The Dynamic Interdependencies of Practice and Scholarship

This Special Edition reflects the effort to explore the interdependencies and challenges of the common, though not always explicit, divides and tensions that exists in the pursuit of knowledge and practice within peace studies. This could emerge as a more rhetorical and somewhat abstract inquiry. In our case as professors at the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, the pursuit of knowledge about the practice-scholar relationship lands each year in a required course required of all our doctoral students. Over the past four years, co-author Lederach taught this course under the official title of “Strategic Peacebuilding: A Practice-Relevant Doctoral Seminar.” The course compliments an introductory requirement that focuses more directly on theory and methodology of peace studies taught by co-author Lopez. Together we have worked with the cohort of doctoral students who author this volume of articles…