About the Conflict Clinic
The University of Illinois Conflict Clinic is directed by Dr.
Mikhail Lyubansky. He can be reached at lyubansk@illinois.edu.
The mission of the Conflict Clinic is to support organizations
and communities in transforming conflict into connection. To
move towards these goals, we strive to:
- PARTNER with organizations, schools, and campus units that
want to explore more constructive or restorative ways of
getting through painful conflicts and events.
- SHARE knowledge about restorative justice through courses,
workshops, publications, media and dialogue.
- LEARN about restorative ways of working through conflict
through research, study, teaching, and practice.
Since we started over 10 years ago, we have worked with
organizations, schools, and campus units in Champaign-Urbana,
the surrounding Midwest area (Chicago, southern Illinois,
Missouri, Indiana, and Ohio), and other communities around the
United States, including Virginia, North Carolina, and
Florida.
Conflict Consultation
The Conflict Clinic offers confidential conflict
consultations to organizations, schools, and campus units. As
“students of conflict", we will listen to you and offer
resources and recommendations, with no pressure to work with
us.
Conflict Workshops and Classes
- The Conflict Clinic team can create a unique workshop on
restorative practices, restorative justice, restorative
dialogues or Restorative Circles for your organization,
school or campus unit. Workshops are interactive, hands-on
experiences that range from 60 minute introductions to
multi-day learning events. Some of the local organizations
to whom we have offered workshops include:
- Cebrin Goodman Teen Institute
- UIUC Residence Halls
- Urbana School District
- UIUC Career Empowerment Program
- Community Elements
- READY program
- Region Office of Education #9
- Community Circle about Centennial High School event (click
here for News Gazette article)
Professor Lyubansky teaches an undergraduate/graduate course on
restorative justice every year and periodically offers
additional graduate-level seminars and practica. His current
teaching schedule and course information can be found here.
Research and Evaluation
The Conflict Clinic’s current research is focused on
evaluating school implementation of different restorative
practices: We use a combination of survey and qualitative
methods in order to (a) identify best practices in
implementation and (b) better understand the individual and
group-level changes (e.g., social and emotional learning,
school climate, discipline referrals) associated with a
transition to addressing conflict and harm restoratively.
As part of the above, the Conflict Clinic team has developed
a Restorative Evaluation Toolbox for projects that utilize
restorative justice principles and approaches. We are also
happy to help your organization, school, or classroom consider
the best way to approach the evaluation of your RJ project.
Note: Our reports are written for the school districts and
are technically their property. Here's one
of our published, peer-reviewed studies. We'll post more
of our published research when it is available. In the
meantime, here are a few restorative justice research reports
(authored by others) available online:
Between the Lines Blog
The
Between the Lines blog features essays on restorative
justice and race relations. Articles and other resources about
Dominic Barter’s Restorative Circles (RC) process can also be
found in this Restorative
Circles article archive, which I also maintain. Below is a
sample article from the archive.
The Fight Room
By Elaine Shpungin and Dominic Barter
Originally published in Tikkun
Magazine on January 10, 2012
In 1854, Dr. John Snow, an early epidemiological pioneer,
interrupted a deadly epidemic of cholera by tracing the
source of the “poison” in sewage-tainted water to a specific
London water pump. For two decades prior to this, Snow had
made unsuccessful attempts to shift the prevailing belief
that cholera was caused by “miasma in the air.” The cost of
societal failure to embrace a new understanding of the
origins and spread of disease was over 10,000 lives.
Today we continue to struggle with other epidemics, such as
the widespread persistence of interpersonal violence,
structural violence, and violence based in inter-racial and
inter-ethnic tensions. Not only is the cost great in terms
of lost lives and personal trauma, but considerable
resources are also spent on attempts to subdue, redirect,
and control the violence. Yet, as in nineteenth-century
London, we may continue to make little progress in treating
this disease until we are willing to honestly re-examine our
deeply held beliefs about its origins.
One such “epidemiological” re-examination comes from
Dominic Barter’s work in Brazil, which has led him to posit
that violence increases as we attempt to suppress
painful conflict. Rather than being dangerous, conflict
holds within it vital messages regarding unmet needs and
areas of necessary change. Given this understanding,
safety is increased not by avoiding conflict, but by
moving toward it with the intention of hearing the
messages within…
…Continue reading The
Fight Room here
|