Spring 2016 MSCM Newsletter

Newsletter Master of Science in Conflict Management htt p : //www. ken n es aw. e d u /ms cm /

M ay 1 8 , 2 0 1 6 Is s ue

Letter from the Director Greetings,

In this Issue:

Featured Articles.....................2-3 Announcements...........................4 MSCM Career Fair........................5 Faculty Accomplishments..........6

The summer semester begins with Cohort XVII being in full swing, a fond farewell to a few MSCM students who graduated in Spring commencement (congratulations!) and the anticipation of the arrival of Cohort XVIII. In this newsletter you will see what a busy spring semester the students and faculty had. Learn more about the Mock Mediation tournament in Texas, the Atlantic Promise Humanitarian simulation in Florida, and some of the accomplishments of our alumni.

As recruiting season for Cohort XVIII is still underway, I would like to encourage our students, alums, friends, and community partners to talk to people about your experiences with and in the program. One note of special interest to prospective students is that as of Fall 2016 the MSCM program is no longer a “premiere priced” program for in-state students. What that means is that students will only pay regular graduate tuition

Master of Science in Conflict Management Department of Political Science and International Affairs Kennesaw State University 365 Cobb Ave. MD 1603 Kennesaw, GA 30144

for the program. It also means that many of the “extras” (books, meals on class weekends, the cost of study abroad trip, etc.) that previously cohorts received are no longer included in the costs.

Rest assured, that the cohorts, the weekend classes, the study abroad, and all the essential parts of the curriculum are the same. We hope that this may further encourage you to nudge anyone you know who’s been “thinking about this for a few years” to get in touch with us.

As always, if you have news items (new jobs, exciting opportunities, etc.) please let us know as we’d love to hear from you. You can also stay in touch with us via our facebook page, Twitter and LinkedIn. All the best for a great summer ahead!

Sherrill Hayes, Ph.D., MSCM Director

Featured Articles 2016 Mock Mediation Tournament Submitted by Dr. Heather Pincock

The Kennesaw State MSCM Mediation Owls traveled to Plano Texas on March 31-April 3 to participate in the 5th Annual Graduate Mock Mediation Co-opetition. Host school Southern Methodist University welcomed teams from Vermont (Champlain College), Massachusetts (Brandeis), and of course Georgia (KSU!) representing graduate programs in dispute resolution, conflict management, and peace and conflict.

The Mediation Owls had a star lineup from Cohort XVII; Christina Campbell, Brenda Cleaver, Nichole Farris, LaDeidra Gordon, and Flora LoweRockett.

The tournament consisted of four rounds of mediation simulations asking participants to apply their collaborative problem solving skills to community, court, workplace, and international contexts. Players co-mediate with a colleague from another team, and work together with fellow teammates to play advocate/client

teams over the four rounds of play.

Experienced mediators judge their performance and award points according to the mediation and negotiation skills they demonstrate.

One highlight was the truly transformative performance by all students in the third round of tournament play.

The case involved two sisters whose relationship had been badly damaged following their mother’s death as a result of hurt feelings and misunderstandings surrounding her end of life care. The entire KSU team—whether in the role of mediator, party, or advocate—made important contributions to the restoration of the sisters’ relationship during the mediation session.

“That’s what Mediation is all about” Coach Pincock told reporters after the tournament “and I am so proud of my team’s performance.” Although the Mediation Owls did not bring home a trophy, the tournament was a great success for the KSU team. Pincock went on to tell reporters, “There were many personal best performances for our team members and they represented KSU-MSCM extremely well both on and off the court.” Way to go Mediation Owls!.

Top: Cohort 17’s Mock Mediation participants from left to right: Dr. Heather Pincock, LaDeidra Gordon, Nichole Farris, Flora Lowe-Rockett, Brenda Cleaver, and Christina Campbell. Middle: Cohort 17 before the tournament. Go Owls! Bottom: Cohort 17 dinner break.

2

On the physical front, we were driven to points of exhaustion.

The brain starts to misfire when you are working on 5 hours of sleep.

Training sessions are jammed one after another and Submitted by Eric Helliwell, Cohort XVII missions start immediately after.

The training I was privileged to have participated is not to learn something to pass a in the Humanitarian Crisis Training test, but rather, to develop guided in Fellsmere, FL this past March. I instincts to assist in a fast moving have travelled to a few dozen nations previously and felt I had a very set of environmental changes. If you adequate preparation for what might think this can’t feel real, consider be involved in an international simu- that our team felt an extreme emotional letdown to the overall mission lation. What actually transpired was when we realized in retrospect we a formation of a new path of thinkhad negotiated with rogue governing about how we encounter each ment officials by accident, thereby other as human beings. setting back the larger group.

