A school on George Mason University’s campus in Fairfax, Virginia, started over 40 years ago as a small center with a handful of faculty members in the 1980s. Since its opening, it has emerged as one of largest conflict resolution schools in the world, and ever since 2020, the school has honored former President Jimmy Carter.
It was renamed the “Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution,” and the nearly 500 undergraduate, master’s and PhD students honor his legacy just by attending class.
“When we renamed this school after Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter, we really had taken the inspiration from their legacy,” Alpaslan Özerdem, dean of the Carter school said. “It wasn’t only the conflict resolution but human rights, not only human rights, but health and housing and social justice. So this is what makes the legacy of Jimmy Carter so unique, because he really saw the importance of merging all these different areas.”
Ahead of Carter’s funeral at Washington National Cathedral on Thursday, Özerdem said the former president’s legacy inspired content in almost every course at the school, but is particularly evident in conflict resolution classes.
Students read about the Carters’ work, and twice a year — once during the fall and once in the spring — the school organizes “peace weeks.” This year, on Oct. 1, they’re launching a new program to celebrate President Carter’s work.
The school emphases experiential learning, Özerdem said, “and that’s very much like what President Carter did. He didn’t only establish the theory of conflict resolution, he did conflict resolution. He engaged with communities affected by armed conflict or polarization, or other challenges, directly.”
Inspired by Carter’s passion for innovation, Özerdem said the school has funded a new center that focuses on peace technology, which is “the idea of how to apply technology for conflict prevention and peace building,” he said.
Similarly, the school formed a partnership with civil society organization Rotary, which Özerdem said, “comes from that foundation of what President Jimmy Carter did so well all his life and post-presidency with his humanitarian and conflict resolution work.”
With Carter’s name on it, the school motivates students to learn from his career, because “we need more peacebuilders and peacemakers,” Özerdem said.
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