Expressive Arts in Conflict Transformation & Peacebuilding

The Expressive Arts and Conflict Transformation (EXA-CT) M.A. is a three year program concentrating on the use of creative methods to address conflicts within teams, communities, and international states.

The EXA-CT program provides participants with frameworks for merging the arts with conflict analysis, restorative justice, trauma awareness and healing, mediation, evaluation, reconciliation, humanitarian responses, research and theory. In short, participants will learn ways to use the arts to promote peace and justice.

Participants will spend three summers in residence in Saas-Fee, Switzerland. During the first two summer residency periods, they will follow courses on the priniciples and practice of both expressive arts and conflict transformation. They will be taught by faculty members who are practitioners in the two disciplines and those who have combined the two. Within each course, participants will be challenged to experiment with the application of the arts in conflict transformation paradigms, along with group discussions and reflective exercises.

Prior to these summer residencies, EXA-CT participants will be expected to complete a prescribed self-study plan. In between the second and third summer residency, participants will complete a practicum supervised by an EXA-CT faculty member and complete a Masters Thesis. During the third summer session, the student will complete oral and written exams and defend the Masters Thesis. Professional artists, peaceworkers, art therapists, mediators, educators, coaches, and humanitarian workers are encouraged to pursue the EXA-CT MA program.