Thoughts on Humanitarian Crisis Training

The situation was less about maps and places to visit than it was about overcoming real obstacles an NGO may face. How do we help different groups of people that hate each other? How do we negotiate releasing a prisoner in a way that does not further endanger his or her safety?

Why can’t people just trust me when I say I want to help? These are the challenges one faces in completing the tasks we were given.

If one wants mental exhaustion, then sleeping on a floor while living on very basic nutrition with challenges that always seems a bit unachievable, the humanitarian training is the way to go. If not, I hope you would consider it trying it anyway because after the body is fully rested and the realization of what you have achieved sets in, you will change in perspectives that literature could never accomplish.

Top Left: Students registering for the humanitarian aid simulation.

Top Right: Students meeting with governmental officials before the simulation.

Middle: Breaking into NGO groups Bottom: NGO showers during the simulation

3

Announcements Robert “Ed” Cambpell, Cohort 15 has been accepted into the Ed.D. Leadership program at St. Mary’s University

Quoquise Jackson, Cohort 15 is now the EEO Regional Compliance Specialist, Region 3, for the US Postal Service. Her primary responsibilities are to monitor and ensure compliance for the Office

of Federal Operations decisions and Notice of Final Actions (NFA) decisions issued in all Region 3 EEO complaints, review and issue decisions in all Region 3 breach of settlement allegations, and maintain appropriate logs.

Region 3 area covers the states of Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia and Maryland.

Farewell Ceremony for Dr. Akanmu Adebayo Pictures by Ellen Lahtinen, Center for Conflict Management

Our colleagues in the Center for Conflict Management hosted a beautiful farewell ceremony for Dr. Akanmu Adebayo, the Director of the Center for Conflict Management. Although it was not a forever farewell ceremony, it was a celebration of his move from the Center back to a Professor in the History Department at Kennesaw State University.

4

The surprise ceremony was filled with loving speeches from colleagues throughout the College of Humanities and Social Science as well as graduate students from the International Conflict Management Program. In addition, a guest jazz player originally from Nigeria joined us to serenade Dr. Adebayo with songs from Nigeria as well as the sing-a-long, “For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow.” The ceremony was a good time had by all and was an especially fun surprise party! Congratulations Dr. Adebayo! We will miss you in the Center for Conflict Management.

Katie Jones, Cohort 14 began her new position at Willis Towers Watson working as a contractor in benefits consulting. She also started the Professional MBA program at the University of Denver.

Kate Dowd, Cohort 16 graduated from the MSCM program during Spring 2016 graduation.

Way to go Kate!

Now Accepting Exhibitors

Upcoming Events MSCM Career Fair August 26, 2016

m Conflict Manage

ent Professionals

G N I K R O W NET EVENT

AUGUST 26, 2016 KENNESAW CAMPUS, SOCIAL SCIENCE BUILDING LOBBY

12:00-4:00PM

Meet current MSCM students and alumni Advertise your organization Collect resumes to recruit interns and potential employees

Contact us at (470) 578-6299 for more information

We are hosting our second annual MSCM Career and Networking Fair August 26, 2016. The set-up for the event will be like a career fair with the goal to allow alumni and current students to talk informally with employers as a way to explore possible career options with organizations, and to learn how the skills and experiences they possess match the needs of employers and industries.

The event is free to exhibitors, alumni, and students. Should you wish to have a table at this event to showcase your organization and to meet our students and alumni, please let us know. Since space is limited, we will be recruiting exhibitors on a first come basis, so act fast! This is a great opportunity to meet students who share similar values as your company.

If you would like to RSVP as a guest or an exhibitor, please contact me. We look forward to hearing from you!

MSCM Study Abroad November 5-12, 2016

We would like to invite you to travel to and around the Emerald Isle with Cohort XVII on their study abroad experience.

Learn about the conflicts and conflict resolution experiences of mediators, facilitators, former combatants and peacemakers.

If you’re interested in joining our journey, let us know! Deadline for down payment is June 1st.

