Hello Everyone,

[ Here is a photo of me! 🙂 ]

My name is Saniyah, and I am currently pursuing a major in Production Design with a minor in Business at Chapman University.

While my primary academic focus lies in the visual and design aspects of filmmaking, I have a growing interest in peace studies, particularly as they pertain to the United Kingdom and Ireland. The U.K. has long served as a center of creative expression, especially in film and music, and has deeply influenced my creative tastes.

I am particularly drawn to the connections of art, history, and politics, and I believe that a nation’s political and social history is essential to understanding its cultural and artistic identity. Ireland’s complex and intense history conveys how conflict and resistance shape artistic expression.

I am drawn to this course because Ireland is a country I’ve always been eager to visit and learn more about. Often overlooked in broader political discussions, Ireland’s history and evolving political landscape offer a unique perspective through which to deepen my understanding of culture and governance. Exploring Irish politics and society will not only expand my global perspective but also help me reflect on political beliefs and values.

Although this will be my first peace studies course, I have taken classes that are similar, such as Introduction to Philosophy, which have sparked my interest in critical thinking, ethics, and social theory. Outside the classroom, I am actively engaged in conversations surrounding global conflict, religion, and cultural identity.

Through this course and our trip to Ireland, I hope to further explore these topics by examining conflicts in Northern Ireland and drawing parallels to current events in the Middle East and South Asia. I am eager to engage in meaningful dialogue and deepen my understanding of historical trauma and political division. Historical issues—particularly those affecting women in Ireland— may be challenging to hear, but are essential to understanding the broader struggle and culture.

Hello, my name is Bess Hurlock, and I am a second-year student from Redmond, Washington. I have always been interested in helping others and learning about previous conflicts, specifically to examine how they were resolved or how reparations were made. My passion started in 4^th grade after reading Diary of Anne Frank and has since grown to promote peace and communication across the globe for many generations to come. As a result of this passion, Chapman’s peace and justice program was at the top of my list as it was so applicable to the work I wanted to do, and it was so focused on helping people, not just governments and international agencies.

I am interested in this course because it provides an opportunity to learn more about a conflict that I knew from the personal experience of my father’s family, being British. As a result, my knowledge of The Troubles is skewed, so this opportunity is valuable. I hope to gain a broader knowledge of The Troubles that encapsulates many different backgrounds and experiences. This may be difficult, as I need to set aside personal biases that have been a result of my British upbringing. But I have full confidence that this experience will help me grow.