Skip to the content of the web site.
Master of Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Waterloo


A vibrant, interdisciplinary graduate program

The Master of Peace and Conflict Studies (MPACS) offered under the Faculty of Arts is a new interdisciplinary professional program set to begin in September 2012. It will prepare you with the knowledge and practical skills needed to contribute to nonviolent peace building efforts. Placing a unique focus on the pivotal role that individuals within civil society play, the MPACS program explores the potential of civil society to advance peace through principled advocacy, effective programming, and dynamic engagement with the state and marketplace.

Understanding conflict

Recognizing conflict as an inescapable part of the human experience, and a potential vehicle for positive change at local, national, and international levels, this master’s degree offers a cutting-edge approach in which dynamic, sustainable, and creative solutions to conflict can be imagined, tested, and applied.

Combining rigorous interdisciplinary scholarship with concrete application, the program will provide scholars and practitioners alike with the tools needed to understand conflict and contribute to its peaceful resolution. Agents of peace building

Available on either a full-time or part-time basis, the MPACS program is comprised of coursework, an optional internship and an individual research paper. Equipped with interdisciplinary knowledge and practical skills of peace building, MPACS graduates will be ready for careers in public, private or non-profit sectors that work as agents of peaceful change at community, institutional, and systemic levels.

Note: MPACS is primarily based at Conrad Grebel University College and is governed by the Faculty of Arts, University of Waterloo.