The person I interviewed in the Peace Studies Department was Dr. Dani Smith. The reason why I interviewed her was because I took her course in mediation last semester. I found it really interesting and eye opening, especially with the use of mediation on an international level. I asked her a total of 4 questions.

The first question I asked was what peace studies as a field meant to her. She explained that over different generations it changed; she first started getting involved due to the Vietnam War, and how things could change with a different approach to these conflicts. However, many viewed the study to be something along the lines of hippie culture, mostly correlating the field/ideas to the phrase “make love, not war”. Despite this misunderstanding of the field, she found it interesting and helpful to be able to understand conflicts in an intelligent manner, as well as discuss and articulate the fears surrounding specific conflicts with those who study in the field. The second question I asked was, “What do you think when you hear peace as a profession?” She replied that it’s a profession needed to understand all levels of conflict, from interpersonal, psychological, historical, and cultural. What also needs to be examined is the spillover effect of such violence, such as generational trauma, in long lasting cases. She explains that the profession delves deeper into the difference in individualistic and collectivist cultures, and how as people we need a balance of both, or else there will be issues of exclusion or outcasts amongst community members. The next question I asked her was whether or not there’s been a big change in the department since she started working at Chapman. I found this question to be relevant because professors can come from different backgrounds, but now come together to work in a department where the concept of peace studies can be interpreted differently between each person. She said that Don Will, who founded the department at Chapman in 1993, worked with her to create a class that taught mediation, as mediation is a huge part in Peace Studies. The course started off as 1 unit, but over time as the class became more established, it went up to 3 units, making it the class we know of today.

The last question I asked was whether or not Dr. Smith believed that mediation can benefit large level conflicts, or if there are only sufficient results for interpersonal conflicts. She said that mediation can be successful for international level conflicts, but the mediator must remain neutral and unbiased between the two parties. No one can have some sort of stake in the game, such as a country being a well known ally of one of the parties, as this leads to bias. Despite all this, she’s hopeful that it is another solution that we can eventually come to rely on in the international sphere. 

Through my conversation with Dr. Smith, I felt like I learned a lot from a professor’s perspective about the field and department. As students we’re expected to take in all the information without truly understanding why the professor teaches the concept the way they do and why they feel so passionately about the topic they teach. For Dr. Smith, mediation is not just an act of resolution, but something that can bring peace and less war to the world. There can be a decrease of violence, starting from cultural, going all the way down to interpersonal.