What Can I Do with My Justice and Peace Studies Major?

Justice and peace is a transdisciplinary, cross-cultural community of students, faculty, staff, and community partners who share a commitment to academic study and lived pursuits of peace and social justice. The program at Georgetown fosters creative and collaborative explorations of complex questions of practical morality and domestic and global politics. Innovative approaches to teaching and learning, including social action, community engagement, experiential pedagogy, and student-produced media are hallmarks of the program. Justice and peace studies students explore patterns and processes of war and peace, violence and nonviolence, and injustice and justice through an interdisciplinary synergy of scholarly engagement and practical application, doing so at all levels from the interpersonal to the international.

Justice and peace studies draws on a wide range of existing disciplines including psychology, philosophy, theology, history, political science, sociology, anthropology, literature, and linguistics. Equally essential is that the field requires an active collaboration and dialogue between all these elements. This major will encourage students to question psychological determinants of aggression, the role of families and other institutions in producing aggressive or peaceful societies, the origins of social inequality, techniques of representing others, and the role of such representations in the building of communities.

Students in the justice and peace major will acquire skills in understanding and articulating difficult concepts, critical assessment, research, and communication skills to explore conflict from multiple perspectives Throughout your experience in the program, you will obtain the following skills:

Critical Thinking Skills

  • Approaching problems from multiple perspectives
  • Avoiding simplistic conclusions
  • Reading critically
  • Thinking independently
  • Recognizing unnoticed patterns and structures
  • Understanding components of complex problems

Effective Communication Skills

  • Writing effectively
  • Reading critically
  • Articulating ideas/theories 
  • Creating persuasive arguments
  • Analytical writing
  • Assessing conflicting viewpoints
  • Public speaking

Research Skills

  • Using a variety of resources
  • Gathering and interpreting data
  • Original analysis
  • Defining problems
  • Understanding social context
  • Applying theoretical approaches to research problems

Social and Cultural Relations Skills

  • Understanding and appreciating human relationships along gendered, classed, and racial lines
  • Identifying cultural/social forces
  • Understanding diversity

You can use the examples above, and experiences from classes or research projects to enhance your resume. Try plugging in some of your experiences or skills gained into this formula: Accomplished (X) as measured by (Y) by doing (Z).

Sample Resume Class 1, Georgetown University, Washington, D.C.
Member of Class, taught by Prof. ________

  • Explored theoretical and practical approaches to the topic of nonviolence through reading responses, a critical analysis paper, and a group project on (insert topic) in JUPS 202 Nonviolence: Theory and Practice.
  • Developed skills in just peace advocacy and engaged in direct advocacy on (insert advocacy issue) with policymakers in JUPS 242 Just Peace Advocacy: Skills.
  • Examined mixed methods research frameworks including participatory action research, ethnographic approaches, and community-based research and gained experience in developing a research proposal in JUPS 299 Research Methods.

Georgetown Alumni have taken their justice and peace studies degree across multiple different industries and have applied the skills they learned in justice and peace studies across multiple disciplines. 

Additional information about these outcomes can be found in Cawley’s Post Graduation Outcome Report

“Justice and Peace Studies prepared me for a job in the real world by imparting the skill of speaking to people from different discipline backgrounds well enough to find a common and understandable language. I learned how to evaluate sociological theories and phenomena with the analytical nuance they deserve, and synthesize complex inter-organizational interactions with clarity.” – 2017 Graduate, Justice & Peace Studies

“An underrated benefit of majoring in Justice and Peace Studies was the ability to take classes from multiple disciplines based on any aspect of their relation to your social cause of choice. Also, the people were phenomenal. All driven, and willing to have difficult conversations.” – 2017 Graduate, Justice & Peace Studies

Helpful Keywords to Improve Searches
There are lots of ways to find good keywords to help your job or internship search process, or even just to learn more about the types of jobs you can do within a specific major. One way to explore this is by checking out the job search tool on Google. 

Once you are in, type in something generic like your major and the world internship afterward. Once you hit enter, it will give you lots of options to explore, but if you want to explore titles, possible career paths, or keywords, hover your mouse over the ‘Title’ tab on the top of the page. This will give you a ton of ideas and options to explore possible keywords. 

Sample Internship Opportunities

  • PAWSS, the Hampshire-based Program in Peace and World Security Studies
  • KROC Institute for International Peace Studies
  • Research/Think Tanks
  • U. S. State Department
  • Nonprofit (e.g., Pathways for Mutual Respect, Oregon Bus Project)
  • Law offices
  • Newspapers and Magazines (e.g., student publications, The Washington Post)

The Georgetown Justice and Peace Program Website is rich with additional information on studying Justice and Peace Studies.

GU Justice and Peace Program

Professional Associations are a great place to go to dive deeper into the field of Justice and Peace studies and learn more about what post grad life might look like. 

Vault is a fantastic resource to learn more about specific career fields in Justice and Peace studies. Vault has information such as salary information, work environment, education and training requirements, outlooks, and specific tips for entering into the field. 

Professors & Academic Deans
Georgetown professors and faculty members can be a wonderful resource for Georgetown students. If you are still curious to learn more about the disciplines of a specific major, we’d encourage you to connect with your professors! Outside of office hours, Georgetown has an online interface called GU360 where students can explore and connect with faculty members that are eager to mentor and support students. You can use this interface to learn more about specific department research, specialties, and areas of study within a major.  

You can also connect with your academic dean or counselor to further discuss opportunities within a given major. 

Lastly, each department has a dedicated Director of Undergraduate Studies (DUS). This is the individual in charge of coordinating the major program or department as a whole. You can find the Director of Undergraduate Studies by exploring the faculty and staff pages of individual departments websites.

Alumni 
Connecting with alumni is a fantastic way to explore a day in the life of any given major student. There are several different ways to connect with Georgetown Alums. Hoya Gateway is Georgetown’s premier networking platform which connects alumni and students to have meaningful conversations and build a strong network of support. This is a platform alumni opt into with the sole purpose of supporting current students, which means there is an extremely high response rate. 

You can also utilize LinkedIn to connect with Georgetown Alum. A simple alumni search on Georgetown’s LinkedIn profile will help you get connected to approximately 130 thousand alumni, which you can then filter to meet the location, major, industry, or skills that you are interested in exploring.

You can also check out our Post Graduation Outcomes to learn more about what Georgetown alumni in specific majors are up to after graduation. We survey our seniors at the end of each year and into the following year to learn about jobs they secured, service opportunities they committed to, or graduate schools they decided to attend. You can filter by first major to get an idea of what life after Georgetown looks like. You’ll see in many cases that alums are using majors in a wide variety of ways, and your major doesn’t always equal your career path. 

Career Center Staff
You can also connect with career center staff to talk through the possible outcomes of one major over another. In short, there are endless opportunities no matter what major you choose. However, connecting with someone might help you navigate your decision making process a little bit easier. 

At the career center, you have the opportunity to meet with either a Career Exploration Counselor or an Industry Advisor. Career Exploration Counselors can help you talk through concerns, goals, the big picture, and strategies to move forward. You can think of them as generalists and a great place to get started. Industry Advisors can help you think through specific questions about a given career path and provide specific industry information and trends. You can think of them as specialists for once you start to narrow down your possible path. If you think an appointment with one of these individuals would benefit you, you can make an appointment on Handshake.

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