• Conflict Transformation Project

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Our Purpose

The Conflict Transformation Initiative links the interests of various Hugh Downs School of Human Communication faculty to increase understanding of conflict processes and to help people transform conflict for positive outcomes.  To meet these goals, faculty involved in the Conflict Transformation Initiative rely on the latest theory and research on conflict in a variety of settings—interpersonal, organizational, and international.  Theory and research on conflict provide insights into a variety of issues related to conflict transformation, including how conflict arises, mental and emotional reactions to conflict, strategies and tactics that people use, and the interplay between the relational system and larger social and cultural systems.

Teaching, Research, Application

Faculty in the Conflict Transformation Initiative believe that teaching, research, and application must complement each other for us to be effective.

Teaching conflict transformation.

The Hugh Downs School of Human Communication offers both undergraduate as well as graduate courses on communication and conflict. We teach multiple sections of upper division courses on conflict. In addition, we regularly offer graduate seminars on various conflict related topics. Recently we have offered seminars in interpersonal conflict communication, group facilitation, and conflict across the discipline (what scientific and rhetorical approaches say about conflict). We will continue to offer these and other courses on conflict communication and transformation.

Researching conflict transformation.

Faculty in the Conflict Transformation Initiative research various issues related to conflict and its transformation. Our faculty have published both scholarly books and textbooks on the topic. In addition, scholarly research articles and chapters address a variety of issues, including the competent management of conflict, abuse in marriage, promoting peace in Cyprus, interpersonal stress, and counteracting aggressive driving and road rage.

Applying what we know.

The faculty in the Conflict Transformation Initiative have applied what we know in multiple ways. These ways include training workshops for public and private employees, facilitation and mediation of conflict between people and groups, conferences on conflict transformation that include both researchers and practitioners, and public presentations on conflict transformation.

Methods

The faculty in the Conflict Transformation Initiative combine quantitative and qualitative methods to maximize our understanding of conflict processes. For example, we have used conversational analysis of interpersonal conflict, observational analysis of marital interaction, experimental designs to assess people’s reactions to conflict, and surveys to obtain people’s stories of road rage. Also, we have relied on the expertise of colleagues to understand how rhetoric informs an understanding of conflict. We invite alternative approaches and perspectives on how we can transform conflict.