Reproducing peace? A CRT analysis of Whiteness in the curriculum and teaching at a University of The UN

ABSTRACT

Peace and conflict studies (PACS) higher education is a blossoming field. Literature (both conceptual and conjectural) and research (theoretical and empirical) has proliferated in recent decades. This paper details case findings from an ethnographic study with university-based PACS educators completed at one University of The United Nations in 2015. The six-month ethnography involved document analysis, participant observation, and semi-structured interviews with 25 peace scholars and 108 postgraduate students. Data was thematically coded and analyzed using concepts from critical race/critical Whiteness studies. This paper outlines the study and explores the theme of Whiteness that emerged from data. Findings point toward the cultural reproduction of Whiteness in the faculty, pedagogy, and institution. The paper concludes with a discussion of implications concerning global equity and ‘post-structural violence’ in PACS education, as well as a call for further research into the role of peacebuilding education in broader social change.

KEYWORDS:

• UN higher education
• peace and conflict studies education
• Whiteness
• curriculum analysis
• ethnographic case study

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 The exact university is anonymized in this paper to protect the identity of the university and participating lecturers, whose names used herein are also pseudonyms.

2 For clarification it is not that alternative curricula do not exist but that White curricula seem to be favored. See, e.g. Cawagas (2004) for curricula with Southern perspectives and scholars.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Keimyung University Research Grant of 2018.