in 2016 and Spring 2017. Online teaching became an integral part of the initiative and the 2017 cohort of fellows continued teaching both classroom-based and online courses on civil resistance.
ICNC is excited to continue the Curriculum Fellowship Program by accepting four fellows for the 2018 cohort.
The 2018 Fellows are:
Colins Imoh
Laurie Johnston
Lindsay Littrell
Nosheen Raza
Colins Imoh is a doctoral scholar at the Department of Educational Foundations & Leadership at the University of Toledo. His area of interest is nonviolent action, development, diversity, peace-building and conflict transformation. He was the pioneer coordinator of the Africa Network of Young Peace Builders, working from their International Secretariat in the Netherlands. Professionally, he holds an MA in Conflict Transformation from Eastern Mennonite University Harrisonburg, Virginia, and MPhil from the University of Cape Town in Environmental Management. He was project manager for the Partners for Peace, a network whose mission is to build social capital around peacebuilding. He is the recipient of various awards including: Winston fellowship, Open Society Africa Fellowship, MASHAV Award, Philip J. Rusche Emeriti Faculty Award, Robert J and Wrey Warner Barber award, the Those who Inspire Award and the Helen M. Fields Memorial Achievement Award.
Course Title: Introduction to Peace and Justice, Civil Resistance module (Fall 2018)
Location: University of Toledo, Toledo, OH, USA
Course Abstract: The course is an introduction to peace and justice; international negative peace; justifiable responses to threats to and violations of peace; and justifiable responses to injustices. It provides an exploration of nonviolence as means and reactions to injustice. There is a focus on civil resistance as a strategy for citizens to work for peace and justice. It engages students in the application of practical methods and skills of civil resistance as a tool for change in societies; providing an exploration into nonviolent actions and civil resistance movement. It traces the historic moments in the movement, exploring its success comparatively to other methods of effecting change. The nature and structure of political power in societies is examined, appreciating that power belongs to the people, who give their consent to be governed and can also withdraw that consent. The course explores various strategies for the success of nonviolent actions.
Laurie Johnston, Ph.D., is Associate Professor of Theology and Religious Studies and Director of Fellowships and Scholarships at Emmanuel College in Boston. A social ethicist, she holds degrees from Boston College, Harvard Divinity School, and the University of Virginia. She has recently been a Fulbright Scholar at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven in Belgium, and a Visiting Scholar at the Center for Human Rights and International Justice at Boston College. She is editor of several books, including Can War be Just in the 21st Century (Orbis Press 2015), and The Surprise of Reconciliation in the Catholic Tradition (Paulist Press, 2018).
Course Title: Social Justice and Religious Traditions (Fall 2018)
Location: Emmanuel College, Boston, MA, USA
Course Abstract: Why do religions sometimes uphold the established order, and other times help subvert it? What do religious traditions have to say about social justice and the best ways to pursue it? What is civil resistance, and how have religious communities been involved in recent efforts to pursue justice by means of civil resistance? In this course, we will examine five major world religions and their teachings on social justice. We will investigate the relationship between religious communities and several important movements that have used civil resistance to pursue their visions of social justice.
Lindsay Littrell, a Ph. D. student and educator at the University of Kentucky, comes to the ICNC with Midwest teaching experience, West Coast practice experience, East Coast education, and Southern upbringing. A social work educator with roots in the labor movement, policy and macro social work practice, she is driven by her passion for justice and the building of beloved community. In addition to the honor of educating as a “practice of freedom,” Lindsay keeps her ear to the ground and her feet on the pavement, bringing students along as often as possible, engaging struggles for peace, justice and liberation here in her U.S. back yard and across the world. Ms. Littrell’s research interests and teaching experience includes the intersection of social work practice and education with themes of social justice, collective liberation, intersectional feminism, community organizing, and to postcolonial concerns of local and global theory and practice. She has recently served as the Deputy Director for the South North Cohesion Project’s Gender-Based Violence Programme, working with a team of researchers and practitioners in the U.S. Midwest and across South Africa.
Course Title: Bigger than Protest: The Theory of Civil Resistance and the Ethics of Social Change (Online, October – December 2018)
Location: University of Kentucky. Lexington, KY, USA
Course Abstract: In this 3-credit interactive online course for graduate and undergraduate students at the University of Kentucky, students will engage the social work ethics and values regarding social, economic and environmental justice as well as human rights while exploring the concept of civil resistance and the “power that underlies people’s actions” (ICNC Rutgers, 2017) to effect change in their communities in the face of oppression. With a substantive emphasis on processes that strengthen both critical thinking and interpersonal skills, students will work together to examine the documented impact of more than a century of civil resistance through the lens of civic mobilization, strategy, tactics, conflict analysis, repression, backfire and violent flanks. Each student will then deepen their learning by analyzing and then presenting on an ongoing civil resistance campaign of their choosing, reflecting on campaign strengths, the manifestation of civil resistance content themes, implications regarding ethics, social justice and human rights, as well as opportunities for skill contribution in the context of their academic disciplines or in light of their future careers.
Nosheen Raza received her Master’s in Sociology from University of Karachi, Pakistan. She is currently a lecturer of Sociology at University of Karachi and a Ph.D. candidate at the same university. She teaches courses on Collective Behavior and Social Change, Industrial Sociology, Demography, Medical Sociology and Sociological Theories. She is also member of different academic and administrative boards at University of Karachi. Her interests and research areas include collective behavior and social change, human rights, demography and Sociology of Education. She was UNFPA’s national observer to monitor population census of Pakistan in 2017. She has been working with national and international NGOs for awareness and promotion of human rights and community development.
Course Title: Collective Behavior and Social Change (July – November 2018)
Location: University of Karachi, Karachi City, Pakistan
Course Abstract: The main purpose of the course is to educate the students about nonviolent struggles and civil resistance which has never been part of the curriculum. The sessions on civil resistance and social change are designed to provide an in-depth knowledge to the students on civilian-based movements and campaigns that defend and obtain basic rights and justice in Pakistan and around the world. The course examines the foundation of civil resistance, determinants of the success or failure of a civil resistance movement, nonviolent tactics, role of external agents; governments, NGOs, media, etc. and the dynamics and history of civil resistance. The students will be introduced to case studies of nonviolent movements in Pakistan, such as Pakistan’s Movement for the Restoration of Democracy, Pakistan’s Lawyers Movement and others. The students will explore the power of nonviolent actions as an effective way to bring about a positive change.