5

Faculty Accomplishments 6

Dr. Sherrill Hayes,

Director, MSCM Program

Teaching • Taught MSCM 7355 (Advanced International Mediation Clinic); MSCM 7365 (Humanitarian Crisis Intervention), INCM 9950 (Humanitarian Crisis Intervention) • As part of MSCM 7365 & INCM 9950, led 15 MSCM and INCM PhD students on “Atlantic Promise” 2016 humanitarian simulation, Forage Center for Peacebuilding & Humanitarian Education, Fellsmere, FL, March 10-13, 2016 Research • “Leaving Utopia: The tyranny of the urgent, complex humanitarian emergenices, and humanitarian logistics” copresented with Bryan Hutcheson, Lina Tuschling, & Alice Peck,

Dr. Susan Raines,

Professor of Conflict Management

International Studies Association Annual Conference, March 18, 2016 • “Refugee Resettlement in the US” Presenter & Panel Chaired, Shorter University Annual Social Science Symposium, April 22, 2016 • “Clarkston Families Decide: Modeling an Early Learning Community Trust Process”—with Roberta Malavenda, Executive Director of CDF: A collective action initiative at the 2016 National SmartStart Conference, May 3, 2016 • “Conflict Management for Student Leaders” with MSCM students, KSU Center for Student Leadership Annual training, May 12, 2016 • Appointed Visiting Editor for “Journal of Peacebuilding & Development,” Special Issue on Migration (Vol. 11, Iss. 3) Service • Served on the Executive Committee for the Graduate College Policies & Curriculum Committee

•

•

• •

•

•

Trained organizational leaders in Athens, GA on “Managing Through Chaos” with the Center for Non-Violence (January 2016) Taught the 42 Hour Domestic Relations course through the Center for Conflict Management at KSU (April 2016) Revised two peer reviewed articles with Yeju Chloe Choi for Family Courts Review and Negotiation

Journal Taught Conflict Management for Managers for graduate students in the MBA, MPA and INCM programs at KSU Created a new undergraduate course entitled, “Legitimate Uses of Violence” for undergraduates at KSU Traveled to Italy for Spring Break with her son, Will

Dr. Timothy Hedeen,

Professor of Conflict Management

•

Delivered two presentations at the International Ombudsman Association conference in Seattle in April: 1) “Assessing and Demonstrating the Value of an Organizational Ombudsman” with Mary Rowe 2) “Dual Roles and Dueling Responsibilities: The Faculty Member as Ombuds” with Jim Wohl and Bruce Auerbach

•

•

•

•

Dr. Heather Pincock,

Assistant Professor of Conflict Management • • •

Taught MSCM 7310 Interpersonal and Intergroup Conflict to CXVII Began advising CXVII students on their plans for Field Work projects Presented “Bullets vs. Ballots?

Can Democratic States Justify Restricting the Rights of the Mentally Ill?” at the Western

Dr. Paul Story,

Assistant Professor of Psychology

• •

Taught MSCM 7400: Research Methods Had two students present at conferences this year.

•

•

•

•

Delivered a lecture to the Maternal and Child Health Leadership Collaborative (of Morehouse, Emory, and GSU) Fellows program in February Trained mediators with MSCM alum Charity Scott for the federal District Court of Western Michigan in Grand Rapids in March Trained faculty and staff with MSCM alum Kelley Alexander at the University of West Georgia as part of UWG’s Leadership Development Institute in February Trained faculty at Emory University in Conflict Coaching in May

Association for Political Science meeting in San Diego CA in March.

Coached and traveled with the MSCM-KSU Mock Mediation Owls to the 5th Annual Graduate Mock Mediation Tournament at Southern Methodist University in Plano TX in April.

Facilitated Alternatives to Violence Project Workshops (along with other AVP volunteers) held at Kennesaw State University, Columbia Theological Seminary, and Arrendale State (Women’s) Prison Mary Fortson-Harwell presented a talk about the effects of peace priming on proposed helping behavior at the International Studies Association Annual Conference in Atlanta.

Charles Elliot presented a poster at the Annual Convention for Social and Personality Psychology on how intrinsic motivation relates to perceptions of choice. His work was accepted into the Kennesaw journal of undergraduate research.

7

To provide submissions to the MSCM newsletter, email Nicole Connelly at nconnell@kennesaw.edu or call 470) 578-6299.

The Master of Science in Conflict Management (MSCM) program at Kennesaw State University provides students with the knowledge and skills to manage conflict in today’s challenging environments.

MSCM education addresses the issues that divide our world by encouraging communication, fostering positive relationships and developing comprehensive, long-term solutions. Further, it provides a set of tools and a way of thinking that enhances the safety and vitality of our families, communities and workplaces.

Master of Science in Conflict Management Department of Political Science and International Affairs Kennesaw State University 365 Cobb Ave. MD 1603 Kennesaw, GA 30144