Alumni Highlight l Careers l Elective Courses l Internships l Final Project l Faculty Highlight
A wide range of engagement at many possible levels from on-the-ground people-to-people activities to nongovernmental organizations to diplomatic and government work addressing humanitarian aid and relief work, international development, human rights, and peace and security.
Alumni Highlight
S. Aaron Weah-Weah III '17
Electoral Reform Program Manager
USAID- Liberia Accountability and Voice Initiative (LAVI) (Monrovia, Liberia)
Aaron manages a coalition of six local civil society organizations called the Elections Coordinating Committee (ECC). The ECC is a non-partisan network of civil society organizations that monitors, documents, and reports on election issues to promote transparency and accountability in Liberia and strengthens the democratic process. With support from USAID LAVI, Aaron provides technical support to the ECC to engender positive reforms in Liberia's electoral system by amending some provisions of three cardinal legal documents. He actively engages with the Liberian Legislature and national government stakeholders to advocate for ECC’s reform agenda. Aaron also designs and implements a robust advocacy campaign to publicize ECC’s reform agenda and engender grassroots support for reform to spur legislative action on electoral reform; and produces briefing materials and after-action reports for the purposes of internal assessment and stakeholder awareness.
"The CRES program impacts you in a way that sticks for a lifetime. It is almost impossible to go through the program and leave the same. CRES gives you a unique perspective and understanding of the dynamics of conflict and unique conflict resolution mechanisms like no other. The program prepares you for real life situations by equipping you with adequate set of skills and approaches to solve some of the most difficult conflict situation. I am grateful to have benefitted from such an awesome program like CRES!"
Careers
- Director Human Rights, Vital Voices Global Partnership, Washington DC.
- Malawi Peace Dividend Trust, Projects Director , Ottawa, Canada.
- Conflict Prevention Network Capacity Advisor, Timor Leste.
- Field Director, Genocide Intervention Network, Washington DC.
- Assistant Director, Boston College, Center for Human Rights & International Justice, Boston, MA.
- Program Associate, Inter-Agency Task Force on Israeli Arab Issues, New York, NY.
Elective Course Ideas
AFR 507 – Historical Perspectives of Development in Africa
CRES 530 – Working Internationally
CRES 535 – Israel and Palestine
EDST 556 –Colonization & Genocide
GEOG 510 – Conflict Transformation Northern Ireland
GEOG 541 – Political Geography
INTL 507 –Careers in International Development
INTL 522 – Aid to Developing Countries
LAW 610 – International Law
PHIL 507 – Peace and Conflict
PPPM 522 – Grant Proposal Writing
PS 510 – East Asian Cooperation
REL 507 –Religion and Violence
Internship Ideas
- Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training
- Baladna Association for Arab Youth
- Center for Democracy and Community Development
- Irish Football Association
- Search for Common Ground
- United Nations Ombudsman and Mediation Services
- US Department of State, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor
Previous Final Projects
A Protracted Conflict: Palestinians and their Right to Work in Lebanon
American Public Opinion on Human Rights and the Challenge of Humanitarian Intervention
Consequences of the American Dream: The Impacts of Structural Violence and Honduran Migration to the United States
From Stable to Sustainable: An Integrated Model of Reconciliation in Transitional Societies
How Social Dominance Theory Might Contribute to Our Understanding of the Liberian Civil War (1989-2003)
Human Rights Matter: How Conflict and Dispute Resolution Discipline Supports Human Rights Advocates
Litigating for Peace: The Impact of Public Interest Litigation in Divided Societies
Moldova: Enclave Bias, Legislative Reform, and Dispute Resolution
Nationalism and Islands Dispute in the East China Sea
The United Nations Force Intervention Brigade: Peace Enforcement as a Conflict Management Strategy in the Democratic Republic of Congo
Faculty Highlight
Diane Baxter
Pro Tem Instructor and Participating Faculty of Judaic Studies.
Professor Baxter teaches Working Internationally and the Israel and Palestine course for the CRES Program. She academic interests include politics of identity, the Middle East, Israel/Palestine, refugees/displaced persons, and cross-cultural psychology. Diane is the Director of Internships in Israel and Palestine was Senior Lecturer and Head Undergraduate Advisor in Anthropology at U. of Oregon (1996 -2019). She welcomes students to speak with her about studying in Israel-Palestine. Diane's research focuses on the politics of identity among displaced persons, women, and indigenous peoples in colonial and postcolonial societies. Her area of focus continues to be the Middle East, in particular Israel/Palestine.
Diane was the Director of the Rutherford Middle East Initiative at the UO until 2019. In that role, she created and administered the new MENA (Middle East-North Africa) minor on campus and plans are underway to establish a Middle East, Arabic, and Islamic Studies major at the university. Diane was vice-Chair of the AAA'S Committee on Refugees and Immigrants (CORI) and co-editor of CORI'S 24 Selected Papers in Refugee and Immigrant Studies. Her article, "Idealized and Devalued: Images of Identity among Palestinians in West Bank Refugee Camps", is included in the CORI volume. She is also the author of "Honor Thy Sister: Selfhood, Gender, and Agency in Palestinian Society." Diane received her master’s degree in Counseling Psychology from UC-Northridge in 1982 and her Ph.D. in Psychological Anthropology from UCLA in 1991.