To fully understand social development, economic transactions, or political negotiations, it is necessary to study how humans engage in conflicts and how those conflicts are and have been culturally and historically informed and situated. In both research and teaching, associated faculty approach this important issue from multiple overlapping and complimentary disciplines, raising questions like:
- How do language practices underscore or challenge social hierarchies?
- How are conflict patterns – whether on an individual or a social level – culturally structured? Are there national/cultural proclivities for violent solutions or conflict mediations?
- How have social changes led to social conflicts – and how have conflicts given rise to social and technological innovation?
- How and why have societies legitimized certain acts of violence while condemning others?