Eleanor Carey

Peace, Conflict, Social Justice Concentration Rationale

I have been interested in this concentration for a while now. I went to a Quaker
elementary and middle school in Detroit for nine years when I was younger. While
there, I learned what peaceful resolution for problems was, and learned about
alternative dispute resolutions that didnt involve violence. I have been interested in
social justice for as long as I can remember. Both of my parents are attorneys, and have
both spent most of their careers working for legal aid-type organizations. My mother
worked as an attorney representing Michigan women prisoners throughout the 1980s
and 1990s, which ended up making large-scale changes in how women prisoners were
treated in Michigan and around the country. My father represented migrant workers
and low-income clients at a legal service organization. So having people like that as
parents, it would have been hard not to get interested in social justice.
I have been particularly interested in social movements, and am also interested in
terrorism, and how some these two things sometimes intersect.
I have taken a few courses already which I think will count towards this
concentration. My first semester at Bryn Mawr, I took an Emily Balch seminar entitled
Poverty, Affluence and American Culture, which really piqued my interest in social
inequality, and resulting social movements. This is one of the courses that helped me
decided to major in Sociology. My freshman year I also took a Sociology class taught by
David Karen called Movements for Social Justice (SOCLB350). This was a wonderful
opportunity for me to learn more about social movements which I had learned about
earlier in my education. I really enjoyed this class, and it inspired to look for more
classes similar to it in the Tri-Co. My sophomore year, I found a class that I was so
excited to take, which was also about social movements, but more specifically, the
Sociology of the U.S. Labor Movement at Swarthmore (S036) with Steve Viscelli. This
continued my education about social movements and how people organized themselves
and others in an effort to improve their lives. I absolutely loved this course. This
semester I am taking two courses which have a more obvious direct link to this
concentration. First, I am taking a course at Haverford titled History and Principles of

Quakerism with Emma Lapsansky (HISTH240A). I am excited to be taking this course,

because I attended a Quaker school for nine years, but dont know very much about the
history of Quakerism, and I am thoroughly enjoying it so far. I am also taking a new
Sociology course here at Bryn Mawr called Sociology of Terrorism and Counterterrorism
with Bridget Nolan (SOCLB313). I am especially enjoying this terrorism class. I have
already been interested and plan on doing a case study on one terrorist organization, the
Irish Republican Army. I find the intersection fascinating between social movements
and terrorist groups as exemplified with the IRA or the Weather Underground in the
U.S. I also plan on taking more courses in this discipline, including an introductory
Peace course.
I am not yet sure what internship I would do in the Philadelphia area to tie in
with this concentration. Though, the past two summers I have worked for an
organization that has taught me a lot about social justice. I worked for the United
Community Housing Coalition in Detroit, which is a nonprofit comprehensive housing
assistance organization, which works with tenants, homeowners, the homeless, and
community organizations rebuilding neighborhoods, and works to improve, preserve
and expand affordable housing opportunities for low-income Detroiters. I specifically
worked in the Tax-Foreclosure Prevention Project, helping tenants and homeowners
keep their homes out of the tax foreclosure auction in the fall. Working at UCHC has
definitely helped me develop a much better understanding of the practical, real-world
ramifications of things I learn about in sociology like social inequality, housing
discrimination, the cycle of poverty, and more.
After I graduate, I hope to work in the non-profit or social work field. I think
doing this minor will help me in the long run my providing me with more opportunities
to learn about social justice, alternative dispute resolution, and human rights issues and
violations. I hope in future to work someplace where I will be dealing with and helping
to combat some of these issues.