Thanksgiving is over, finals approach

Katie D.

November 28, 2010 - 9:48 PM

That's right, folks. The turkey is eaten, the long weekend ending, and I'm staring town a terrifying finals schedule, wondering if another helping of pie would ease the pain.

Please forgive the meladrama. First, I should say that I had a fabulous Thanksgiving weekend--the first Thanksgiving at home in Colorado in four years. It was wonderful to see my family, and to relive the old traditions. I got to see my Colorado mountains, eat Gran Fran's turkey (she's 91 years old and says she's only got four Thanksgivings left before the next generation has to start cooking while she watches), walk around my old neighborhood, play cards with my family, and enjoy some true sunny days. It's been a fabulous blur of family and food, and I really wish it wouldn't end.

But, friends and readers, there is the end of term barreling down at us. The light at the end of the tunnel might be winter break. Let's hope we make it that far.

So here's the run-down of my next two weeks:

Intimidating project #1: Psychology of Peace and Conflict
This is a group project. On Thursday, my group will turn in a collaborative 30 page essay, and do an hour and a half class presentation. That's seven of us, working together on Power Point and word choice. Yikes! Good news is that my group is totally awesome, and we're working really well together so far. The other good news is that the project is on a really interesting topic: structural violence. Essentially, structural violence is institutionalized inequality. It can lead to, and result from direct violence. It includes racism and sexism and economic disparities, and is why the inner city schools don't have resources and why environmental toxins end up near poor neighborhoods. We're studying environmental racism, globalization, militarism, and International Human Rights Law. It's been really interesting to study conflict from this perspective--looking at structures and underlying causes, rather than the single reference point of violent conflict. So it's an exciting project, but I still need some luck beamed my way.

Intimidating Project #2: Negotiation final
My negotiation class has been one of my favorites this term. And one of the most challenging. For the final, we have to do a large and multifaceted simulated negotiation between a fictional city and it's police officer's union. We have to renegotiate salary, benefits, stipends for uniforms, and the union's public support for the mayor in the upcoming elections. It's a partner negotiation, meaning that I'm working with another student against two others. And, as a final bonus, the three hours of scheduled negotiations are filmed, to be examined later. The negotiations are on Wednesday and Friday of this week, and the paper discussing the negotiations are due the following week.

Intimidating Project #3: Perspectives in Conflict Resolution paper
This class has been a kind of background and interdisciplinary look at the field of conflict resolution. We've had a guest speaker almost every week, and have explored a wide variety of new ways to look at the field, from the perspectives of anthropologists, psychologists, photojournalists, labor representatives, the police force, etc. I have totally loved this class. For the final, we essentially have to pick an area of conflict resolution and write a paper about it. My 18-25 page paper will be exploring the different perspectives on the US/Mexico border and the conflicts of immigration. This paper is due next week.

Intimidating Project #4: Adjudication and the Courts Final
This class is essentially about how the US legal system works. We have an actual multiple-choice test as the final, which means a whole new kind of preparation. I'm not too nervous, but have a lot of preparing to do. The test is in a week.

So that ends the list of intimidating upcoming events, at least in academic terms. As I've been writing all this down, I've felt alternatively quite nervous and oddly calm about the list. There's a lot to do, and this week will be completely packed with getting it all done. But I think it'll be OK. I think I'll work really hard and write some good papers, perform some stressful in-class activities, and then winter term will be upon us.

I guess I'm saying, again, that I'm happy to be in this Master's Program. Challenging enough to make me feel the pressure, interdisciplinary to stretch my immagination, and something I look forward to, even for finals week.

Chao, Colorado! Time to head back to face the finals.