Peace Studies

Your degree prepares you to step into the middle of complex human conflicts. As a mediator or arbitrator, your days are spent facilitating tense negotiations, helping businesses, families, or organizations find common ground and drafting formal settlement agreements. Alternatively, you might work as a social scientist for a government agency or NGO, conducting interviews, analyzing data on the roots of conflict, and writing reports that inform policy and intervention programs. A third path leads to academia, where you’ll teach and research at the university level.

Entry-level work often means assisting senior researchers or handling smaller community-level mediations before progressing to lead projects or arbitrate high-stakes disputes. While opportunities in mediation are growing, some data-focused social science roles face headwinds. Across these careers, AI will automate significant routine tasks, such as analyzing datasets or drafting initial legal documents. The jobs aren't disappearing, but your day-to-day work will change, placing a premium on your ability to adapt and focus on the uniquely human skills of building trust and exercising nuanced judgment in volatile situations.

If Peace Studies isn't the right fit, programs like Cultural Studies, Multicultural Studies, and Maritime Studies draw from adjacent disciplines.