Bachelor of Arts [B.A] [Applied Conflict Management] From Kent State University

Areas of focus include mediation, negotiation, environmental conflict resolution, international conflict resolution, workplace conflict management, nonviolent action and community organizing. The Bachelor of Arts in Applied Conflict Management is an "applied" program, and an internship in the field is required. Students learn applied skills and build professional networks through this required internship, which can be completed in a wide variety of contexts.

Career opportunities

Community mediation centers and programs, labor organizations, law offices, non-profit organizations, insurance carriers, and other private companies and organizations that specialize in providing mediation and other dispute resolution services. Grievance and ombuds officers in educational systems and in companies and corporations. Human resource and personnel management offices. Human service agencies. Community organizing. (Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics)

The mission of Kent State University is to discover, create, apply and share knowledge, as well as to foster ethical and humanitarian values in the service of Ohio and the global community. As an eight-campus educational system, Kent State offers a broad array of academic programs to engage students in diverse learning environments that educate them to think critically and to expand their intellectual horizons while attaining the knowledge and skills necessary for responsible citizenship and productive careers.

Graduates of this program will be able to:

• Demonstrate the research and analytical skills that will be useful while working in the field of conflict management.

• Analyze the dynamics of social conflicts and apply the principles of nonviolent theory and practice in order to wage conflict constructively to bring about social or political change.

• Demonstrate their ability to use the skills of conflict management through in-class exercises, simulations and role plays.

• Demonstrate an ability to identify and analyze the cultural dimensions of conflicts and conflict management.

• Describe and interpret the roles that gendered power dynamics play in conflicts and conflict management.

• Demonstrate a broad grounding in the field of conflict management by being able to explain the historical evolution of the field, by identifying and analyzing a full range of conflict dynamics, and by designing constructive and appropriate intervention tactics and strategies.

• Demonstrate an ability to explain the main theories on causes, expression and consequences of international conflicts, and comparatively evaluate different mechanisms of prevention, management and resolution of international conflicts.

• Demonstrate preparation for work in the applied field of conflict management by successfully completing a hands-on internship experience where their on-site performance, their internship journals and their final internship paper reveal their ability to: effectively use skills taught and learned in the classroom; apply theories to experiences; evaluate and critique host agency dynamics and conflict management systems and practices and devise real or hypothetical alternative approaches; critically and reflexively evaluate their own performance.