Summary

What is PACS?

Peace and Conflict Studies (PACS) is an interdisciplinary undergraduate program that allows you to explore conflict and injustice, and discover ways to promote peace that fit your interests and goals. In Canada’s longest-standing Peace and Conflict Studies program, you will engage with unconventional, nonviolent ways to transform conflict and pursue restorative justice and sustainable social change. Find out how peace is built in complicated situations around the world and locally by connecting theory and practice. Learn from leading faculty and practitioners. Combine peace scholarship and skills development with co-op placements or internships.

PACS Mission Statement

Within the parameters of the mission of Conrad Grebel University College, the PACS mission states: “In a manner consistent with Mennonite Anabaptist beliefs, the mission of PACS is to educate students to pursue peace and justice in the context of diverse investigations into the origins and nature of conflict and violence. The program strives to educate, invigorate and mobilize students to make use of conceptual and/or practical models to imagine and build a culture of peace between individuals, in our communities, among nations, and around the world.”

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere”

In the Peace and Conflict Studies (PACS) Department, we continue to follow the new wave of protests and movements for racial justice occurring across the United States. As a Department, we recognize that events of racism and systemic and structural violence are not something that simply happens ‘over there’. We acknowledge the land on which our Department is located is the land promised to the Six Nations in 1784 and we acknowledge that racism continues to be engrained in the everyday lived experiences of our students and community. To work towards a world of equality, our Department is committed to the platform of peace and conflict study that engages structural injustices in the Waterloo Region and around the world.

In PACS we seek to offer voices to the choir calling out for justice against racism and violence, as well as ears to listen so that we might learn about struggles we have not experienced. At this time of crisis, we affirm our departmental commitment to imagine and work together towards justice, everywhere.