Course Description

In 1945, the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, by the United States. Eighty years later, that event led to not only a legacy of the most terrible kind of warfare, but also a legacy of people working for peace. Yet, even before the atomic bomb inspired new motivations for peace in our world, others had seen the need to bring about peaceful solutions to global conflicts and civic problems through humanitarian actions. One of these, Alfred Nobel, created the Nobel Peace Prize in 1901 to promote the cause of peace and honor those working toward it in various ways. In this course, we will use the people and organizations recognized by the Nobel Committee’s annual Peace Prize as our primary source to explore the many ways people from the past have sought to bring about lasting results of peace for a better world. In our study, we will examine early interdisciplinary peace efforts primarily from the Nobel committee’s work as well as some local and regional peaceworkers. Through our work together, we will explore what the legacy of peaceworkers from the past means to us today and what we can learn from them to take into our shared future.

Texts

Jacob Neumann, A Professor’s Guide to Writing Essays: The No-Nonsense Plan for Better Writing

Irwin Abrams, ed., The Words of Peace: Selections from the Speeches of the Winners of the Nobel Peace Prize

Cobban, Helena, The Moral Architecture of World Peace: Nobel Laureates Discuss Our Global Future

Additional readings and videos on topics related to the Nobel Peace Prize and its winners will be assigned online through our Canvas course site.

Requirements

Engaged attendance and class participation, weekly online discussion, 2 short response papers, 1 analytic essay (broken down into 4 stages), 1 creative project, 1 group video presentation, 1 final portfolio (includes curating work from throughout the semester, expanding on 1 assignment, and writing a new short reflective paper).

About the Instructor(s): Leslie Donovan

Leslie Donovan completed the Honors Program and her BA and MA at UNM, before earning her PhD in Medieval English Literature from the University of Washington in Seattle. She teaches courses about the works of J.R.R. Tolkien, creativity, the future, classical and medieval cultures, the Nobel Peace Prize, and nonviolent action. Dr. Donovan has been honored with multiple outstanding teaching awards, including UNM’s Presidential Teaching Award.