Imagine that you could just reach over and open a聽'how to' reference guide for making the world a better place. 聽That's what Dr.s Guy and Heidi Burgess had in mind when they requested ASSETT Development Award funding for their Make a Difference Guide聽for their Peace and Conflict Studies聽(PACS) students. 聽The Burgesses聽created the Make a Difference Guide as聽a multi-threaded textbook for students to, "... Understand the big聽picture of the conflict situation and identify areas in which they might be able to make a positive difference." 聽Guy Burgess聽explains that there is no need to "reinvent the wheel," when there has already been research done on topics of conflicts and theories of resolution. 聽Burgess acknowledges that the聽everyday person encounters some kind of conflict that they may wish to resolve: "Conflict is something that everyone's involved in, and these materials [that the Make a Difference Guide references] should be accessible to lots of people."
The Make a Difference Guide links to the聽聽database聽that the聽Burgesses have spent years creating. 聽With funding from the Hewlitt Foundation, the Burgesses have聽linked to up to 30,000 scholarly articles regarding peace and conflict studies. 聽However, the Burgesses want to increase access to and awareness about聽the resources available through Beyond Intractability, and last year, when they obtained the ASSETT Development Award funding, the Burgesses聽wrote聽the content for the Make a Difference Guide, which serves as a聽navigation tool for the information that the Beyond Intractability website offers. 聽"For hundreds of topics, the system then provides access to a range of resources, including encyclopedic articles on each topic, recommended readings and more comprehensive lists of potentially useful resources. 聽These resources are arranged on 'virtual bookshelves' ..." the Burgesses said. 聽Visit the Make a Difference Guide, and click on a topic folder that interests you--conflict assessment, poor government, etc. 聽You'll find more specific subgroups of topics, each with icons that link to more specific scholarly articles, current events, and audio interviews about those topics.
The multi-threaded Make a Difference Guide聽is most useful for students who are enrolled in the聽PACS Senior Seminar course PACS 4500. 聽These students need to access both general information about conflict and resolution, as well as specific research about topics of their choice, in order to write their senior research papers. 聽Students may come to the PACS 4500 Senior Seminar course with a聽wide range of worldwide interests, including Sub Saharan African failed states, how to adapt to climate change, or聽U.S. domestic policy disputes. 聽Consequently, the聽Burgesses saw a need for a common textbook that covers many different types of conflict and resolution. 聽Indeed, the Make a Difference Guide has seemed to contribute positively to the seniors' final projects: "The quality of the projects improved," Guy Burgess聽observed. 聽The PACS 4500 senior seminar course and PACS聽2500 Introduction to Peace and Conflict Studies course are together聽a large part of the requirements that are聽necessary for students who are interested in earning聽a PACS certificate in addition to their undergraduate degrees.
Currently, the Burgesses are using funds from other grants to refine and improve the Make聽a Difference site聽and integrate students' feedback. 聽Guy Burgess says, "We want to build a computer system that emulates an interview [with a conflict mediation expert] to help think through conflict." 聽However, maintaining the websites聽remains an expensive endeavor, especially since the Beyond Intractability site references so much information. 聽The Burgesses gladly聽
Guy Burgess points out that although we may hear more often about violent conflicts than about peaceful resolutions, that doesn't mean that resolutions are not聽happening, as well: "The popular media makes [conflict]聽seem hopeless, but it isn't. 聽The trick is to make [resolution]聽visible."
