Mexico (Spring 2019)

APPLICATION DETAILS:

Final Application Deadline:
December 17, 2018 (midnight)

Final Notification Deadline:
December 19, 2018

Commitment Deadline:
December 21, 2018

CLICK FOR THE 2019 GFI APPLICATION 

Please note: Applications will continue to be accepted for this program until it fills

Experiential Peacebuilding in Mexico

Course Number: GLOB1-GC 3085.999 (3 credits)

Term:  Spring 2019 (this course will count as a Spring semester course and students will be eligible to apply credit load toward financial aid allowance)

Location:  Mexico; Oaxaca, Sierra Norte, Ixtlan

Travel Dates: March 16 – 24 2019 (NYU Spring Break)

NY-based Pre-Departure Course & Post Trip Sessions (REQUIRED):

  • Sessions 1-4: All-day Intensive – Saturday, March 2 (10am – 4pm)
  • Post-trip Sessions 5-6: Friday, March 29th (4-7pm)

Instructor: Ana Cutter Patel

Degree Requirement: With the approval of the department, this course can count as a concentration requirement. If not taken toward concentration requirements, the course will count toward your elective credits.

Registration for program: All students must apply for this program using the online application form and with the submission of a personal statement uploaded to the form.  Accepted students will be registered by the department.

Documents: A valid passport is required for entry.  Visas are required for U.S. Citizens and for many non-U.S. Citizens.  All students will be advised regarding visa requirements by the department. Use this resource link to help you determine your visa requirements.

Course/Program Description:

Outward Bound Mexico, in partnership with Outward Bound Peacebuilding, has offered Experiential Peacebuilding programming for Mexican and Latin American social change agents since 2015. In this new collaboration with New York University’s Center for Global Affairs, graduate students from the peacebuilding program and related fields are invited to join a 9-day field intensive program (with additional pre and post classroom time) that will strengthen their applied/experiential peacebuilding and conflict transformation skills, develop their leadership capacity and give them time to reflect on peacebuilding from four entry points; self, other, community, environment. Setting the program in the Oaxaca State of Mexico offers a unique opportunity to explore the contours and outcomes of culture and conflict from local government, academic, civil society and indigenous perspectives and practices. Students will spend time exploring Oaxaca City as well as hiking and camping in the spectacular Sierra Juarez Mountain range – one of the last remaining Cloud Forests in Central America.  Oaxaca is a designated UNESCO World Heritage Site and is the most culturally and biologically diverse of Mexican states with sixteen different languages spoken in addition to Spanish, and environments as varied as desert, pine forest, and tropical rain forest.

Learning Outcomes

  • Learn and apply peacebuilding skills in an experiential setting
  • Learn from and listen to local communities’ approaches with conflict and violence
  • Understand environment as a key component of conflict transformation and peacebuilding

Experiential Peacebuilding integrates experiential education with peacebuilding skills and practice to empower individual peacebuilders, deepen their resilience, and expand the set of applied tools they have available to achieve their own goals in the communities where they live and/or work. As practised by Outward Bound Peacebuilding, the theory of change behind Experiential Peacebuilding is founded on two convictions: 1) Experiential education in the outdoors is a powerful tool for advancing leadership, building trust, and creating transformational experiences for individuals and groups; and, 2)Peacebuilding requires investment and support of local leaders, who are best positioned to bring positive change to their communities. Experiential Peacebuilding is best thought of as an active process with transformative power. It is truly an experience, comprised of rigorous learning and physical activity – two aspects that unite in a kinesthetic effect on the body and mind. Experiential Peacebuilding naturally and by design lends itself to leadership development, the formation of viable communities, organizational capacity building and ecoliteracy.

Outward Bound Experiential Peacebuilding programs are often situated in inspiring wilderness environments, leaning into the 75+years of Outward Bound tradition, including rituals and standards that allow us to hold space that is a respite and an awakening for our participants.  People living and working in situations defined by violence and division exist in constant states of high stress and “fight or flight” mode. Evidence is mounting that violence impedes creativity – thus a structured experience in nature can enable the “creative act of peacebuilding” as championed by John Paul Lederach. Because new ways of thinking may pose a threat to the status quo, it is important to provide space for the creative act of social change and peace to emerge. This is knowledge that the indigenous peoples of Ixtlan de Juarez have held for centuries. Students are invited to experience for themselves the deep connections between environment, peace/conflict, governance and community in this very special part of the world.

Site Visits and Excursions May Include:

  • Tour of Oaxaca City
  • Pre-Hispanic archaeological sites
  • Cloud Forest
  • Sierra Norte 

Trip Leader:

Ana Cutter Patel, Adjunct Professor

As the Executive Director of the Outward Bound Center for Peacebuilding, Ana leads the organization’s work to use the Outward Bound approach of experiential learning to challenge and inspire leaders to build peace together. This approach is called experiential peacebuilding, which connects active learning or “learning by doing and reflecting,” to the practice of peacebuilding.  For the past eight years, she has spoken at conferences, facilitated workshops and taught courses on experiential peacebuilding across the globe, most recently at Nobel Peace Prize Forum (September 2017), Penn State University (February 2017), the U.S. Peace Corps National Meeting (September 2016), and the Rotary World Peace Conference in Ontario, CA (January 2016). As a speaker and facilitator, she offers an interactive session that demonstrates the concept of experiential peacebuilding through activities that get people out of their chairs and beyond their comfort zones. In 2016, Ana was honored as a Rotary International Peace Fellow and a Hearts on Fire Visionary. In 2017, she was named a Global Peace Index Ambassador by the Institute of Economics and Peace.

Ana Cutter Patel brings over 25 years of experience in international peacebuilding, development and human rights to her position of Executive Director of Outward Bound Peacebuilding. Her background spans from building a gravity water system as a U.S. Peace Corps Volunteer in a rural farming community in the Dominican Republic; to teaching international conflict issues at the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University; to training governments and civil society organizations in West Africa on issues related to human rights and the demobilization of ex-combatants.   Her co-edited volume, Disarming the Past: Transitional Justice and Ex-combatants was published in January 2010. Ana was a U.S. Peace Corps volunteer in the Dominican Republic. She graduated from Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon and received a Master’s of International Affairs from the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University. In 2016, Ana received a certificate in International Peacebuilding from Rotary Peace Center at Chulalongkorn University in Thailand.

Itinerary:

Day 1 – 3: Oaxaca City

Day 3 & 4: Sierra Norte

Day 5: Ixtlan

Day 6 & 7: Cloud Forest

Day 8: Oaxaca City

Day 9: Return to New York

Program Costs:

Tuition: 3 Credits Tuition

Program Fee: ~$1,565 (double room)

The program fee includes the following:

  • Lodging

  • All meals are included in this program

  • All in-country transportation, (flight to and from Mexico NOT Included)

  • All meetings and special guest lectures

  • Planned cultural excursions/tours

NOT Included:

Airfare, airport transfers, passport/visa fees as needed, personal items such as wines, liquors, laundry services, special arrangements before or after the program, and other items not specifically mentioned as included. Insurance for trip cancellation, flight cancellation, luggage loss or damage, medical and accident is not included but is strongly recommended.

Cancellations and Refunds

Program cancellations must be made in writing.  To protect yourself, we recommend that you purchase flight cancellation insurance.